Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
P iper wandered down the stairs of Belhurst Castle Christmas Eve in a dark-green shirt covered in bright ribbons and bows and Ride Me Sleigh Boy written across the front in red glitter.
It was the ugliest shirt she’d been able to find on the internet. She felt like she’d stepped foot out of a bad holiday movie.
Lizzie’s idea to have an ugly sweater contest was silly, but in a family-bonding kind of way. Piper suspected her sister wanted to distract everyone from the fact that it was the first time all four of them had been together for Christmas since the breakup.
The idea that The Bellamy Sisters would reform if only Piper would say yes was a pile of dog crap in the middle of every conversation. Everyone knew it was there, but nobody wanted to clean it up, so they just stepped around it.
Piper had to give it to Della, she was definitely growing up. She could remember a time when Della wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from pushing her agenda, but it had been two weeks and she hadn’t even hinted at it. Instead, Della had focused her energy on helping Lizzie, learning how to bake cookies with Carrie, and flirting with Mark.
Della also seemed determined to make sure Piper wasn’t mad at her anymore. She brought Piper late-night snacks, played her favorite Christmas songs, and did her best to make Piper laugh just like she did when they were kids.
Funny thing was, the past few months had given Piper a whole new perspective on, well, everything. The past was the past. It was over, and she was ready to move on. The last of her anger at Della had vanished.
It was time to tell her that. It was time to tell her whole family how she really felt. She wanted to get back together as badly as they did.
Christmas Eve was magical at Belhurst Castle. Lizzie and Renic had transformed the inn into something out of a fairytale. The foyer and front rooms were filled with small trees covered in lights. Poinsettias marched up the stairs and graced every shelf. Garland entwined with berries and flowers dripped from the arched doorways. Santa Claus would have been jealous of the Belhurst.
Piper couldn’t imagine any setting more perfect for a big announcement.
Still, she kept thinking about Blake.
They’d been texting back and forth about movie logistics, contracts, ideas for set design, and holiday plans. A penthouse suite on the Vegas Strip didn’t sound like much of a Christmas, but at least his mom was with him.
It would have been nicer if he were here in winter wonderland, though.
Piper ventured into the kitchen, lured there by the smell of baking cookies and voices.
Carrie, the chef and Lizzie’s best friend, peered at the oven with one hand on her hip and a floured hand print on her butt .
Piper giggled. “You’ll never be able to commit a crime. You leave evidence all over the place.”
Carrie glanced at her. “Huh?”
Piper pointed at her butt.
“Oh.” She chuckled and wiped it away with a towel. “Never trust a neat cook.”
Lizzie hovered over the second oven. She looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Hey, Pipsqueak. I like the shirt.”
“Thanks.” Piper wandered over to where Renic and Mark, Carrie’s nephew and part owner of the Belhurst, stood at the end of the island. Renic wore a red sweater with green garland and real ornaments attached to it in swooping layers shaped like a tree.
Mark wore a black sweater with rows of green and yellow reindeer with All I Want for Christmas Is You written on it in red, except the word you had been crossed out and replaced with wine.
“I think Renic has you beat, Mark,” Piper said with a fond smile.
Lizzie had become so happily entrenched here that Renic, Mark, and Mark’s younger brother, Carter, all felt like part of the family.
Renic gave her a thumbs-up. “I hope the garland stays on long enough. It’s drooping already.”
“I’m not really into this whole ugly sweater thing,” Mark said. “I should have been the judge.”
“It’s my party. I get to judge,” Lizzie said.
“Is there hot chocolate to go with those cookies?” Piper asked as she sat on a stool by the marble island.
A timer went off, and Carrie immediately opened the oven door to pull out the tray of cookies. “Of course. What kind of cook do you take me for?”
“The best kind,” Piper said. Her mouth was salivating in anticipation. “What flavor?”
“These are chocolate chip,” Carrie said. “I already did oatmeal raisin and snickerdoodles.”
Carter appeared in a blue sweater with a big abominable snowman face spewing real candy down the front. He was in his last year of college now, and he’d filled out a lot since his freshman year. Being on the football team had been good for him.
