Morgan didn’t disagree, although she did laugh and say, “I’d like to think I’ve grown up a bit since then.”
“You might like to think it,” Hanna teased.
Paige sat back in her chair the way Morgan wanted her to and let herself enjoy being with all of her sisters. There weren’t many moments like these anymore now that they all had their own lives. But that didn’t mean they cared any less, and it certainly didn’t mean they were about to stop teasing one another when they did get the chance.
“Rachel, Hanna, Morgan, you’re all so lucky,” Emily said with a small sigh. “I can’t wait until I find a guy who loves me as much as yours love you.”
That brought the conversation to a crashing halt for a few moments while everyone stared at her, open-mouthed. It wasn’t that Emily had said anything wrong. In fact, Paige thought it was quite a sweet sentiment. It was just…couldn’t she see what was right under her nose? Was she seriously saying that she’d never noticed just how much Michael
adored
her, especially when it was so obvious to the rest of them?
Paige thought briefly about speaking up. After all, if Emily was really that eager to find Mr. Right, then maybe she deserved that push in the right direction. But before she could, Emily asked her, “How are the dance lessons going with Christian?”
“They’re going fine.”
Emily raised an eyebrow. “You don’t sound all that certain about it.”
“It’s just that things are…” She shook her head, not quite sure how to finish her sentence.
But when she looked back, Emily was smiling. “I know that look. I’ve seen it enough on the others in the past few months.”
“What look?”
“Rachel, Hanna, you can see it, too, can’t you?” Emily was obviously enjoying herself now. “The way Paige looks whenever someone mentions Christian Greer?”
Paige could feel her cheeks burning as her sisters looked at her.
“Well, it’s pretty obvious that she likes him,” Hanna agreed.
“You’ve been dancing cheek to cheek with him for days,” Emily said. “And we all saw the way he couldn’t take his eyes off of you when he was over for dinner. Seems to me that there’s a lot more than just
liking
between you two. Isn’t there, Paige?”
Was there any point in denying it? In trying to deny something that was so obvious even to Emily, who couldn’t see what was right in front of her?
Paige stood up, ignoring Morgan’s protest that she was going to smear her newly applied mascara if she wasn’t careful. “So what if I maybe, possibly, have a tiny little crush on him? He’s a gorgeous star. Do you know how many other women around the world have crushes on him?”
Although thinking about that wasn’t a pleasant thought, either. She knew she could never have him and that she wasn’t made for the world of movie stars and glamor, but that didn’t mean she had to be happy about the thought of thousands of other women lusting over him.
“It isn’t like my little crush matters. He’s Christian Greer and I’m just me.”
She was surprised when Morgan smiled after she said that. “I think maybe you should take a look in a mirror, Paige.”
“You’re done?”
Morgan turned her to look in one of the mirrors dotted around the tent, and for a moment Paige just stared, trying to recognize the person she saw in the reflection—a version of herself that Paige had never seen before. Morgan had taken the raw material of her features and used her makeup brush to craft something simply astonishing.
Morgan really was Michelangelo when it came to makeup. If she could do that much with Paige, then she had to be some kind of genius. Didn’t she? Paige had never believed that she could look like this. Maybe she’d never wanted to. And now…
“Let’s go everyone,” Morgan said. “Everyone out there has been waiting for us long enough.”
Paige walked out with the rest of her sisters. Actually, she strode out, feeling more confident than ever before. There was something about being all glammed up for the night that made it seem easy to step out in front of everyone with a smile on her face when before she would have been trying to hold back.
Everyone was staring at her and her sisters as they walked toward the low stage where Christian waited, obviously ready to flip the switch on the Christmas lights. He looked as amazing as always. Every inch the movie star.
Yet as she walked up onto the stage, he wasn’t looking out at the crowd, charming everyone in the audience in that easy way he had with his fans. Instead, he was staring directly at her in a way that warmed Paige straight through, even in the chilly night air.
As she and her sisters lined up next to him, ready for their part in the big Christmas Eve ceremony, Emily whispered to him, just loud enough for Paige to hear, “Doesn’t Paige look beautiful tonight?”
