The Mistletoe Effect (24 page)

“But I was standing outside my dad’s office and heard you two talking. He gave you his blessing with the Granite Hill job.”

“He did, but I changed my mind. You mean more to me than any job ever could.”

Feeling tears pricking at her eyes, she bit her lip. Decker pulled her into an embrace, holding her close as her father continued.

“My daughter has a lot to think about, and I’ll give her all the time she needs, but we’re not going to hold up this party for that. We have more than fifty couples who traveled from all the corners of the earth to be here tonight to renew the vows they once made to each other on this very ground, this very month. On behalf of the whole Briscoe family, we’re honored to have y’all back with us here. With that, I’d like to turn over the microphone to Chaplain Roberts. All you couples renewing your vows, come on up front and center here on the dance floor. Folks, let’s give them all a round of applause.”

“Are you ready for this?” Decker asked.

“Our last jinx prevention duty. I’ve been waiting for this moment all day,” Carina said.

Decker took her hand. “Same here.”

He led her into the middle of the throng of couples of all ages, from those who got married at the resort more than forty years earlier to those who got married the week before.

A screech of reverberation rattled the speakers as Granny June shouldered the chaplain out of the way and took the mic. “Carina and Decker, get on up here with the rest of the Briscoes. It’s part of the tradition.”

Carina groaned, but Decker bent close to her ear. “As long as she doesn’t make me dance again. That one time at our wedding reception was my quota for the decade.”

That struck Carina’s funny bone in such a way that she was giggling the whole way up the stairs, hand-in-hand with him. They tucked in between her parents and Haylie and Wendell. Carina chanced a look at Haylie, whose gaze darted between Carina and Decker, a hand covering her open mouth. Carina supposed it would be a whammy of a surprise to discover she had married the man both sisters used to lie awake daydreaming about as teenagers, enumerating his many crush-worthy qualities. Carina winked at Haylie, then turned her full attention back to Decker and the chaplain.

The moment quickly took on a surreal quality for Carina, not unlike her and Decker’s wedding. She’d stood on the sidelines of this ceremony at the Mistletoe Ball so many times, she knew Chaplain Roberts’s words by memory, but as she faced Decker, their hands and hearts joined, this was the first time a wedding or vow renewal was anything more than something she had to sit through for the business. This time, with Decker, was all for her.

“So,” she said. “Are we going to Fort Worth or are we staying here at the resort and taking my dad’s offers?”

Love twinkled in Decker’s eyes. “The choice is between here and California, and either place is fine by me. Home for me is wherever you are.”

She looked out across the crowd and found Emily in the back, easy to spot in her white chef jacket and hat. Nearby stood Alex and Xavier with their twins, ready to renew their own vows. A pang of longing hit her at the idea of saying good-bye to her best friends—missing the chance to watch Alex and Xavier’s kids grow up and waxing poetic with Emily about bacon and maybe, hopefully, watching as she found her own true love. And for all their idiosyncrasies, Carina loved her family. Being so far away from them would be hard—probably harder than she could even imagine.

Decker was right; home was wherever the two of them were together, but the richness of their lives came from the people in it and from the wild and wonderful family business she’d been raised a part of. “Let’s stay here.”

His smile reached from ear to ear. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

He squeezed her hands as Chaplain Roberts’s voice boomed over the hushing crowd, “We have gathered together on this glorious Christmas Eve not to mark the start of these couples’ relationships, but to celebrate their bonds of love that have continued to grow and strengthen—”

“I just have one more question for you before we do this thing,” Decker whispered over Chaplain Roberts’s words.

“Yes?”

Decker cocked his head. “What seasonal underwear do you have on under that Mrs. Claus wedding dress? Halloween, Fourth of July?”

Funny he should mention it …
“My lucky shamrock thong, of course.”

He rolled his tongue along the inside of his lower lip, clearly tickled by the idea. “Looking to get lucky tonight?”

More like she’d been using every trick, prayer, and superstition possible in the hopes that luck would be on her side when she proposed her new marriage deal to Decker. “Every day with you is my lucky day.”

They tuned back in to Chaplain Roberts’s speech as he instructed each husband, then each wife, to repeat after him.

“Tonight, I reaffirm my vow to you, that I will love you and cherish you for the rest of our days. With all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you.”

Those words said in Decker’s deep drawl made her light-headed with happiness. When it was her turn, she poured her love for him and her hope for their future into every word.

“Some of you may have brought new rings for each other, a new symbol of your love and commitment to one another. If you brought rings to exchange, please do so now.”

