Page 61 of All I Want For Christmas

“Blue.”

Christian started to follow her, but she swung around and he saw she was crying for real, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Don’t follow me! Please.” She clutched the little wrapped box he’d given her, then whirled around and walked off so fast she was practically jogging.

Christian stood there in the silent gloomy garage and watched her disappear, feeling like something amazing had just slipped out of his hands. As he got into the car, he decided it was a blue Christmas after all.

Chapter

Eight

Blue burst into the airport, sobbing so hard her vision was blurred, clutching the present Christian had given to her. It was probably nothing special, after all, it was essentially a re-gift, but that he had thought to give her something, well, God, it had just caused her to come undone.

She wasn’t even sure why it had affected her so strongly, but she had just known she needed to get the hell out of there before she threw her arms around Christian and found herself on the way to the Dawes household for dinner. Which was something she wanted so bad she could practically taste it—an easy relationship with a non-whiny man, who came from a family who actually liked to spend time together, and that was dangerous. So very dangerous.

Picking her way past several ticketing counters to a coffee shop, she plunked her purse down on the table and reached for a napkin to wipe her tears and blow her nose. Her purse was buzzing again and she figured it was Emily looking for a status update on her travel.

But when she sat down and pulled out her phone, it was from Christian. It just said, “If you change your mind.” Then he had included his parents’ address.

Blue set her phone down, staring at the open message.

Pulling up her camera roll, she viewed the pictures of her and Christian posing next to the snowman. God, he was cute. Damn, she looked happy. She scrolled back and forth through them three times.

She stared at the present, wrapped in Barbie wrapping paper. It was a lousy wrap job, which meant Christian had done it himself, not had the store employees do it. That was definitely his style, taking the time to do it himself.

Almost afraid to see what it was, she suddenly reached out and tore off the paper. Opening a little box, she pulled out a snow globe.

Oh, my God. The tears came again, so loud and wet and raw that an older woman sitting at the table next to her patted her arm and asked her if she was okay.

“I’m fine,” Blue choked out, picking up the snow globe and shaking it.

It was a Christmas scene, a snowman in front of a decorated tree, the fake flakes dancing around them. It wasn’t anything particularly amazing, but that he hadheardher meant more than she could ever imagine.

Clutching the snow globe to her chest like she might lose it, drop it, or have it stolen, Blue glanced down at the text message.

What the hell was she doing?

Any man who gave her a snow globe was a man worth pursuing. Worth dating. How many times in her life was she going to meet a guy like that? It had taken a freaking snowstorm and a car accident to find this one and the odds of having another opportunity like this weren’t likely.

Putting the snow globe back in the box and into her purse, along with her phone, Blue wiped her eyes and stood up. Heading for the exit, she scanned the signs for the taxi queue.

She was going to dinner.

Christian bounced Alison on his back, her six-year-old shrieks splitting his eardrums. Normally he loved playing with the kids, but he had to admit, he was going through the motions right now. All he could think about was Blue, tearing off like that. He was never going to see her again. He knew that. She had made her mind up that it wouldn’t work before it had even started.

That sucked. Big time.

He couldn’t believe that he had found someone so amazing, so special and intriguing and sassy, and all he got was twenty-four hours. It was damn hard to swallow.

Kids were running around the living room and his mother and sisters were in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on dinner. His two brothers-in-law were watching football with his father, grateful for Christian’s role as climbing post for their kids for the night. The tree was blinking, the house was warm and smelled fantastic, and Christian just wanted to stomp his foot like his nephew Cole.

“Did you think you were going todieout there in the blizzard?” Alison asked him.

“Not at first. But then...” He bounced her on his back for effect. “I saw the abominable snowman.”

“Really?”

“Really. It was awful. He was huge and had massive teeth and big claws and this horrible roar. But it turned out his name was Bob and he was just lonely, so we had a drink together and sang songs.”

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