Two gorgeous stories about the most romantic time of the year…
The holidays don’t have to be fraught with tension, as lifelong friends
Lily Cavanaugh and Cameron Greene discover in Mistletoe Between Friends when
they cook up a scheme to fool their family and friends.
The Snowflake Inn shows rivals Grace Brodie and
Riley Walsh that Christmas is a time when dreams come true—even if you’ve given
up on those dreams long ago.
New York Times and USA Today Bestseller
Samantha Chase released her debut novel, Jordan's Return, in November 2011.
Teaching creative writing to students from elementary through high school
motivated Samantha to take that step as well. Since then, she has become a NYT
and USA today bestselling author. She lives with her husband of 24 years and
their two sons in North Carolina.
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2edTdlz
iBooks: http://apple.co/2edUFEE
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Mistletoe Between
Friends
Monday morning came way too soon for Lily. She’d given herself
multiple pep talks and reminded herself how important it was to do the right
thing for Cam.
It just sucked that the right thing for Cam was going to be torture
for her.
Ever on time, Cameron arrived to pick Lily up at exactly 7:00 a.m.
Knowing he was a stickler about time, she’d made sure that she was ready and
waiting for him. But she could tell by the look on his face when she opened the
door that he was surprised she was ready.
“What?” she asked.
Cam looked her up and down and then at the suitcase beside her. “You’re
ready,” he said with just a hint of disbelief.
A shy smile crept across Lily’s face. “You told me you’d be here at
seven, so I was ready for seven. Actually, I was ready at six forty-five. Impressive,
right?”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re never ready when I tell you what
time I’m coming to pick you up. I build a cushion for Lily time.”
The smile shifted to playful annoyance as Lily cocked a hip and crossed
her arms over her chest. “If it would make you feel better, I can change
clothes and decide that I want a bowl of cereal before we leave.”
“No, no,” he said with a slight chuckle. “I’m sorry. I guess I
should have just said thank you, right?”
“No,” she corrected. “You should have offered to put my suitcase in
the car because all this chitchat will make us late.” Without another word,
Cameron reached beyond Lily and grabbed her case while she locked up her condo.
“I watched the Weather Channel last night while I was packing, and they said it’s
going to snow while we’re up there. Won’t that be beautiful? We can see snow in
Central Park!”
Cam shrugged; he’d never given much thought to snow in Manhattan and
didn’t care about it now. They lived just outside of Raleigh, so it wasn’t as
if they’d never seen snow before. But that was just one of the things about
Lily he adored—that the little things in life made her happy.
Lily had a bigger heart than anyone he’d ever known. He knew that
even though she made light of it, she was easily hurt by her family. It didn’t
help that her parents always made her feel like she wasn’t living up to her
full potential, or that she had an older sister everyone seemed to think walked
on water. Cam knew the real Lily. If anyone took the time to get to know her
and saw beyond her inability to find a career, they’d see a person who’d give
them the world.
For as far back as Cameron could remember, he’d been in love with
Lily Cavanaugh. While everyone else around them treated him like a freak
because of his intelligence, Lily always considered him Cam, her friend. He’d
never once thought about telling her how he felt because the last thing he
wanted was to lose Lily as his friend. Most days, she was the only one who kept
him sane.
And now he was going to have her to himself for nearly a week.
Once they were on the road, Cam glanced over at Lily and saw the
serene smile on her face. “What are you thinking about right now?” he asked.
“Actually, I was wondering if we were going to play the part of
boyfriend and girlfriend during your conference or if we were waiting to kick
it into gear when we got back.”
He nodded and then pondered the situation. “I suppose it wouldn’t
hurt to try out the act around my colleagues before we return home.” His tone
was rather cut and dried, like he was talking about a root canal.
“How about a little enthusiasm, champ?” she asked sarcastically. “This
was your idea, remember? And if we’re going to pull this off and get four
months of freedom from our parents, you can’t talk about our relationship like
it’s a chore.”
Cam turned to look at her as if she were crazy. “Talk about our
relationship? It’s seven fifteen in the morning, Lil. We haven’t been around
anybody except each other. What do you want me to do?”
She sighed. “You’ll need to show a little more excitement if you’re
going to be believable as my boyfriend.”
What had he gotten himself into? “Why, exactly, do I have to do
that?”
“Cam, everyone who knows me knows that I’m a fairly happy-go-lucky
person. You and I are complete opposites. I’m going to have to tone it down a
little, but on the flip side, you’re going to have to kick it up a notch. You
know, crack a smile or a joke once in a while. Laugh.” She looked at him
quizzically. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
Honestly, he didn’t. When he had devised the plan to have a make-believe
romance with Lily to survive the holidays, Cam had simply thought that by
saying they were involved, people would get off their backs. But as Lily
explained the complexities of the situation, he realized he was greatly
unprepared.
And that was simply unacceptable.