“These things are fantastic,” Carter said through a mouthful of cookie.
“Get out of the doodles!” Carrie scolded. She wore an apron with gingerbread men all over it that said Oh Snap. “They’re for the prize basket.”
“You can have some of these after dinner,” Lizzie said as she pulled her tray out of the oven.
Jingling bells sounded from the doorway. Della appeared, wearing a Christmas-tree-shaped mini-dress covered in bells and multicolored bulbs that flashed an eye-bending pattern of red and green. She looked like she’d been front and center when the North Pole exploded.
“I’m with Carter. Life’s too short to eat dessert last,” Della said, waving a cookie at them.
“That’s the ugliest dress I’ve ever seen,” Piper told her.
“I know,” Della beamed. “I’m pretty sure I win.”
“I didn’t go nearly far enough.” Piper looked down at her own poor attempt. “Mine doesn’t even light up.”
“I have a feeling Ben will give you both a run for your money,” Carrie said. “He’s been working on it for weeks in secret. Every time he mentions it he cackles like a maniacal villain.”
“We haven’t seen Mattie’s or Adam’s, either,” Lizzie pointed out. “Adam’s is probably over the top.”
“Where are they? I’m hungry,” Carter said.
“You just had cookies,” Mark told Carter.
“They were having trouble navigating the stairs,” Della said, sounding amused.
“We’re here,” Mattie called out from the doorway. “When’s the judging start? We can’t stay in this forever.”
“Sure we can,” Adam said. “I love this outfit.”
“Of course you do,” Mattie sounded exasperated. “I still can’t believe your mother made this.”
“She loves Christmas,” Adam said without an ounce of shame.
They shuffled awkwardly into the room. Mattie’s cheeks were bright red with embarrassment, while Adam looked like a particularly proud peacock.
Piper burst out laughing, along with everyone else in the room.
The sweater was made for two people to squeeze into together, with two necks but just two sleeves. The chunky red yarn looked hand-knitted by an expert hand, which meant Mattie had had nothing to do with it. As far as Piper knew, Mattie didn’t sew, knit, or crochet.
The sweater was covered in cotton “snowballs,” with a giant upside-down snowman on Adam’s portion that had a carrot nose protruding just above his, well, package, while two big snowman faces were planted right over Mattie’s boobs like hood ornaments.
She could only imagine where Adam had placed his other hand. Judging by the way her sister kept twitching, it was cupping Mattie’s butt cheek.
“Dude, that is epic.” Carter snapped a photo with his phone. “I bow to the masters.”
Adam grinned in appreciation. Mattie hid her face against his shoulder.
“That has to be the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” Mark said.
“Wait for it,” Adam said. “Come on, babe, turn around.”
“Do we have to?” Mattie groaned.
Della peeked behind them and giggled. “Oh yes, you have to. Spin. ”
“Fine.” Mattie sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”
They rotated in slow motion until the back of the sweater was revealed.
A reindeer pooping nuts onto a pile of glitter stared out at them, a phrase arched over its head like a rainbow.
“‘Jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse,’” Piper read.
“I think we might have a winner,” Lizzie said with a laugh.
“I’m not sure Ben can top that.” Carrie’s lips twitched with amusement. “He’s almost here, though, so just hang on.”
“Can he hurry up? This is humiliating,” Mattie whined. “And it’s hot under here.”
“Yes, it is,” Adam agreed, but Piper didn’t think he was talking about the temperature.
Mattie’s fiancé always went one step further than he should, but his adoration of her sister was endearing. “Have you two set a date for the wedding yet?”
Adam gave Mattie a kiss on the cheek. “We’re still negotiating. It’ll depend.”
“On what?” Della asked. She snatched a cookie off the cooling rack and bit into it, spilling crumbles.
Mattie gave Piper a significant look.
“On me, I think,” Piper said.
Heads swiveled in her direction.
“You’ve all been avoiding a certain subject since I got here, and while I appreciate you giving me space, I don’t need it.”
