An Informal Christmas (Informal Romance Book 1)

by Heather Gray

  My word. If Zach had been sexy as a cowboy, he was downright dangerous in a tux. His crisp blond hair was freshly trimmed. Against the backdrop of a black tuxedo, his mocha eyes surveyed her with knee-wobbling intensity.

  Rylie hoped he liked her surprise.

  She offered a weak smile and stepped over to meet him. “You brought the music?”

  He gave her a distracted nod. “Mm-hm.”

  “You got all their requests?”

  “Mm-hm.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  Zach’s gaze zeroed in on her with pinpoint focus. Then, as she watched, his eyes changed. Gone were the orbs of burning intensity, and in their place were two pools of molten chocolate.

  Oh dear. That man had sex appeal written all over him.

  “I like your dress.”

  Rylie glanced down at the red dress sprinkled with faux crystals. She was, after all, attending a Christmas formal. Red might not be her best color, but it was perfect for tonight. “Thank you.” Shyness, something she wasn’t used to experiencing, fluttered to life in her belly and robbed her of further words.

  A small hand tugged at her dress. “Miss Wylie, are we gonna get stahted soon?” Five-year-old Emma stared up at her with big blue eyes. She’d been a late-in-life surprise to her parents. Her big brother, ten years her senior, was the patient, and Emma adored him. Rylie had caught him glancing toward Makalya’s closed door all day long. That’s why sweet Emma was asking about getting the dance started. Her big brother had sent her.

  A quick glance at the wall clock told her the start time was still a few minutes away. She squatted down in front of Emma and whispered with a smile, “Tell your brother ten more minutes, okay? We’re still waiting for a couple of parents, and we need to get the music hooked up.”

  The girl scampered off, and Rylie craned her neck to see what Zach was doing behind the nurse’s station. His hands fiddled with an electronic cube with some other boxy things sitting around it. “So what’s our plan?”

  He looked at her with the eyes of a man who had much more than mere music on his mind. “Save me a dance?”

  “Sure, fine, okay, but that’s not what I meant.”

  It wasn’t fair that he could fluster her with a few simple words.

  The dance was well and truly underway when Rylie brought out her tablet. The gathering resembled a wedding reception more than a high school formal, but she was okay with that. Little kids danced with older siblings, moms danced with sons, and dads with daughters. It was the perfect Christmas formal.

  Rylie thumbed through the items on her screen as she looked for her chat application. Over in Japan sat a hospital with a unit full of cancer kids who had never been to any kind of American dance before. After emailing back and forth with the Child Life Specialist there — with help from some online translation software — Rylie had invited them to the party. It was still early morning in Japan, but a dozen kids were up early and crowding around a similar tablet in Cassidy’s room.

  Delivering the night’s program to each of the families was all the excuse she needed to carry her long-distance guests around the dance. She showed them the decorations and captured each of her kids in their evening apparel. Her cancer kids, in on the secret from the beginning, waved and shouted greetings to their counterparts on the other side of the world.

  She and her long-distance friends were visiting with a family at the punch bowl as Zach caught up to her. “You taking pictures with that thing?” He pointed toward the tablet in her hands.

  “Uh, you could say that.”

  “Hi Uncle Zach!” Cassidy’s voice was almost lost in the noise of the party surrounding them, but recognition dawned on his face before her words faded away.

  Without asking, he took the tablet from Rylie’s hand.

  “Isn’t this great, Uncle Zach? Miss Rylie contacted our hospital and invited us to your dance. Nobody here’s ever been to an American dance before.” The girls around her all chattered in rapid-fire Japanese. Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Akiko says you’re a… a beefcake. Cho says she’d ask you to dance if we weren’t, you know, thousands of miles away.”

  Zach’s eyes bore into Rylie before he returned his attention to the screen and smiled at his niece. “Why wasn’t I aware of this until now?”

  “I asked Miss Rylie to keep it a secret. I wanted to surprise you. I’m, you know, proud of the stuff you’ve been doing there. Take it from me — anybody who takes time to make life better for hospital kids is a superhero.”

