Page 32 of Under the Mistletoe
Of course it would, because Astryn had the same passion and fire as their mother. Fitting. His father had presented it to his mother as a love gift, and now Orin would present it to Astryn. Maybe Rand had underestimated Orin’s motives for this arrangement.
A servant knocked, then entered and bowed, waiting for instruction.
“Inform Princess Astryn that we will join her for the midday meal.” Orin turned back to Rand as the servant left. “It’s time for the two most important people in my life to get to know each other.”
“Will you give it to her today?” Astryn’s pale-blue eyes flashed in his mind unbidden, and the ache inside built once more.
“No.” Orin laid the necklace on a black velvet pillow. “We need Cambria to agree to the final terms before I will present it to her at the signing of the contract tomorrow. The necklace will represent good faith until the marriage. As will the mantle they will present me with.”
The words hit him in the chest. Contract. Not love. He closed his eyes, willing the fire in his blood to cool again.
She deserved so much more than what her parents had arranged for her. But who was he to stop it? What did he have to offer? His heart? It didn’t matter what his heart wanted. His will was stronger. “Of course.”
* * *
Logan ran his hand over his face.I’ll give you this. When you decide to put your heart on the page, you don’t hold anything back. Maybe Luke wasn’t completely off base. After all, he’d written this after seeing Devin’s heart and determination to help the kids. After hearing about her lousy Christmases.
This whole thing was humiliating. At least only his family knew he was Victor Holt and Liam was still stuck in Switzerland. The last thing he needed was to give him any ideas.
Devin doesn’t want me.
We think she might.
Have you ever considered telling her how you feel?
Opening up to her face? The idea was a punch and made his throat tighten. Not to mention he refused to date his brother’s ex.
Why couldn’t he be more like Liam? Liam didn’t lock himself in a cabin and make the whole family worry. Liam didn’t need to thaw. Liam didn’t hide his feelings. He charmed everyone in sight. The guy was walking stinking sunshine.
Logan stood and continued through the mall. He definitely wasn’t Rand. Maybe Rand was the kind of guy he always wanted to be, but no, he was much more like Orin. Steady, dependable, boring. Emotionally frozen.
A purple sign hanging in a window of a bookstore caught his eye. The familiar promo poster forThe Defenderencouraged people to preorder it today. Who would have guessed all this when he’d sat down to write the first story? Not him.
“Would you take a photo for us?” A girl maybe a year or two younger appeared in front of him.
“What?” He focused on the group of girls.
The one who had spoken pointed to the poster, where several girls were now in the display window posing as they pointed to the poster. “Of us with the poster.”
As soon as he nodded, she took off to join her friends. He took several pictures, then flipped the camera and angled it so it was a selfie with them in the background. They were all laughing when they reclaimed the camera, then disappeared into the bookstore. They’d probably just thought he was trying to flirt with them. Nope.
Now they would delete it, not knowing that they had the first photo of Victor Holt with the book. Didn’t matter. He didn’t need the attention. He was just steady Orin.
As he continued navigating the Christmas crowd toward the car, he stepped around a lady who was bent over her stroller and then dodged some teen who had stopped to take selfies. Got to love the holiday crowds. When he tried to sidestep a toddler throwing a fit, Logan nearly took out a jewelry kiosk. He waited for the mother to collect her child. He glanced at the display and then did a double take.
There, lying on a piece of blue satin, was a silver bracelet with Christmas charms.
Hadn’t Devin asked for a charm bracelet but gotten books instead? He eyed the woman sitting by the register and scrolling through her phone, then tapped on the glass before pointing at the bracelet. “Can I look at this?”
She stood with a sigh, as if he were inconveniencing her. She unlocked the case and laid the bracelet on a black velvet cloth. She gave the price and pointed toward the case where more than a hundred other charms were displayed. “For that price, you get a total of six charms, and any additional charms are as marked.”
Her tone had zero inflection, but Logan was sold. Because like Astryn, Devin deserved better. And Rand might not be able to do anything about Astryn, but he could make sure Devin got a real Christmas present this year. But he couldn’t just give it to her.
He rolled the dilemma over a few times, then the answer struck. It looked like Devin was getting a Secret Santa gift after all.
six
Putting the kids first had become her mantra to the point Devin was probably mumbling it in her sleep, but looking around the Mathewses’ property on late Sunday afternoon, she couldn’t deny that it had been worth it. Even now more than a dozen kids still skated around the pond, and the event had technically been over thirty minutes ago. She glanced at the bonfire Mr. Mathews had set up in a small clearing. Normally a fire would have sent her into a panic with this many kids, but Luke, Thomas, and Pastor Nate, three of the local volunteer firemen, had taken shifts manning it.
