Holiday Hearts Read Online Free PDF

been deaf and had missed it in her voice, it was there in the depths of her brown eyes—pure unadulterated joy. He’d finally hit upon the one thing she was unguarded and excited about—classic movies. In that moment Ian thought Keysa was absolutely beautiful. She was gorgeous in his shirt, her legs folded carelessly like a young girl, her hair just a little out of place, as she sat in front of his big Christmas tree. She was perfect. He laughed to keep himself from reaching out and pulling her closer towards him and taking her the way he’d wanted to for months.
    “Those aren’t my only favorites. I could go on,” she said taking another drink.
    “I’m sure you could.”
    They were silent for a moment as the sound of the television echoed around them. In The Bishop’s Wife , Cary Grant’s character is asked to perform a miracle, to prove that he’s an angel. And tonight Ian felt like he needed a miracle. He needed fate to intervene to make Keysa stick around, to admit the attraction that had been circling around them the past year.  Maybe it wouldn’t take a miracle, he thought hopefully. The cocoa and the movie seemed to be doing the trick, or so he thought.
    “I’d rather not watch a holiday movie,” she said, somewhat solemnly.
    “It’s three days before Christmas.  How can you not want to see holiday movies?”
    “My parents’ divorce was finalized twenty years ago on Christmas day,” she said, and sat up as if she hadn’t meant to blurt it out so abruptly.
    “Oh.” He’d known her parents had divorced when she was a child.  That was something she’d told him on one of the dates they’d been on. She’d been seven years old and her mother had moved them to Detroit right after the split. It wasn’t an amicable split, she’d said, and custody and visitation difficulties between her parents resulted in Keysa being estranged from her father.
    “It’s silly,” she said, leaning forward to place her mug on the table. “You’d think after all this time I’d get over it. But every year the same hurt comes back.”
    “Maybe you don’t want to let it go?”
    Her head snapped around as she glared at him. “What are you saying?”
    “I’m saying that if you keep memorializing their breakup, then it’s likely to keep hurting. Sometimes we need to forget those hurts and let them fade away so we can heal and move on.”
    “It’s not for me to heal,” she said testily. “I’m not the one who got divorced.”
    “No, but you’re the one who was most affected by it. Didn’t you say your mother never remarried and she’s not even dating?”
    Keysa sighed as if she regretted telling him so much about her family.  “No, she never remarried.”
    “Did she ever date?”
    “Not really. Not while I was living at home.”
    “And let me guess, she hates Christmas too?”
    Her shoulders stiffened a bit. “Don’t make it sound like that.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like she’s some bitter old maid who needs to get on with her own life and stop pulling me down with her unhappiness.”
    “I didn’t say that, you did.”
    “Ha. Ha. Very funny,” she quipped then rubbed her hands over her face. “Maybe we should just get some sleep. I want to be in the office early tomorrow and I need to go home and change first.”
    And that was that, Ian thought. Gone was the happy Keysa, replaced by the stubborn, resolute one. He should’ve been pleased that the cool, unflappable Keysa hadn’t returned, but this wasn’t exactly the way he wanted the evening to end.
    “Fine,” he said despite his feelings. He wasn’t going to push her any further tonight because he sensed that what she’d said about her mother was an admission that had been a long time coming.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    FIVE
    The fire had died down, but the moonlight spilled into the room through the windows. Ian’s body was on full alert, warmth moving through him and pooling in his groin as he inhaled her soft floral scent.