A Blazing Little Christmas(56)
When he lifted his head to look into her eyes, he smiled. “I don’t have a ring right now, but I’ve got a couple of witnesses.”
Roland and Helen arrived just then. The older gentleman smiled while his wife bit her lip.
“Heather dear,” Mrs. Krause began, “let me just apologize for calling our local cab company to cancel your ride. I know it was wrong of me but you two looked like you could use a little time to talk and—”
“This time of year brings out the matchmaker in my wife, you know.” Roland winked at Heather. “And we are awfully fond of Jared.”
“I’m glad.” Heather blinked away the seductive tenderness of Jared’s kiss. “I don’t have any need for a cab so you saved me the trouble of canceling it. As it turns out, I’m going to be staying in Lake Placid for quite a while.”
“I’ve asked Heather to marry me,” Jared informed his friends. “And I think I just received confirmation that she’s going to say—”
“Yes.” Heather wrapped her arms around his neck, throwing herself into his chest and into his life. “Yes, Army-man. You’re the one I’ve been waiting for.”
Helen squealed beside them and Heather suspected her husband tugged her away because by the time Heather let go of Jared, the innkeepers had disappeared.
“What about your family?” He pulled the cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her. “Do you think we should call them?”
Pleasure filled her that he would think of them. Her future with this man would be so full of happiness. Joy. Every day would be like Christmas with him in her bed and by her side.
“I’ve got a much better plan.” She kissed his cheek and kept her arms around his neck, not sure when she’d be able to let go of him again. “How do you feel about a trip to Savannah tomorrow to help me pack a few things for my move up here?”
“You really don’t mind leaving your family? Because I’m serious about moving down there with you. I don’t have family ties up here.”
“My business can move anywhere and I think you’ll see why my family will be really fun to visit a few times a year.” She couldn’t wait to see Loralei swoon at the sight of Jared. “We can arrive just in time for a Christmas party my mother’s been planning.”
“Your mother, huh?”
“Yes.” Heather adored her mother, but they would probably both extend their wings all the more with a little more room. “It will be a fun way for you to meet everyone at once.”
“Even the ex-fiancé?” Jared quirked an eyebrow, but he didn’t look the least bit worried.
Heather had the feeling he was going to handle the family far better than she ever had.
“I think my ex-fiancé will be glad to have you take his place after my mother tries to set him up with my half sister.”
She had movers to call, clothes to pack, a business to transfer…and a man to ground her through it all.
“Heather?”
“Hmm?” She still couldn’t let go of him. Couldn’t believe that Christmas had brought her a little peace on earth and very, very goodwill toward this man after so many years of being a source of stress.
“No one will ever take my place.” He stared at her with those no-games eyes, the ones that had followed her everywhere she went that night at an outdoor bar halfway across the country.
“Are you suggesting you’d fight for me?”
Leaning down to kiss her, he stole her soul with one brush of his lips.
“Right down to my last breath, angel.”
KATHLEEN O’REILLY
Dear Santa
A Blazing Little Christmas Part 3
Chapter 1
Wednesday, December 18
With eleven minutes to spare, Rebecca Neumann finished concealing the last pieces of Christmas contraband from her kindergarten classroom.
Though the big day was exactly a week away, the headmistress could come around the corner at any moment. The headmistress who insisted that Santa was nonsense and that the holiday was no holiday, a day like any other.
So the reindeer antlers were hidden under the piles of neatly graded and filed spelling tests. Verboten Dear Santa letters were stashed inside Rebecca’s prized Prada bag. Blackballed holiday cards were stuffed beneath her FootSmart custom orthotics that would never see the light of another human being’s eye. And the paper-plate snowmen were strategically covered by the flirty, little black Versace that she kept on hand for date emergencies. A woman never knew when the man of her dreams was destined to appear, and although never having been a Boy Scout, Rebecca had dated and dumped three of them, and cleaved to their motto like her own.