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December 22nd
HE WOKE BESIDE BLAIR. She was still fast asleep after a night of lovemaking, looking so peaceful that he didn’t have the heart to wake her. So after Colson brushed his teeth and took a quick shower, he stepped out of his bedroom to head downstairs to the study. At this hour, he typically spent his time jogging or working. Sometimes he did both at the same time. This morning, he was going to have to focus on work. First, he’d touch base with his assistants to make sure they’d gotten his mother’s gift. Another trip to a luxury spa, this time she could choose between Iceland or the Maldives as the destination. He’d sent her on so many of these luxury trips he was running out of places to send her. No matter. His mother probably didn’t even remember much about the individual countries she went to. Everything was a blur of private jets and luxury resorts anyway. Once he got his mother’s gift sorted out, he’d follow up on all the other Christmas presents that needed to go out to company staff, business partners, shareholders, and Boston’s upper crust.
Sitting at the large desk in the study, Colson got to work sending messages and making phone calls. Not just to his assistants but to company executives and extended family members. When he was done going through his list of contacts, he considered calling his father. After all, his old man was the company President. As the Vice President, it was normal for Colson to contact his superior before things shut down for the holidays. Except, this year, he knew his father wasn’t going to take his phone calls. Which was infuriating because the old man was right here in town.
Which reminded him... there were the gifts that had been weighing on his mind for days, if not weeks. The gift for his father and the gift for Blair. With Blair’s gift, Colson was pretty sure he’d be breaking a promise. But at least he’d figured out what to get her. It was the significance of the gift that made him restless, not that he couldn’t decide what he wanted to give her. Choosing Blair’s gift had been easy once he understood exactly what she meant to him. For the first time in his life, he’d chosen a gift without relying on his assistants. Unfortunately, he was still stumped when it came to his father’s gift. There were the golf clubs that his assistants had already picked out, so he could use those as a backup. But ever since Blair’s push for him to reconnect with his father, Colson had been wracking his brain for what to get him.
As he thought things over, Blair appeared in the study. She looked so beautiful that his heart ached. Her curly hair fell in golden waves around her shoulders, making her glow. And when she smiled. It dazzled him so much that he stopped breathing.
“Sorry to interrupt,” she said.
“You aren’t interrupting,” he said quickly. “I was getting some last-minute holiday stuff out of the way.”
She came closer, her gaze darting around the study as she took in the furniture. “I just came down to let you know that I’m heading to work—”
Blair stopped the moment her eyes landed on the bookshelf behind him. “These books,” she breathed out, rushing over to admire the volumes on the shelf.
He smiled to himself as he watched her in her excitement. Each book was bound in leather of various colors, the spines and covers decorated in gold details. “Wish I could say I was the collector, but a lot of these books have been in the family for generations,” he said. “I was thinking of putting the copy of A Christmas Carol on the shelf, but that didn’t seem quite right since I actually want to read it.”
“You haven’t read any of these books?” she asked, peering at the spines.
“No. Haven’t had the time,” he admitted.
“Oh, I hope you get the time one day. Wait, there’s a copy of Little Women here,” she said.
“Opal’s favorite book, if I remember correctly.”
“That’s my favorite, too,” she said enthusiastically. “Could I come back and read it?”
“Blair, you can come back any time. Mi casa es su casa,” he told her as he desperately tried to ignore that his heart was beginning to race.
She turned to look at him, their eyes meeting as she smiled shyly. There was a little sadness behind the light in her brown eyes. “Well, at least until you sell the house.”
That was a cold dose of reality. A reminder that this detour from his life had felt like borrowed time. Something he’d have to give back when he left Mislin Bush. Which got him thinking about the pocket watch that Opal had gifted him all those years ago. “Until...”
“I should get going. I’m already running late.” Seemingly oblivious to the emotions bombarding him, Blair leaned forward for a kiss, the warmth of her lips sending desire raging through him.
“I know you said two nights, but would you like to drop by after work?” he asked. “I planned on ordering dinner for us—”
Suddenly, she did the most unexpected thing. Blair edged closer to sit down in his lap. That did nothing to cool his desire at all. Eager to hold her against him, Colson wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close enough for him to give her another kiss on the mouth. The kiss was tender at first and then, edged with fire as she responded to him with unbridled passion.
When she broke the kiss to stare into his eyes she said, “I couldn’t possibly turn you down.”
And then, before he could catch his breath, she was out the door, leaving him alone with his thoughts. Which weren’t particularly coherent in the aftermath of a kiss like that.
It took him forever to clear his mind as he leaned back in the leather chair. Thankfully, he eventually remembered what he had been thinking about before that lovely distraction had waltzed in through the study’s door.
His father’s gift. Maybe he’d been going about this all wrong. Colson had focused on buying something expensive like always. Doing anything less would be insulting. But what if he took Blair’s advice and chose a gift from the heart? It could backfire. The same way his gift to Blair risked backfiring. Still, at least the gift would be genuine. If his father hated it, then at least Colson could be proud of the effort.
Committed to his decision, Colson decided to take a pause to eat breakfast, then he returned to the study to dive into work. First, he searched through the room for one of the unused photo albums that his great-grandmother had stashed in the study. When he found a large, leatherbound photo album, he went to the living room to retrieve several envelopes full of old photos.