  Tears misted Zach’s eyes, but he blinked them back. “You want to dance, Sweet Pea?”

  “Okay, but then you have to promise me you’ll dance with Miss Rylie. She’s smokin’ hot in that dress. She should be dancing more than she has been.”

  Zach lifted his eyes. His words were directed at his niece, but his eyes remained on Rylie the entire time he said them. “Either you need glasses, or we have a bad connection. Smokin’ hot doesn’t do her justice. Not at all.”

  Then, a thoughtful smile on his face, he took the tablet out to the floor and shared a dance with his niece. It was awkward and beautiful, peculiar and perfect. And precisely what Rylie had hoped to give him tonight. A special memory with the girl who meant enough to him that he had willingly stepped into the unknown world of pediatric illness and injury. Even as Makayla wanted this one special night because she wasn’t sure she’d live to experience another Christmas, Rylie wanted to give this gift to Zach… just in case.

  The song came to a close too soon, and he returned to Rylie’s side in time for Cassidy’s words to reach her. “Go dance with her already!”

  He looked from his niece to Rylie before answering. “If I dance with her, what am I supposed to do with you?”

  A nearby nurse snatched the tablet out of Zach’s hands. “Got you covered. We’ll watch the whole thing from over here.”

  Zach led her out to the oddly shaped dance floor with the eyes of his niece and every cancer kid in the unit on them. Some of the boys gave Zach a thumbs-up. The girls soaked in the scene with dreamy eyes, some of them no doubt imagining what their first grown-up dance would be like someday.

  They didn’t get more than four beats into the song when all the little eyes around them faded away. Rylie’s world grew smaller and smaller until all that remained were her and the man who held her in his arms.

  She’d anticipated the warmth of his hand against her back. The electricity, however, was unexpected. It shouldn’t have been, but it was. Currents originated where his hand met her back and sizzled along every nerve ending in her body. All the time she had poured into preparing this event for the kids, and it hadn’t occurred to her that she needed to prepare herself.

  Zach was hurting. He fell into Rylie’s life because he was brokenhearted over Cassidy’s illness. Just because she felt more alive in his arms than any other time in her life didn’t mean anything. He was dancing with her to please his niece, not because he…

  “That dress is breathtaking on you. But then, you’re stunning in jeans, too. And scrubs. I never thought of scrubs as sexy until I saw them on you.” His lips brushed against her ear, and this time the simple sizzle of electricity graduated to a full-fledged lightning bolt that robbed her of the ability to breathe.

  Zach pulled back and searched her eyes. “You’re a beautiful person, Rylie Durham. Inside and out, forward and backward… I’m sorry it’s taken me such a long time to say so. I felt guilty for being attracted to you. I felt guilty for finding joy in your presence when Cassidy was so sick. I know she’s my niece and not my child, but still. I felt...”

  She couldn’t pull her eyes away from the mesmerizing movement of his lips as she waited for his next words.

  “I never expected to have kids of my own, you know? My sister married young, started a family, and then discovered along the way that she would only be blessed with one child. I, on the other hand, never married. I’d kind of accepted that being an uncle was as close as I’d get to f
atherhood, and it’s a role I’m honored to fill. Then you came along, and suddenly Cassidy’s health wasn’t the only thing on my mind, and I felt guilty for that.”

  Zach continued to hold her close, his voice low enough that it wouldn’t carry beyond the circle of his arms. “I wasn’t entirely on speaking terms with God there for a little while, but as soon as I started talking to Him again, He reminded me that guilt isn’t mine to give. Making myself feel badly over good things happening in my life doesn’t do my niece any good.” He gave his trademark shrug then, and Rylie couldn’t help but revel in the sensation of his muscles flexing under her left hand.

  They were still on the dance floor, but their movements had slowed to more of a sway than anything else. They could have been the only ones out there for all the notice Rylie gave the other dancers.

  “And I’m one of those good things?”