Mattie’s hand flew over her mouth.
Lizzie clutched Carrie’s arm.
Piper faced her baby sister. “I changed my mind. I’m in.”
“You’re in.” Della’s eyes widened. “You’re in? Like, really in?”
Piper couldn’t stop the smile from stretching across her face if she wanted to. “Yes.”
Della waved her hands in the air and screamed loud enough to break the windows. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!” She tackle-hugged Piper. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You won’t regret this, I promise.”
Arms went around them as first Lizzie, then Mattie joined in, dragging Adam with her.
It got hot in the middle of the group hug as Mark, Carter, and Renic added their bodies to the mix. Tears streamed down Piper’s face as love enveloped her. Della’s too.
Piper had never felt so connected to her family as she did right now. She didn’t want this feeling to end, ever.
“Did I miss something?” a deep male voice asked.
They turned their collective heads toward the door.
“What the hell are you wearing?” Mark asked.
Dr. Ben, chief of surgery at Geneva Memorial Hospital, wore a green onesie with a hood that had reindeer horns coming out the top and a Christmas tree covered with real tinsel and lights that actually lit up on the front. Below the tree, the words Merry Crotchmas were spelled out with yarn, and there was an arrow pointing down to where a giant sprig of mistletoe dangled between his legs.
“Oh dear God,” Carrie said.
Everyone burst out laughing.
“Get in here, crazy man.” Carrie gestured to him. “Group hug.”
Ben joined the pileup, and they all laughed and hugged and bounced up and down and talked all at once until Piper declared defeat.
“I can’t breathe,” Piper gasped. “Air! I need air!”
“Where did you get that thing you’re wearing?” Carrie asked Ben. She didn’t seem embarrassed. If anything, she looked proud of her man.
“My mom made it.” Ben’s broad grin made Piper laugh. “I told her it was a contest. She’s very competitive. ”
“Aw, man. You stole my move!” Adam complained.
“Next year, we should stipulate you have to make your own,” Della said.
“Like you can sew,” Lizzie said.
“That’s what will make it fun,” Della said. “None of us can sew, can we? It’ll be hilarious.”
Carter circled Ben to examine the costume and nearly choked when he reached the back. “Turn around. You got to show them this side.”
Ben held his chin high with all the dignity a surgeon should have and slowly spun in place.
Stitched across his back were the words If you don’t like that, you can kiss my ass. Two bunches of mistletoe had been attached to his butt cheeks.
Adam bowed with a flourish. “I concede defeat to your mother’s creative skills. Tell her next year, double or nothing. But she has to show up in whatever she makes.”
“Oh don’t tempt her,” Ben said with a shudder. “I don’t want to know how she’d top this.”
“I think Adam’s right. We have a winner,” Lizzie declared. “Dr. Ben, you and your mother have outdone yourselves. The gift basket of oddities is all yours. Now, everybody, group up. We need a picture of this.”
They wound up arranged on the stairs so that everyone’s shirt could be seen and documented for posterity.
“Great shot,” Renic said. “We should make a Christmas album with this on the cover.”
“As long as I don’t have to sing,” Mark said.
“I’ll sing,” Carter said.
“Please don’t,” Mark said.
“All I want for Christmas is my family,” Della sang to the tune of “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.” She put her arm around Carter and the two of them went back to the kitchen, singing as loud as they could. Della’s perfect pitch couldn’t drown out Carter’s proudly wrong notes.
Lizzie winced. “Maybe we shouldn’t do that.”
“Maybe not,” Renic said with a laugh.
Piper texted the photo to Blake with a message that said, I told Della yes.
“Everybody, get busy setting the table,” Carrie said. “Mark, get the wine please.”
Love the shirt. Am I the sleigh boy? Blake sent back.
She glanced around but notably was watching. Definitely.
He sent a wide-eyed emoji, followed by an emoji of a dog with his tongue hanging out emoji. She happy?
Very
Are you?