Back at his desk, Colson started to rifle through the photos, going back in time as he went over his family’s history. There were photos from his childhood summers spent at the mansion, and then, as he’d hoped, he discovered much older pictures. Black and white photos of Opal at her wedding, even older sepia photos of his ancestors in the late nineteenth century. Finally, he came across the photos of his own father as a young man. With a treasure trove of photos to choose from, he got to work filling the album.
The whole afternoon went by with him choosing photos and texting Blair during her workday. Finally, it was late afternoon and she returned with two cups of hot chocolate covered in whipped cream.
“This is the best hot chocolate I’ve had in years,” he said, placing a hand on her lower back to steer her towards the window seat on the far side of the study. With the curtains drawn, it was the perfect spot to sit with her and take in the view. The outside lights were on, illuminating the silver blanket of snow on the ground and the evergreens.
“It’s all so breathtaking,” she said, staring out the high window to take in the snowy landscape.
Colson pulled the low table closer to set down his drink, and then, he paused to look at her. “Yeah. Breathtaking.”
She must have heard the meaningful tone in his voice because she gazed back at him over the rim of her cup, a blush rising in her cheeks as she smiled. “How was your day?”
“I finally figured out what to get my dad for Christmas,” he told her.
“What? Oh, Colson, that’s wonderful,” she said. “I’m so glad.”
“There’s no guarantee that he’ll actually accept the gift,” he said.
“It’s the thought that counts,” she assured him. “You put effort into it and that’s the important thing. If your dad can’t see that, it says way more about him than it does about you. I would appreciate a thoughtful gift from you.”
His heartrate sped up when she said those words. If she accepted the gift that he planned on giving her, she’d be making him the happiest man on earth. Except, he couldn’t reveal how insane the wait was making him, so he kept his thoughts to himself and chose to change the subject. “I did say I’d read the first chapter of A Christmas Carol to you.”
Her eyes lit up. “Yes, you did. And there are all those letters we didn’t finish.”
“Hey, that’s right,” he said, remembering the diaries and letters they’d found at the antique shop. Colson got up to get the letters from his desk drawer. “The envelopes are already opened.”
She set her cup down and took some of the letters from him to inspect the aged envelopes. “Oh, wow, some of these still have their stamps. England, Mexico, Hong Kong. Wow.”
“Those are addressed to Opal, right?”
“Yes.” Blair nodded as she carefully retrieved one of the letters from the envelopes. After skimming the contents of the letter for a few moments, she said, “These are letters that your great-grandfather Silvester sent to her.”
“Right, he used to travel for work,” he said.
She stopped to hand the letter over to him. For some reason, she suddenly looked misty-eyed. As if she was on the verge of tears.
“Blair, are you okay?”
“Read it,” she encouraged.
It took a while for Colson to adjust to his great-grandfather’s handwriting, but he managed to make out most of the words soon enough. “It’s a love letter.”
“Yes, and there are so many more,” she said, handing him another letter.
Colson started reading the letters out loud, half of them written by his great-grandfather, the other half written by Opal. Each one was different in tone. Tender, passionate, funny, slightly chiding. There was one letter in particular that seemed to encompass every tone imaginable with Opal signing off a reminder to her husband to dress warmly during his trip to Scotland. Very few letters contained any negative emotions, and when they did, it appeared that his great-grandparents sorted it out by telephone. Their way of communicating whenever they had disagreements. As he read, Colson felt like a part of Opal was right there in the room. Stern, funny, loving, knowledgeable. She had been all of those things. And she seemed to have loved her husband just as much as he had loved her. They’d had their ups and downs, especially because high society never quite accepted her, but Silverster always defended her honor. And even when they disagreed, they always tried to make their way back to each other.
“Wow. I think this is their one and only Christmas apart. She sent him a copy of a recipe so he’d have a taste of home while he was in Brazil,” Colson said when he finished skimming a letter that Opal had sent over the holidays. “Speaking of which, we haven’t settled on how we we’re going to spend Christmas.”
This was his chance and he was going to seize the moment. He was ready to suggest they spend part of Christmas Day together so he could give her the present he’d gotten her.
Before she responded, Colson’s cell phone rang.
Swearing under his breath, he reached for it. “I’m going to tell them to call back.”
“No, take your time,” Blair insisted, her voice sounding wobbly. “Those letters have made me emotional, so while you answer, I’m going to go dry my eyes.”
Irritated at the interruption, he answered the phone as she stood up.
“This isn’t the best time,” he said firmly.
“Mr. Bennett?” the voice on the other end asked. “Mr. Colson Bennett?”
“Yeah. Look, could you call back?”
“I’m sorry to call at this hour, Mr. Bennett, but this is an emergency,” the voice continued. “It’s about your father.”
“What?” Colson’s heart sank. Icy dread knotted in the pit of his stomach. “What about my father?”
“I’m Officer Jeffers. I hate to have to report this, son, but I’m calling from the Mislin Bush police station,” he said.
Colson felt his mouth go dry. “What is it?”
“Unfortunately, your father is here at the police station,” the officer replied. “He’s been arrested.”
