Page 54 of Ten Christmases Without You
Emmy looked around. The crowd cheered, clapping in unison to the beat while Adrienne spoke into the microphone: “Em-my. Em-my. Em-my.”
“You all know the drill,” the DJ said, music pumping behind his voice. “The garter holder must place his prize on the thigh of the woman who catches the bouquet!”
Adrienne set the mic down on the DJ stand and patted the chair.
Charlie locked eyes with Emmy, chewing on a grin. He spun the garter around his pointer finger.
Emmy scanned the crowd to gauge Amelia’s reaction but couldn’t find her. Where had she gone? Was she in thebathroom? With each step, Emmy’s heart pattered harder. She took a seat in the chair as the DJ played theMission: Impossibletheme tune.
Haha, funny.
Charlie stepped in front of her and kneeled, those green eyes on her. He slipped off her shoe and gently set her foot on his knee.
Nervously, she wiggled her newly pedicured toes.
He stretched the garter out with both hands and guided it over her foot as the crowd clapped. She was sure that if he took his eyes off her face, he’d see her chest heaving with nerves, but he didn’t look away. His soft touch moved up her leg, making it hard to breathe. She forced air through her lungs and swallowed, barely even registering the drum roll and the laughter as Charlie inched the garter over her knee and up her thigh. Just as she wondered how high he’d go, he drew his hands from under her skirt and held them up. Empty handed.
The crowd cheered.
Still trying to recover, Emmy slipped her shoe back on and stood up. The chair was swiftly removed by an attendant, as a slow song began to play.
Charlie held out his hand. “Dance?”
She looked around to be sure he’d meant her and not his date.
“Where’s Amelia?”
“She went back to the hotel—headache. I tried to go back with her, but she insisted I have fun.”
“So how long have you two been... together?”
“We’re not together,” he said. “We’re justheretogether. We got to talking at work and I mentioned I had a wedding to go to in Nashville. She did too, and we realized that she knew the groom and I knew the bride, so she suggested we go together. I didn’t see why not.”
There was that look again—as if he had something to say but didn’t.
His explanation did ease her mind.But it isn’t your place to worry about what he does anyway.
As if her thoughts were posted on her forehead, he said, “We have separate rooms and everything.”
“You could’ve askedmeto come with you,” Emmy said boldly. She’d never done that before, and now that she had, she worried it sounded desperate. She hadn’t meant it to; she just would’ve come with him.
He moved his hand toward her, his palm beckoning her to dance.
Emmy followed his lead and stepped into the crowd of slow-dancers.
“No need to ask you now. We’re both here.”
He pulled her into him, wrapping his arm around her. Under the sparkling lights with Charlie, and the spell of champagne, Emmy couldn’t imagine any other place she wanted to be.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Emmy set her mother’s clutch delicately into her suitcase the next morning.
“You gonna call Charlie and see if you can catch him before he flies out?” Madison asked.
“He’s here with Amelia. I wouldn’t want to impose.”
Madison rolled over the fluffy hotel duvet and grabbed the garter from the nightstand, spinning it around in the air. The motion took Emmy back to the grin on Charlie’s lips before he’d slid it onto her leg.
