Jace took the call from his uncle, because of course he did.
He’d been in the middle of an emergency meeting—on Christmas Eve, no less—when his cell phone vibrated on the smooth wooden surface of the conference room table. Bluebonnet Senior Living flashed across the display screen, and he’d stopped mid-sentence to pick it up. The only glimmer of hesitation he’d experienced was when the thought that Gus might’ve died overnight passed through his mind.
Wouldn’t that just be the icing on the cake? he’d thought. Merry freaking Christmas.
But that was just the sort of negativity Jace had recently promised himself to do away with, so he’d tapped the accept call icon and said hello.
Now here he was, sitting at Gus’s bedside. It was the one spot where he’d never expected to find himself again. Never wanted to, to be frank. He wasn’t even sure whether he’d driven hours to get here before Christmas Eve ended—upon Gus’s request—to accept an apology or to be further berated. His uncle had solemnly asked him to come back, and the seriousness of the older man’s tone had left Jace no choice.
So here he sat. Knowing Gus, he might not even mention the awful things he’d said the last time they saw each other. Jace clasped his hands together and tried to prepare himself for the worst.
Gus wheezed in his bed, as if the words he wanted to get out were so difficult to articulate that they were trying to choke him to death. Jace handed him a tissue and his uncle coughed into it, bent over so that his frail back was exposed through the opening of his hospital gown.
The ties had come loose. Jace stood and gently refastened them while Gus caught his breath. And just when he convinced himself to give up on the idea of any kind of real breakthrough in their relationship, his uncle spoke the two words Jace never thought he’d hear.
“I’m sorry.”
Gus’s tone was gruff, as always, but the sentiment was clear. Shock radiated through Jace. He didn’t have the first clue what to say.
There was no real need to fill the silence, though, because his uncle wasn’t finished.
“It’s been a long time since anyone mentioned Marilyn to me.” Gus’s chest rattled. “Right after the accident, my wife was all anyone could talk about. But as soon as we’d put her in the ground, people stopped saying her name. People do that, you know—they don’t like feeling uncomfortable, so they just pretend everything is fine and go out of their way not to say things they think might upset someone.”
Jace nodded and managed not to point out that what Gus was describing was exactly the way he’d been acting for as long as Jace had known him. Now wasn’t the time. His uncle was finally ready to talk, and Jace was here to listen. He’d been wanting this for so long that he didn’t dare utter a word of interruption.
“At first, it was a relief. The pain of losing her nearly did me in, and I needed some time to try and figure out how to cobble a life together after she was gone. Her horse wasn’t there anymore, either. Every time I walked into the barn, I expected to see that animal’s majestic head pop out over the stall door, but it never did. I couldn’t bring myself to go anywhere near that stall until the day I found you hiding in there.”
Gus paused, and his chest rose and fell with a stutter. Jace concentrated with all his might on breathing in and out. The stall where Gus had found him had been the stall that had belonged to his dead wife’s horse. Still, he’d gotten down on his knees to gather Jace in his arms and carry him back to the log cabin. How hard must that day have been for his uncle?
Jace had never once stopped to consider that question—not even after he’d found the newspaper article.
“All I had left of her was her little dog—Charlie, she called him. Cute as a bug in a rug. But dogs don’t live forever either, and by the time Charlie passed on, it had been years since anyone had brought a casserole over to the house or stopped me on the street to reminisce about something Marilyn had done or said in happier times. It felt like everyone had forgotten her. Everyone but me, anyway.” Gus finally shifted his gaze so his eyes met Jace’s. “So I decided that was the best thing for me to do, too—to forget.”
He seemed to be waiting for Jace to say something, so Jace tried to lighten the mood a little by offering him a small smile. “How’d that work out for you?”
The sound that came out of Gus next was the closest thing to a laugh that Jace had heard out of him in years. “Ha. Not too great, it seems.”
His voice drifted off, and his expression turned serious again. The lines in his face deepened with exhaustion.
