A Heartwarming Christmas: A Boxed Set of Twelve Sweet Holiday Romances

by Melinda Curtis

  What he hadn’t expected was to finally give in to that constant, overwhelming impulse to kiss her. He knew he shouldn’t have; it wasn’t part of his plan, but he didn’t regret it. Whatever had happened in that bell tower yesterday had unlocked something inside him. He took a long, slow breath. Except now he had another problem.

  He wanted to kiss her again. For as many times as she’d let him.

  He’d just made everything more difficult for himself because now he knew what he’d be giving up when she left. Now he knew what he’d lose if the chapel design did everything she hoped and opened that door to a future outside Christmas Town. Away from him. But to back out now, to see that light fade from her eyes? He couldn’t do that to her. He couldn’t do that to himself. He wanted her to be happy and that was what he had to keep reminding himself.

  It wasn’t often a man saw pure joy on the face of the woman he loved; but thanks to those notebooks he’d saved, her grateful and heartfelt expression would sustain him for months.

  He’d do anything for her. Even let her go.

  Sam took a deep, cleansing and chilled breath, reveling in the super-early morning and the peace that came with small-town perfection. Only Marnie would let excitement pull her out of a warm bed before five in the morning to dive nose deep into a new project. One of the things he loved about her. No one embraced life like Marnie Wright. She’d been right yesterday; he’d stopped taking chances.

  “Actions,” Sam muttered to himself as he stomped through the snow and up the stairs to the chapel. He stopped for a moment, smoothing a hand over the rough, weathered patina of the doors that had kept the chill out of Bells are Ringing since before Marnie’s parents ran the place. “Harold never got around to fixing you, did he?”

  There was a lot Harold hadn’t gotten around to, especially after Doris had died. Something inside his friend—and surrogate father—had been buried along with her. Sam wasn’t sure the Wright sisters saw it. Or maybe they hadn’t wanted to, but whatever passion Harold held for the chapel, it had faded by the time he lost his battle with cancer.

  No wonder Marnie only saw this place as an anchor weighing her down. She didn’t see the potential.

  He patted his hand against the damp wood. Bells are Ringing was his secret weapon. All he needed was for it—and Marnie—to cooperate long enough to shine a light on Marnie’s possible Christmas Town future.

  He pulled open the door, and with a deep breath, ducked inside. “I had a feeling you’d be early,” he said and she spun, a guilty hand pressed against her sweater-covered heart. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “Don’t be silly.” The healthy pink that tinged her cheeks lifted his spirits. “I-um.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before she shrugged out of her jacket and bent down to retrieve her father’s old metal thermos from her bag. “I brought coffee. Dad’s special blend.” He noticed her hand was trembling and the cautious expression on her face told him, or rather he hoped it was telling him, she was thinking about his kiss.

  “Half coffee, half cocoa? I’m in. Why don’t you give me your wish lists before you pour.” He saw a haze in her eyes, a distraction that honestly, couldn’t have made him happier.

  Marnie quirked her head. “Huh?”

  “You made at least two lists, didn’t you?” His Marnie was a list maker not to mention practical, organized, and at times, irritatingly detailed in her wants. “One completely practical, one I’m betting you called ‘If Only’?”

  She scrunched her mouth before digging back into her bag. “I called it best case scenario, actually. Here.” She held out the two notepads. “Let me know what you think.”

  It took him a few minutes of skimming to get the idea of what she was thinking. “Neither is going to give you want you want.”

  “How do you know what I want?” Marnie asked as she plucked one list free and shoved a warm paper cup into his hand.

  “You don’t think I kept those notebooks of yours all these years and never looked at them, do you?” Okay, so maybe he hadn’t looked at them in a very long time, but as he’d mulled over how exactly to show her Christmas Town had what she was looking for, they seemed the perfect place to start. He knew her vision. Even if she’d forgotten. “You want fairy tale elegance, wooded forest feel. Practical, though. And nothing that will ever appear too dated. A bay window, maybe two, up there on the dais instead of that dinky square one that’s there now. We could do a cobblestone faux paint job on the stairs here. Match it to the outside stairs and path.”