She smiled at the noise and happy faces in the filled-to-the-brim kitchen. The energy and electricity in the air were even better than a concert filled with thousands of people because there was real love mixed in with it.
Yes.
Good. That’s what counts. Merry Christmas.
The rest of the evening passed in a whirlwind of excited chatter about songs, albums, wedding dates, movie premieres, and other plans for the future. They stayed up well past midnight, until people started to yawn and everyone agreed it was time to turn in.
After everyone else drifted off to bed, Piper sat in the den in front of the fire, thinking.
It had been a good day. A really good day. Getting the group back together was the right move. It made her happy deep in her heart where the ache used to be.
So why did she feel so listless and out of sorts? Why did it feel like something…or someone…was missing?
The house was so quiet, she could hear the clock by the front door tick. The wood in the fireplace snapped and cracked. Somewhere, a woman giggled. Mattie, probably. Adam made her sister laugh a lot.
Her phone dinged with a text message.
Blake: You awake?
Yep
Blake: You alone?
Yep
The phone lit up with a video chat request from Blake. Happy heat rushed through her chest as she hit Accept. “Merry Christmas.”
“Hey, Princess.” He was sitting on a white couch in front of a floor-to-ceiling picture window that revealed the sparkling neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip. “So the announcement went well?”
“Oh yeah. You probably heard the screech all the way from Vegas. Think I’m deaf in one ear now.”
This was what she’d been longing for all day. She’d wanted to talk with Blake. She missed sharing the day with him. She missed hearing his warm laugh, and she missed that look in his eyes that said he wanted her as much as she wanted him.
She had her entire family around her, and it was wonderful. It was greedy to want more, but she did. She’d planned on making a move on him after the Scorched premiere, but the wait was killing her.
He settled back on the couch. “It looks cozy there. Is that snow?”
Piper glanced over her shoulder. Small but determined flakes streamed past the lights on the porch. “Yes. It’s a white Christmas around here.”
“In Vegas it’s a dry, sparkly, and shiny Christmas, but at least it’s tacky.”
She laughed. “The bright lights don’t do it for you?”
“They’re okay. They’d be better if you were here.” He glanced up at something she couldn’t see, then whispered, “Especially if you were naked.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Isn’t your mother there with you?”
“She’s in her room. What about your horde?”
“They all went to bed.” She thought she heard something clink in the distance. Maybe someone had gone for a late-night snack.
The lights were low, the firelight was romantic, and she wanted to feel his touch.
She pulled her legs up under her and snuggled up with a pillow. “What are you wearing?”
He chuckled, a low, throaty sound that reminded her of exploits in the dressing room. “Too much. So are you.”
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
“You drive me crazy, you know that?” He brushed a hand through his hair.
“Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?”
“It’s a wish-you-were-here thing.”
“Me too.”
Quiet stretched for a heartbeat.
Blake looked at her with thoughtful eyes.
“What’s on your mind?” Piper asked softly. “Besides the obvious.”
“I want to ask you something,” Blake said. “But I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and it has nothing to do with our past or future extracurricular activities.”
“Okay.” She couldn’t interpret his tone. He sounded serious, but also hopeful, or nervous.
He looked at her with those steady, cornflower-blue eyes, and she knew whatever he wanted, she would probably say yes.
“How would you feel about playing the lead in Conned ? ”
She blinked. She couldn’t possibly have heard that right. “I’m sorry, what? What did you say?”
He held her gaze. “I’m offering you, Piper Bellamy, the role of Tessa Sullivan in my upcoming blockbuster hit Conned . I can offer you two million, but I’d rather offer you points if you’ll take them. I think they’ll add up to a lot more than two mill in the long run, but it’s up to you.”
Her thoughts swirled so fast it was hard to follow them. She thought maybe he wanted to go away for the weekend, or he could have been asking her to go with him to the premiere, or hell, maybe he wanted to ask her to be more than just friends with occasional benefits. She’d already been planning on pouncing on any or all of those offers with enthusiasm.
This wasn’t any of that.
This was an official job offer.
A live-acting job, not an animated behind-the-scenes one.
