She took in Mrs. Fisher’s snowman-and-holly-covered apron and smudge of flour on her cheek and thought about the Talbot family tradition of catering every holiday meal. She and Allison were expected to show up in the dining room fifteen minutes before dinner looking perfect so they could all pose for the happy holiday family photo where no one was really happy at all.
“Andrea.”
Ben’s green eyes latched onto hers, but the coldness in them nearly brought her to tears. She didn’t come here to cry. She wasn’t even going to yell, even though a part of her felt like he deserved it. Mrs. Fisher disappeared down the hall, but she wanted more privacy. Plus, she needed to get him outside.
“Can we talk on the porch?”
He studied her for a few seconds. “Uh, sure. I’ll grab my jacket.”
They stepped out onto the wide covered porch fronting the Fisher home where multi-colored lights sparkled on the railing and all along the eaves. So much happy Christmas in this house. Longing and sadness joined forces to dishearten her further.
She removed a bundle from beneath her jacket. His gaze seemed to burn into her, distracting her with the intensity. She cleared her throat. “These last several months, with you, I thought I could finally be myself. I thought you liked me, the real me. I even thought, for a while, that we might be...” A flush heated her skin in spite of the cold and she wondered if this was how he felt when she’d rejected him all those years ago. “I should have known I couldn’t work beyond my—our—past and the Talbot name so easily. I was trying though. I do want you to know that. There’s something you need to understand about the bell.”
“I understand why you did it. I know what it’s like to start a business, to want to prove yourself, especially to your dad. I understand—”
Her dry chuckle sounded harsh. “That’s just the thing. You don’t understand. You don’t understand at all.”
She handed him most of the bundle, which included a stack of emails, the purchase invoice, and her log book. The log where she’d meticulously noted every twist and turn on the road she’d traveled in her search for the bell, right up to her discovery, the purchase, and beyond.
“What’s this?”
“Answers. To all of your questions.”
As if on cue, a booming sound reverberated through the frigid air. She’d asked Sheldon to stop when he turned onto the Fisher’s road and ring the bell. Finally, she thought bitterly, her timing was right where Ben was concerned.
With trembling hands, she gripped the invoice for her commission. Resolve steadied her as she tore the paper in two, and then tore it again. She handed these pieces to him, too.
The sound began to fade. She added a soft “Merry Christmas, Ben” before walking away into the fading light of Christmas Eve.
~*~
The bell. The peal was like musical thunder rumbling through Ben’s body. He could feel the vibration from the top of his head all the way down through the bottoms of his feet. Closing his eyes, he let the sensation flow through him. The sound was even better than he’d imagined, and he’d imagined it at least a million times.
“Ben?” His dad came through the door behind him as a pickup pulling a trailer carrying the Christmas Town bell stopped in front of the driveway. “Is that…You found it?”
“Andrea found it. I hired her to find it. For you, Dad. Merry Christmas.”
He felt his eyes burn as he watched the emotions play across his dad’s face; disbelief, joy, excitement, surprise.
“For me? I can’t believe…” His voice was choked with emotion as he enfolded Ben in a tight hug.
His mom and Josh and Ivy joined them on the porch. Josh clapped him on the shoulder. Ivy asked questions. His mom cried.
They all descended the stairs to examine the bell, now illuminated by the motion lights hung above the garage doors. Ben realized that while the sound of the bell didn’t surprise him, the feeling accompanying the sight of the bell wasn’t at all like he’d imagined.
“It’s in nearly perfect condition.” His dad’s voice was filled with awe and appreciation.
He should have been feeling the same, but instead he felt numb. Did this mean Andrea wasn’t going to sell the bell to the highest bidder? Was she accepting his offer? Or had she had a change of heart when she realized he knew about her plan?
“It’s beautiful,” his mom exclaimed. “I can’t wait for Rick to see it.”
Rick had ventured out to get the Christmas tree and hadn’t yet returned.
“It really is,” Ivy gushed. “Very nice, Ben.”
His dad moved toward the truck where the driver stood looking satisfied by the reaction of his delivery recipients.
“You mind if we ring this again?” His dad leapt up onto the trailer. He reverently touched the embossed “Christmas Town” lettering and gave the bell a few more rings. Neighbors began to appear and a small crowd soon gathered.
Ben took that opportunity to slip into the house. A pit formed in his gut as he scanned the correspondence between Andrea and Zacharias Pence. The papers summarized both the details of the transaction and the importance of keeping the deal a secret. A secret for his sake. He read an email she had written three weeks ago in response to an offer Zacharias had passed on to her after she’d purchased the bell: The bell is not for sale at any price, Zacharias. But thank you for…
Andrea had done all of this because she’d wanted to surprise him? Her actions, which he’d found so troubling, came racing back—her “date,” her seeming preoccupation with money, her cash crunch. She’d overextended herself financially, all right. For the bell. For him.