  Marnie followed his line of sight, hugging her arms around her torso as she shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “And winter color. Not all this grey, and dingy white that makes me feel like we’re in the Little House on the Prairie school house. You want sparkle. Pizzazz.” Sam wondered if he’d ever uttered that word before.

  She smiled at that. “You never did like watching those re-runs, did you?”

  Sam shrugged and moved past her. “I got to spend time with you. You want updated, something forward moving, that will appeal to buyers.” The last word lodged in his throat.

  “Buyers, right.” Marnie followed him to the front row where he turned in a slow circle, looking up at the high beam rafters and small-paned windows. “I definitely want to entice buyers.”

  Sam’s ears perked at the doubt he heard. “I didn’t see where you had plans to bring down these walls.” He headed toward the narrow door leading to the storerooms and her father’s old office.

  “Dad said we couldn’t,” Marnie said. “Wait, hang on. Where are you going? Sam!”

  Sam plowed ahead, rubbing his hand against his scar as new and unfamiliar nerves sent in. Why did he feel if he stopped moving, stopped talking, that everything would start to fall apart on him? “You know what you need to nail this project? A complete remodel.”

  “I have ten days,” Marnie reminded him in a tone that sounded so much like her mother he could practically see Doris Wright standing over her shoulder. “You said yourself yesterday, that’s not possible.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Yeah, well, I was wrong about a lot of things yesterday.” He sipped his coffee, the sweetness of the cocoa making his back teeth ache. “Plus I’ve called in some help. I’ve got some of the shop class students coming starting tomorrow.”

  “You’re still volunteering at the high school?” Marnie’s eyes went wide. “When do you have time?”

  Sam shrugged. “They’re short on staff and the kids are good. Really good. And they could use the experience. Plus the school is offering to give them extra credits toward college if they put in the hours. And we’ll have plenty of hours to give them.”

  “You’ve had a day and you’ve planned all this out?”

  “Nick helped,” Sam explained. “He’s offered to make me a partner, by the way. Banning and Collins Handyman, coming soon.” He toasted with his cup.

  “Sam! That’s great.” Her happy smile was back and her arms came down, as if she lowered her defenses again. “When did you find out? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I was going to. Yesterday.” He waved off her sudden frown and poked a gentle finger against the dip in her chin. “Stop it. Your news was bigger. But if I don’t pull off this remodel he’ll probably rethink his offer,” he joked.

  “So you’re using me,” Marnie teased as they fell into their bantering ways. “And the chapel.”

  “Let’s just say this project is of mutual benefit,” Sam agreed. “I think we should start with your dad’s office.”

  “My dad’s hideaway you mean?” She followed him into the spacious room outlined with a smattering of bookcases, filing cabinets, and old family photos. “It’s a lot of space. What can we do with it?”

  “You tell me,” Sam said.

  “Well.” She wandered the expanse of the room, dodging boxes and stacks of papers that looked as old as Marnie. “If we knocked down that wall,” she pointed to her left as she faced him. “But…” />
  “No buts, go on.” Sam encouraged. “Tell me everything you want to do and I’ll tell you if it’s doable.”

  “What if we made everything one big space? Knock down all the interior walls save for the bathroom, kitchenette, and mud room in the back near the basement stairs.”

  “That would definitely make the chapel larger.”

  “And I could tell Callie Banning she could invite more than fifty people to her wedding.” Marnie tapped a short nail against her teeth. “She wasn’t happy at the thought of having to cut down her list.”

  “No bride would be,” Sam agreed. “We knock down these walls, it’ll double maybe even triple the space. And we can extend or even move the dais. It’s all possible, Marnie.”

  “In the time we have? We’re down to nine days, Sam.”

  “Yeah.” Because he couldn’t stop himself, he reached out and stroked a finger down her soft cheek. “I know. We’d better get to work.”

