Without even trying, he changed that. Somewhere in the middle of trying to make him believe in Christmas, he made me believe in love again. He made me want love again. He made me let my guard down and trust someone again, and it felt better than I expected. I always thought I’d feel weak and vulnerable if I let someone in again, but with James, I felt empowered. Being with him made me feel like anything was possible.
And even though he wasn’t exactly honest, he made me trust someone again, and somehow I still trust him, and the thought of this ending because I’m too stubborn to forgive him makes my heart race and my palms sweat, and suddenly nothing matters but the way I feel when I’m with him.
‘I’m sorry for lying to you,’ he says before I have a chance to say anything else. ‘You have to realise it was never meant to go as far as it did.’
‘It’s okay.’ I jump in before he can continue. ‘I know why you couldn’t tell us. I also know you’ve been more honest with me than you probably intended to be, and I get it. I think you started the job there thinking that the only way to keep Nutcracker Lane going was to reduce the budget for it, but actually seeing it was the best thing you could’ve done because now you get it.’
‘You think I’m officially un-Grinched?’
I nod, my smile so wide that my jaw is starting to protest.
We reach out at the same time, and the moment our hands touch, a flood of emotions releases inside of me and I let out a breath as relief crashes through my body, and I can’t hold back anymore. The spell of slow awkwardness is broken and I throw my arms around him as carefully as I can, given how desperately I need to touch him. My arms go round his shoulders, tangling in his hair and pulling him down, making him laugh as I hold his head and smother his face in kisses.
I don’t even realise I’m crying until he pulls me in against him, almost certainly tight enough to be uncomfortable, his good hand curling into my hair and holding me close, his mouth against my ear. I lose track of time as we stand there for endless minutes. I feel his shoulders relax as unseen tension drains from them and I manage to stop myself from crying for long enough to get my breathing back to normal, because everything feels right with the world again. Like it has since the moment I met him.
He pulls back and slides a hand down my face, tilting my head until he can touch his lips to mine in the softest, gentlest, most loving kiss I’ve ever felt. I pull him impossibly tighter and get lost in kissing him, letting it sweep away everything but this moment.
Nothing matters but the two of us, right here and now. I can even ignore the eyes of the multiple nutcrackers watching us from the shelves of his parents’ garage, given the way his fingers curl into my hip and how his hair feels in my hands, the feel of his skin against mine and the freedom of knowing that it’s all out there now. There are no secrets between us, warring with the excitement of knowing this is the start of something special. Everything about kissing him feels different than it has before.
Hands move and arms tighten and it’s all I can do to stay on my feet. I’ve never known a kiss that’s so desperate with desire and so careful and loving too. I run my fingers down from his shoulder to the top of the cast and back up again. He doesn’t hide the shiver and I push myself up on tiptoes and kiss his stubbled jaw.
‘Did you really think I was the nutcracker come to life?’
‘No.’ I huff and my cheeks burn. I’m so glad he overheard that conversation with Stacey this morning; I was hoping he hadn’t. ‘Maybe. For, like, one moment.’
He laughs and I pull away but his arm tightens around my back, holding me close. I duck my head against his shoulder and hide my burning red face in his chest. ‘It was gone and you were on the floor where it fell. It’s the same arm, James! All you said at first was about getting “knocked over”! I’d made a wish for a nutcracker prince! You know the story of the broken nutcracker turning into a prince as well as I do! The coincidences added up.’
He moves his shoulder to get me to lift my head, and I look up into his wide brown eyes.
‘Do you know something? I never want to live my life without someone whose obvious train of thought is not something normal like I’d picked up the nutcracker and got down to collect up the debris but that he’d come to life and turned into me. Never change, Nia.’ He kisses me. ‘You make me believe in magic.’
He makes me believe in a lot of things I didn’t think I believed in too as his lips touch mine again and the kiss sweeps everything else away.
‘You have no idea how tightly I want to hold you, how much I want to pick you up and spin you around, and I can’t because of the injuries, but—’
I shut him up by planting another kiss on his mouth. ‘There’ll be plenty of time for that. Plenty of time for everything.’
‘Plenty of time for making wishes come true?’
‘Exactly. There’s something magical about Nutcracker Lane. Now it’s up to us to share it.’ My heart swells so much that I feel like the moment in The Nutcracker ballet when the tree begins to grow. It feels like the start of something that’s going to change Christmas forever.
Epilogue
‘You owe me four hundred pounds!’
‘You’re the dog, I’m the iron … aren’t I?’
‘Oh no, don’t
