Christmas In Silver Bell Falls (15 page)

“It was the naked in the tub thing,” she teased.  “You fell in lust.”

He chuckled.  “Okay, that first night it was lust, but as soon as we started spending time together, I knew.  You’re it for me.”  He paused.  “I know it’s soon and I know you need time and I promise not to push.  I just…I just want to be with you, spend time with you, laugh with you, talk to you, all of it.  And at the end of your three months, if you want to go back to Raleigh, then I’m okay with it.  I mean, I’m not, but I will be.”  He gave her a lopsided grin.  “Or I’ll try to be.”

She laughed lightly and shook her head as she looked at him.  “I appreciate that.”

“We can do the long-distance thing,” he said quickly.  “Lots of people do and…you know…I’ve never been to North Carolina so it might be fun to come and check it out.”

“That could definitely be fun,” she said noncommittally. 

Something was off.  One of the things Josiah loved about their relationship was the bantering they shared and right now this felt like a very one-sided conversation. 

“Of course if you’d rather I didn’t and you wanted a clean break, then…” he sighed and looked at her helplessly, “I’d really hate it.  I’m not going to sit here and lie to you.  I don’t want you to go, but I understand that you have to.  But if your leaving meant that this—what we have—is over? I…I…”  His head dropped and his voice cracked.

Reaching over, Melanie put her hand over his.  “Josiah?” she whispered.  He looked up at her and knew everything he was feeling was written all over his face.  “I didn’t get to tell you about the rest of my trip.”

He looked at her with confusion.

“I went to see my grandmother’s attorney.”

He felt like she had kicked him in the stomach.  Was she trying to hurt him or was she just deliberately being mean?

With a sigh she said, “It turns out that I have a rather large dilemma on my hands.”

“Why?” he asked almost belligerently.

“Well, it seems like there was more to my grandmother’s request than I was originally told.”

Silently, he waited her out.

“It seems that if I leave before the three months is up, the property won’t be sold or given to a charity as I originally thought.”  She looked at him as if waiting for him to question her, but he didn’t.  “If I walk away before the end of the allocated time,
you
get the property.”

“What?” he exclaimed.  “How is that possible?”

She shrugged.  “I think she was trying to do the right thing by both of us.  On one hand she wanted to leave something to me—probably because of our weird history—but she also knew how much you wanted this property.  By willing the property to me with the stipulation, maybe she was assuaging her guilt.  We’ll never know.  But in my mind, this property always should have been yours.”  She sighed dramatically.  “So that means I have no choice but to leave and go back to North Carolina.  It’s the only way to make sure the property goes to its rightful owner.”

Josiah’s head was spinning.  Carol had given him the property, by possible default.  He looked at Melanie.  “I don’t even know what to say.”

“You want to know what I think you should say?”

The hint of sass in her tone told him he was going to like what she had to say, so he nodded.

“I think you should say, ‘Melanie, you can go, but not until the day before the deadline and you need to go home and sell your house and come back here to me as soon as possible.’ And then you should tell me you love me.”

A slow smile spread across his face and he turned her hand in his and tugged her into his lap where he finally kissed her.  “Anything else?”

She ran her fingers over his cheek, his jaw, his throat as she looked up at him.  “Then you should probably remind me again why I’m going to love this whole Christmas thing you’ve been yammering about for weeks and then make love to me.”

“Just to seal the deal?” he teased.

She shook her head.  “No.  Just because you love me.”

Resting his forehead against hers, he considered his options until he finally said, “I don’t think I can do any of that.”

Melanie straightened and looked at him, her eyes wide with shock.  “What?  Why?”

“You’ve left out one very important detail and until it gets cleared up, we can’t move forward.”

Her brows furrowed as she tried to think about what she missed.  “I…what did I forget?”

He smiled and did his best to look a little wounded.  “You keep talking about how I love you but I’ve yet to hear you mention how you feel about me.”

A small gasp escaped before she realized he was right.  “Josiah Stone…I love you.  Part of me keeps saying it’s too soon to be true, but the rest of me knows there is no denying it.”  She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him softly on the lips.  “I can’t believe I could have missed this.”

His dark eyes scanned her face.  “Missed what, baby?”

“This.  You.  Us.”  She kissed him again.  “If my father hadn’t pushed me to come here and accept my grandmother’s gift, then we never would have met.”  Tears filled her eyes as she said the words.

Josiah shook his head.  “I would have found you,” he whispered before pulling her close and kissing her deeply.  Melanie melted into him and as he carefully maneuvered them until she was laying beneath him, he knew everything was going to be all right.

