Page 20 of A Curvy Wonderland (A Curvy Girl Christmas #3)

20

HOLLY

B utterflies’ wings lifted, first slowly, and then a torrent rising through my chest as I walked toward Rudolph’s sleigh with Eldan at my side.

The old man steering the horse-drawn sleigh smiled back at us before looking ahead. Eldan climbed up first and then extended his hand to me, and even when I had gotten inside, he didn't let go.

We settled together in the wooden seat cuddled under a warm wool blanket kept for passengers.

Rudolph called over his shoulder, “Ready?”

Eldan looked to me for confirmation.

The answer was an easy, “Yes.”

With Rudolph’s signal the horses started to move, their hoof beats filling the night, clattering over the frozen black top. The city unfolded before us, a bed of sparkling lights and translucent gray smoke puffing toward the heavens.

I looked over at Eldan, and after a moment he smiled. “What?”

I shook my head, looking down at our intertwined fingers resting on his lap and said, “I can't believe this is real.”

“Me too,” he admitted. “Part of me was worried you'd only ever see me as a Scrooge.”

I tilted my head, seeing him, the vulnerability in what he admitted. “Do you know the first thing I noticed about you?”

He shook his head, his eyes slightly guarded as he waited for my answer.

“It was that you were grumpy.”

He let out a laugh. “Go figure.”

“But the second?” I continued. “The second was how beautiful you are. And the third? How hard you worked to make everything perfect for Mrs. Banerjee, even when you were pretending to not have a care in the world.”

Now he was smiling slightly, looking down at his lap like he was embarrassed I’d noticed. When he met my eyes again, all the moonlight had washed out the color, giving his green eyes almost a pale gray appearance. He said, “Do you want to know what I thought about you when I first saw you?”

My lips quirked. “Do I?”

He squeezed my hand. “I thought, gosh it should be a crime to like Christmas this much.”

That made me laugh, the sound echoing in the air with the horses’ hooves clopping over the pavement.

“And then I noticed how pretty your smile was. How your eyes crinkle at the sides in pure delight, and I thought… I want some of that in my life.” He reached up, brushing his thumb over my cheek. “I can't believe I got so lucky.”

“I can,” I offered.

His eyebrows raised together in question.

We reached the bottom of the hill, fully in Garland, with the streets lined in Christmas lights. Even though we weren't quite yet there yet, I could see the Christmas star towering over the Town Center. Its yellow light was like a beacon of hope, of promises of magic and wishes to be fulfilled, even when you thought they wouldn't come true.

“Every year, I make a wish on the Christmas star, and every year it comes true,” I confessed.

He ran his thumb over the back of my hand. “What did you wish for this year?”

I smiled over at him, thinking how pretty he looked haloed by the Christmas lights strung across the buildings behind him. “I wished for the best Christmas ever. I wanted to be surprised by how good it could get, and then I met you.”

Emotion filled his eyes, and he slowly leaned in, gently pressing his lips to mine. The kiss was short, but long enough to take my breath away.

When we pulled apart, I asked, “What did you wish for?”

He ran his fingers through his hair, rumpling the already wavy locks. “I never wish on the Garland tree,” he admitted. “But it turns out this year I didn't have to. Because I got you.”

My heart swelled so big, I thought it might just jump out of my chest and land in a puddle on the ground.

So much had changed since Delilah told me we would be volunteering at Emerald Acres this year. But I knew one thing would never change: I would always remember this as the best Christmas of all.

* * *

Return to Garland with more holiday romance stories in the Curvy Girl Christmas series !