“Paige always looks beautiful,” he said, his expression full of such sweet emotion that it took her breath away. “Always.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Christian stepped to the front of the stage, looking out over the crowd as he prepared to open the ceremony, working hard to concentrate when Paige was standing so close and looking so lovely. He’d told her sister the truth—Paige
was
always beautiful to him—but that didn’t stop him from noting just how spectacularly stunning she looked tonight.
Still, he had a job to do, and he wasn’t about to ruin the evening for everyone on Walker Island by blowing his lines.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m just a visitor to Walker Island, but already I’ve started to see how special things are here, and I’m amazed by the way this community has taken me into its arms.” One beautiful member of that community in particular, he thought to himself. “But since I know you haven’t come out here to listen to me talk, why don’t we get started with the tree lighting? Can I get a countdown? Five, four, three, two, one!”
When they all got to
one
, he threw the big switch the island commission had provided, and lights went on around the harbor in a blaze of neon colors. Christian couldn’t help looking back at Paige again, watching the way the different shades of light gleamed from her outfit and golden hair, making it seem like she was shining just like the lights.
He moved off to the side of the stage while the Walker sisters stepped forward. He found himself standing beside Michael, who had spent quite a lot of the day helping out with the rig for the lighting. Joel, Brian, and Nicholas were also nearby. Like Christian, they were dressed well for the occasion, but nothing like the incredible outfits the Walker sisters were wearing.
“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” Michael said to him as, one by one, the five sisters used tapers to light the candles set around the tree. Christian could see the way Michael’s eyes followed Emily as she did her part. Just the way Brian watched Morgan. And the way that Joel and Nicholas watched Hanna and Rachel, respectively. Christian was sure that each of the four men would have done
anything
for the woman he loved. They looked at the Walker sisters who had come into their lives with love that bordered on reverence.
Just the way he knew his own eyes followed Paige.
Would the people in the crowd be able to identify that look? Would they be able to tell what he felt for her as he stood there in front of them? Would they see just how amazing Paige was to him?
As Paige and her sisters finished lighting all the candles, Joel stepped up on stage first, moving over to Hanna and taking her hand so that they could walk down into the big Christmas Eve party together. Someone in the audience called out that it was the first time that a Walker and a Peterson had been to a Christmas Eve party together in fifty years, and the crowd cheered.
Nicholas went next, taking Rachel’s hand. Brian followed to escort Morgan, and Michael moved to accompany Emily. She looked at him questioningly for a moment before putting her hand in his and joining the small procession with him.
Christian saw his moment and stepped up onto the stage, holding out his hand as though he was about to ask Paige to dance with him. She smiled briefly, then reached out to take it with the smooth grace that was such an integral part of her. The crowd cheered for the two of them the way they’d cheered all the others.
They probably thought that Christian was doing the same thing Michael had—filling in for one of the Walker sisters without a partner. He hoped Paige knew he didn’t see it that way at all as he led her toward the rest of the party.
Ordinarily, he tried to avoid big parties like this, both because people expected him to play the star and because of the threat of cameras recording his every move. Today was different, though.
He stopped under a small decorative arch that was surprisingly private in the midst of so many people so that he could speak to Paige alone for a moment. “Where there’s music, there will be dancing.”
She looked surprised, but not at all displeased by his statement. “You really want to dance here? In front of everyone?”
“There’s no one I would rather dance with. And no place I’d rather be. Although there is one thing I want to do first.”
“What’s that?”
Christian smiled again and glanced up at the small archway where they’d stopped.
An archway that had a sprig of mistletoe pinned to it.
* * *
Before Paige could tell him—or even think of—all the reasons that they shouldn’t do this again, Christian kissed her.
Their last kiss had been surprising, full of excitement and energy. This kiss was sweet and slow and absolutely perfect. She’d never been kissed with this kind of passion, or so much emotion.
When he gently stroked her cheek with his hand and drew back to look into her eyes, it was all Paige could do to keep from blurting out everything she felt for him and all the impossible things that she wished could come true for them.