  A mischievous grin shaped Zach’s mouth. “Sweetheart, you are a master of understatement.”

  Rylie bit her bottom lip, fighting the urge to smile back at him.

  “You either have to tell me you feel the same way or tell me to get lost, but you can’t leave me hanging. It’s dance protocol.”

  “Dance protocol, huh?”

  He nodded sagely.

  Rylie leaned up on her toes as she tugged his head closer to her own. Whispering against his ear, she told him, “I happen to think you’re a good thing, too. In fact…”

  The song came to an end. Into the silence, a voice yelled out from the other side of the world, “Kiss her, Uncle Zach!”

  He tipped her chin up with a single finger, a tiny touch with the power of an intimate caress. His lips met hers then, warm and enticing, firm yet gentle. He tasted of lemonade, sweet and tart like she’d imagined.

  The kiss was over too soon. He pulled away to the sound of applause and catcalls erupting around them.

  A grin teased the corner of his mouth. “In fact?”

  Rylie resisted the urge to touch her fingers to his lips. “In fact, I can’t think of a finer thing that’s come my way in a long time.”

  His eyes crinkled at the corners as his teeth flashed white. “Does this mean I can take you out to dinner sometime, and we can talk about something besides the hospital?”

  Rylie tossed a coy smile his way as she took his arm. “It means you had better.”

  Zach led her back to the nurse’s station. He reached for the tablet and told his niece, “You sure are good at stirring up trouble, aren’t you?”

  The girl giggled.

  “We need to wrap things up here. Is it okay if I call you in the morning? Later tonight your time, before lights-out.”

  “I’ll be waiting,” she chirped back at him. “I figured out what you should do in January for the hospital. I have an idea about Valentine’s Day, too.”

  Zach blew Cassidy a kiss as Rylie waved to her and the connection was severed. “Thank you for letting her be a part of this. I know she’s not one of yours.”

  “By the looks on the faces of her friends there, they all enjoyed the chance to participate in an American dance, untraditional as it may have been.”

  He shook his head doubtfully. “They might have enjoyed the dance, but the thing they’re going to be telling everyone about is the kiss. Go ahead. Try to deny it.”

  “Yeah…” Dread pooled in Rylie’s belly.

  Zach’s eyebrow lifted. “What?”

  “If word gets back to the hospital administration, I might get in trouble for that one.”

  “Don’t you worry about a thing.” He clapped his hands and gained everyone’s attention. In a loud voice, he called out, “I’m not naming any names, but somebody hung mistletoe in several places. I suggest you look up and see if you need to take action.”

  The entire unit broke out into celebration as everyone began moving around the circular dance floor going from one person to another and kissing them on the cheek. A few of the kids made gagging noises as their parents kissed each other — not on the cheek — while others chanted, “Kiss, kiss, kiss.”

  Zach leaned close, his words a warm tickle against her skin. “I’m pretty sure you can’t get singled out now.”

  Three days had passed since the Christmas formal in Oncology. The twenty-fifth was still two days away, and the entire unit — which still buzzed with excitement over the dance —looked forward to celebrating.

  “Social media exploded with pictures of the dance.” Rylie got the words out between bites of salad.

  Zach’s eyebrow lifted. “Exploded?”

  She grinned. “I’m simply repeating what I was told. Glad to know I’m not alone in feeling outdated.”

  Rylie was hampered with an upcoming late meeting at the hospital. Escape wasn’t possible, but Zach had wanted to see her, so they were sharing dinner in the cafeteria. The salad was good and all, but Montecito’s would have been better.

  Who was she kidding? Anytime with him was good.

  “In case I haven’t already said it, thank you for making Cassidy a part of the dance. My sister and her husband say the same.” His voice moved from husky to hoarse.

  He’d said it. Several times. “You want to talk about it?”

  “I can’t, not without wanting to put my fist through a wall. Or maybe cry. I get the two confused.”

