Chapter Nineteen

Eli looked over the room for a place to sit. It didn’t look much different than when he’d last been there. The Christmas tree was still bare, and boxes still littered the couch. Adeline had mentioned that business in her store had picked up since the film crew had arrived, and he’d discovered her making chocolates a little after five o’clock that morning, which meant little time for decorating.

Rather than move the boxes, he began to unload them. First things first—Christmas music. Oh, right. His phone was at the bottom of a drawer in his trailer. So he hummed instead. “Silent Night” seemed a good one to start with.

He continued the melody as he turned his attention to the Christmas tree. It looked so sad, bare and alone in the corner.

Most of the boxes held lights and ornaments of some kind, and he was unsure which ones Adeline preferred for the tree. He decided to go with the box that also held a tree skirt. Except, that one held ornaments that were bright pink. And the blue ones? Crikey. They were so bright, he wondered if he should be wearing sunglasses as he decorated. Surely she wouldn’t want him to decorate her tree with those ones.

Eli wondered if he should ask her first, but wandering into the kitchen felt like an intrusion. He sniffed the air. That hot chocolate smelled amazing, better than anything he ever made. Usually he just stuck a mug of water into the microwave for a minute, added a packet of hot chocolate powder, and called it a day.

Adeline appeared a moment later, two steaming mugs in hand, and caught him examining the ornaments as he tried to decide what to do. She smiled as she took in the scene, a flicker of guilt passing across her face. “I’ve been meaning to get around to it all week, but time flew by and I never had the chance.”

“No worries,” Eli said, then he hung a bright pink ornament near the top of the tree and showcased it for her, like he was a gameshow model. “What do you think?”

He thought Adeline would laugh and tell him there was no way those ornaments were going on the tree. Instead, she nodded in approval.

“Looks great. We just have to get the lights on first.”

His gaze swiveled between the pink ornament and Adeline. “You…want the pink ornaments on the tree?”

She nodded, her eyes bright, as if she were imagining what it would look like when they were finished. “I like to alternate the pink with the blue and white ones.” Adeline held a mug out to him. “You don’t have to help me decorate, though. You’ve had a crazy long day, and I know you have to be up early again. I appreciate the thought, though.”

Eli placed the blue ornament back in the box and took the mug from her. “I’m no busier than you are.”

She gave a small shrug. “The decorations will go up one way or another. I always make time for the little things. They’re what counts.” She paused. “You have an amazing voice, by the way. And ‘Silent Night’ is one of my favorites.”

The little things. Like hot chocolate after midnight on a cold December night. And an acapella version of “Silent Night” while hanging florescent pink ornaments.

Eli looked down at the dark, thick liquid in his mug. Without even tasting it, he could tell this was not made from a packet. “You just whipped this up from scratch?”

Adeline grinned, like she knew how impressive that was but didn’t want to admit it out loud. “You wanted hot chocolate, correct?”

“Yes, but…well, this is pretty amazing.”

Adeline gave an embarrassed smile, like it hadn’t been a big deal. Like she hadn’t already been on her feet all day, and then spent more time in the kitchen. “It’s easy to make.” She glanced around the room, and calm seemed to settle over her. “Besides, it fits my mood.”

Eli blew on his hot chocolate, nervous the first sip would be way too hot. “Are you going to decorate the outside of your home as well?”

Adeline’s smile dipped as she stirred her hot chocolate with a candy cane. “That’s not a choice I’ve been given. Normally, by now we’ve had a big town event where we erect a giant Christmas tree next to the boardwalk, and Christmas decorations are hung from the streetlamps. The shop owners usually decorate their front windows, and our homes look like they’ve been bedazzled.” She took a sip from her mug, looking thoughtful. “When you live next to the ocean, it can be easy to forget that the holidays are upon us, so we make sure we don’t miss out.”

“But then why…” He gestured toward outside, where there were obviously none of those things she’d just mentioned.

“Because of the contract you had some government official sign. Someone who doesn’t even live in Starlight Ridge.” Her gaze remained on the liquid in her mug as she sat down on the arm of the couch. “Your story takes place in the spring, which means no decorations. No pine trees. No Christmas.”

Oh, right. He hadn’t been the one to draw up the contract; a lawyer had done that part. But Eli had a faint recollection of the “no Christmas decorations” section.

