Page 46 of Miss Christmas

“Your parents aren’t here, honey?” Grandma Regal said. Scarlet turned to the old woman and saw the kind, sad understanding in her eyes.

“I wish my mother could have been here even though I didn’t win. Most of all, I can’t wait to see her for Christmas.” She would call her mother and make arrangements that night.

“Will tells me you have a sister,” his grandmother said.

“She’s passed away, Grandma,” Will said.

“I know. But that doesn’t mean she’s gone completely.” The old woman winked at Scarlet.

“You’re right. I feel like Tiffany is here with me sometimes. Right inside my head and in my heart.” She leaned over and gave Grandma a hug. Because she felt compelled to. And Grandma Regal gave her a hug right back in spite of her small size and seeming frailty. The old woman could still give a good bracing hug.

“Now that you’re on hugging terms with Grandma, how about if you come to the Regal family Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow night?”

“I’d love to. But I’m still planning to have my mother fly here for Christmas.”

“Of course your mother is invited too. I’d love to meet her,” Grandma said.

Scarlet found herself nodding and warming, smiling like she’d discovered the secret to the universe.

Maybe she had. Maybe the secret was all about love and family.

That had to be Tiffany talking.

Epilogue

Regal Family Christmas Eve Dinner

Dinner would be served in an hour and George was doing what he did best, playing host, getting Will a drink. He and George and Margo had arrived early. He stood at the fireplace in the great room of his grandparents’ home because he couldn’t sit. Too much nervous energy.

He loved this place. Other people saw it as a posh old-world penthouse, but it was like home to him, for the whole Regal clan. It was where he’d spent every Christmas, every holiday and special occasion growing up with his family. His uncle and grandma lived here now and the family still had Sunday dinners here at least once a month. Whoever could make it, whoever was in town, came to dinner and they shared their passions, exchanged barbs and laughs, argued a lot, and ate and drank even more.

But even all the comfort of family and familiar surroundings couldn’t ease his nervous tension. George handed him a glass.

“Your Knob Creek. Drink up and get a grip. She’ll say yes.”

“Bastard.” He downed half the glass.

“Even if I were, ”George said, “I’d still be the smarter, wiser and better-looking cousin.” He lifted his glass with a smirk.

Will laughed. Warmth spread, a combination of whiskey and good humor working through him. But there was no way to alleviate the crux of the problem, the source of his acute anxiety. Not until Scarlet arrived.

As his family members trickled in and Will thought he couldn’t stand to wait another minute, Scarlet entered the room and everything stopped. Including, most notably, Will’s heart. Was he ready for this?

* * *

Scarlet was in too much of a rush taking her coat off so she could get to Will to be impressed with the fact that it was a butler who took her coat. Dee, whom Will had invited so she wouldn’t be alone on Christmas Eve, grabbed her wrist as if Scarlet were her mother and they were in a new and scary place and she didn’t want to get separated. Scarlet supposed they were in a new scary place. A Park Avenue penthouse, an old-fashioned mansion at the top of the city. She slowed her steps as the butler lead them to a giant parlor. With her nerves sizzling and jumping like sparks on a fire, she stopped on the threshold, until her gaze found Will.

Pulling away from Dee and ignoring everyone else for the moment, she walked directly to Will where he stood at the fireplace with his drink in hand and looking like heaven in his ugly Christmas sweater. Did his sweater just light up, or was that her imagination? Or maybe it was his smile, the handsome face, and glistening eyes.

When she reached him, he took her in his arms and gave her another one of those kisses where she wished they could disappear through the floorboards and land in a private, cozy bed.

“I’ve been dying to see you,” he said as soon as their lips came apart. He was breathless and she found she was too.

“I know. Me too. Are we crazy?”

“Past crazy.” The room buzzed around them, but he didn’t let her go, kept her entranced with his eyes on hers.

“Mad?”