Christmas Eve Love Story

Thirty-Five

Jane set down the wine bottle. “I’ll get it.”

She opened the door, and a woman’s voice said, “Hi. You must be Annie.”

“Oh no. I’m Jane from 2-A.” Jane nodded over her shoulder. “That’s Annie.”

Jane moved aside, and Annie’s heart leapt. A heavyset woman with salt-and-pepper gray hair stood in the hall in a black turtleneck sweater, blue jeans, and boots. She wore a decorative scarf and held a covered glass dish. And, beside her, stood Braden . Looking more handsome than ever in a navy-blue crewneck sweater and jeans. The large roasting pan in his hands was tented with tinfoil. Annie detected the savory smell of roasted beef, and herbs and garlic.

“Annie?” His eyes glinted in wonder.

She couldn’t believe it either. Maybe she was dreaming? In that case, this was her dream. She was owning it. Oooh. That felt freakily déjà vu–like. In the very best possible way. “Braden?” she managed, although her tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth. She walked forward in a daze. “And, um”—she smiled at the woman—“this must be your mom?”

“This is my mom,” Braden said in an apparent stupor. “Her name’s…uh.” He stood there, staring at Annie like she was the most amazing creature on earth. Someone fascinating and beautiful. Ethereal, even.

His mom nudged him with her elbow. “My name’s Isadora, Braden,” she said with an amused air. She smiled at the others. “But everyone calls me Dora.”

Annie blinked, addressing Dora. “Oh, hi. I’m Annie.” She peeked at Braden again, melting into another existence, someplace so happy. Nice.

“Why don’t you folks come inside?” Jane asked, intervening.

“Yes, please, of course! Come on in,” Annie said, remembering her manners. She turned to Dora. “I’m really glad you could make it.”

“I’m sorry we’re late,” Dora said. “I’m afraid I didn’t even find your invite until today.” She chuckled. “Rather, Braden found it. It got hidden under my doormat.”

Annie smiled at Braden. “What a surprise.” What did he remember? Anything? She tried not to get her hopes up, but it was hard not to wish.

“Annie and I work together at Lawson’s,” Braden explained to his mom and the others. “We only just met—yesterday.” He squinted, like something wasn’t adding up.

Bea laughed. “Yeah?” She glanced at Annie. “Us too!”

Jane nodded. “Us three.”

Harrington leaned forward on the sofa, resting his elbows on his knees. “I think—same.”

Eric glanced around the room. “Sounds like it was a very busy Christmas Eve for Annie.”

No kidding. She was exhausted. Annie laughed. “I could have sworn I had twelve Christmas Eves.” Wait. The twelfth day of Christmas. Annie’s gaze flitted over her snow globe, and a white-hot arrow shot through her heart. Suddenly, she was a tender little girl again, full of loss and mourning, but then that girl grew up into someone strong and beautiful, a person so full of love—and who could share that love with others.

Dora passed the dish she was holding to Annie. It was chilled and covered with a lid. “I brought cannoli,” she said. “I hope that’s all right?”

“Better than all right.” Annie grinned. “I hear your cannoli’s—”

Dora’s eyebrows arched at Braden.

Annie heaved a breath. “What I mean is, I’m sure it’s delicious!”

“For a moment there, I thought my son had been singing my praises,” Dora quipped.

“Always, Ma,” he said, and people laughed. Jane approached Braden, taking the platter from him. “What else did you bring us?”

“Ma’s famous rib roast.”

“Ooh, yummy,” Jane said, carrying it into the kitchen. Sam followed her cue by taking the cannoli from Annie and carting it toward the kitchen as well.

Sam chuckled. “Think we’ll all be spoiled by good food by the time this day’s over.”

Dora frowned at the table, which had been obviously cleared. “It looks like we’re too late though.”

“Nonsense!” Annie said. “We can all squeeze in a little something more.” She glanced at the group. “Can’t we?” She wasn’t sure how, but she didn’t want to decline Dora’s kind offering.

Harrington held up his hand. “I’ll take a slice of roast for later. I bet it’ll make delicious sandwiches.” The others said what a great idea, they’d love to have some too.

“Of course!” Dora told them, smiling all around.

“Meanwhile, Ma,” Brandon teased, “I might have to go ahead and have some now. It smells too temptingly delicious.” Everyone laughed and agreed.

Eric shook hands with Dora and Braden. “Eric Park. Nice to meet you.”

Harrington stood using his walker and nodded. “Merry Christmas.” He introduced himself. Sam returned from the kitchen, exchanging hellos as well.

Cari skipped over to Dora and Braden. “I’m Cari.” She lowered her little eyebrows and said seriously, “We’re not supposed to touch the snow globe.”

“Snow globe?” Braden scanned the room, spotting the precious piece situated beneath the Christmas tree. He walked over and observed it, his hands dutifully clasped behind his back. “Ahh, yeah. I can see that it’s special.” He looked up, and Annie was standing right front of him.

Her heart skipped a beat.

“You must have told me about this,” he said.

“I—I’m not sure.” She had told him lots of things though. Day after day while they’d been fixing her display and during their special trips to the Blue Dot.