“You don’t have to tell me everything in one day, Uncle Gus.” Jace squeezed his hand, and for once, Gus didn’t snatch it back. “Today is a start. There’s still time. We’re good. I promise.”
“No, we’re not...not yet. You shouldn’t give me a free pass just because I’m dying,” Gus scolded.
“When else would a free pass be in order, then? You tell me,” Jace said.
His uncle tutted. “I don’t know, but your lady sure didn’t pull any punches when she was here earlier.”
Jace’s heart drummed.
His lady?
“Adaline was here?” He leaned closer to the bed. “Today?”
“She came by this morning and didn’t mince words.” Shame splashed across Gus’s face. “Not that it wasn’t warranted.”
Jace felt a smile rise to his lips. That’s my girl. He wished he’d been there to see it.
Although, Adaline wasn’t really his. She never had been, and now that he’d ruined things, she never would be.
“I hope you were kind to her,” he said, shooting his uncle a look of reproach.
“You can stop saying that every time we talk about her. I got the message weeks ago. I get it—you’re in love with her. And don’t worry. I never said a word to her. I pretended to be asleep.” Gus’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure she bought it. In any case, she had a lot to say.”
Surprise filled Jace like sunshine. He would’ve paid good money to see Adaline go off on Uncle Gus while he faked being asleep. What had happened in Bluebonnet while he was away? Clearly he’d missed some things.
Gus tried to speak again and choked on a cough.
“Uncle Gus, why don’t you close your eyes for a bit? We can finish this later. I promise I’ll stay right here.” It was Christmas Eve. Where else was he going to go?
“No you won’t. You have someplace more important to be tonight, son.” Gus’s eyes opened, and a tear slid down his weathered face. “Tomorrow is Christmas, and we can talk more then. But tonight I want you to know something really important. Look at me when I say it, because I want you to feel it all the way in the marrow of your bones.”
Jace’s eyes burned. He’d never seen his uncle cry before...never even realized Gus knew how. He nodded, not quite trusting himself to speak without breaking down.
“You’re the son I never had, Jace,” Gus said through a sob. “Don’t for a second think that you’re unknowable or unlovable. I love you. I know I’m not the best at showing it, but I do. Always have, always will.”
Jace took a ragged inhale as his vision blurred. Gus had just given him the Christmas gift he never knew he needed. It seemed silly to think that words could mean so much. But they did, and hearing them come from his uncle—who’d always been a man of few words, even when they could’ve made all the difference—soothed a part of Jace that he’d long thought was beyond repair.
“I’m not the only one who loves you, you know,” Gus said as the corner of his mouth inched into a rare smile.
The joy in Jace’s heart dimmed. He shook his head. “You don’t understand. What Adaline and I had wasn’t what you think it was.”
“I know love when I see it, son. I had it once, remember?” Gus sighed. “It’s too precious to throw away. Don’t make the same mistakes I’ve been making the past fifty years. Go and get her.”
Jace wanted to believe him so much it hurt. “It was all just make-believe, Uncle Gus.”
“No, it wasn’t.” Gus shook his head. Christmas music drifted into the room from someplace down the hall, and Jace felt a swell of holiday spirit like he’d never experienced before. “Trust me on this, son.”
Jace turned Gus’s words over in his head. Trust didn’t come easy for a kid whose life had been turned upside down and never felt quite right again. All these years, he thought he’d been looking for something or someone to believe in. For a while, he’d even thought that person might be Gus.
But it turned out that’s not what he’d needed, after all. All this time, Jace was really longing for someone to believe in him.
Now his uncle was telling him that someone did...someone who Jace had done his best to push away. He’d wanted Adaline to fight for him, and that’s exactly what she’d done. He couldn’t imagine how difficult it must have been for her to come here and tear down the wall Gus had been building around his heart for decades. Jace had just told Gus what he and Adaline had was only make-believe. He’d called Adaline his fake girlfriend. But the truth was, it didn’t get more real than that.