  Chapter 4

  “That makes my brain hurt.” Noelle peered over Marnie’s shoulder, scrunching her eyes as she examined the computer presentation Marnie was creating for her project portfolio. “Chloe said you and Sam were going gangbusters out of the gate on this chapel remodel. Guess she was right. I’ve never seen so many pictures of the chapel before.”

  Glossy blonde hair secured to the top of her head with a small wooden spoon, wearing her grungy yoga pants and a Boston College sweatshirt, Noelle headed to the fridge and grabbed a leftover chicken leg from the dinner she’d skipped so she could finish hauling boxes to her old room.

  “I’m doing before and after pictures for each part of the project,” Marnie said, inhaling the permanent aroma of baking and hot sugar. “It’ll be impossible to go back once walls start coming down.”

  Noelle’s eyebrows shot up. “When’s that happening?”

  “Tomorrow. Sam knocked one down today.” She cringed, feeling as if that sledgehammer had been taken to her heart. She needed this remodel to happen, and Sam had been right. She was more attached to the chapel than she realized and as plans were made, the memories—mostly good—flowed. “He wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be any problems for his crew tomorrow.” She still wasn’t convinced teenagers were the most appropriate work crew. Then again, they fit her budget perfectly: aside from providing their food, she wouldn’t have to shell out a dime. “We gutted Dad’s office today and I called the minister from St. Michael’s in Conroy County. He’s going to come get the benches.”

  “Thank God,” Noelle said. “Those things gave me splinters where you don’t want them. You have a lead on new seating?”

  “I’ve been scouring the Internet.”

  “Mmmm.” Noelle shook her head. “How many do you need? I made some good contacts when I opened Frosty’s. There are some people I can call.”

  “Really?” Marnie didn’t expect that. “That would be great. And one less thing to worry about. I think one fifty to start.”

  “I’ll get you a deal, don’t worry. And if I hit a snag, I’ll rope Chloe into talking to them. She can talk anyone into anything.”

  Family legend had it Chloe was able to sell sand in the desert.

  “Noelle,” Marnie started. “You do know I’m doing this so I can leave, right? This re-design, well, remodel is going to help get me into design school.”

  “I have no doubt you’ll get in,” Noelle agreed in that mother-gentle tone of hers, but Marnie couldn’t help but think there was more to the thought as Noelle gnawed on the end of her drumstick.

  “But?” She wasn’t so sure she wanted to know.

  “Christmas Town is your home, Marnie. It’s where you fit. You’ve always fit here.”

  “Funny, I don’t feel like I fit.” She felt…restless, like she wasn’t sure what her purpose was. If she could just get to New York, get that diploma, she could actually contribute something to the world; even if all she did was help make other people’s homes and offices more beautiful. She needed a life!

  “Because you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be keyed up about something. You did so much, for Mom, for Dad. For me.”

  “Let’s not get into this again,” Marnie sighed and wished Noelle could set her guilty feelings aside. “You had a business to run, Noelle. You couldn’t drop everything to be here twenty-four-seven. You did more than enough helping to spell me and you were certainly here whenever Dad or I needed you.”

  “Yeah, well, I could have done more.” Noelle glanced to the side, as if haunted by ghosts Marnie could never see. “But that’s not important right now. What’s important are your plans for the chapel. You’ve been bouncing off the walls since yesterday when you got your hands on those notebooks of yours.”

  “Does Chloe tell you everything?”

  “Yup. So Sam the Man kissed you, huh?”

  Marnie’s happiness nosedived. Sam hadn’t said a word about that kiss today while they’d worked, which meant whatever she might be reading into his actions, obviously she was wrong. “It wasn’t anything,” she added at Noelle’s confused expression. “I mean I wondered for a while if it was something, but today he was just the same old Sam. Didn’t say anything about it. If I hadn’t had a witness, I’d have doubted it even happened.”

  “And the fact it did happen?” Noelle pinned her with that all-knowing gaze she’d perfected over her twenty-eight years.

  “It.” Marnie struggled to find the words. “It shifted something. I can’t explain it.”

