A Mistletoe Affair (7 page)

Jordan’s chest tightened as he contemplated whether or not
he
was really ready to take that momentous step.

He sure as hell wasn’t going to go the rest of his life without a woman. He loved women too much. He cherished the feeling of waking up with a soft, warm body snuggled up next to him. Relished the simple pleasures of sharing his life with another human being.

But Jordan would be the first to admit that his ex-wife had done a number on him. After the whirlwind that had been his love affair with Allison and the heartache she’d caused when she walked out on him and Mason, the thought of allowing another woman to get that close, of trusting another woman not to hurt both him and his son, was something he just didn’t know if he could do.

The image of Vicki’s sweet, subtle smile flashed before him, and the tightness in his chest eased ever so slightly.

Something about this felt right. Whether it was because of the way she treated Mason, or something deeper, he couldn’t say yet, but Jordan had the suspicion that if he didn’t explore these new feelings he would regret it.

He pulled up to the Victorian, unstrapped Mason from his car seat and started up the stairs. Even though clients were in and out of the Victorian all the time, he still knocked on the front door before walking in.

Vicki was in the front parlor, straightening a bow on the massive Christmas wreath that hung above the fireplace.

“Hi there, you two,” she greeted.

If he was a betting man, Jordan would put his money on Mason being the reason her face lit up the way it did. But it felt damn good to pretend it was because she was happy to see him.

She hurried over to them and took Mason from his arms.

Yeah, that was what he’d figured.

Vicki tickled Mason’s chin. He responded with that smile made to melt hearts. His son was such a flirt.

“Sandra isn’t here,” she said. “She had to meet with a client in Portsmouth.”

“I’m not here to see Sandra. Actually, I’m here to see you.”

Her pretty brown eyes widened. “Me?”

“Mason and I are going shopping for a Christmas tree. I figured I should probably get one.” There was no need to mention that it was initially his mother’s idea. “I was hoping you could give me some advice on the type of tree I should get. I don’t want one that will shed pine needles. He loves putting things in his mouth.”

“I noticed that Tuesday night,” she said as she grinned down at Mason. “When it comes to picking out a tree, it’s more about how you maintain it than the particular variety. Needle retention is better in some, but honestly, as long as you keep it properly watered, any tree you get should keep its needles well past Christmas.”

“Ah. Okay,” Jordan said.

Her brow dipped in a curious frown. “Was that the only thing you needed?”

It suddenly occurred to him that if he’d wanted her to think he was just seeking advice, a simple phone call would have sufficed. Which made his trip here even
more
transparent.

Which begged the question, why was he being vague?

Over the past week, if his mind wasn’t occupied with Mason or the election, he was thinking about Vicki. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that thoughts of Vicki had usurped the election.

What he felt for her was real. He wanted this. He wanted
her.

And if he was going to do this—if he was really going to pursue Vicki, then he needed to
do
this. No more skirting around the issue.

“Actually,” Jordan began, “I was...uh... I was thinking that maybe—if you have time, that is—that you’d like to come with us? If you have the time.”

Well, that was as smooth as a porcupine’s ass.

When had he become so inept at asking a pretty girl out? He wasn’t even asking her
out
out just yet; he was only asking her to help him pick a Christmas tree, for crying out loud. How was he going to ask her out on a genuine date if he couldn’t do something this simple?

“I know it’s still pretty early.” He glanced at his watch. It was just after two in the afternoon. “I understand if you can’t leave your flower shop just yet.”

A delicate smile drew across Vicki’s lips. Either she went for bumbling idiots, or she was laughing at him. Maybe both.

“You’re inviting me to go tree shopping?” she asked.

“I’d appreciate an expert’s opinion.” He shook his head and blew out a frustrated breath. “That’s not true,” he said. “At least that’s not the only reason.”

He shifted from one foot to the other like a nervous schoolboy, which put the final stamp on this humiliating episode.

Dammit, enough of this!

It had been a while since he’d approached a woman, but he wasn’t completely out of his element. Not to brag, but he’d won a few hearts in the past. He could do this.

“Look, Vicki. The truth is I really enjoyed hanging out with you the other night. Even though I slept most of your visit, the brief time I
was
awake it was nice to talk to someone—another adult who isn’t my mom or Sandra or someone involved with the election.”

