Page 35 of Christmas By The Book

His protectiveness warmed me more than the coffee I was currently brewing ever could have. I sank back against the counter, staring at the floor.

“Sorry you’re stuck here with me on Christmas Eve,” I muttered.

“Stuck here?” he repeated after me, incredulous. “Is that what you think, Jorja?”

I gestured outside. “Well, you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the blizzard,” I pointed out.

He took a step toward me, and slipped his hand into mine. “Jorja, no matter if there was a storm or not, there’s nowhere I’d rather be right now than with you.”

I lifted my gaze to meet his. “What?”

“You heard me,” he murmured. “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else if it meant I couldn’t be close to you. I want to be with you, Jorja. And I don’t know what it’s going to take to get you to see that.”

My head spun. He sounded sincere, his voice burning with earnestness, as though he needed me to understand this more than anything in the world.

“What do you mean?” I whispered. I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I wanted to, of course I did, I wanted to believe that he was actually interested in staying here with me, but why would he want to? He had the whole world out there waiting for him, dozens of women who would have fallen over themselves for a chance with him. I just didn’t get why he would waste that time on me, instead.

“Exactly what I said,” he replied, simply.

I swallowed hard. “But what about... what about the modeling?” I asked him.

“What about it?” he replied, with a shrug. “It was just something I did on the side to make a little extra money, on top of the event planning. I never intended it to be a career. It was easy to keep up with when I was traveling, and it gave me excuses to travel to parts of the country I never would have found before.”

“But all those women... all that attention...”

“It’s just part of the job, Jorja,” he murmured, squeezing my hand a little tighter. “If I wanted all of that, I would have made it a full-time thing. And I would have announced it everywhere I went, but I didn’t. Because that stuff... that’s just part of the job. It’s not what I wanted from it. I just thought if I could use it to help you, then it might all be worth it.”

Those words hung in the air between us. I bit my lip and stared up at him, at those eyes that looked as though they were laced through with tinsel. When he talked like that, those perfect words spilling from his lips, I could feel something inside of me shifting—something that had long been stuck in place beginning to move.

“You have to understand,” he continued, his fingers winding around mine. “I could have ended up anywhere in the world. Anywhere in the country. But my finger landed on Mastin Falls on the map, and I walked into your store, and it feels... it feels like it was meant to be. I didn’t believe in any of that stuff until I met you, but I think the universe is trying to tell me something.”

I bit my lip. I could feel the emotion swelling up inside of me, threatening to get the better of me. I didn’t know how to react to this. I wanted to throw myself into his arms and tell him that I felt the same way, but I had never been that kind of girl. I’d always been focused on the practical, on the real, not on some act of fate bringing us together out of nowhere.

“I’ve never really... been with anyone before,” I admitted after a long pause. I felt so stupid, saying it out loud like that, but he needed to know before he started saying anything he couldn’t take back. I didn’t know if he would want to associate himself with someone like me, someone who really didn’t have much experience in the world of dating.

He blinked. “Really?” he replied. “I can’t believe that.”

“Why not?” I asked, confused.

“Look at you,” he replied, lifting my hand and twirling me around on the spot. “You’re gorgeous, Jorja. I’m surprised guys haven’t been beating down your door to take you out.”

I giggled. “Well, they haven’t been,” I assured him.

“Or maybe you just haven’t noticed when they have,” he remarked. “I think that’s why Wharton has been so focused on you. It’s his way of dealing with the fact he has a crush on you.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “You think?”

“I really do,” he replied. “I bet there are plenty of guys in this town who’d love to have a shot with you.”

I smiled up at him. “Well, I’m not interested in any of them,” I confessed shyly. I wasn’t used to this, this kind of intimacy with anyone. It was so new to me, but exciting, the warmth of it spreading in my chest like the first flush of spring flowers.

He lifted his hand to my cheek. “You think you might be interested in me?” he asked, testing the water.

I giggled, then nodded. “I... I think I might be,” I replied, gazing up into his eyes. Those eyes, lit like fairy lights, lit like the magic of Christmas lived right up there in his head—I wasn’t sure I would ever get tired of looking into them. Even as the storm raged outside, I knew that there was nowhere I would rather be that here, with him, his hand resting softly on my cheek, his thumb caressing over my skin.

“You think?” he murmured.

“I know,” I breathed, correcting myself at once. Because, when I looked into his eyes, there was no doubt in my mind. For the first time in a long time, I knew it for sure—I knew it without question. The way he had treated me from the moment he had arrived in this town, his easy, gentle charm, it had lit up something inside of me that I didn’t even know I needed. I had been so comfortable on my own, and being pulled out of that place and forced to confront my feelings for someone, it was new. Scary.