Mistletoe & Hollywood (17 page)

“Angel or star?” I asked.

Danielle faced me and shot a sultry grin that nearly had me adjusting myself in public. “Well, you know how I feel about stars,” she said, grabbing the box containing a big shiny gold star.

We continued down the rows and rows of ornaments, some singular, some in big collections. We laughed over the ugly ones and contemplated whether we wanted to give the tree some kind of theme or just grab whatever we liked and make the tree our own. Danielle had just finished explaining why we needed to buy this weird pickle ornament when I heard it.

“
I swear to God, that’s him
,” a voice whispered.

Danielle turned and smiled tightly as two teenaged girls approached. She took the cart from me and muttered, “I’ll be over here. Don’t take too long, hot shot.”

I wet my lips and smirked at Danielle as she began perusing the insane amount of ornaments. I turned when I heard a quiet little voice.

“Um…excuse me?”

I smiled and I swear I saw one of them have a mini stroke. The girl who was brave enough to speak was a petite blonde with a plaid flannel shirt and torn jeans on.

“Yeah, hey, girls,” I replied.

The stunned one let out a squeak from the back of her throat and her friend swatted her. They couldn’t have been more than sixteen. Looking at them a little closer, the halfway assertive blonde and the utterly stunned brunette, I felt a little like I was seeing a glimpse of Georgia and Danielle as teens.

“C—could I take a picture with you?” the blonde asked.

“Of course,” I said, motioning her toward me and putting my arm out for her to tuck underneath. She fumbled for her cell phone and quickly clung to my side, holding the phone out in front of us. I took it from her and a syllable dropped from her mouth. “I have longer arms,” I said coolly. We took a few snaps together and by the look on her face when she reviewed them, they were social media-worthy.

I crooked my finger at her friend and saw her blush and roll her eyes as she walked over to me. “Shall we selfie?” I asked. Her lips pursed, hiding her grin. Young Dani all the way. I took her phone from her hands once she presented it, then held it out and took our picture a few times.

When I handed her the phone, I saw her hesitate as if she stopped herself from speaking.

“You ladies get home before this blizzard hits, okay?”

They both nodded and thanked me, then the blonde started rattling off how many times she’d seen
Speed Thrills.
I cracked a joke about my hair in the movie—completely tragic—and they both cut up, finally seeming a little at ease. They turned around when one of their names got called from the next aisle over and when they looked at me again, the brunette found her voice.

“Is she your girlfriend?” she asked, nodding her head in the direction of Danielle.

I breathed a laugh and turned to see the love of my life standing on her tiptoes, grabbing a tube of glitter-covered baubles for our tree. “Yeah. Yeah she is,” I replied a little dreamily.

A slow and genuine smile grew on the young girl’s face as her friend grabbed her hand and whispered, “Come on, my mom’s waiting.”

“I hope somebody looks at me that way one day,” the brunette said before giggling as her friend dragged her away.

I couldn’t respond quickly enough and by the time I thought I had a response, they were dashing off, laughing. As I stood there, a little stunned, all I heard was an echo of,
“Oh my God! We just met Evan Weston!”

I felt arms slip around my waist from behind. “Oh my God, Evan Weston!” Danielle breathed mockingly at my back. I could hear the smile in her voice. Turning to capture her in a quick, firm embrace, I sighed.

“That was sweet of you,” she said, snuggling close to my side as she pushed the cart back to Ornamentland. “I would’ve never had the guts to do that when I was their age,” she added.

I pressed a kiss to her temple and thought of the mini Dani I’d just encountered. “For some reason, I doubt that.”

She made a little
pfft
noise and I peeked into the cart with wide eyes. “Okay, I think you got enough ornaments for two trees.” I laughed.

“There’s just one more I wanna show you,” she said. She pushed the cart to another aisle and handed me a single ornament off of the rack. I laughed when I took it in my hands, holding it up by its ribbon. It was a clear globe filled with sand and tiny seashells and written on the glass was:
The beach is where my heart is
.