Instead, she said, “We can’t dance together tomorrow.”
He looked at her in surprise. “Why not?”
Because she knew that if they danced together again, then there was no way she would be able to keep from declaring her love for him like a total idiot with stars in her eyes.
“What I mean is that you should take Christmas Day off. We both should. You’ve been working really hard.”
“But there’s still a lot to get through, isn’t there?”
“We’ll get to it,” Paige assured him. Why did he have to be such a diligent student? Anyone else would have jumped at the opportunity to have a day away from working so hard.
“I knew what I was getting into when I came here,” he insisted. “Besides, it’s not exactly a chore dancing with you, Paige.”
“But it will be Christmas Day,” Paige countered with a smile. “You should go see your family and hug those nieces of yours, even if you’re only there for a few hours. I don’t want to be the ogre who’s responsible for keeping their uncle away.”
And it would also mean that she could have a whole day to recover from the feelings that kissing Christian had brought up. Both of them clearly needed to take a step back to try to think straight again.
“I do want to see them,” Christian admitted, “but I want to be with you, too.”
“Your family is more important than dance practice. It’s more important than this movie, too.”
“I agree, but it’s not more important than y—”
Paige tried to cut him off before he said too much, but this time he wouldn’t let her.
“You must already know how I feel about you. Me not saying it aloud won’t change that.” But instead of pushing her further, he said, “I’ll go see my family tomorrow, since you’re right, I really do want to see them on Christmas Day. But believe me, Paige, when I get back, the first thing I’ll want to do is see you. Because there’s no one else I’d rather be with. And I hope that between now and then you change your mind about letting me into your life.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Wrapping paper. Whoever invented it, Paige decided as she hurried to wrap presents for her family, had a sadistic streak.
Or maybe they’d designed it for people who weren’t constantly thinking about Christian Greer.
Paige had set her alarm for five a.m. so she could get up ahead of everyone else to get her wrapping done. Why, oh, why did she do this to herself every darned year? It wasn’t like putting things off—or shoving them into the back of her mind—ever made them any easier.
Just as she couldn’t find a way to stop thinking about what Christian had said. Had he been serious about her being the person he most wanted to be with? And was he really waiting and hoping that she’d let him into her life, too?
Last night, she’d ended up feeling as if she’d lost her best friend. She’d walked home alone, knowing everyone else would be at the party for a long time to come. As soon as she’d gotten home, she’d slipped off the festive dress and carefully removed Morgan’s makeup efforts, too, because as wonderful as they were, they couldn’t last.
She had felt like Cinderella, home well before her coach turned into a pumpkin. And without her Prince Charming. All because she’d sent him away.
She’d tried to turn off the wildly careening thoughts in her brain by settling down in front of the TV, but when
Shall We Dance
started to play, she’d realized nothing was the same as it had been before Christian had burst into her life earlier that week. Before she’d met him, the movie had always brought memories of going through the steps with her mother. But now she’d spent too many hours rehearsing those same steps with Christian. Learning the way he felt when he was holding her in his arms and the wonderful way he moved. And experiencing an intimacy far greater than anything a movie, or fantasy, could ever provide.
Paige couldn’t even see Fred and Ginger on the screen anymore. Instead, it was her and Christian on the screen dancing together…and then kissing passionately, utterly wrapped up in each other.
She knew then that it wasn’t going to be easy to forget about Christian Greer. She could watch this film a dozen more times, a hundred more times, and it would still be his face that she saw in her head. And his kisses that she relived in her dreams.
Paige was so lost in her thoughts about him that when she looked down, she was momentarily surprised to see the pile of wrapped gifts in front of her. She hoped Emily would be happy with the large, glossy cookbooks she had chosen for her. For Rachel, she had purchased a couple’s gift certificate to one of the island’s spas. She’d chosen a beautiful coat for Morgan. And for Hanna, an attachment for one of her cameras that Paige knew she’d been drooling over online. Charlotte got a small climbing helmet, which had been the most awkward one to wrap. Then there were gifts for Grams, her father, Joel, Brian, Nicholas, and Michael.