CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX #3
Then I kept walking. “Is Byron down here? I kind of thought he’d have Christmas off…” I realized Reynolds wasn’t behind me and turned to find him staring at me, a grin on his handsome face. He pushed a button on the key fob in his hands. The lights on the red sports car flashed as a beep sounded.
It still took me a minute to realize the car was for me. I gasped. “That’s mine?”
He nodded a big smile on his face.
“Oh my God!” I ran to him and jumped into his arms. “That’s for me?” I gestured to the car. “Are you serious right now?”
“I am,” he laughed. “I’m totally serious. This is your car.”
“But I can’t even drive yet.”
“Yes, you can. You just can’t drive by yourself yet.” He walked me over to the driver’s side door. “Get in, honey. Let’s take her out to the beach and show your mom.”
“You’re coming to Mama’s with me?” I was almost as excited about that as I was about the car.
“I am. She knows we’re coming for lunch. I called her and asked if I could tag along.”
I made a face. “Lord. Was she nice?”
He laughed. “Nice isn’t the word I would use. But she wasn’t mean.”
“That’s good at least. Wait—you want me to drive in front of you? That makes me nervous.” I put my hand over my wildly beating heart.
“Of course I do. But don’t be nervous, Nadine.”
We got in the car, and I ran my hand over the luxurious leather of the seats. “This is… amazing. I don’t have the words, Reynolds.”
“That’s okay.”
“Thank you.” I knew that a car was part of the deal from the auction, but he went above and beyond.
All he had to do was put the money for it in my account.
Then I could have bought it when I could actually drive it.
He had also spent way more than necessary on it.
He could have just picked out something nice.
Instead, he’d given me the one I wanted, wrapped in a bow, on Christmas morning. How sweet was that?
I was so in awe of the morning I’d had that I forgot to be nervous about the drive. It was just automatic, like muscle memory, as I pulled the coupe out of the garage and onto the almost empty streets outside Salazar Heights.
We made the trip to Mama’s condo out at the beach in record time with no one on the roads. That’s when he told me he’d bought Mama a car, too. It had been delivered the day before, but she did not know it was hers.
“But Carmen bought her a car,” I protested.
He shrugged. “It was fine, but it just wasn’t what I would have picked out for her.”
I was blown away. “She’s going to flip her lid. There’s a bow on hers, too?”
He nodded.
I got tears in my eyes. “That’s so… kind of you, Reynolds. You didn’t have to do that.”
“I wanted to,” he said. He looked out the window, and I could tell he felt self-conscious. But that was nothing to how he looked later when Mama threw herself at him and gave him a hug when she’d seen the cute little roadster he’d bought her.
After she’d calmed down, she asked, “What in the world am I going to do with the other one?” She gestured to the nice sedan in her normal parking spot.
Reynolds, hands in his pockets, blushed a little. “I thought you might have a friend in Puckins who could use it. Either that or you could donate it to charity. Or sell it if you wanted the money…” he’d quit talking as she’d grabbed him for another hug.
“I know just who to give it to. Thank you so much.”
I could swear I saw tears in the corners of Mama’s eyes, but she blinked extra hard, and they were gone.
She’d been nice to Reynolds all through lunch and even gave him a tie. I was only mildly embarrassed when she announced that she got it on sale at Marshall’s.
He thanked her and told her he’d wear it to his inauguration.
I winced inwardly, picturing the Hermès and Brioni ties he wore. I hoped West Bay wouldn’t notice his discount tie but loved that he would wear it just because Mama gave it to him.
We hugged Mama goodbye and headed back to the condo. I saw that Byron was waiting for Reynolds in the garage when I pulled in. I stopped by his car and talked to him about his Christmas.
I must’ve been talking too much, because Reynolds grabbed me by the hand and pulled me across the garage to the elevator.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Aren’t you leaving, ‘cause I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re going the wrong way?”
“I have one more gift for you upstairs.”