“You okay?” Blake’s lips quirked up. “I’m going to need a verbal answer of some sort. Or you could use hand signals.”
She sucked in a deep breath. “You’re serious?”
“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life.” His face softened. “I’ve been wanting to ask you for weeks.”
She had to point out the obvious flaw. “I’m not an actor.”
“You are now,” Blake said. “You’re an excellent voice artist with a lot of potential.”
“Yes, but you’re talking live, camera-in-your-face, full-body stuff. What happened to that list of potentials you were working on?”
“None of them is more perfect for this role than you.” He said it so firmly she almost believed him. “Marshall and I both agree, and even Mom thinks it’s a great idea. We want you .”
She let that sink in. Two—no, three—Hollywood legends thought she was perfect for a movie role. Not as a stand-in, a backup, or a side note, but as the lead love interest .
Blake Ryan’s love interest.
He studied her face. “I think I just saw a hundred different emotions race across your face just then.”
“It’s a lot to process.” She blinked rapidly, trying to clear away the fog. She’d wanted this, she just didn’t expect it to happen this way. In all the discussions they’d had about the missing lead, she’d never once pictured herself as a possibility.
Rachel had practically insisted the role belonged to her, and she’d done it so forcefully Piper hadn’t even considered it.
“Rachel will be so pissed if I do this.”
“Rachel’s never, ever getting this part. I don’t want her. I want you.”
Why did she get the feeling he was offering more than just a movie role with that statement?
“You don’t have to answer tonight,” Blake said gently. “Just think about it, okay?”
“Yes.” The word popped out before she could even think about how she felt.
He stilled. “Yes as in you’ll think about it? Or yes as in…yes?”
“Yes. I’ll do it.” She’d been smiling so much today her face hurt. She massaged her cheeks but couldn’t keep her happiness from showing.
“Yes!” He punched the air. “Yes. Fantastic. Thank you. You are the sexiest, most perfect girl next door I’ve ever seen and you’re mine. Yes!”
She laughed. “You know this means I’ll need more acting lessons, right?”
Blake leaned forward slightly, as if he were trying to touch her through the phone, and grinned. “Merry Christmas to me.”
Something he’d said tickled her memory, and she held up a finger. “Wait a second. You said you didn’t want me to take this the wrong way. What other way could I have taken it? ”
He cleared his throat and looked a little sheepish. “I thought it might look like a casting couch situation. It isn’t. At all.”
She considered that. “You’re right. There’s no way they don’t make that connection, even if nothing else happens between us.”
“Plus,” Blake said, “it’s not a great idea to get involved with a costar. It’s one of my rules, actually.”
She thought about their first night together, and the second, and snorted. “You suck at following rules.”
“So do you,” he countered. “You flirted nonstop with me the entire time we were in the studio. How am I supposed to stick to my principles when you’re looking at me like that?”
“I’m looking at you because I’m talking to you.”
“Exactly.”
His eyes burned her through the phone screen. It felt like he was a million miles away and right next to her at the same time. She wanted him so much her body ached with it.
She shouldn’t have to choose between a life-altering career opportunity or being with someone who made her feel so seen. “Dammit. Why should it matter what we do in our personal time? So what if we met at work? Lots of people meet at work.”
“My mom thinks it could actually be great publicity for the movie. She told me to embrace the mess, and she should know. Her relationship with my dad was total chaos.”
The way he said relationship implied a lot more than just a random night of sex. The idea settled around her, all cozy and comfortable. “I guess I can see how it could look bad if people knew we were…do you think if I say yes, we have to stop…I mean, not that we were seeing each other, not exactly. Oh my God, I’m babbling.”
“Yes, you are.” His lips twitched. “It’s adorable.”
“Maybe I should say no.” She was teasing, but the uncertain look that passed through his eyes made her drop that. “Just so you wouldn’t have to chance a conflict of interest. Because I plan on seeing you naked after Scorched premieres. Often.”
“As long as I get to see you naked too. But that’s not part of the job offer. This isn’t a quid pro quo.”