“I like it. But I’m pretty sure my heart’s in a Wal-Mart right now,” I said, staring at her.

Danielle smiled and kept walking as she took the ornament from me and placed it in the cart along with all the others she’d picked up. “Let’s go grab some groceries,” she said. “I was thinking maybe we could bake some cookies tonight.”

A shuddering breath left me. She turned her head and I caught sight of her stunning blue eyes. Everyone should be lucky enough to have somebody look at them that way.

“HOW ABOUT THIS
one?” Evan asked gleefully.

The Douglas fir was taller than he was and he stared at it like a prized kill he’d taken down himself. I had absolutely no clue what made a Christmas tree a good one, aside from knowing that a Charlie Brown-like twig just wouldn’t do in our big house.

Whoa. Our house.
I smiled a little at the way my subconscious had accepted what my neurotic mind hadn’t. Sometimes even my crazy knew I was crazy. One day we would live in that house. One day we will fill it will love and photographs and memories and children. I knew Evan would be patient with me. With the way his shooting schedule was for
The Heirs
, there was no way he could make a permanent move there yet anyway—a thought that made me relax even more.

“I like it,” I said and melted at the shining smile that morphed his face.

He went to one of the men working in the Christmas tree lot and together they started loading it onto the top of the SUV. Evan paid and signed an autograph for the owner’s wife and soon we were back in the car with the big ass tree tied to the roof.

Evan reached across the gearshift and held my hand as the radio played holiday songs. The snow was drifting down fast, covering the road and making it hard to see out the windshield. I wondered what the snow was like in Philly…and then for a second I thought of Mexico and Desire Resort and Spa and how the weather there was surely perfect. That place had been so gorgeous, everything about it luxurious. When I’d offhandedly mentioned the idea of us going back someday for a little getaway, Evan quickly silenced the suggestion. Every now and then I saw a grimace paint Evan’s face when anything remotely linked to his Casanova past was mentioned and I knew he was still holding on to guilt. As much as he opened up about why he’d kept his distance from love and commitment, I could sometimes see that he still felt that disappointment in himself for wasting time and for undoubtedly breaking a few hearts along the way. It wasn’t going to happen overnight, but I knew deep down the two of us could grow together and learn to let go of the past. I’d slowly but surely let go of my abandonment and intimacy issues—I mean, he bought me a mansion for Christ’s sake, the man wasn’t going anywhere. And Evan would slowly but surely let go of his self-loathing, recognizing at some point that he was not defined by his former missteps.

“Shit,” Evan muttered and pulled me from the depths of my mind.

He slowed the car down and pulled off to the shoulder. That’s when I saw the little sedan spinning its tires over a heap of snow. When he put the car in park, I unbuckled my seatbelt, poised to open my door, but Evan’s voice stopped me.

“You stay in the car.”

“What? Why? I can help you.”

“The visibility is shit and it’s only getting worse. Someone could skid off the road while you’re out there.” His brows were pulled together and his mouth was a hard line. It was his challenge face.

I huffed and set my eyes on him firmly. “Someone could skid off the road while
you’re
out there too. What if I don’t want you to get out?”

Evan huffed loudly and flicked his eyes from the stranded car back to me. He was getting mad. I always wanted to laugh when we had conversations like these. We were always dancing back and forth over the lines of who held the power. As much as I liked his direction in the bedroom, I wasn’t always quick to listen to him outside of the sheets. His eyes moved to the windshield again, sighing as a man got out of the driver’s seat and a woman came from the passenger side to take his place. “Okay, come on.”

I didn’t gloat. These people needed help and that was what was important. Stepping outside, the bitter wind stole my breath and my hair was instantly covered in huge powdery clumps of snow that shot from the sky.

The man, who had just taken position behind the little blue car, turned with a relieved half-smile as we approached.

“Can we help, man?” Evan asked.