Adeline’s gaze lifted, her eyebrows scrunched together. “Didn’t you read your own contract?”

Eli hesitated. “I…read the important parts.” He paused, realizing how that must have come across. He quickly added, “Not that prohibiting the town from decorating for Christmas wasn’t important. But, you see, it was a ton of pages. I mean, you saw the contract you needed to sign just for us to use your store. Now imagine one that covered the entire town.”

Adeline did not seem impressed. She placed her mug down on the coffee table in front of her. “Yeah, that’s part of the job.”

This wasn’t going well. It was late and had been a long day, and Eli apparently shouldn’t be doing this when so tired. In an effort to buy him a moment to regroup, he took a sip of hot chocolate.

The sweet liquid made Eli sit up straight. “You really made this from scratch?”

“I do work with chocolate for my profession.”

Right. Eli’s cheeks heated with embarrassment as he continued to drink. It was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. But he couldn’t use it to avoid the topic of discussion forever. After a long pause, he said, “There are some things I do for my job, and there are others that I delegate. With my dyslexia, well, I usually let others do most of the reading.”

Adeline nodded thoughtfully, then picked up her mug and drained the last of the hot chocolate, like she was trying to get every last drop. When she lowered the mug, she had a thin layer of chocolate above her lip. It was endearing. “I suppose it doesn’t matter now, because there’s no changing the contract.” She gathered up the mugs and took them to the kitchen.

To Eli’s relief, when she returned, her eyes were bright once again. “Even though I know we have to be up for work in like five hours or something, Christmas is only twenty-three days away, and I haven’t had any time to enjoy it yet.” She then pulled her phone from her pocket and rapidly touched the screen. It wasn’t more than a moment later that Christmas music flooded the room. “If I fall asleep on Daisy in the morning, kindly wake me up, and then save me from her wrath.” She then reached into the same box that held the pink ornaments and pulled out a strand of Christmas lights.

Eli joined her, helping to untangle the knot the lights had gotten themselves into.

She raised a questioning eyebrow, but her lips pulled up at the same time. “Are you sure you want to stay? I’ve apparently been causing problems on the set, and I’d hate to be blamed for you forgetting lines tomorrow because I kept you up all night.”

He fought a smile. Even though he knew she was right, he didn’t care. Not tonight, anyway. Adeline could keep him up as late as she wanted. Eli focused his attention on trying to figure out how the lights had gotten so tangled in the first place. It had been years since he’d done this kind of thing. Since he’d gotten married, a professional decorator had always taken care of it at Eli’s home. Diane had wanted it to look perfect, with everything coordinated and nothing out of place for the Christmas party they threw every year.

Eli preferred the homemade look. He’d always figured that a party for friends shouldn’t look like they were trying to land on the cover of a home decor magazine. Who knew, maybe if he’d had it his way, it would have even included florescent pink and blue ornaments.

“I’m going to stay until it’s finished,” he said as he freed a portion of lights. Victory! “You deserve Christmas.”

Adeline’s movements stilled, and when he glanced toward her, he saw that she was watching him with a look he hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t like when they had kissed, when her gaze had been filled with desire. This one went deeper than that.

When their eyes locked, she dropped her gaze and again busied herself with the lights. “Outside. Before I invited you in,” she said as she worked, “I hesitated when I shouldn’t have.”

Eli jumped in, his words quick. “My intention wasn’t to pressure you, and I said too much.”

“Did you mean what you said?”

Yes, he had. But his first inclination was to brush it off and say that it had been the heat of the moment. Anything to save himself the embarrassment of being turned down. He wasn’t used to the feeling of rejection, and he didn’t like it. Of course, he wasn’t used to caring so much either.

But when he looked at Adeline, her hair messed up from the long day, and her blouse with drops of chocolate on it, he knew he couldn’t pretend.

“Every word of it.”

Adeline didn’t say anything right away, and when she did, her words caught him off guard. “I’m a byproduct of the dark side of Hollywood. And I viewed you, and everything connected with this movie, in the same light. I haven’t wanted to give you a chance, because I’ve been scared to.” She looked up. “I’m sorry.”

The dark side of Hollywood? That sounded like pretty deep stuff. Adeline must have seen the confusion in his features because, as she began to string the now-untangled lights on the tree, she continued.