Spent from the day’s events, Gus drifted off to sleep. While his breathing grew heavy, the last words he’d spoken seemed to echo off the walls until they filled up the whole room.
Trust me, son.
Yesterday, the notion would’ve been unthinkable. But Christmas was about new beginnings, and against all odds, Jace and his uncle had finally found theirs.
Adaline stood on the front steps of Bluebonnet Chapel and gazed up at the starry Christmas Eve sky.
All her closest family and friends were already inside, milling about the lobby where, just days ago, Jace had slipped into a Santa suit and wormed his way even further into her heart. He’d only been playing a part, but in doing so, she’d gotten to know another side of the real him.
If someone had told Adaline that she’d fall in love over the holidays with a man she’d only been pretending to care about, she never would’ve believed them. And yet...
Here she was, head over heels for Jace Martin, hoping and praying that he’d show up in time to stand by her side while her brother married her best friend.
It was ridiculous, really. They’d already said their goodbyes, and Jace wasn’t even in Bluebonnet anymore. There was zero chance he was going to come swooping in at the last minute like Santa in his magic sleigh.
She blamed Santa for this entire mess, actually. Well, maybe not him specifically, since he was a fictional character and not a real human being. But she definitely blamed the idea of him.
When Adaline was a child, she put cookies and milk out every Christmas Eve and believed with her whole heart that Santa would come down the chimney and leave something special for her under the tree. Lo and behold, he did...every single year. He ate the chocolate chip cookies she baked for him in her Easy-Bake Oven. He left her the exact Barbie doll she’d wanted and the pink Barbie cupcake café with the movable mixer and teeny, tiny plastic cupcakes that she liked to arrange on Barbie’s three-tiered cake stands. He even sent answers to the letters she sent every year to the North Pole via Gram, who swore she’d mailed them with special “elf express stamps.”
Like kids all over the world, Adaline adored Santa. Then, one confusing and devastating day, she’d found out he wasn’t real. He’d never been real, even though her entire life she’d been taught that if she truly believed, Santa wouldn’t forget her come Christmas morning.
Was it really so surprising that she’d accidentally lost herself again while dabbling in Christmas make-believe? She and Jace had been playing pretend, and all the while, the little girl who’d put out cookies and milk for Santa still lived deep inside her heart. And that little girl still wanted to believe. No matter how many times Adaline tried to tell her that Christmas magic wasn’t real and it had all just been a big game of pretend, she refused to give up hope.
He’s not coming, she told herself once and for all. He already made that abundantly clear. You can go back inside the chapel now.
Her feet stubbornly stayed put.
To add insult to injury, they were stylishly clad in silver glitter pumps with dainty crystal butterflies perched on each toe. Adaline had bought the stilettos a few days ago when she and the Comfort Paws girls had been Christmas shopping at the outlet mall near Austin.
She’d taken one look at them in the window of the Jimmy Choo outlet store, and she’d been instantly transfixed. The second Belle sidled up next to her, she’d cooed, “Oooh, look at those. They look just like glass slippers.” Adaline had never plunked down her credit card so fast for a purchase in all her life.
They were supposed to be her Cinderella shoes—the sparkly stilettos she’d wear at midnight when she broke the last rule of all and told Jace she wanted to make things real.
That wouldn’t happen now, obviously. She’d worn them anyway, because how could she not? Shoes that beautiful deserved to be seen, and they weren’t exactly practical for baking pies or walking Fuzzy.
“Adaline, what are you doing out here, dear?” Gram tugged her fringed shawl more firmly around her shoulders and stepped through the wooden double doors of the chapel. “The wedding is going to start soon.”
“Not for another half hour. Come chat with me for a minute. It’s a lovely night, and we’ve still got time,” Adaline said.
Maple was running this show with the same sort of precision she used to plan her surgical schedule at the pet clinic. Everything was organized down to the very last second. At precisely 10:07 p.m., Adaline knew to hide in the bathroom because that’s when Maple would be tossing her bridal bouquet.
