Oh my heart.
“He’s a special kid,” I said.
“He insisted that he just wanted his mom to be happy again. I told him I really admired him for that. But because that’s obviously not something I could promise him, I didn’t quite know how to react. Before he left, I said to him, ‘are you sure there isn’t anything I can bring you?’ And he was really funny. He said, ‘well, if you insist…the only toy I really want this year is the TechBot.’ He then blurted out his address, and I knew that I had to get it for him. But with so little time on Christmas Eve, I couldn’t pull any strings. Whether I owned the store or not, there just weren’t any left. So after I changed out of the Santa suit, I decided to check the shelves just to be sure. And that was when we met.”
I looked up into his gorgeous baby blues. “I’m blown away. I don’t even know what to say.”
He shut his eyes momentarily. “I’m sorry. I was so shocked to see you that I didn’t even ask how your son is doing?”
“He’s fine, thankfully. No serious damage from the impact. We were lucky that the hospital wasn’t too busy. We were cleared and discharged fairly quickly.”
“I’m relieved to hear that.” He blew out a breath. “I’d been looking for your contact information all night, ever since you left the store.”
Scratching my head, I said, “Wait, I’m confused. If you didn’t know I was Mason’s mother, why were you looking for me?”
“After you told me about your husband dying on Christmas, I decided you deserved to win the robot. I made a decision to give it to you either way, but you left before I could tell you. I scoured the Internet for your name, and nothing came up in the area. I finally decided to go with the original plan, to give it to the boy from the store since I couldn’t find you. I figured, at least that way, someone would get their Christmas wish.”
My cheeks burned from embarrassment. “I’m a bit ashamed to say that I gave you a fake last name, Bryce. When you asked me…it was sort of right before the point where I started to trust you a little. I made a split-second decision, and it was the wrong one.”
He nodded. “Okay, so you’re not Holly Johanssen. That explains a lot.”
“Johanssen was actually my grandmother’s maiden name. But it’s not mine.”
“Holly is your actual name, though?”
“I can understand why you would doubt that, but yes, it is.” I sighed. “And again, I’m so sorry for making that asinine decision.”
“You’re Holly Gallagher…” he said.
I smiled. “Yes.”
“So, my Holly Holloway joke wasn’t in vain, then.”
I chuckled. “No.”
“Well, that’s good, at least.”
I looked over at the robot he’d placed under the tree. “I just realized you wrapped that yourself.”
“How did you know?”
“Because it’s horrible.” I started to laugh, but then suddenly tears sprung to my eyes out of nowhere.
“Did I upset you?” he asked.
“No.” I wiped my eyes. “I’m pretty sure they’re tears of joy. Because you’ve seriously made me so happy tonight.”
“Well…I’m glad. Truly. You’ve been through a lot. It makes my entire Christmas to know that I could bring some happiness to your holiday.”
A whiff of his delicious, manly scent wafted in my direction. There was no way I wanted to send this guy back out into the cold just yet.
“Do you have somewhere else to be?”
“I left my family party earlier, and probably won’t be heading back. I was just gonna head home.”
“Can I make you a cup of hot cocoa or something?”
His mouth spread into a smile. “I would seriously love that.”
“Make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right back.”
A chill ran down my spine as I made my way to the kitchen. I had a hard time believing that things happen for a reason, especially after the way my husband died. What was the reason for that, you know? It was totally unfair and nonsensical. So, in general, I’d always felt the idea of fate was one big lie. But something about this night certainly felt like fate. What were the chances that my son and the boy he had encountered were one and the same?
When I returned to the living room, I asked, “I hope you like marshmallows?”
“I do. Thank you,” he said as he took the mug from me.
I sat about a foot away from him on the couch and sipped my hot chocolate. “I’m sorry for running out the way I did,” I said. “Once I realized Mason was fine and I had a moment to grab my bearings, I thought about you a lot tonight and really regretted the fact that I’d likely never see you again.”
“Well, I guess we were meant to connect from the start. It’s funny to think that even if our competition hadn’t happened, I would’ve still shown up here tonight either way.”