“Right.” She snuggled her feet up under her. “We keep personal interests completely out of this.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant.”
“Hear me out.” She held up a finger to stop further protests. “At work, treat me just like everyone else. Don’t go easy on me. Don’t give me a free pass. I want to do right by you and this film, okay? The other stuff we might get up to on the side is completely separate and private. Deal?”
“I can live with that as long as there is other stuff. What’s the penalty if we don’t stick to that?”
“The first to break…let me think.” She pretended to ponder, but she already knew what she wanted her penalty to be. “First to break has to spend a week naked, the plaything for the one who didn’t.”
“Inside, or outside the house?” His eyes challenged her.
She gasped like a true Southern girl. “I’m not a heathen. This is a private penalty. At home. Inside. No cameras, no audience, nobody knows but us. Deal?”
“Deal.” He stood up and carried the phone into another room.
“Where are you going?” She couldn’t quite see.
He flicked on a lamp, which illuminated the bed behind him. “You promised me something earlier. Time to deliver.”
He propped the phone up on something, then shut the door.
“What did I promise?” Their conversation had derailed every thought in her head. She had no idea what he was talking about. “We’ve covered a lot of ground tonight.”
He took off his shirt and tossed it aside. His muscles rippled as he flexed for her. Flickers of red and green lights from the window caressed and highlighted his skin, while the lamp gave him a soft glow from behind.
Heat and need flooded through her. “Wow. You look…damn, is there special lighting in there?”
His pecs twitched. “Come on. Tit for tat. Or tat for…”
He gestured for her to join him.
She picked up the phone. “Not down here, it’ll scandalize the neighbors. Hang on.”
Piper held the phone to her chest and tiptoed down the hall to the stairs. She was up two steps when a noise behind her made her turn.
Della stood in the doorway of the kitchen, wearing red satin pajamas and holding a plate of cookies in one hand and a glass of milk in the other.
“Thought I heard someone,” Della said. “Hello, night owl.”
“Hello, pot.” Piper stared pointedly at the cookies.
Della held out the plate to her. “Have you tried the snickerdoodles? These things are sugar crack.”
Piper clutched the phone tight to her body and plucked one off the plate to be polite.
“Who were you talking to?” Della asked as they climbed the stairs.
It was an innocent enough question, filled with innuendo and a hundred potential potholes that could swallow her whole if she didn’t avoid them.
She had big news. Big, big news. But if she said something right now, it would wake the whole house and phone sex would be out of the question.
It could keep until the morning.
“Blake.”
Della glanced at her. “Oooh. Blake Ryan?”
“Yes.”
Della looked down at the phone Piper still had plastered to her body. “Are you still on the phone with him?”
“Yes.” He could hear every word they said. For some reason, that really turned her on.
A taunting grin started to spread across Della’s face. “Video chat?”
“Yep.” They reached the top of the stairs. Della was in the Rose Room, the first room on the right, a spacious, luxurious suite that overlooked the valley.
Piper was at the end of the hall in the smaller, cozier Daylily Room.
Della paused at her door and batted her eyelashes. “Can you get the door, please? My hands are full.”
“Goodnight, Della.” Piper opened the door and gave her sister a very pointed look.
Della eyed the phone. “Can I meet him?”
“No.” Her answer was immediate and a little too loud.
She had no idea how much undressing Blake had done, but if she had to bet, he was at least down to underwear, because he knew she’d have to catch up.
The idea of that sent a rush of heat to her face and other places farther south.
“Why not?” Della’s grin was so broad it was going to split her face in two. “Is he naked?”
Piper continued down the hall. “Good night, nosy butt.”
“Night, Pipsqueak,” Della called after her. “I hope you have sweet, sweet dreams.”
Della giggled as she shut the door.
She thought she heard Blake laugh too, but she waited until she was behind her own closed door before she checked on him.
Blake lounged on his bed wearing absolutely nothing but a grin. “Deal’s a deal, Princess.”
She propped the phone on the dresser and then took her own sweet time catching up.