The Bad Boy’s Secret Santa (Christmas in Alpine Valley #9)

Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

PIPER

“Piper, you’ve hardly touched your dinner,” Grandma says from across her kitchen table, concern etched on her face. She was surprised when I showed up without Eli, but she didn’t press me about it. I didn’t have it in me to tell her what happened. I feel so stupid.

“I’m just not that hungry.”

“Maybe you’d like some poppy seed bread?” she offers.

“A little later?”

“Oh boy. This is worse than I thought.” Grandma pushes out of her chair, carrying our dinner plates to the counter.

“Eli asked me to run away with him again,” I finally admit.

“Did he now?” Grandma doesn’t sound all that surprised, but I don’t have it in me to get all worked up over it. I exhausted every last ounce of fight when I kicked Eli out of my apartment this morning. By now, the man is probably halfway home to his glamourous city life. More than anything, I just feel defeated. I was so certain that this was the Christmas I would finally find my true love.

Will I be a laughingstock when everyone in town realizes I’m the only personally invited participant who came up empty this year where love is concerned?

A lump rises in my throat. “I thought he wanted to stay.”

Grandma disappears into the other room for a moment, returning with my coat in hand. She’s already slipped on her own. “Why don’t we take a walk? It’s a beautiful night to take a stroll around the park.”

“It’s ten degrees outside.”

“Twenty-two, actually. And the snow is falling ever so lightly. It’s positively magical if you ask me.” She wiggles my coat. “You used to love walking with me around the park.” When I hesitate, she adds “The fresh air will do you good.”

I relent, mostly because I’m too tired to argue. Grandma Wilma can be fairly persistent when she wants to be.

I’m so numb on the inside that the cold hardly affects me. It does feel nice. I take a deep breath, hold it until the chill warms in my lungs and then let it out slowly. Home. This will always be home. And he just didn’t get it.

“How do you come up with the names?” I ask.

“What’s that, dear?”

I know she’s playing stupid, but I don’t call her out. It is Christmas Eve, after all. “How do you pick the names for who will get a Secret Santa each year?” I can’t for the life of me figure out how she knew Eli would be back. Neither of us had seen him before he waltzed into the community center. And at that point, his name was already in the gift bag tucked away in my purse.

“Oh, Piper.” Grandma loops her arm through mine.

“Let me guess,” I say, feeling a little bit like a brat but trying to keep it lighthearted, “Christmas magic?”

“Hey, it’s a pretty potent thing when you believe in it.”

“I used to.”

She pats my arm. “You still do.”

“I don’t know—” But I’m struck silent when we round the corner and reach the center of the park. The big evergreen tree that’s been bare this holiday season is covered in decorations. It looks as though a giant elf dumped a house-sized box of ornaments, strings of lights, and yards of garland on it.

Eli .

“The lights don’t appear to be on,” Grandma says, her tone sounding the slightest bit suspicious.

When I see him standing beside the tree, looking my way, the lump in my throat dissolves and tears fall without my permission. I thought for sure he’d left town once he realized I had no intention of going with him.

I don’t even realize that Grandma is leading us to the tree until I’m only a few feet away from Eli. “How did you?—”

“Pipes, I was wrong.”

Grandma pats me on the arm. “I’m going to figure out why the lights aren’t on while you two chat.” Try as I may to hold on to her arm, she’s more agile than she looks. She slips her arm away like Houdini and disappears.

“Wrong about what?” I challenge, hoping to keep what’s left of my guard up. The mere sight of Eli standing near the fully decorated tree is quickly crumbling my defenses.

“I thought you wanted me to whisk you away. To live that glamorous life we always dreamed about. I thought you wanted a reason to leave.”

“We were just kids, Eli.”

“I get that now. I realize that this is your home. I know you’d never be happy living anywhere else. I understand.”

“But what about you?”

“I want to live here, in Alpine Valley, with you.”

I shake my head, certain he’s being foolish. “You can’t be serious, Eli. You can’t just stay because of me. Would you even be happy here?”

“At first, I didn’t think so,” he admits, taking a step closer. The gap between us is nearly gone. My heart flutters in my chest at what this could all mean. What man goes to all this trouble if he doesn’t mean it? It’s like a Hallmark movie. Well, an explicit one, anyway. “But when I went in search of decorations for the tree, I realized I had an entire community behind me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Come out, guys,” he calls.

I look behind me to see a dozen or more people step into view. Grandma, Glenn from the VFW, Linda and Jenny from the animal shelter, Frank and Wanda from the library, Mayor Patterson, half the fire department, and a handful more.

“I belong here, Piper. With you. I love you. I’ve always loved you.” Eli drops to one knee, pulling a red velvet box out of his coat pocket.

I’m too stunned for words. Surely I’ve fallen and bumped my head. I’m in a coma somewhere, and this whole Secret Santa thing has been one elaborate dream sequence. This can’t be real life. Can it? I catch Grandma Wilma’s eye, and she mouths Christmas magic .

“Piper Stanton, I’ve always known you were the one.”

As if on cue, the massive evergreen tree lights up. There must be a three thousand lights on it!

“I’ve always known you were the one,” he says again after all the ooh and ahs. “I just had some growing up to do before I was worthy of you. Hell, maybe I’ll never be truly worthy of a woman as strong, independent, smart, and beautiful as you. But I swear I’ll spend every day for the rest of our lives making you happy. Will you marry me?”

“We’re not running away this time?”

“We don’t need to run when we’re already home. What do you say?”

A calm, collected Piper would make him work for it a little more. Just for fun. But I’m too overcome with joy to taunt the poor man who obviously went through so much trouble to prove a point. “Yes!”

Eli hops to his feet, lifting me off the ground and spinning me in a circle as we kiss. Okay, now this is my movie moment.

“I love you, Eli. Always have. Always will.”

“Merry Christmas, Pipes.”