Chapter Eight

“There had better be a good reason why you’re waking me up this early.”

“It’s Christmas morning!  Don’t you want to check and see if Santa came?”

One eye peered out from under the comforter.  “You’re kidding, right?”

Melanie bounced on the bed excitedly.  “You have no one to blame but yourself!  Now come on!”

Slowly Josiah rolled over and forced himself to sit up.  “Mel, it’s…” He looked over at the beside clock.  ”It’s seven in the morning.” Reaching for her, he did his best to convince her of all the reasons staying in bed would be better for them.

With a giggle, Melanie rolled away and stood up next to the bed.  “You told me Christmas morning was like the best morning of the year,” she argued playfully.  “And being that you haven’t lied to me about anything yet, I have no choice but to believe you.  Now there is a mountain of presents out there that are just begging to be opened.”  She reached for one of his hands and tried to tug him out of the bed.

Laughing, he pulled it back and smiled when she landed on top of him.  “It is the best morning of the year. This one in particular,” he added before pulling her close and kissing her soundly.  “Tell you what, give me another hour in bed with you and then the rest of the day is all yours.  What do you say?”

Melanie looked as if she were considering her options when she quickly straddled him and pulled her nightie up and over her head. 

A slow grin covered Josiah’s face.  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

****

Two hours later they walked hand in hand out to the living room and Melanie gasped with delight.  “Oh my goodness!  Look at this!” she cried.  The tree was lit and there were presents everywhere—maybe even more than what had been there the night before.  Her stocking was full and there was a fire roaring in the fireplace.  “Boy, Santa is thorough.” 

“You know it,” Josiah replied with a wink as he made his way to the kitchen.  “I’m going to get us some coffee first.”

With a small groan, she followed him and they worked together getting the coffee brewing.  “You mentioned something about a special breakfast too.”

He rolled his eyes.  “You’re a demanding little thing,” he teased and gave her a loud smacking kiss on the cheek.  “It’s a good thing I love you.”

Within minutes they were out in the living room and sitting on the floor.  “Okay, I have to admit that I have no idea what we’re supposed to do here,” she confessed.  “Do we trade off like I give you a gift to open and then you give me one?”

Standing, Josiah pulled her stocking off of the mantle and handed it to her.  “You’re supposed to see what Santa left for you first,” he said and sat down beside her.

“Oooh…let’s see…” she began and then marveled at the gifts.  There was candy and a new pair of gloves and some other silly trinkets made her giggle.  “I can’t believe Santa brought me ink for my printer.”

“It can’t all be about fun and games, Mel,” he chuckled.  “Santa is all about the practical sometimes.”

“Duly noted,” she said and when she finished going through the stocking, she looked over at Josiah.  “Can I give you a present now?”

Josiah skimmed a hand over her cheek and all the love he felt for her shone in his eyes.  “Sweetheart, you are the best present I ever could have received.  I don’t need anything else.”

She gave him a wicked smile as she reached under the tree and pulled out his first wrapped gift.

“What the…”Josiah said as he opened the box.  “An iPod?  But…”  He pulled it out of the box and immediately began to read the instructions.

“I thought it was time for you to retire your CD collection and join this millennium.”

“Very funny,” he said.  “And very thoughtful.  Thank you.”

“It’s already loaded with about two dozen albums.  I raided your CDs to see what I should start with.”

“You know you’re going to have to show me how to use this, right?”

She nodded.  “Not a problem.”  When she crawled toward the tree, Josiah’s hand on her calf stopped her.  “What?”

“What are you doing?”

“I was just getting more of your gifts to give you.  I thought it would be easier since Santa seemed to scatter them around the tree and mixed them up with the rest of the presents.”  She pulled three boxes out and handed them to him.

“It’s not my turn,” he said playfully.

“Technically I already opened a few, if you count the stocking, so humor me and open these.”

He grumbled about how this was not proper Christmas morning protocol, but he opened the presents anyway.  He looked like a big kid as he unwrapped a pair of high-tech, wireless headphones, a Kindle and a watch.

“Mel,” he began and sounded a little like he was chastising her, “you didn’t need to do all of this.”

“But I wanted to,” she said simply.

Rather than argue, Josiah began pulling presents out from under the tree.  Melanie watched curiously because he seemed to have some sort of order that he wanted to give them to her in.  After several minutes, he sat back and sighed.  “Change of plans,” he said.  “You have to open all of these gifts before I open another one.  No arguing.”