“My grandparents on both sides were actors in Hollywood. My mother grew up in that environment, and while never pursuing acting herself, she was irresistibly drawn to my father. I was the product of a shotgun wedding. Ten years later, when out of town and working on a movie, my father decided that he loved his costar more than my mother and me. And he left.”

Eli had stopped decorating, but stared, drinking in every word she said. Every interaction he’d had with her was clicking into place, coming together in the giant puzzle that was Adeline Baker.

Wait…Baker. It was a fairly common last name, but still. It was possible. “Your dad. It’s not Lee Baker, by any chance, is it?”

A shadow passed over Adeline’s features. Yup. Same guy. Eli had worked with Lee on several projects, and they’d always gotten along well. Of course, Eli had only ever worked with him on a professional basis. Sounded like his personal life had a less-than-stellar record, which wasn’t unusual in their line of work.

Her voice held thinly disguised disdain for her father when she said, “You know him.”

“Not as well as I’d thought, apparently. I hope the chicken outfits weren’t the extent of his generosity after he left.” Eli now saw how horrible a gift that must have been at the time.

Adeline’s features smoothed. “He paid my mother enough each year in child support for her to buy this house and move us out of LA. She wanted to protect me from the toxicity of that kind of lifestyle. And I promised her that I’d have nothing to do with it.”

And then Eli had shown up. With his crew. Turning the town upside down. And wanting to film inside her store. He was starting to understand.

“That’s a good mom.”

Adeline shrugged, then wriggled herself through a small opening behind the tree and plugged the strand of lights into the wall. Most of them lit up, but there were several that remained dark. Eli smiled when, rather than replace them, she hid the burnt-out lights behind the boughs of the tree.

“My mom did what she could for me, but the call of the famous was too strong for her. She’s married another two or three times since returning to LA. Can’t get enough of the glamorous dresses. Even when we lived here, she loved to pretend we were still fancy.” A flicker of a smile finally returned, and Adeline’s gaze found his. “She had a bit of a reputation here in town.”

Eli returned her smile. He could imagine. After finishing with his strand of lights and plugging it in, he turned to Adeline. She was bathed in the red, white, and green glow from the tree. He’d never seen anyone look so beautiful. He took her hands in his. “I already asked you this once before, but I’m going to ask you again. Do you trust me?”

She studied him, as if looking for the answer, and then she smiled, seeming to have found what she was looking for. “Yes. I do. And I keep asking myself if that is a mistake. What if I’m blind, and you’re more like my father than I’m willing to admit? He was charming, like you. And funny. And kind. And swept my mom off her feet. And they were ridiculously happy for a decade.” Her smile dipped. “Until he got bored. There was a whole world out there to explore, and coming home to the same woman just wasn’t exciting anymore.” Adeline paused, as if there was something else that she didn’t want to say.

“What is it?”

Adeline’s gaze dropped to her hands, which still rested in his. She hesitated and wouldn’t look at him when she said, “And he was divorced, like you. My mom wasn’t his first wife. And there had to be a reason for that.”

And that was what it came down to.

Eli placed a finger under Adeline’s chin and tilted her face up toward him until their gazes met. “I’m not asking you to decide on forever. I’m just asking for a chance. A chance to show you that I’m not your dad. And I’m not Benjamin.”

“A chance, huh?” The skepticism and uncertainty that had clouded Adeline’s gaze lifted. “I suppose I can make that happen.” Her eyes were now warm and inviting, and she wrapped an arm around his waist. “Where should we start?”

Eli grinned and pulled her in close. “How about we start here…” And then he placed a kiss on her lips that was so soft, his lips barely brushed hers. He felt her shiver under the kiss, and he smiled, happy he could evoke that kind of reaction in her. “And then, we finish over here.” He pulled back, his arms falling from her waist, and he picked up a pink ornament and rotated it in the air. “Because I can’t stand the thought of you accidentally stepping on one of these and suffering the same fate I did. Besides, we need to clear up some couch space if I’m going to become a more regular visitor.”

Adeline laughed. “I think we’re going to need more hot chocolate.” She stepped toward the kitchen, but Eli caught her hand and pulled her back.

“And more kisses.”

And the next one Adeline gave him was not so short.

Eli could get used to this.

But where did that leave him and Benjamin?