He gestured to the topiary adorned in glittering gold-and-red foil ribbon.

“You’re really into all this Christmas decorating and floral-design stuff, so I thought you’d enjoy tree shopping.” He paused for a moment. “Now that I think about it, it was pretty presumptuous to assume that you’d just drop everything to help me pick out a Christmas tree. Maybe I’ll come over another time, when you’re not busy. I’ll let you get back to what you were doing.”

Feeling like an ass, he lifted Mason from her arms and started for the door.

“Jordan?” He looked back to find her staring at him, an amused expression edging up the corners of her lips. “I would love to go Christmas tree shopping with the two of you.”

His eyes widened. “Really?” Maybe she
did
go for bumbling idiots.

She nodded. “Yes, really. Give me a few minutes to lock up, and we can go.”

Jordan tried to stop the huge smile from spreading across his face, but that wasn’t going to happen. He would probably smile like this for the rest of the night.

Chapter 5

V
icki cursed the nervous energy shooting through her bloodstream and the stupid butterflies fluttering around her idiot stomach. But how in the heck was she supposed to control them when Jordan Woolcott was in the parlor—not waiting to see Sandra, but to see
her?

“Calm down,” Vicki cautioned herself. Apparently, she was in need of a little refresher history lesson.

How long had she pined for this man?

For years, Jordan had never bothered to look her way. Yet all of a sudden, he was showing interest. What made him any different than the dozen men who’d strolled into Petals this week with a newfound appreciation for fresh flowers?

Because this was Jordan.

As much as she wanted to make him work for her attention, she just couldn’t play hard to get when it came to Jordan. Because he was the one she’d always wanted.

Vicki’s chest tightened with anticipation at the thought of him finally wanting her in the same way she wanted him.

She’d sensed a change in the air. Something about the way he’d looked at her on Tuesday, as if he was seeing her for the first time. She’d tried to disregard it, too afraid she was looking for something that wasn’t really there. But the look in his eyes as he’d so adorably fumbled his way through that invitation to go tree shopping confirmed what she thought she’d seen before leaving his house the other night.

She paused for a moment and inhaled a deep, calming breath. She didn’t want to get ahead of herself. It wasn’t as if she was the best at reading men; she didn’t want to think how foolish she would feel if she’d misjudged his intentions.

Vicki lifted her purse and coat from the coatrack and then shut down her computer. Just as she started for the foyer, the phone rang. She almost let it go to voice mail, but remembered that she was expecting a call from a fellow florist in Durham who possibly wanted to go in on a huge decorating job in Boston.

“Petals,” she answered. “This is Vicki. How may I help you?”

“Ms. Ahlfors, this is Robin Tooney with the Wintersage Holiday Extravaganza Day Parade.”

Her heart instantly started to thump a million times faster against the walls of her chest.

“Yes. Hello,” Vicki stammered.

“Ms. Ahlfors, the committee has made its decision on the submissions that were entered for this year’s competition.” Vicki’s heart jumped right up into her throat. “It is my pleasure to inform you that you’ve been granted a float in this year’s parade. Congratulations.”

“Oh, my,” she whispered. Her capacity to think evaporated, but she quickly pulled herself together. “I’m stunned, and thrilled, of course. Thank you so much.”

“The committee was completely charmed by your idea of Christmas celebrations from around the world. I know you’ve had a hand in creating several floats for other participants in the past. I can’t wait to see what you create for your own.”

“I’m looking forward to showing you. Thank you again.”

Robin Tooney instructed her on where to find the newly updated guidelines for float building on the committee’s website and filled her in on the deadline information.

After ending the call, Vicki just stood there for a moment in stunned disbelief. Then she threw her fists in the air and yelped.

“
Yes!
Yes! Yes! Yes!”

“I don’t mean to pry, but I’m assuming you just received some good news?”

She whipped around to find Jordan standing in the arched entryway that led to Petals’s retail area. Heat instantly flooded her cheeks, but she was too excited to try hiding her embarrassment.

His brow arched. “So?”

“I got in,” Vicki said with a breathless laugh. “I can’t believe I got in.”

“In where?”

She pointed to the phone. “That was the head of the float committee for the Wintersage Holiday Extravaganza Day Parade. I submitted an idea for a float, and it was accepted! After providing flowers for dozens of other floats over the years, for the first time Petals will have its own in the parade.”