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere inside.” Gram reached out to cup Adaline’s cheek. “I just saw the wedding cake.”
Adaline’s grandmother looked beautiful tonight. She’d had her hair done by the stylist who volunteered at the senior center once a week, and it was twisted into a smooth chignon held in place with pearl-tipped bobby pins. Her dress was made of a light, airy chiffon that made her look like a Christmas angel. But the most enchanting thing about her wasn’t her hair or the pretty new dress. Rather, it was the way her eyes lit up when she mentioned the cake.
She remembers.
Happiness sparkled inside Adaline. “Do you like it?”
“Like it? I love it.” Gram patted her cheek. “I loved it when I made it for my own wedding nearly fifty years ago, and I love it all over again today.”
Adaline gasped. “You made the cake at your wedding?”
The article in the Bluebonnet Beacon hadn’t mentioned the baker’s name at all. She’d just assumed Gram had ordered it from a specialty bakery. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that Gram had made the cake herself.
“I sure did. Who else would I have trusted back then with such a special bake?” Gram said with a wink.
“I recreated it as best I could. The sponge is cherry vanilla, and I filled it with tart cherry filling with almond undertones.”
Gram’s eyes sparkled. “And did you make your own almond extract the way that I taught you?”
“Do you even have to ask?” Adaline grinned. “I can’t wait for you to taste it. I hope it’s just like you remember.”
“I’m sure it will be even better. Thank you for recreating it. It’s the best Christmas gift anyone has ever given me.” Gram’s expression went soft. “You know, Adaline, memories are wonderful things to have, but sooner or later, we forget things. Even when we do, the love behind those fond memories remains. I want you to hold on to that truth in the months and years to come. Promise me that, okay?”
“I promise,” Adaline said with a hitch in her voice.
She could read between the lines of what her grandmother was saying. Gram knew she was becoming more forgetful, and it probably scared her even more than it frightened Adaline. One day, Gram might not recognize her anymore, but that didn’t mean she’d ever stop loving her.
The love remained.
She just needed to keep believing...kind of like she’d done when all the other kids at school were telling her there was no such thing as Santa.
“I love you, Gram,” Adaline whispered and wrapped her arms around her grandmother’s slender shoulders.
She was going to have to come clean about Jace. Sharing such a meaningful moment with Gram didn’t feel right when Adaline was still telling lies.
“I love you too, dear,” Gram said, and then she ended the embrace and searched Adaline’s gaze. “Now where’s that sweet boyfriend of yours gone off to? I’m surprised he left you all alone out here. You look so pretty tonight. Isn’t he worried someone might try and steal you away?”
Adaline gulped. No time like the present for a Christmas confession.
“Jace isn’t coming, Gram. Actually, he and I aren’t really—”
Gram cut her off before she could finish. “What are you talking about? I just saw him a few minutes ago.”
Of all the times for Gram to get confused...
“Gram, Jace isn’t here,” Adaline said, enunciating each syllable with care.
“I just saw him a few minutes ago,” Gram repeated, this time louder. “I gave him his Christmas gift.”
Adaline tilted her head. “You got a Christmas present for Jace?”
When had that happened? Was any part of what she was saying real? It couldn’t be, could it?
Gram brightened. “Technically, it’s a gift for you. But I gave it to your boyfriend for safekeeping.”
Adaline took a measured inhale and counted to ten in her head. If Gram’s confusion had been about anything else, she would’ve just gone along with it. But she couldn’t pretend that Jace was here when he wasn’t. Not that. Anything but that.
“Gram, I know what you thought you saw, but Jace—”
“See?” Gram said as the chapel door creaked open again and a man stepped outside—a man who looked an awful lot like Adaline’s fake boyfriend. “There he is.”
Adaline’s knees turned to water. She was going to faint and fall right over in her sparkly Cinderella shoes. Gram hadn’t been confused, after all. He was really and truly here.