In the midst of it all, she’d left her shop in the height of the Christmas shopping season to take a road trip with him, given money she couldn’t spare to the Yost family, refused to give up on finding the owner of the lost Christmas gifts, and taken in a kitten. None of which surprised him because, he realized, all of those actions had been performed by the Andrea he did know.
Ben cursed his own thoughtless assumptions and hasty conclusions. He didn’t deserve her. He certainly didn’t deserve to be forgiven. But he had to try. His only hope was the gift he’d brought for her. It couldn’t compare to the bell, to the time and money she’d sacrificed, or the trouble she’d endured. He could only hope his gift would show his feelings for her. The feelings that had grown between them during the preceding months before he’d allowed the doubts and insecurities to mess with his mind and wreak this cruel havoc. The feelings that he now knew in his heart were genuine.
Chapter 10
Andrea walked through the town square. Not even the stunning display of lights and decorations could boost her spirits. She slowed when she approached the front of her shop. She stopped, a welling of pride filling her as she studied the letters she’d so painstakingly painted on the window. Timeless. Inhaling deeply, she blew out a long frosty breath. She loved her shop and she liked herself for making her dream come true, even if it was on shaky ground at the moment. Even if it was all she had.
What had she done? What in the world was she going to do? Reimbursement for her purchase of the bell would ease her immediate predicament. But she’d been counting on that commission, too.
“The name of your shop describes you, too, do you know that?” a soft voice asked over her shoulder.
She squeezed her eyes shut, gathered her courage, and turned to face Ben. “Why are you here?” she asked.
“To me, timeless means enduring, refusing to change even when outside forces try to influence you. And that’s what you do, Andrea. You stay true to yourself and you endure.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. She refused to let them fall, but in fighting to hold them back, she found herself unable to speak.
“In spite of the reputation your parents foisted on you, in spite of the way you were raised and your family name. I know I’ve said this already, but you are so brave.”
She lost the battle and swiped at a few errant tears. “Didn’t your dad like t
he bell?”
His lips curved up at the corners. “He loves it, it’s not that. It’s just that all of a sudden I can see how I placed an awful lot of importance on finding the bell.”
“With good reason. The bell is important. To you and your dad. It’s a part of your family’s heritage. It’s a part of this town’s history.”
“Agreed. But I realize now that what I was searching for most ended up being something else entirely.”
“I’m not sure…”
“What I mean is, I seem to be the happiest when I’m doing something I love. For the last year or so, that happiness came from searching for the bell with you. I thought I would experience this huge sense of satisfaction and relief when I finally had it. But I didn’t, not at all. Because I didn’t…” His voice trailed off as he took a few stops closer.
She stared blankly, forcing herself not to feel and trying not to hope, but willing him to continue.
“Because you weren’t next to me,” he finished. “You were so entwined with my feelings about the bell I couldn’t separate one from the other, until I didn’t have the one that really matters.”
“Ben,” she whispered, swallowing a sob. She was afraid to say more, afraid to even move, afraid this promise of happiness would evaporate as quickly as it had before.
“I’m so sorry, Andrea.”
Somehow she managed to force out the words. “I’m sorry, too, for the way I treated you back in high school. You don’t know how much I liked you even then, but I was so...I’m sorry. And I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you as soon as I found the bell. I wanted to surprise you.”
He reached out and cupped her cheek, his long fingers reaching into the hair at the nape of her neck. His thumb brushed across her cheekbone and caused her to shiver, but she wasn’t cold. “I wish you hadn’t assumed the worst of me. I really thought you were getting to know me, the real me.”
“I know. I am. I promise.” He removed his hand. He pulled something from the pocket of his jacket and offered it to her.
“What’s this?”
“This is a gift. I brought for you. From LA. I’m telling you I bought this long before I ever came home because I don’t want you to think I scrambled around and pulled off some kind of Christmas shopping miracle in an attempt to fix the biggest screw up of my life.”
Andrea’s heart beat so hard inside of her chest it was nearly painful. She unwrapped the small, rectangular box and removed the lid to reveal a sparkling gold charm bracelet. She didn’t need to see a hallmark because she recognized the piece immediately as vintage Tiffany, her favorite jeweler. With trembling hands, she removed the bracelet from its padded nest.
Conversation after conversation came back to her as she examined each of the attached charms: a book because she loved to read, a globe because she’d shared with him how much she wanted to travel, a thimble to represent the needlework she often joked was her anxiety-relieving hobby, a spur because he obviously realized how much she loved her sister, an ice cream cone, her absolute favorite dessert. The coffee mug perfectly represented her caffeine addiction and the bell was obvious. But it didn’t appear to be any old bell.
She reached for the magnifier she always kept in a pocket. It was a tiny, perfect replica of the Christmas Town bell. Obviously one of a kind. Expertly crafted. Just for her.
She locked her eyes on his as she tried to come up with a way to say what she was feeling. “No one has ever given me anything so thoughtful or so…perfect. I’m overwhelmed. Thank you.”