I remembered then that I never unwrapped the last present. I’d been so distracted by the car keys that I hadn’t even noticed. “I don’t need another thing, Reynolds. I swear, you could’ve just given Mama that car, and that’s the only present I would need.”
He studied my face. “That’s why I love you, Nadine.”
I smiled at him, then frowned. “Wait. What did you say?”
He cleared his throat. “I said, ‘I love you.’”
“You… you love me?” I didn’t realize I was squeezing his hand really hard until he had to use his other hand to pull it out of my grasp.
“Yes.” He looked straight ahead at the elevator doors. They opened, and he pulled me along behind him towards my door. I felt like a zombie, except happy. And not dead. Or rotting. Okay, I didn’t feel like a zombie at all. I just felt numb. Reynolds loved me.
He said he loved me.
He.
Loved.
Me.
I was in shock as he entered my condo and put the last gift in my hand. “Open it.”
I did. Mindlessly. It was a Christmas ornament labeled with the year. “It’s beautiful.” I looked up at him. “Thank you.”
“I thought it could mark our first Christmas together.” He put his hands in his pockets and looked uncomfortable.
My eyebrows shot up. “Our first Christmas? As in, there will be more? Christmases? Together?” I pointed to him and then myself. “You and me?”
He choked on a laugh. “I mean, yeah. I just told you I love you. I definitely want there to be more Christmases together, Nadine.”
“I know you said you wanted us to be together after the trip to Grand Bahama Island. But you hadn’t really mentioned it again, so I wasn’t sure how you felt anymore.”
“You can be sure. I love you, angel. I want us to be together.”
I stood there speechless for long enough that the smile started fading from his face. Then I launched myself at him. “I love you, too,” I yelled midair.
“Oof.” He caught me, and I wrapped my legs around his waist. “Damn, honey.” He chuckled as he buried his face in my neck. “You crack me up.”
“Walk me over to that tree, Reynolds,” I demanded. He did, and I hung the new ornament close to the top of the tree. It went just under the star.
He moved back, and we admired it as he held me.
Suddenly, I remembered something. “Wait! I have one more Christmas present for you. Put me down.” I wriggled out of his arms almost quicker than he could put me down.
“Wait, Nadine—I’m going to drop you,” he protested. I leaped from his arms and hurried into the bedroom to grab his last wrapped present. It had gotten kicked under the bed during all of our earlier… festivities.
I hurried back out and handed it to him.
“What is this?” he asked turning the square package over in his hands.
I gave him a look. “There’s an easy way to find out,” I said.
He grinned and ripped through the paper. It was a framed photo of the two of us. It only took a minute for him to bust out laughing. “Oh my God. This is perfect, Nadine. I can’t wait until I can put it on my desk at work.”
I gasped. “You can never put that on your desk at work!”
It was the picture that had gone slightly viral of the two of us at Salazar Nights the night I worked the party and spilled champagne all over Whitney’s dress. It was the one that looked like he had me bent over for a very sexual reason.
He winked at me. “I might put it somewhere slightly more private, angel.” He looked at his watch. “I hate to, but I have to leave.”
“This is the best Christmas ever,” I said.
“It is,” he agreed as he looked at me. He reached up and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I wish I could stay the whole day. I wish I could take you with me.” He kissed along my jaw and behind my ear. “Next year.”
“Next year,” I agreed, though I felt a sharp pang of jealousy. I knew he’d be going to the Christmas charity ball with Whitney tonight.
If he really loved me, would he be leaving me here on Christmas to dance with another woman all night? The thought popped up, unbidden, and I had to fight to keep the smile on my face.
“I have to go,” he groaned. “We’ll talk more about all of this later, okay?”
I tried to keep my face from showing my mixed feelings. “Okay. But what you’re saying is that even though I’m moving out of the condo and into my house soon…”
“I want to stay together, Nadine. I can’t let you go.”
I nodded, fighting back sudden tears, and hugged him once more. I walked him to the door and gave him one more hug and kiss.
“Merry Christmas,” I called as he got in the elevator.
He just smiled at me as the doors closed.