  “Some of the best relationships we’ve seen started as friendships, Marnie. You and Sam have been practically inseparable since you first met, what was it? First grade?”

  “Yeah. But I don’t want things to get complicated.” If anything was stopping her from talking to Sam about the kiss it was the fear their friendship would come to an uncomfortable end.

  “Trust me, given our current conversation, it’s already complicated.” For a moment, Marnie wondered if Noelle had some secrets of her own. “But you two will figure it out,” her sister added.

  “I hope you’re right. Part of me doesn’t want to go, but I can’t blow this second chance, Noelle. I want that diploma. I want to have accomplished something. If that means I have to go to New York.” Marnie hesitated. “Then I have to go.”

  “Who are you trying to convince?” Noelle asked, then, as Marnie swallowed hard, she reached across the table and grabbed hold of Marnie’s hand. “I will say this. Make sure Sam understands. More importantly, that he believes it. Otherwise you’re just setting him up for disappointment.”

  “He’s on board with this,” Marnie called after her as she headed back upstairs to her room. After today, with the way he plowed through her list with his red-pen of death, how could she think anything else? “And you’re reading too much a kiss!”

  “Keep telling yourself that!”

  ~*~

  “You’re awfully quiet.” Sam glanced over at a slumped Marnie in the passenger seat of his oversized 4-wheel drive truck. “You have been all morning.”

  “Sorry, thinking.” Marnie swiped a flyaway strand of hair out of her eyes and snuggled deeper into her jacket. “Those windows you found are going to look great.”

  “Once I’m on a mission, nothing stops me.” Something he’d learned from Marnie and he wasn’t necessarily referring to the windows. Remodeling the chapel was only part of his plan. Tracking down a set of four oversized bay windows at an antique store forty miles outside Christmas Town bolstered his confidence and saved her a good chunk of change. “They just need some refurbishing and we’ll pop those babies in. Just think of all that light.”

  “Mmmm.” Marnie nodded, her arms tightening around her torso.

  “You’re not fading on me so soon, are you?” Sam teased in an attempt to work his way around whatever thoughts were churning in that over-active brain of hers. Marnie only went quiet when she couldn’t stop worrying. As opposed to him, who couldn’t stop talking or throwing out ideas to stop himself from thinking.
It could also be the lack of sleep. He was getting by on four hours a night these days thanks to needing to make up the time he was taking off. It might take his bank account a while to recover from a lack of feeding, but it would be worth it. Marnie was blooming, even in winter. “I know we’re cutting it close on timing—”

  “No, we’ll get it done. We’re already three days in and doing great.” Aside from the dry rot in a huge section of the office floor and the leaky pipes they’d found behind the sink in the utility/mud room that had long been forgotten. Oh, and the straining boiler and out-of-code power box. “That’s not what’s bothering me.”

  “Do I need to pull this car over and throw you in a snow bank to get you to come out with it?”

  Marnie gave him a weak smile. “You haven’t done that since we were kids. And you dumped me off a sled if I remember correctly. Not out of a car.”

  “How else was I going to get you to admit Jimmy Palmer disinvited you to the sixth grade dance?”

  Marnie lolled her head to the side, an indefinable question in her eyes. “You tried to stuff him in his locker the next day.”

  “He didn’t fit, but he needed to be taught a lesson. No one messes with my girl.” The words were out before he realized what he’d said, but instead of wishing he could reel them back or even make a joke out of it like he usually did, he let the cloaked admission hover and hopefully sink in. “He hurt your feelings.”

  “You took me to that dance.” Her voice had softened, as if she were remembering that “date” in a new light. “You even brought me flowers.”

  “A girl’s first date is important.” He’d been grounded for two weeks for pilfering his grandmother’s prized roses, but he’d served his sentence in silence. Seeing Marnie smile at him that night when he’d showed up at her house would have been worth a year without video games.

  Marnie wasn’t spilling what was on her mind today, however. If she sank any lower in her seat, she’d melt into the floorboard. Sam sighed. “Okay, I warned you.”