Page 25 of Secret Santas and Holiday Dances

There she went again, worrying more about someone else than herself. She really had no clue, but he was about to inform her. “Do you know why I wanted you here tonight?”

Grace shook her head.

“Because I wanted you to give yourself a night off. To give yourself permission to let your hair down. You’re always taking care of everyone else. It’s your turn to let someone take care of you,” Liam said.

She started to grin, then stopped herself, shook her head, and waved her hands in front of her face. “Wait, no. Delivering Secret Santa gifts isn’t as fun as it sounds. It’s cold outside, and there are often dogs, and motion detector lights, and in a hunting town like this, there’s always the possibility of someone pulling a gun.” She pointed toward the ballroom. “Jessie can attest to the lack of fun.”

He put his hands on his hips. “Jessie did Secret Santa with you before me?”

Grace’s jaw dropped. “Just the once,” she hurried to explain, worry coloring her tone.

Liam laughed. “Grace, I’m teasing. Mostly. I’m a little hurt you’d tell Jessie you’re secret and not me, but I’ll forgive you.” He took her small shoulders in his hands. “I can’t think of anything I’d rather do on a freezing, winter’s night that’s threatening to storm than run around outside in a suit with you delivering Secret Santa gifts and almost getting shot.” He stepped back and waggled his elbow at her. “Now come on, we can sneak out the back.”

Grace grinned and took his arm, and he reveled at the feel of her delicate fingers wrapped around his arm. Finally, they were on the same page again, and this time, he’d keep it that way.

Chapter 13

Grace had a skip in her step Monday morning on her way into work, with her winter scene painting wrapped in paper and tucked under her arm. She and Liam had spent pretty much the entire weekend together, except for Sunday night dinner which she had at Aunt Sophie’s with Sophie’s family and her Aunt Clara and Jo and Allie and their husbands, and her Charlotte. And she hadn’t even minded the time with her mom. Everything seemed to be falling into place, and Grace was the happiest she’d been in a long time. Liam had come to her loft Saturday to wrap presents, not just Secret Santa but gifts for their friends and family. And she’d shown him her art.

She’d never forget the way his eyes had widened when he’d looked at her winter scene. It was the red barn where her loft was, covered in snow with a great big wreath hanging on the second level.

“You did this?” He picked up one of her old and ratty paint brushes and played with the bristles. It was about time she bought new ones.

“It’s not my best . . .” She swallowed, remembering that sometimes it was okay to step into the light. “Yes, it’s pretty good, isn’t it?”

He finally looked at her with a grin on his luscious lips. “It’s beautiful. It kind of reminds me of a Camille Pissarro piece.”

Grace smiled. She loved Camille Pissarro’s work. “Thank you.”

He spotted the stack of paintings she’d leaned against the wall behind her couch and made a beeline for them. She didn’t stop him. It’d been so long since she’d let anyone see her work. It felt good.

Pulling them back one at a time, Liam gave each piece careful consideration. “Grace, these are remarkable. Why aren’t you selling them at Life on Canvas?”

She shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about it.”

He’d spent the next couple of hours over wrapping paper, hot chocolate, andIt’s a Wonderful Life, convincing her to talk to David. She had to admit it was the final shove she needed to do it.

He’d also seen Walt’s postcard on her fridge—a Norman Rockwell print, with the message “Step into the light, pumpkin. Love Walt.”

“What’s this?”

“My stepdad, Walt, mailed that to me when I was fourteen. It’s the last I heard of him.”

Liam ran a hand over his hair. “He was really important to you, wasn’t he?”

“The closest thing I ever had to a real dad.”

That conversation had led to a palpable shift in her relationship with Liam. While he’d been a good friend to her since she’d moved here, she’d always felt a carefully placed barrier between them that kept their relationship strictly in the friend zone. On rare occasions, it would lower, and they’d have moments, but then it would snap back into place, and be forgotten as quickly as the last snow.

She’d been mostly fine with that, just glad to have a friend at all outside of her family in town. But something had happened Friday night when he’d pulled her off the dance floor and into that room and then had gone with her to deliver her Secret Santa gift and then she’d told him a little about Walt.

The barrier had lowered, and Liam had made no attempt to put it back up. Grace thought of a moment Sunday afternoon, before her family dinner, when she’d gone to his house to help him decorate his tree. Apparently, it’d been sitting bare for a couple of weeks.

Grace had been on tiptoe trying to put an ornament high in the tree in a spot she really couldn’t reach, and he’d rushed in to help. He hadn’t realized how close he’d gotten to her until he’d hung the ornament. He’d glanced down at her, his smile dropping at their proximity. And for a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her.

Of course his phone had rung right then, ruining the moment, but Grace couldn’t get that almost out of her head.

After her party last night, he called and asked her to dinner at Cash’s. He hadn’t called it a date, but it felt like it was one.

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