“That’s wonderful, Vicki. The Christmas parade is a pretty big deal. But that’s also a pretty big undertaking, isn’t it?”

“It is, but I think I can do it,” Vicki said. She shook her head. “No, I
know
I can do it.”

Wintersage Holiday Extravaganza Day had grown into a region-wide event, reaching far beyond the boundaries of their small New England town. And the parade had become the focal point of the entire day. Businesses from several cities stretching along the coast, and as far inland as Lowell, used the opportunity to promote their brands.

As the floats had grown more elaborate over the past several years, larger floral-design shops had begun courting the businesses. A number of those larger shops had managed to steal away several of her customers. One of her previous clients, a marina that catered to Wintersage’s elite, had the audacity to take the design Vicki had created for them and bring it to a competing florist to actually produce the float.

And, like the pushover she
used
to be, she’d allowed it.

Not anymore. The new Vicki was not going to quietly sit back while others took all the glory. This year she had something to prove.

When her float took to the streets of Wintersage and held its own against the stiff competition she was sure to face, her family would be forced to see her as the serious, career-minded entrepreneur that she was, and not the owner of just a “little flower shop.”

A mischievous grin spread across her lips. “I’m really going to do this,” she said. “I’m going to put Petals on the map. I really,
really
wanted to get in. It feels amazing.”

“You need to celebrate,” Jordan said.

“Yes, I do. Luckily for you, Christmas tree shopping is exactly the kind of thing a florist does to celebrate.” She sent him a cheeky wink. “Let’s go.”

Vicki was stunned at her own audaciousness, but she didn’t care. She was much too giddy over the news she’d just received to feel self-conscious.

It didn’t make sense to take separate cars, so she joined Jordan in his. As she sat ensconced in the supple leather seat, she closed her eyes and pulled in a healthy whiff of his scent. There was something about the combination of sandalwood and a man’s unique essence that drove her crazy.

Of course, when that man was Jordan Woolcott, the sandalwood was optional. He drove her crazy merely by existing—always had.

“Have you thought about a theme for your float?” Jordan asked.

“Christmas from Around the World. I got the idea from my favorite ornament from when I was a little girl. It has Santa Claus dressed in traditional garb from various cultures around the globe. My mom used to tell me that Santa’s clothes would magically change as the reindeer flew him to different countries.”

He grinned. “And you believed that, huh?”

“I was five, of course I believed it.”

“Do you still have the ornament?”

She nodded. “I’ve kept all of my ornaments. I buy a new one every year to add to the collection.”

“So what’s this year’s?”

“I haven’t gotten one yet.” She stared out the window at the myriad boats hugging the harbor’s shoreline. “I always try to find an ornament that reflects something significant that happened during the previous year. Maybe I’ll find something to commemorate all the changes that have happened over the past couple of months.” She looked over at him. “This is turning out to be a year that I’ll want to remember for a long time to come.”

“I know what you mean,” he said in a quiet voice. “It’s been memorable in more ways than one.”

There it was again, that flicker of awareness she’d felt the other night. It started with a spark that turned into a slow burn, humming in the air around them.

“Do you have any Christmas traditions from when you were a little boy that you plan to pass on to Mason?” she asked.

He shrugged the shoulder closest to her. “Just being with family. That’s always been at the core of the Woolcotts’ holidays. Although I do like the idea of an ornament collection,” he said. “Maybe I should start one for him.”

Vicki looked over her shoulder at the baby. He was engrossed in a colorful plastic centipede with antennae that rattled.

“You should,” she said. “He’ll cherish them for the rest of his life.”

She twisted back in her seat and caught Jordan staring at her, his gaze probing, penetrating. Once again, the air pulsed with energy, a tangible force that provoked all manner of interesting ideas to blossom in her head.

“You, uh, should probably pay attention to the road,” Vicki said.

“Oh,” Jordan said, quickly turning his head forward.

The flutter that had previously traveled around her belly returned with a vengeance. The awareness that had been a faint suggestion just a few moments earlier now saturated the air around them, flooding the space with a potent mix of something Vicki couldn’t quite describe.