“That would be great. Thanks for stopping,” the man said. Evan and I flanked him on either side at the trunk as he hollered up to the woman behind the wheel. “Give it a little gas, babe, we’re gonna start to rock it!”

I’ll admit I wasn’t much help, but it only took about ten minutes of us pushing the car to get it out of the snowbank and back on the road. When the car was clear of the huge lump of snow, the woman got out of the driver’s seat and came to thank us. I snickered when her face went pale.

The man shook Evan’s hand vigorously. “You guys were lifesavers. We would’ve been out here for hours. That was so nice of you to stop and help. Thank you so much.”

Evan chuckled and shook his head. “Of course, man. Get home safe,” he said. “And Merry Christmas.”

The woman was still gaping at Evan as the man shook my hand appreciatively too. Evan slipped his arm around me and we waved at the couple as we got back in the car. I laughed the minute the door closed and I saw the man motioning for his wife to get in the passenger seat, completely oblivious to why she was so stunned, her feet planted firmly in the snow as she watched Evan’s every move.

“You could’ve thrown her a bone,” I joked.

He just laughed and slowly pulled onto the street again, letting silence fill the car comfortably.

“Evan,” I started.

He hummed and reached to turn the radio down, still watching the road.

“You’re a really good guy.”

I heard him swallow hard and then he glanced at me, tension between his brows. Pulling off my glove, I slipped my fingers through the sandy golden hair at the back of his head. He sighed at my touch and I continued, unable to stop myself from the overwhelming emotion I’d suddenly been flooded with. It was so simple but it said so much about him.

“You don’t do anything for the sake of yourself—your image. You didn’t take a picture or sign an autograph for that woman because you didn’t want it to be a story.
Evan Weston saves stranded couple on snowy highway
. Right?” I said. “You made sure that shy girl at the store, the dark-haired one, got her picture with you even though she didn’t have the nerve to ask.”

His eyes flashed to me again. “You were watching?” he breathed.

A smile lifted my mouth and I nodded. “Yeah. Evan, you…you didn’t buy the house for yourself…you didn’t even really buy it for me.”

Evan’s breathing started to stagger and he turned down the long driveway. The car slowed and he looked over at me. Everything I loved about him was showing in his eyes. His passion, his strength, his humility, his love, his flaws. A few mistakes had given him an underserved reputation that was only now starting to diminish since he’d gone public with me. It took me mere days at the resort to realize he wasn’t who the world thought he was and I hoped that soon everyone would see it. Most of all, I wanted him to see it. I never want him to doubt what a wonderful man I thought he was.

I nodded toward the huge house with the big red front door and smiled, completely at peace with calling it my home despite the fact that I might not live there for a while. “You bought this big house—with a big kitchen for baking cookies and plenty of bedrooms—for our family, right?”

He let go of a sigh and I saw a little smirk dance on his lips as he pulled into the garage. When he parked the car, he faced me without a word. With that silent look, I saw I was right.

“Evan Weston, you are such a good man,” I whispered. “The fact that you’ve gone so long believing the opposite breaks my heart.”

I rested my palm on the side of his face, feeling the stubble he’d let grow over the last few days. His glossy hazel eyes swept over my features and settled on my mouth.

“We should get inside,” he muttered.

My lips twisted, preparing to pin him with another bold declaration of affection, but the way his eyes had just barely misted kept me from doing anything other than nodding in agreement.

We stripped off our snowy coats and boots in the garage and Evan cut the tree loose from the roof of the car to set it up in the empty corner so it could dry out and the branches could settle. Inside, we were greeted by an eager Fifi, sniffing us before giving a loud woof in hopes of getting her belated dinner. Evan scooped her some food from the bag he’d brought with him and I loaded the groceries into the refrigerator silently. I turned, opening my mouth to ask Evan what kind of cookies he wanted to bake—hoping the change of subject would ease him—and collided with his solid chest. I looked up at him, so close to me, and felt a whisper of bliss skate across my skin just from the look in his eyes.