Page 64 of A Sudden Romance

“How can this be?” He pushed wisps of hair from her face, tucking them behind her ear. “I have a hard time believing you’d want me.”

“I have a hard time believing that it’s you, my love.” She looked into his glistening brown eyes, absorbing their intense sincerity. “But I’m trying to embrace the fact that the best things that happen to us take us by surprise.”

He made her feel complete. Like this Christmas, she’d been given back the missing piece of her heart.

***

AFTER EVERYONE HAD drawn the name of a gingerbread house, they engaged in teams of three to four huddled around tables across the room to build their houses. To distinguish the houses, Iris and Sabastian had placed house names on each table. Now, she and Sabastian took the final name in the jar, The Overlook, and ended up on their own team as they’d planned.

Chatter rose over the background music as everyone jabbered around their respective tables, except for a few people who hurried to the side tables for additional candy and embellishments. Sabastian had a brilliant idea to have the kids’ craft table set up in a corner where one of Eric’s nannies tended to them for the time being.

“What do you think of this sleigh?” Sabastian lifted a chocolate candy-cane sleigh. She couldn’t help but smile as she touched the different sizes of chocolates stacked to look like packages and the small Santa figurine, made to appear like Santa was riding the sleigh.

“I love it.” She then pointed to the coconut and powdered sugar around their house. “It’ll look great if we put it on the snow.”

He set the sled in between green candy drops supposed to be trees. “Our house looks good, don’t you think?”

She stood to one side, then moved to another to take in the view from a different angle. “We’d better use some extra color and light.”

“Yes.” He patted his pants and retrieved two mini-LED tea light candles, then winked. “I might have had the same idea.”

“Wow. You must’ve thought about our gingerbread competition when you snatched the candles from the dinner table.”

With a green-frosting door, a white-frosted roof, and colorful candy drops and candy-cane shingles on their roof, the house looked pretty good.

“Win or not, our house looks good.” He nodded his approval. “Thanks to you.”

“At last!” She clapped, laughter jittering free. “The engineering class pays off.”

The timer buzzed, and along with everyone else, they stepped away from their tables.

The security guard emerged from the hallway upon hearing the timer. One of the furnished bedrooms downstairs was his temporary home when he worked at The Peak.

“All right.” He rubbed his hands together, his long hair swinging in a ponytail. “If you guys can go upstairs while we do the judging...” He peered over everyone. “Where’s Steve?”

“Over here.” Steve, their chauffeur, bustled through, his bald head shiny under the lights. “My wife will be here in a bit.”

The three judges would select the winner who got one of the trophies Iris had bought months ago and shipped to Sabastian for the reunion.

While they waited in the main room hovering by the kitchen, some of her siblings suggested ways they could’ve done better on their houses. Iris chatted with Tessa, Liberty, and Joy, asking about their plans for Christmas Day.

“I’ll be with you on Christmas Eve,” Joy said. She and Eric always joined the family for Christmas Eve services and family dinner. On Christmas Day, Eric and Joy stayed at their house with their kids.

Tessa flipped her long hair over her shoulder. “Chad and I are hanging out with Liberty and Bryce.”

Soon, Steve, his wife, and the guard returned to announce the winner.

“It was a tough choice to choose the winner,” Steve said.

The guard lifted the silver-toned trophy. “But two out of three chose The Overlook.”

Iris peered at Sabastian standing next to Nate. As most times when she sought him out, he was already looking at her, and he gave a triumphant fist pump.

“We won!” she mouthed, pressing a hand to her chest. She left her friends and approached the guard waiting for them to claim their trophy. Everyone clapped, chanting. When Sabastian joined her, she couldn’t help but pull him into a hug, even though his hesitation reminded her where they were. Easing back, he took the trophy and handed it to her.

She waved it at him. “We’ll keep it in the kitchen.”

After all, they spent most of their time there lately.

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