She’d thought about the spark of desire that had flashed between them Tuesday night at least a million times over the past couple of days, trying to decide whether it was real or just a figment of her wishful imagination. But she had not imagined the look in Jordan’s eyes just a few moments ago, when his piercing gaze had captured hers and held it. He’d looked at her as if he was seeing the real her for the first time.

There was just one problem: she had yet to decide if this really
was
the real her.

As much as she loved her new wardrobe and haircut, she was still the same Vicki Ahlfors she’d always been on the inside. Quiet, sensible, reliable Vicki. How could she be sure Jordan was interested in more than just the aesthetics?

They arrived at a parking lot jam-packed with cars as the residents of Wintersage and its surrounding towns scoped out Christmas trees. Vicki unstrapped Mason from his car seat and waited while Jordan unfolded the stroller he’d just taken out of the trunk. The minute she tried to sit him in the stroller, Mason started to wail.

“I don’t know what’s up with him today,” Jordan said. He took the baby from her and held him over his shoulder, patting him gently on the back. “Something has him fussier than usual. Hopefully the walk will calm him down.”

They started for the entrance to the tree lot. Vicki pushed the empty stroller, just in case they were able to cajole Mason into sitting in it a bit later.

“Is this the only tree lot around?” Jordan remarked. “This place is packed.”

“It’s definitely the biggest for several counties,” she said. “And they have the widest selection. Let’s just hope people haven’t picked over all the good ones.”

Vicki felt a familiar excitement building as they traveled along the rows of freshly cut trees. Christmas carols floated from speakers nestled throughout the vast lot, and the scent of pine and evergreen hung in the air. It encompassed everything she loved about this time of the year.

She was having a hard time keeping her active imagination at bay. It was all too easy to let her mind wander into the cozy yet dangerous territory of this being the real thing. She, Jordan and Mason strolling through the crowd of other young families made her long for things that were not a guarantee.

After contemplating several choices, they chose a balsam fir because of the low maintenance and its tendency to retain its needles.

After Jordan paid for the tree and for home delivery, he turned to her and said, “That was relatively painless. Now I guess the next thing I need to do is get some ornaments.”

“You don’t have ornaments from last year?”

“I wasn’t really in the spirit last year,” he said.

“Oh, right,” Vicki said, feeling a bit like an idiot. His ex-wife had just left him to raise their young baby on his own around Christmastime last year. That would take the holiday spirit out of anyone.

“To be honest, this will be my first time putting up a tree,” Jordan said.

Vicki’s mouth fell open in horrified shock.

“Hey.” His palms shot up in mock surrender. “I didn’t kill an elf or anything. Not everyone gets into the whole stocking-and-tree rigmarole. My mom has always done more than enough at Christmas to make up for my lack of decorating.” He shrugged. “I just never found it necessary.”

“Well, you do realize that’s changed now, right?”

He looked down at Mason, who had finally allowed Jordan to put him into his stroller about ten minutes ago.

“Yes. Like so many other things, he’s changed the way I celebrate the holidays. He’s changed everything.”

“For the better,” Vicki said.

“Absolutely,” he said, his eyes still focused on his son.

Once they were in the car again, they headed back toward Wintersage.

“The guy at the lot said they would have the tree delivered no later than six o’clock. That will give me time to bring you back to the Victorian.” He looked over at her. “Unless you want to help pick out some ornaments?”

His tone, the look in his eyes, the way his voice dipped ever so slightly... It all gave her the impression that his question was more than just an invitation to go ornament shopping.

“I don’t think you need help picking out ornaments,” Vicki said. “But if you don’t mind the company, I would love to join you.”

“You’re right. Your decorating expertise isn’t exactly what I’m interested in.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “This is new territory for me, Vicki.”

Her heart started to pound in her chest.

“What’s new territory?” she asked.

“This uncertainty, the awkwardness.” He blew out a heavy breath. “I’m not used to questioning myself—questioning my feelings—and that’s all I’ve done since Tuesday night.” He paused, and then he looked over at her, his eyes full of intent. “I don’t want to question it anymore.”

The pounding intensified, to the point that she thought her heart would burst right out of her chest.

“I’m enjoying your company,” he continued. “And you can tell me if I’m way off base here, but I get the feeling you’re enjoying this, too.”

She swallowed deeply, then shook her head. “You’re not off base,” she managed to get out.

The slow smile that drew across his lips sent a swarm of tingles skittering along Vicki’s spine.