Taking a fortifying breath, he said, “Okay. It’s not like we have to
play twenty questions to know each other better. We already know everything about
each other. What do you suggest?”
“Well,” she said, “it would probably help if we held hands when out
in public.”
Cameron considered her suggestions and—without reacting in any way,
shape, or form—decided that this wasn’t going to be such a bad thing after all.
He’d finally have the opportunity to touch Lily, to kiss Lily, and it was all
her idea. He really was brilliant.
“Seems simple enough,” Cam said. “Done.” He reached for her hand and
held it while he focused on the road and drove one-handed. He wouldn’t normally
do that because safety dictated that he drive with his hands in the ten-and-two
position. It took all of thirty seconds for him to start to squirm.
“This is physically painful for you, isn’t it?”
“What? No,” he denied although he was lying through his teeth. He
wanted to concentrate on the feel of her hand in his, but couldn’t when they
were on the road.
Lily pulled her hand away and almost burst out laughing at how
quickly Cam’s hand went back to the steering wheel. “Okay, baby steps. We’ll only
hold hands when we’re walking. How does that sound?” She smiled at the
annoyance on Cam’s face.
“Safety isn’t something to take lightly, Lily.”
“Of course it isn’t,” she agreed. “I mean, driving twenty miles under the
speed limit and one-handed? What was I thinking?”
“It’s a little early for all of this sarcasm,” he said dryly. “So
other than hand-holding, what am I supposed to do?”
Was he kidding? At this rate, she could probably convince him to act
out every one of her fantasies that she’d ever had about him. But that would be
wrong.
Wouldn’t it?
Yes, yes, yes. Bad Lily! What were you thinking?
“Kissing,” she said before she could stop herself. “We’ll probably
have to kiss in front of people from time to time. And none of that
buddy-buddy, on-the-cheek stuff. Like…real kissing.”
Bad,
bad Lily!
She saw him considering the
idea from all sides as usual. He never agreed to anything without thinking it
through. “I guess I can,” he said, seeming bored with the idea.
“That’s the spirit,” she said and was relieved to see them turning
onto the exit ramp for the airport. If all went well, within a matter of hours
she would be walking around Manhattan with Cam and presenting the image of a
happy couple.
Project Girlfriend had begun!
The Snowflake Inn
She was feeling the burn and could clearly see the light at the end
of the tunnel—or in this case, the clearing in the trees that meant the parking
lot was close—when it happened. Her knee buckled. A cry of dismay escaped
before she could help it, and next thing she knew, she was on the ground.
“Dammit,” she cried, pulling her knee to her chest as she rocked.
“Why now?” Tears threatened to fall, and all she could think about was the walk
to the car and how painful it was going to be. As much as her physical
therapist had told her recovery would take time, Grace felt like her body had
betrayed her.
“Are you all right?” a deep male voice said from behind her.
Uh-oh…
Cute Angry Guy is here, and
he’s talking to me! Looking up…and up…and
up, her eyes finally met his. Holy cow.
“Miss?”
Oh,
right. He asked you a question. “What? Oh, sorry… Um… Yes,
I’m fine,” she stammered and tried again to stand. But her darn knee wasn’t
quite onboard with the rest of her, and she went down again. She muttered a
curse and felt a blush creep up her cheeks in embarrassment.
He quirked a brow as he looked at her. “You don’t look like you’re
fine,” he said seriously and crouched beside her. “Did you hurt your knee?”
Grace nodded. “About six months ago in a skiing accident. I was in
rehab and physical therapy for months. I just decided to try to go back to my
jogging routine—at a slower pace, of course—and I thought I was doing okay.
Until about five minutes ago.”
Cute Angry Guy nodded. “You probably just pushed yourself a little
too hard.”
She shook her head. “In therapy, I can run twice as long without any
issues.”
“That’s on a treadmill. This is an uneven jogging path. It’s
completely different.”
Now she glared at him. “Thanks for pointing out the obvious,” she
snapped. If she had better luck, she’d be able to jump to her feet and walk
away with a sassy sway to her hips.
Clearly, she had no luck. On her third attempt at standing, Cute
Angry Guy wrapped a strong arm around her back and helped her to her feet.
“Thank you,” she said quietly and did her best to disengage from his embrace.
But he didn’t let her go. Looking up, Grace found herself trapped by the bluest
eyes she had ever seen. Her breath seemed to catch, and she couldn’t speak,
couldn’t breathe. The only thing saving her from complete and total
embarrassment was the fact that he seemed just as mesmerized by her as she was
by him.
“Can you walk?” he finally asked, his voice sounding rough to her
ears. Nodding weakly, unwilling to break their eye contact, she tried once
again to move away, but his arm seemed to tighten around her. “I’ll walk you to
your car.”