  Rylie glanced up from the greens piled inside her eco-friendly container. “Well, I’m glad your surly mood when we first met had a reason. Not glad for the reason, but…” Words were easier to come by with kids. “Even so, it doesn’t mean you don’t still occasionally need to talk.”

  The irony wasn’t lost on her. Zach might have been taciturn, but she’d been the surly one when they’d met. Who would have thought then that they would both come as far as they had?

  Zach glanced away before picking up the previous conversation. “Cassidy is her own kind of sun. She can’t walk into a room without lighting it up. I’m a better person for having her in my life.”

  Rylie nodded. “Tell me something you guys used to do together before she moved.”

  He rolled his eyes. “I babysat a lot. I learned the names of all her stuffed animals and even sat through princess movies with her. That was bad enough, but then one time she asked me to paint her nails.”

  She chuckled. “What’d you tell her?”

  “There’s a reason I’m not a housepainter. I build things and let other people paint them.”

  “How’d that go over?”

  His grin was contagious. “She batted her eyes and said please.”

  “Ha! You never stood a chance, did you?”

  “Not even half a chance.”

  Rylie pushed the remnants of her salad aside and reached for her water. “So, did you become a good painter?”

  “Eventually. Every time I babysat after that, she brought out her mom’s entire collection of polish. One time she insisted I paint each nail a different color. I told her nothing would match, and she told me I needed more imagination because, with her nails painted that way, she would match everything.”

  “Let me guess. She had a plan to grow your imagination.”

  Zach shrugged, but red infused his neck. “She wanted me to let her paint my nails.”

  Rylie choked on her water. “Oh, dear. And did you?”

  The color climbed higher as he mumbled something.

  “What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

  He rolled his eyes. “My toes. I let her paint my toenails. Although she got as much polish on my toes as she did the nails. She wasn’t very old then.”

  “I’ll bet she was delighted.”

  Zach’s smile came easy. “It was a long time ago, but I can’t bring it up without her laughing hysterically.”

  Rylie understood better than most. “That’s the story you take out and dust off on the days when she’s struggling the most.”

  He nodded and glanced away again. “What if I never get a chance to make more memories with her?”

  She reached acro
ss the table and gripped his hand. There was a lot she could say, but telling him he would have eternity to make memories once he was with her again in heaven wouldn’t help, not right then. So she held his hand. He didn’t need answers. He needed to know he wasn’t alone and that she was a safe place to share his emotions.

  The sound of a vibrating pager broke into their silence. Hers, of course. People in the real world used cell phones, but in the hospital, staff still carried pagers. A quick glance showed her the 911. She scrolled through the rest of the message as she jumped up from the table.

  “I have to go.”

  Worry etched lines around Zach’s eyes. “Is everything okay?”

  “One of my kids collapsed.” Rylie started to run out of the cafeteria, then stopped. Her kids needed her, but they weren’t the only ones. She returned to the table. “Are you going to be all right?”

  He grabbed her hand, pulled her back into the booth beside him, kissed her on the corner of her mouth, and then released her. “I’m fine. Go take care of your kid.”

  Rylie raced into the oncology unit. “What’s going on?”

  One of the nurses waved her down. “Makayla collapsed. The oncologist’s been called to do an assessment.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “Banged her head. She needs a couple of stitches.”

  Rylie took a deep breath. “Her parents?”

  The nurse frowned. “Dad’s been notified. Mom was in the room. She saw Makayla start to go down but couldn’t get to her in time.”

  “Was she complaining about not being well? Was there any indication of a problem?”

  “You know Makayla. Unless she’s in the act of vomiting — which is rare as it is — if you ask her how she’s doing, she’s always going to say she’s fine.”

  Yeah, Rylie knew her. If ever a girl was too grown up for her age, Makayla was. Cancer did that to kids. Everything became relative, and, “How are you feeling?” was interpreted in terms of how the child had felt during his or her last chemo treatment or following the last surgery.

  Rylie dried her sweaty palms on her scrubs and approached Makayla’s room. She poked her head around the door. “Hey there. Are you taking visitors?”