RaeAnne Thayne – A Mistletoe Vow: A Cold Creek Christmas Story / Falling for Mr December / A Husband for the Holidays (страница 21)

She thought of what Aunt Mary had said about his grandmother’s pride in him for staying grounded. Unlike his mother or his wife, he hadn’t sought that spotlight. He had gone into a career outside Hollywood and had built a successful business on his own merits. She had to admire that.

“That must have been tough for you,” she said.

He shrugged. “How can I complain, really? It sounds stupid, even to me. I grew up with the sort of privileges most people only dream about. A-list celebrities hanging out in my swimming pool, a BMW in the driveway on my sixteenth birthday, vacations in Cannes and Park City and Venice.”

By worldly standards, her family had been very poor. Her parents had given everything they had to helping others, to the point that she remembered a period in their lives when she and her sisters each had had only two or three outfits that they swapped back and forth.

She hadn’t necessarily enjoyed moving from country to country, never feeling as if she had a stable home. In truth, she still carried lingering resentment about it, but she had always known she was deeply loved.

She had a feeling that for all his outward privilege, Flynn had missed out on that assurance, at least from his parents. She was grateful he had known the unwavering love and devotion of his grandmother.

“We don’t get to choose the circumstances of our birth families, do we?” she said softly. “The only thing we have control of is the life we make for ourselves out of those circumstances.”

His gaze met hers and the intensity of his expression left her suddenly breathless. Something shimmered between them, something bright and fierce. She couldn’t seem to look away, and she again had the oddest feeling he wanted to kiss her.

Now? Here? With his daughter just a few feet away? She must have been imagining things. Still, the idea of him leaning forward slightly, of his mouth sliding across hers, made nerves jump in her stomach and her knees feel suddenly weak.

She felt as if she stood on the brink of something, arms stretched wide, trying to find the courage to jump into the empty space beyond.

She could lose her heart so easily to this man.

The thought whispered into her mind and she swallowed hard. With the slightest of nudges, she would leap into that empty space and doubtless crash hard back to earth.

Careful, she warned herself, and looked away from him, pretending to focus on his daughter and the cute, wriggling puppies.

After a long pause, he finally spoke. “Despite everything you and your sisters have been through, you’ve made a good life for yourself here in Pine Gulch.”

“I’d like to think so.” Okay, maybe she was a little lonely. Maybe there were nights she lay in bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering if she was destined to spend the rest of her nights alone.

“I guess you know a little about being in the spotlight now, don’t you?” Flynn said.

She forced a little laugh. “Not really. My particular spotlight is more like a flashlight beam. A very tiny, focused flashlight. That’s the nice thing about being only a name on a book cover.”

“That will change when the Sparkle movie hits the big screen,” he predicted.

Oh, she didn’t want to think about that. Just the idea made her feel clammy and slightly queasy. “I hope not,” she said fervently. “I like being under the radar.”

He frowned. “Why agree to let someone make the movie, then? You had to know that’s only going to increase your celebrity status. You won’t be able to stay under the radar for long.”

In her heart, she knew he was right. What had she gotten herself into?

She hadn’t had a choice, she reminded herself. Not really.

“I love my family,” she said. “They’re everything to me.”

“It only took me a few minutes at dinner tonight to figure that out. You have a great family. But what does that have to do with signing a movie deal you don’t appear to want?”

For someone who loved the magic and power in words, sometimes in conversation she felt as if she never could manage to find the right ones.

“Things haven’t been...easy around here the past few years, even before my brother-in-law’s accident. My uncle was a wonderful man but not the best businessman around, and the ranch hasn’t exactly been thriving financially.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“The, um, increased interest in The Christmas Ranch after the first Sparkle book came out last season helped a great deal but didn’t completely solve the cash flow woes.” She felt her face heat a little, as it always did when she talked about the astonishing success of the book. “With the deal Hope and I will be signing for the movie rights, we can pay off the rest of the ranch’s debts and push the operation firmly into the black, which will lift considerable pressure from Faith. How could I turn down something that will benefit my family so much?”

He studied her for a moment, that funny intensity in his expression again. “So it’s not necessarily what you really want, but you’re willing to go through with it anyway for your family.”

“Something like that,” she muttered.

“If having a movie made out of your book doesn’t sit well with you, couldn’t you have found an alternative revenue stream?”

She shrugged. “Hope and I talked at length about this. Our agent and publisher were clear. Someone was going to make a Sparkle movie—which, believe me, is an amazing position to find ourselves in. The terms of this particular deal were very favorable for Hope and for me, and we were both impressed by the other projects this particular production company has engineered. The moment seemed right.”

“I’m glad they’re making a Sparkle movie,” Olivia said suddenly. Celeste had been so busy explaining herself, she hadn’t realized the girl had left the puppies on the floor of the stall and rejoined them. “I can’t wait to see it.”

Flynn smiled at his daughter with that sweet tenderness that tugged at her heart. “We’ll probably be back in California, and you can tell everyone else at the movie theater that you actually had the chance to meet the real Sparkle and the women who created the fictional version.”

“I guess.” Olivia didn’t look as excited about that prospect as Celeste might have expected. In fact, she appeared downright glum.

Why? she wondered. Was the girl enjoying her time in Pine Gulch so much that she didn’t like thinking about their eventual return to California?

“Maybe we could come back and see the movie here,” Olivia suggested.

“Maybe.”

Celeste felt a sharp little kick to her heart at the noncommittal word. They wouldn’t be back. She was suddenly certain of it. After Flynn sold his grandmother’s house, he would have no more ties here in Pine Gulch. She likely would never see him or his daughter again.

This was why she needed to be careful to guard her heart better. She already hurt just thinking about them leaving. How much worse would it be if she let herself take that leap and fell in love with him?

He stood up and wiped the straw from the back of Olivia’s coat where she had been sitting on the floor of the stall.

“We should probably take off,” he said. “You need to tell Celeste thank-you for bringing you out here to meet Sparkle and to play with the puppies.”

“Do we have to go?” she complained.

“Yes. It’s late and Celeste probably has to work at the library tomorrow.”

She nodded and was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of fatigue. The day had been long and exhausting, and right now she wanted nothing more than to be in her comfy clothes, cuddled up with her animals and watching something brainless on TV.

“Okay,” Olivia said in a dejected voice. “Thank you for bringing me down here to meet Sparkle and play with the puppies.”

“You are very welcome,” Celeste said. “Anytime you want to come back, we would love to have you. Sparkle would, too.”

Olivia seemed heartened by that as she headed for the reindeer’s stall one last time.

“Bye, Sparkle. Bye!”

The reindeer nodded his head two or three times as if he was bowing, which made the girl giggle.

Celeste led the way out of the barn. Another inch of snow had fallen during the short time they had been inside, and they walked in silence to where his SUV was parked in front of the house.

She wrapped her coat around her while Flynn helped his daughter into the backseat. Once she was settled, he closed the door and turned to her.

“Please tell your family thank you for inviting me to dinner. I enjoyed it very much.”

“I will. Good night.”

With a wave, he hopped into his SUV and backed out of the driveway.

She watched them for just a moment, snow settling on her hair and her cheeks while she tried to ignore that little ache in her heart.

She could do this. She was tougher than she sometimes gave herself credit for being. Yes, she might already care about Olivia and be right on the brink of falling hard for her father. That didn’t mean she had to lean forward and leave solid ground.

She would simply have to keep herself centered, focused on her family and her friends, her work and her writing and the holidays. She would do her best to keep him at arm’s length. It was the only smart choice if she wanted to emerge unscathed after this holiday season.