Page 68 of The Mistletoe Bluff
Then a mischievous smile curled her lips. “Your turn.” She reached behindthe tree, where a small gift had been hiding.
“Maya…”
I hadn’t been expecting anything at all, least of all from her.
Her answering smile was like my own personal sunshine.
“I wanted to,” she repeated my words.
My own hands trembled as I slipped the ribbon off and ripped open the present. I sucked in a breath. It was a small wooden picture frame, and inside it was a photo of…me. It was a partial side-shot, taken from a distance. My camera was up at my face, but beneath it I was smiling. The way the photo captured the light and landscape around me told me everything I needed to know about the photographer.
Maya had taken this photo of me, and based on the fresh, white snow around me and the clothes I was wearing, she must have taken it this morning during the engagement shoot.
I couldn’t remember Maya turning her camera on me at all, but perhaps she’d been sneaky about it.
It wasn’t the fact that she had taken a photo of me and framed it that rocked me to my core, but instead it was thewayshe captured me. For the first time in months, maybe even years, I looked like I was enjoying photography again, rather than doing it for a paycheck. Even with half my face hidden behind a camera, Maya had managed to paint me in a new light.
It was beautiful.
Was this how she sawme?
I swallowed against the lump in my throat as I met Maya’s gaze.
“Thank you, darling.” Those words were not enough, and yet it was all I could manage. I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her lips, hoping that conveyed everything I didn’t know how to say.
Her eyes were slow to flutter open as I pulled away. Jameson, Elsie, and Emma sat watching us with wide, enraptured eyes.
I cleared my throat. “Happy Christmas, everyone.” Since I didn’t have a drink to raise, I grabbed the closest thing—a forkful of pie—and lifted it into the air. There were a few chuckles but a moment later everyone lifted their own pie-filled forks and murmured, “Merry Christmas.”
I didn’t know what the Christmas dinner with my family would bring, but I did know one thing. Spending the holiday with Maya and her people—there was no where I’d rather be. Whatever the future held, I would face it knowing that, if just for a moment, I had held Maya, kissed her, and celebrated a special day with her and the others. They barely knew me, but they had been so welcoming that I felt like I belonged here—with them.
That was something no one could take away.
Not even my father.
Maya
So, why haven’t you told Oliver you entered that photo contest?” Elsie asked me after I had filled her in on everything that had happened recently. We were washing the dishes and Jameson and Emma were in the living room with Oliver participating in a great American past time: Scrabble.
I bit my lip, toweling off the last of the plates. “I’m scared.”
Elsie’s brows rose. “Maya—the great love guru—is scared?”
I smacked at her arm. “I don’t want him to think I’m using him.”
“But youareusing him.”
“Shh,” I shushed, putting a finger to her lips. “Not so loud.” I peeked out the doorway. Oliver was still sitting on the floor, watching as Jameson and Emma smack-talked each other even though Oliver was clearly winning. As if he sensed me looking, he glanced over his shoulder and gave me a lopsided smile.
It made my heart do a strange little flop.
“Maya?” Elsie asked, breaking my focus on him.
I sighed. “It started off that way, yeah. But…” I pulled her farther into the kitchen so we wouldn’t be overheard. “Els, he told me he’scrazy about me,” I whispered.
I managed to cover her mouth before her gasp alerted all three people in the next room. She let out a squeal of delight beneath my palm, and I shushed her again.
“I’m going to repeat what you said to me all those months ago,” she said when I removed my hand. “Ahem.” She made a show of clearing her throat before she said in a whiny voice, that I assumed was supposed to sound like me, “Oliver told you he has feelings for you. Why are you freaking out?”