He clearly wasn’t big on conversation. At the moment, that suited
Grace just fine because she was having a hard time remembering how to form
words. Cute Angry Guy was big and a feast for all of her senses, but she had to
be careful to remember that he was a stranger. She knew nothing about him, and
as much as she wanted to ask him at least a dozen questions, there was
something to be said for companionable silence.
And walking really close together.
Deciding to just enjoy the moment, Grace pressed herself more firmly
against his warm, solid frame and began to walk slowly with him toward her car.
With the way they had been seeing each other all around town for the past
couple of days, she figured he’d know which car was hers without her saying
anything.
Sure enough, he did.
As they approached her little white sedan, they stopped and Grace
pulled her keys out of her jacket pocket. It was then that she realized what a
complete mess she must look like: black leggings, white jacket, and a green
wool scarf to match her green socks…ugh. And then there was the hair.
She was so not going to think about the hair.
Normally after her jog, Grace would take a few minutes in the car to
relax and apply some lip gloss and fix her hair before going anyplace else.
That was why she hadn’t been worried about approaching him the other day in
Starbucks. But now that he’d seen her in this—well, in all her ill-fated
glory—she was certain her current appearance had killed any attraction (real or
imagined).
Quickly and painfully.
Awesome.
“So, um…thanks for the help,” she said, feeling awkward. She
fidgeted with her hair, doing her best to tame it, and cursed herself for
refusing to wear a hat. At least a hat could have camouflaged the flyaway mess.
His lips twitched with an almost-smile as he watched her fidget
around. “Are you going to be okay to drive?”
Grace ran her hand through her hair and cursed when it got stuck.
With a wince, she pulled it out and forced herself to play with her keys and
try to remain calm. “Yes,” she said, wishing that the parking lot would just
open up beneath her and take her away. “I’ll be fine. I’ll go home and do the
whole ice-and-heat thing, take some ibuprofen, and call it a day.”
“You should probably call your therapist and let him take a look at
it.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have one here.”
“Then you should set up an appointment for when you get home.”
Grace gave him an odd look. “Get home? I am home. I live here.”
Now it was Cute Angry Guy’s turn to give her an odd look. “You live
here?”
She nodded. “I just moved here about six weeks ago. I thought I was
done with therapy, so I haven’t bothered to look up a therapist. But I guess
I’ll have to now.” She shrugged and turned to unlock her car. Once the door was
open, she turned and forced a smile on her face. “Anyway,” she said and did her
best to relax, “thank you for the help.”
“My pleasure.” His voice was deep and a little rough, and Grace
almost wanted to purr. Hearing the word pleasure
come from that mouth—which was pretty spectacular too—had her heart rate going
into overdrive.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” she said brightly and sat in
the car, wincing slightly as she bent her leg.
“Don’t wait to find a therapist. Call the one you know and see if
you can get a referral.”
“Thanks, I will.” She was just about to ask his name, but he turned
and walked away. And the rear view was as enticing as the front one. Grace
almost had to fan herself. Her first instinct was to call out to him, but
really, it was probably better not to. If he had been following her these past
couple of days, wouldn’t he have asked for her name or phone number? The fact
he hadn’t just proved Grace was imagining things. Bad hair and wardrobe aside,
the man couldn’t seem to get away from her fast enough.
With a depressed sigh, Grace pulled the car door shut and decided to
cut her losses and go. The drive through the small downtown area didn’t take
long, and when she saw Starbucks coming up, she decided she could deal with the
pain for a little bit longer. A white-chocolate peppermint mocha would go a
long way in helping her deal with it, of that she was certain.
It didn’t take long to park, and then she was surrounded by people
she was coming to know. She smiled and made small talk while she waited her
turn in line at the coffee shop. When one person was left in front of her,
Grace felt an odd tingle go down her spine. Turning her head, she had to
suppress a grin. There in the doorway stood Cute Angry Guy, and if her eyes
weren’t deceiving her, he was doing his best to suppress his own smile.
She wished he’d stop trying to hide it. With a face like that, he
had to have a smile that was positively breathtaking. Certain she’d never
really know, Grace turned her attention back to the counter and placed her
order as she made her way to the register to pay. She was mentally
congratulating herself on the fact she hadn’t turned around again.
Self-control—she’d known she had it in her somewhere.
“Thank you,” Grace said with a smile as she took the hot beverage
from the young barista. Turning slowly in the crowd, she made her way carefully
to the door, still doing her best to not look around and see if cute-angry-smirking-guy
was still there. I guess I’ll never know, she sighed
inwardly and headed back out to her car.
If her knee hadn’t been in so much pain, Grace was certain she’d
have a little pep in her step. Being rescued by a sexy stranger was certainly a
great way to start her day. A quick glance at her watch showed she needed to
get moving or she’d be late for work. And with so much on the line, the last
thing she wanted to do was mess that up.
Although she doubted anyone would blame her if they had seen the
sexy reason for her delay.
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