She took in a deep breath and prayed she wasn’t dreaming. “Jace.”
“Adaline,” he said, and he didn’t sound like a made-up Christmas character or person in a dream. He sounded real.
“I’m going to let you two have some privacy,” Gram said, and then she wagged a finger at them. Something about her hand seemed different, but Adaline couldn’t quite put her finger on why. She was too caught up with the fact that Jace was there. It was a wonder she was still standing upright. “Don’t take too long out here. You don’t want to miss the wedding.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Jace said without tearing his gaze away from Adaline.
The door clicked shut behind Gram, and it was just the two of them on the chapel steps. Alone together on the most magical night of the year.
Adaline shook her head. “I can’t believe you came.”
“Did you really think I’d break one of our rules, sweetheart?” His left eyebrow inched upward. “You’re the rule-breaker in this relationship, remember? I told you so from the very beginning.”
“That’s because you know me better than anyone else ever has,” Adaline said.
She was finished pretending. She’d never thought she’d see him again, and now that he was here, she wasn’t going to waste another second trying to act like she wasn’t head over heels in love with him.
Jace’s smile turned sad around the edges. “I’m so sorry, Adaline. I should’ve never left.”
“It’s okay,” she said, and she meant it. “Things got pretty...intense. And to be honest, I wasn’t quite ready to admit my feelings were real yet, either.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled. “But now you are?”
She nodded. “I am.”
A smile danced on his lips, and this time, there was nothing sad about it. “Good, because I got all the way to Texas Tidings and realized it didn’t feel at all like home anymore.”
Hope fluttered inside her. “Because Bluebonnet is your home now?”
“No, sweetheart.” Jace took a step closer so there was only a whisper of space between them. “Because you’re my home.”
“Good answer.” She beamed at him. If he didn’t kiss her soon, she was going to have to go grab some of the mistletoe from Maple’s bridal bouquet. “Perfect answer, actually.”
“I’m glad, because I’m not leaving again...ever. I’m here to stay. While you were busy putting my uncle Gus in his place this morning—thank you for that, by the way, and we will definitely talk more about that later—I sold the Christmas tree farm.”
Adaline gasped. “You did? But what about your trees?”
“I can grow new trees anywhere. But there’s only one place on earth where I can spend the rest of my life with the woman I love, and that’s right here in Bluebonnet, Texas.”
“You...you love me? You want to spend the rest of your life with me?” Adaline’s head was spinning so hard and fast with all the breathtaking things he’d just said that she didn’t even register he was down on one knee in front of her until he pulled a small velvet ring box from the inside pocket of his tuxedo jacket.
“Adaline Bishop.” He popped the ring box open to reveal a glittering diamond solitaire in an antique filigree setting that Adaline had seen and admired all her life. “Will you break one last rule with me and love me beyond midnight? Will you marry me?”
Her hand flew to her mouth as tears began to swell. If she cried her eyelash extensions off before the wedding pictures, Maple was going to strangle her. “Is that—”
“Gram’s ring?” Jace smiled. There was something different about him now. He was still the same Jace Martin that Adaline had adored since fifth grade, but there was a new light in his eyes that she’d never seen in their lovely green depths before. It suited him. “Yes, it is. She gave it to me for safekeeping and told me it was yours when the time was right. I can’t think of a better time than right now, can you?”
Adaline shook her head. A Christmas Eve proposal...this was beyond anything she’d ever wished for. “Oh, Jace. Of course I’ll marry you. Now stand up and kiss me before the waiting kills me.”
He rose to his feet, slipped the ring on her finger and pulled her close. Just before his mouth came down on hers, he paused and murmured against her lips. “Must you always be so dramatic?”
“Yes, and I have no intention of stopping any time soon,” Adaline whispered as he kissed his way along her jaw and nuzzled her neck.
“Good.” He smiled into her eyes, and Adaline could see their entire future spread out before them—an entire lifetime of Christmases, each one more magical than the last. “Because I love you just the way you are, Cinderella.”