Once Upon a Christmas Eve Read online

  He brought her hand to his chest, held it to his heart. Blinking at the beautiful ring, her own heart squeezed. He’d already given her so much.

  “When did you get this?”

  “On my way back to your place this afternoon. I’d seen it in a hotel window in New York, so I called the hotel yesterday morning while you were still asleep. The jeweler overnighted it. I had it sent to Margie’s house so she could sign for it.”

  Yesterday had been Christmas. Half the world had been closed. Yet, just like that, he’d gotten what he wanted. From the other side of the country. For her.

  With her heart smiling, she looped her arms around his neck.

  “I love it, Max. I love you,” she stressed. “But I already got my Christmas present. He showed up on my doorstep Christmas Eve.

  “As for making it official,” she said, nodding her head to the people she’d just noticed out of the corner of her eye, “I think you just did.”

  He’d slipped his arms around her, the feel of them as wonderfully familiar as the delicious darkening in his eyes just before they narrowed.

  Still holding her close, he lifted his head.

  Not everyone was occupied with celebratory champagne and pre-dinner hors d’oeuvres.

  Frankie and Georgie had apparently been headed to the elevator to see the latest additions to Harry’s art collection in the gallery above. Her mother and Harry, ten feet of tension separating them, had frozen in their tracks right behind them.

  All were staring.

  Tommi could pretty much imagine what was going through her sisters’ minds at what they’d just witnessed. Her mom’s thoughts were equally apparent as, her disquiet momentarily forgotten, she pressed her hand below her throat. Harry simply looked rather satisfied with what his interfering help had initiated between Tommi and the partner of the man he’d tried to set her up with.

  Clearly calculating, Harry had just eyed an unsuspecting Frankie when Tommi felt Max’s arms slip from around her.

  With her family approaching, he took her right hand in his and leaned to whisper, “So we’re official, then?”

  There was no doubt in her mind what she wanted. “Absolutely.”

  “Good.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “And by the way,” he murmured, his lips warm against her ear, “thanks for the best Christmas I’ve ever had.”

  She would have thanked him back for the very same thing. She just didn’t get the chance before her mom and older sisters converged to check out the beautiful ring he’d given her—and to welcome him into the family he’d once thought he’d never have.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7605-9

  ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS EVE

  Copyright © 2010 by Christine Flynn

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  *The Whitaker Brides

  †The Kendricks of Camelot

  §Going Home

  ‡Talk of the Neighborhood

  ††The Hunt for Cinderella

  **36 Hours