Page 18 of Sinful Santa
Ophelia clicked her tongue and walked over to the boxes of decorations she’d had delivered from Haven to help her granddaughter find the glittery strands. In the meantime, Tahlia paused from decoration duties and meandered over to what she now knew was a piano.
“I’ve always wanted to learn an instrument,” she murmured and lifted the piano’s lid to run her fingers over the keys. Tahlia felt more than saw Nelson appear at her side, his presence weighty but not unwelcome. She watched his fingers spread overthe piano keys; they stretched and curled between the white and the black as if the instrument itself was giving them life.
“I could teach you.” Tahlia met his gaze. The flames from the fireplace were reflected back at her, performing a mesmerizing dance in his dark eyes. “Join me?”
Matt gestured to the bench under the piano, but Tahlia didn’t budge.
“I thought you said you barely remember how to play,” she pointed out in a tease. “How can you teach me?”
He shrugged and sidled closer until his arm was touching hers. “Maybe we can find out how much I remember together?”
Maybe it was the warmth in the room, the sound of the kids laughing as they threw tinsel around the tree with Jed and Ophelia, or Christmas magic, but for some reason sitting down with him at that piano sounded like the most natural thing in the world. As if being at his side was…right.
One second, they were standing and the next sitting side by side, Matt guiding her right hand to the keys. Tahlia held her breath when he laid his hand over hers and directed it onto the smooth panels.
“These three,” he tapped three of his fingers against hers, his voice soft, “that’s a chord. C Major.”
“C Major,” Tahlia repeated in a whisper, unable to be any louder. He was leaning in, chin almost on her shoulder, his other arm looped loosely around her, his hand resting on the edge of the bench.
“Now press down with just those fingers…” He put the slightest pressure on her hand. Tahlia did as she was told, but she was so flustered that her middle finger slipped and tapped the wrong key.
“Oh, sorry.” Did she squeak?
“It’s alright,” he said in the same gentle tone. “Try again.”
“Why don’t, um,” she pulled her hand out from his with an embarrassed smile, “why don’t you show me? Play something so I can see? Please?”
Matt peered at where Tahlia’s hand had been for a few seconds before he straightened up. “Uh, yeah, of course. Erm…what do you want me to play?”
“Anything.” Tahlia wasn’t able to speak above a whisper. Matt had turned to her and now his face was inches from hers. For a moment, no more than a second, it seemed as if everything and everyone else disappeared from the room, the music, the kids, the piano, until the only thing she was aware of was him.
From the way he froze, she wondered if the same thing was happening to him. As if the two of them had been pulled into a pocket of the universe. Only his eyes moved, traveling over her face, searching for something, in the same manner he had done in the kitchen, but Tahlia was certainly not imagining it. An intense urge to shift just a centimeter closer, to tilt her head in just the right way, came over her and she was in danger of surrendering.
“PlayJingle Bells, Daddy!”
Kaiden’s request rent the illusion apart and Tahlia was on her feet the next second, heading toward the kitchen. Behind her, the kids were begging their father to play; not long after she heard the smooth sounds of Matt playingJingle Bells.
In the kitchen, Tahlia leaned over the sink and took deep breaths to calm her racing heart. She’d almost kissed her boss. In front of his family. First that tense moment on the mountain and now this. What was going on with her?
Was it her breakup? Maybe she wasn’t totally over it yet and the crush on Matt was the result of a subconscious desire for affection or…or something. He was different from Dale. Very different. Matt cared deeply about his family. She tried to remind herself he had his faults; he was a chronic workaholicwith an intense superiority complex, but that didn’t make her forget about the way he made her feel safe and warm and…wanted.
She was in deep,deeptrouble.
15
Haven was decorated to the nines for Christmas. Stepping out of the car on Main Street was like entering a tooth-rotting sweet TV movie. Windows were draped in red ribbon and garland, a Christmas tree stood on nearly every corner, red and gold bows were tied to lampposts, all amid Christmas lights Tahlia knew were dazzling at night. Add to that the gentle fall of delicate snowflakes and it was the most picturesque town in existence.
“They’ve really outdone themselves this year,” Ophelia remarked with a happy sigh.
“It’s a bit much, don’t ya think?” Jed grumbled, eyeing an almost clichéd image of children building a snowman in the park across the street.
Ophelia gave his shoulder an admonishing tap. “It’s perfect. Tahlia. Tell him it’s perfect! He listens to you.”
“I don’t know about that, but I do think the town is lovely,” Tahlia admitted with a healthy blush.
“Of course it is. Matt, what do you- where did that boy go?” Ophelia looked about in surprise. “How does he do that?”
Tahlia did a quick search herself and, lo and behold, Matt was about a block down from the way the family had walked, standing in front of a shop.