Before Carina could make a move to get the ring box out of her purse with the new ring she’d bought for him that day at the resort’s jewelry store, Decker took her left hand in his. Holding her gaze, he slipped Haylie’s wedding band off Carina’s finger. Her breath caught in her throat.

Decker plunged his hand into his suit jacket. Carina’s whole body, her every cell, her heart, her mind, felt more alive than it ever had. The sounds and sights of the crowd faded away. Even the chaplain’s voice reduced to a muted hum. It was just her and Decker, alone, together. And he was pulling a little black box from his jacket, and she knew what it was, and what it meant, and that he loved her as much as she loved him. They were going to build a life together, and the idea of that, of spending eternity in the bonds of marriage with James Decker, was the most exhilarating, joyous sensation—beyond anything she could have imagined.

He opened the box. She barely caught sight of the platinum band and round, sparkly diamond before her eyes clouded over with tears.

“After we entered into our marriage deal, one of my goals was to help you learn to love yourself enough to follow your dreams,” he said. “I was so busy helping you change and cheering you on that I never imagined how everything would change for me. But it did. I fell in love with you. The dreams I had before, about my job, about the man I wanted to be, they all went out the window. You became my dream.”

“You became my dream, too.”

“Carina Decker, will you stay married to me and allow me to love you and cherish you for the rest of our days?”

Her eyes roved from the new ring on her finger to the face of the man she loved. They’d come a long way from the day he’d ridden into her life nearly ten years earlier on the back of a motorcycle—a gorgeous, unobtainable bad boy who’d rendered a wallflower like her a speechless, dithering wreck. It’d taken all those years and some mistletoe magic, but she couldn’t imagine any more perfect match than the two of them together. “I will. Of course I will.”

From her purse, she pulled the ring she’d gotten him. It was only a simple gold band, but she’d paid the jeweler to etch their names on the inside, along with the date—
December twenty-fourth,
their true wedding night. “And will you, James Decker, allow me to love and cherish you for the rest of our days?”

He pocketed Wendell’s ring and took the one she’d offered. “That would be the greatest honor of my life.”

Smiling so wide her cheeks ached, she indulged in a sniffling laugh as he pulled her close and lowered his lips toward hers.

Something sharp poked Carina in the ribs, followed by Haylie’s voice. “We’re not at the kissing part yet. You’re supposed to wait for Chaplain Roberts to direct us.”

Decker paused with his lips only a scant inch from Carina’s and said under his breath, “I kinda forgot there was a ceremony going on.”

Carina splayed her hands over his chest. “Me, too.”

“Oh, hush, Haylie,” Granny June said, flitting into view. “There ain’t nothing that can hold back true love.”

“Not even a jinx?” Decker asked, his tone warm with exasperated affection.

Granny winked at him, then held her camera up and snapped a picture. “Besides that, I think the chaplain’s just getting to the kissing part, anyway.”

They all turned their attention back to the ceremony, though Decker and Carina remained in a tight embrace.

“May the magic of Christmas and the lesson of love embodied by this sacred holiday stay with each of you throughout the year, and in all your years to come,” Chaplain Roberts said. “And with that closing wish, you know what’s coming next. Gentlemen, you may kiss your brides.”

Amid the cheers and applause of the crowd, Decker and Carina came together in a kiss that would mark the true beginning of a marriage that would, indeed, last for the rest of their lives, proving with every Christmas Eve anniversary that maybe, just maybe, there was a such a thing as a Mistletoe Effect after all.

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Tessa Desharnais

Melissa Cutler knows she has the best job in the world writing sexy contemporary romances and romantic suspense. She was struck at an early age by an unrelenting travel bug and is probably planning her next vacation as you read this. When she’s not globetrotting, she’s enjoying Southern California’s flip-flop-wearing weather and wrangling two rambunctious kids. She loves hearing from readers at
[email protected]
, or on Facebook (
www.facebook.com/MelissaCutlerBooks
) and Twitter (@m_cutler). Visit
www.melissacutler.net
to learn more about Melissa and her books.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

“The Mistletoe Effect” copyright © 2014 by Melissa Cutler.

All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.stmartins.com

Author photo © Tessa Desharnais

Cover design by Crystal Ben

Cover photographs:

Couple © jsteck /
Istockphoto.com

Wedding dress © AlexussK, illuminatu, nuvola7 and Artistic Captures /
Istockphoto.com
and
Shutterstock.com

Sand texture © Pakhnyushcha /
Shutterstock.com

eISBN: 978-1-4668-6562-4

First eBook Edition: October 2014

eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to
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.