“I thought at least you’d have one bell to remind you of, well, of me. But now we have two, right? Three, actually, if we include our feline version. Suddenly it occurs to me that we are flush with bells.”
She laughed.
He reached into his pocket again. “There’s more.”
“More?” She was pretty sure she couldn’t take much more.
He placed another charm in her outstretched palm.
She eyed him questioningly. “A Christmas tree? For our first Christmas together?”
He raised a brow. “That’s not exactly what I had in mind, but I like that thought. This one does double duty actually.”
Andrea tilted her head in question.
“What does a Christmas tree symbolize to you?”
She thought for a second. “Christmas, gifts, Santa Claus, home—”
“That’s the one.”
“Home? Christmas Town?”
“Yes, even when I bought this, I didn’t realize how much I love this town. I’ve always had these doubts and misgivings, but these last few days I’ve seen things differently. More clearly, I think. I’m thinking about moving home, joining the volunteer fire reserves. I’d like to be closer to my family. I’d like to be close to you, if you’ll have me.”
Andrea felt as though her heart might explode. She looked down at the bracelet in her hands, each charm telling her that he had been paying attention all these months. He did know her, better than anyone, and he liked her anyway. That was all Andrea had ever wanted, to be successful at being herself.
“I love you, Andrea. And I think you love me, too.”
Okay, apparently that wasn’t true because, hearing these three words from Ben’s lips she realized how much she’d wanted that, too.
She nodded and barely managed to swallow a sob. “I do, Ben. I do, and more importantly, I believe you.”
“Good.” He reached over and slid a hand around the back of her neck. “Do you want to come home with me? Join in some Fisher family Christmas Eve chaos? We’re a pretty fun bunch. Rick should be home with the tree any time now. You can help decorate it, but you have to promise not to make fun of my telescope Christmas tree ornament.”
“Um, telescope ornament? That’s kind of begging for a joke, or even two.”
His gaze narrowed thoughtfully. “That’s fine. I could go ahead and tell the story about how I saw you at Walt’s on a date with a werewolf and you had guano all over your clothes. And you hid from me because—
“All right. Deal,” Andrea snapped playfully. “No telescope jokes. But, guano? Really? Do people talk like that in your world?”
He chuckled and wrapped his other arm around her. “You know what they say about leopards and dorks changing their spots?”
“I’m grateful for that old saying because I like your spots exactly how they are.”
He glanced over his shoulder toward the town square where mistletoe graced the lovely arches leading into the green. “I would love to kiss you under the mistletoe, but it suddenly seems like an awful long way to go. Clear over there.”
“It is. I agree. It’s way, way, way too far. And we’ve gone far enough. After all this searching, and finding, and all the miles we’ve managed to navigate? We don’t need to go anywhere else and we don’t need mistletoe. We just need this.”
She gestured at the shop’s window. Ben’s face broke into that heart-melting smile. And this time when they kissed, it was with both of them knowing that the love they’d found, the love they’d finally managed to declare, was destined to be timeless, too.
The End
A Note from the Author
Merry Christmas from Christmas Town, and especially from the Fisher brothers!
If you enjoyed The Christmas Bell, I hope you’ll check out my latest novel for Harlequin’s Heartwarming line, If Not for a Bee (October 2015). It’s number three in the Seasons of Alaska series, which also includes Mountains Apart and A Case for Forgiveness. Book number four in the series, A Family Like Hannah’s, will be released in February, 2016. Each book shares the same setting, the remote picturesque town of Rankins, Alaska. Its unique characters combined with the indomitable spirit of Alaska stir up lots of drama—and ample opportunities for love. Although small, Rankins has an abundance of warm hospitality and plenty of room for visitors. I hope to see you there!
For all my latest book news, please visit my new website: carolrossauthor.com
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And follow me on Twitter; @_CarolRoss
Making up Under the Mistletoe
Cheryl Harper
Copyright © 2015 by:
Cheryl Harper
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
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Praise and Awards
“I was impressed with the intensity of the feelings she created between the characters and that she could convey it seemingly so easily.”
~ Harlequin Junkie on Can’t Help Falling in Love
“Cheryl Harper is very talented and keeps the reader on their toes with her wit and amusing story telling. Her characters are so real to the reader that you find yourself living through their disappointments and joys. The story was a joy to read and amusing from page one to the end.”
~ Fresh Fiction on Can’t Help Falling in Love
“With relatable characters and Harper’s eye for detail, The Bluebird Bet is still a solid bet.”
~ RT Book Reviews on The Bluebird Bet
Chapter 1
Wednesday, December 23
Ivy Fisher was behind schedule but determined to catch up as she hurried toward the Rudolph bus. She operated every day with ambitious to-do lists, and this was the busiest day of the whole year for her father’s Christmas Town tour business.
A Heartwarming Christmas: A Boxed Set of Twelve Sweet Holiday Romances Page 29