Ooh, how she ached to tell him the truth about the time loop, but she was also terrified. She’d needed to let him go to get to the other side of Christmas Eve, and—now that they had—she didn’t want to jinx things. Maybe he would remember on his own, and maybe he wouldn’t? But that was okay. They could start over from scratch, of course they could. They’d already done that so many times. The last thing Annie wanted to do was risk throwing them back into the time loop again. That would be terrible for Braden—and for her.

“There’s still plenty of food in the kitchen,” Jane informed Dora and Braden. “You should come and serve yourselves a plate.”

“Please do,” Annie said kindly. “There really is plenty.”

Harrington sat back down on the sofa. “That peppermint bark though,” he teased, “is all for me.”

“I like peppermint bark,” Cari piped in.

Harrington smiled good-humoredly. “In that case, I’ll share.”

“Do you mind eating buffet style in the living room?” Annie asked Dora and Braden, “So we all can visit? I’ve got a few TV tables.”

Eric spied the set of collapsible metal TV tables on a stand in the corner. “I can set those up.”

Annie smiled. “Thanks, Eric.”

***

Braden nearly knocked elbows with Annie when she handed him a plate in the kitchen. His mom stayed a few paces ahead of him, loading up her dish. “Oh, sweet potato casserole, and corn pudding!” she cried. “I haven’t had these in ages.”

Braden leaned toward Annie and whispered. “I hope this isn’t inopportune, me showing up here like this.”

“Inopportune?”

“You did shoot me down when I asked you to coffee,” he joked, trying to disguise his hurt. “So, you know.” He shrugged.

“That was entirely my mistake.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” Annie grinned. “And next time, I’m going.”

He liked the sound of that—a lot. “How ’bout the Blue Dot?” He froze with his empty plate in his hands. “Wait.” He had a vision of the two of them seated in a booth. The tabletop was covered with little turquoise dots. But no, that didn’t happen. Couldn’t have happened. Right? “We’ve never—?”

“Been to the Blue Dot?” she whispered.

“Yeah.” Somehow, he could picture her sitting across from him and holding a coffee. There were white-powdered donuts involved too. Jelly donuts, his favorite. Recollections tugged at him. Bright holiday lights on the sidewalk, a charity bell ringer. Lots of swirling snow. But all of them were fuzzy.

He pulled the “Believe Annie” napkin from his pocket and showed it to her. “Any idea how I got this?”

She stared into his eyes. “It’s not my handwriting.”

“That’s just it,” he whispered. “It’s mine. Annie…” He tucked the napkin away and rasped quietly, “What on earth is going on?” Whatever it was, they were in it together. Bonded somehow. Over what though? Fantasies of a coffee date they’d never been on? That didn’t make sense. He’d only met Annie yesterday by the elevators. No, wait. On the elevator? Escalator? Upstairs by the lockers? This was nuts. Had she dropped a shoe?

“Braden?” his mom said, turning. She caught Braden and Annie in an eye-lock. “Oh, sorry,” she said coyly, stepping past them. “I’ll just go find a seat in the living room.”

His mom left and Annie nodded to the food, so he began serving. He added turkey and stuffing to his plate, coating them with gravy, and took a bit of roast and root vegetables too.

“There’s a lot I can’t explain,” Annie whispered. “What I do know is that it was a very strange day from start to finish, and I can’t shake this feeling that Lawson’s department-store Santa had something to do with it.”

He added sweet potatoes to his plate, and green beans. This was a sumptuous feast. “You’re talking about the guy who filled in yesterday?”

She followed along beside him, and they both kept their voices down. “Yeah, him. He was very good . I mean, I know he was an actor and all, a paid employee. Still, I can’t help but wonder if he’s mixed up in this somehow? It was only after meeting him that things started going haywire.”

He grabbed a piece of bread from the basket and laid it on his plate. A big ho ho ho rang out in his mind, and other snippets of conversation too, Santa repeatedly saying that Annie’s window display wasn’t quite right.

“Weird. I sense that too.” He studied her. “I mean, me being here with you? It just seems—awfully coincidental. It feels like something else is at play. And that guy? Yeah. There was something really different about him. The way he charmed those kids—”

“Braden Tate,” she teased. “You’re not saying you believe in Santa?”

He laughed. “Santa, no. Still.” He lowered his voice even further. “I’ve got this super-strange feeling that you and I have been through something similar before. Like we’ve talked or spent time together?” He shook his head. “For more than just a few hours on Christmas Eve.” There had to be some way to explain their tantalizing connection. His intense attraction to Annie couldn’t possibly have developed in only one day. Not without some kind of special intervention.

She passed him silverware and a napkin. “Maybe we should look into that Christmas Eve Santa? Learn where he came from?” she whispered. “Because it surely was not a toy workshop in the North Pole.”

Braden laughed. “Right. I’ve got contacts in HR and can try to find out. I’ll let you know what I learn.”

They both turned toward the living room at once. “Whoa!” Braden steadied his plate between them. “Sorry about that.”

“No problem.” His heart thudded at the dreamy look in her eyes. “Braden?” she said, growing a little breathy.

“Yeah, Annie?”

“I’m just really glad you made it here for Christmas, that’s all.”

She grinned, and his heart took wings. “So am I.”