For some reason, she could tell this was important to him so she nodded.  “Okay.”

He handed her the first box.  It was large and a little awkward and her curiosity was definitely piqued.  As she pulled the wrapping away, she gasped and then looked at him in confusion.  “I don’t…I don’t understand.”

“Finish taking the paper off,” he said softly.

She did as he suggested and it took a solid minute before she realized what she was looking at.  “Oh my gosh,” she whispered and looked up at him.  “I wanted this doll so much when I was little!  I can’t believe you found this!”

“There are a lot of dolls out there,” he said, grinning.  “I had no idea how many there actually were.”

“This is incredibly sweet,” she said.  “This was…this was the doll my mom was supposed to be getting for me…”

“I know,” he said solemnly.  “I know it’s a little late but…”

Crawling over to him, Melanie kissed him.  “I don’t even know what to say.”

Josiah positioned her so she was sitting back in her original spot.  “You say ‘What’s next?’ and then I hand you this.”  He put another large box in her lap. 

Melanie quickly tore it open.  “Roller skates?” she chuckled.  “I haven’t skated in years!”

“You did great when we went ice skating,” he reminded her.

“I wish I could go outside and try these out right now!”

Josiah took the box from her lap and handed her another.  For the next hour she opened up gifts that represented every year of her childhood that she didn’t celebrate Christmas and he watched the joy and wonder on her face as she opened each and every one. And with each gift, she shared a memory as to why she had wanted it as a child.  When she was done, her tears openly flowed.

“How…how did you do it?” she asked softly.

“I’d like to take all the credit, but I can’t.  The idea was mine but your dad filled in the gift suggestions.  He has an amazing memory."

She nodded and then quickly looked around.

“What?” he asked.  “What are you looking for?”

“My phone!  I need to call him and tell him about all of this!”  Jumping to her feet, she began to walk toward the kitchen. 

“Mel, maybe you should wait.”

“What? I really want to talk to him and…and…”

There was a knock at the front door that distracted her from what she was saying.  She walked over and shrieked with joy when she opened the door.  There on her doorstep, stood her father!

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart!” he said, wrapping her in his embrace.

“I can’t believe you’re here!  I was just about to call you and…”

Josiah came up behind her and ushered them both away from the door and back into the house. “It’s too cold out there to stand in the doorway.  Can I get you a cup of coffee, John?”

“That would be nice. Thank you,” John replied.

“I don’t understand,” Melanie said.  “How…when did you get here?”

“I got in late last night.”

“Why didn’t you come here?  Who picked you up from the airport?  Or did you drive?  I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were coming!”

John laughed and hugged her close again.  “I drove because the tickets were too expensive and it was worth the long hours to get here.  I stayed at Josiah’s last night and we planned this so I could be here with you this morning.”

“But…”

Just then Josiah walked over and handed John a mug of coffee.  “I texted him while you were in the bathroom and told him to give us an hour before coming over.  I knew he got in late and wanted him to have the chance to sleep in.”

“So that’s why you distracted me this morning when I…” she stopped and blushed.  “Never mind.”

Josiah chuckled because he knew what she was referring to.  “Yes.  That’s why I did it,” he said.  “Now let’s go back inside and open more presents.”

Melanie stopped and let out a soft cry.  “I don’t have anything here for you,” she said to her father.  “I mailed it up last week!”

John reached over and kissed the top of her head.  “And I got it and I love it.  Besides, this Christmas is all about you.  So show me what Santa—and Josiah—got for you.”

Together the three of them sat back down around the tree and talked about the gifts and Melanie’s childhood memories.  There were more presents under the tree—Josiah had made sure there were gifts for John too—and it was almost noon by the time they were done.

“I want the two of you to sit and relax and I’m going to go make us all some breakfast,” Josiah said as he rose to his feet.

“It’s a little late for that, son, don’t you think?” John asked.

“We’ll call it brunch,” he replied, smiling.  “We’re under no schedules here today so we’ll eat now and make dinner whenever we feel like it.  How does that sound?”

“Perfect,” John said.

Melanie stood and wrapped her arms around Josiah and raked her hands up into his hair as she smiled up at him.  “Thank you.”

“For what?”

She shook her head and chuckled softly.  “Everything.  You gave me so much here today and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.”

“That’s good because being with you has me feeling the exact same way.”

“Like the luckiest girl in the world?” she teased.

He kissed her soundly and when he raised his head, he whispered for only her ears, “When your dad leaves later, I’ll prove to you what a lucky man I am.”