Sweet Silver Bells

Xavier glanced over his shoulder as he led them down a narrow hallway to the kitchen. “She mentioned something about a fire but didn’t go into detail. What happened?”

“Joseph and I overheard one of the guests complaining about someone smoking in their room.”

“If you guys can’t get back into your room, then you’re more than welcome to stay here.”

Crystal exchanged a glance with Joseph. She noticed Xavier said room instead of rooms. He assumed she and Joseph were sharing a hotel room. “I don’t think that’s going to be necessary—”

“What’s not necessary?” asked a familiar feminine voice. Selena stood at the cooking island in a bibbed apron, her hair concealed under a blue-and-white-checkered scarf as she sprinkled flour on a ball of dough. Her lips parted in a wide grin. “Wow!” she drawled. “Look at you. You cut your hair.”

Crystal smoothed down the short strands on the nape of her neck. “I decided I needed a new look.” She’d affected a hairstyle that was virtually maintenance free. She didn’t have to use a blow-dryer, curling iron or flatiron. It was what she thought of as wash and go. A trim every six weeks kept the style fresh.

Wiping her hands on a towel, Selena approached Crystal, arms outstretched. “Good seeing you again. He’s gorgeous,” she whispered under her breath, hugging her husband’s cousin tightly.

Crystal knew Selena was referring to Joseph, and she had to agree with her. He was gorgeous. “Selena, I would like you to meet Joseph Wilson. Joseph, this is Selena, who just happens to be the best pastry chef in the entire city.”

Smiling, he took Selena’s hand. “My pleasure. Your home is beautiful.”

Selena’s dark, almond-shaped eyes in a face the color of toasted hazelnuts crinkled attractively when she smiled. “Thank you. It’s going to be at least fifteen minutes before everything is ready, so if you’d like, Xavier can give you a tour of the house.” She cut her eyes at her husband. “Honey, please put that child down. Once you leave she’s going to wild out because I refuse to carry her around.”

Xavier tightened his hold on Lily as he gestured for Joseph to follow him, deliberately ignoring Selena. “If you don’t have any plans for Super Bowl Sunday and if you’re going to be in Charleston, then I’d like you to come over for a little get-together.”

Crystal waited until she was certain the men were out of earshot before turning to look at Selena, who’d opened the refrigerator/freezer, taken out a small dish filled with freshly cut fruit, set it and a fork in front of her and then gone back to rolling out dough for biscuits.

Sitting on a stool at the island in the ultramodern chef’s kitchen, she said, “It’s not what you’re thinking.”

Selena met her eyes. “What exactly is it I’m thinking, Crystal?”

Between bites of cantaloupe and honeydew, she carefully formed her thoughts. “There’s nothing going on between me and Joseph.” She told Selena how they met and what they’d discovered about each other while sitting in the hotel’s restaurant. “Belonging to a sorority or fraternity isn’t extraordinary, but knowing he’d clerked for my uncle is eerie.”

“It’s not as eerie as it is serendipitous. It’s as if you were destined to meet,” Selena drawled, trying not to laugh.

Slipping out of her suit jacket, Crystal draped it over the back of the stool. “I don’t believe in serendipity.”

“What do you believe in?”

It was a full minute before she said, “I believe everyone is born with certain gifts and it’s up to us or for others to recognize those gifts in order to make the world a better place.”

Selena picked up a pastry brush, dipping it into a bowl of melted butter, and then brushed the tops of the biscuits in a baking pan. “What about love, Criss?”

“What about it?”

“Don’t you believe in love?”

Crystal smiled. “Of course I believe in love. Look at you and Xavier. You guys are living proof of the adage ‘love at first sight.’”

Selena placed the baking sheet on the shelf of a heated eye-level oven. She wiped her hands on the towel tucked under the ties of the bibbed apron. Resting a hip against the countertop, she angled her head. “You’re talking about me and Xavier, but what about you, Criss? I heard about the man you lived with when you went to school in New York. Were you in love with him?”

“I don’t think so. My relationship with Brian was more of convenience and companionship.”

“For whom?”

Crystal stared at the granite countertop. “Brian and I were like a two-headed coin. We were interchangeable.” A wry smile flitted over her lips. “He wasn’t looking for a serious relationship, and it was the same with me. I didn’t want to get married and neither did he. He also didn’t want children, because he’d grown up in an abusive home and he feared he would also abuse a child, while I definitely wasn’t and still am not looking to become a mother.”

“You don’t want to get married or have children?” Selena asked.

She wasn’t marriage-phobic, but she didn’t see it in her immediate future. “Right now I’m concentrating on growing my business. We didn’t have to go looking for a date, and whenever men tried coming onto me, I told them the truth. I was living with a man,” Crystal continued as if Selena hadn’t broached the subject of marriage and children. “We were museum junkies. When Brian wasn’t teaching and when I didn’t have classes, we spent all of our free time seeing how many museums we could visit. One summer we drove to Vermont and hit every museum as far south as D.C.”

Selena’s eyes grew wider. “It sounds as if you had the perfect relationship. Didn’t you ever argue?”

“Oh, we had our disagreements but nothing that monumental. He didn’t believe in sororities or fraternities and he invariably left the toilet seat up and dirty dishes in the sink.”

Scrunching up her nose, Selena drawled, “Thankfully Xavier is a neat freak. Now back to Joseph. It looks as if you two have a lot in common, so if he does ask you out, would you accept?”

“I think my busybody cousin already took care of that. Unless Joseph gives him the four-one-one about us, Xavier assumes we’re sharing a hotel suite. And I’m certain you heard yourhusband invite him here for the Super Bowl party.”

Selena sucked her teeth. “You didn’t see it the last time you were here, but we turned the top floor into a theater and media room. I told Xavier if any of his friends have too much to drink and can’t make it downstairs, then they’re going to stay up there until they’re mummified.”

Crystal laughed until her sides hurt and tears ran down her face. She and Selena were still laughing when Joseph and Xavier entered the kitchen, both holding Lily’s hands as she urged them to swing her higher.

She stared at him, marveling that he appeared so comfortable with her family. When Xavier released his daughter’s hand, Joseph swung Lily up as she emitted a high-pitch squeal of delight. Black curls had escaped the two elastic bands holding her hair in place, and in that instant Crystal wondered if Joseph would be a stern or indulgent father. Judging from his interaction with the toddler, she knew it would probably be the latter.

Lily, breathing heavily, her face flushed, screamed, “I have to do potty!” Joseph set her on her feet and she raced to the half bath off the kitchen.

“She goes by herself now?” Crystal asked. Selena had begun toilet training her daughter at fourteen months, but Lily refused to sit on her potty unless her mother sat in the bathroom alongside her, reading fairy tales and nursery rhymes.

Selena chuckled softly. “Miss Grown wants to do everything by herself now that she’s two. Every morning we bump heads because she wants to pick out her own clothes.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“She forgets we’re in Charleston and not Puerto Rico. She wants to wear sandals, shorts and bathing suits. I try to tell her we’re not in the Caribbean, but she doesn’t seem to understand.” Lily emerged from the bathroom, her hands dripping water, and Xavier handed her a paper towel. The toddler dried her hands and then ran over to Crystal, raising her arms for her to pick her up.

Selena shook her head in exasperation. “When it gets to the point where I’m not going to be able to do anything with her, I’m going to send her to Florida to spend time with you.”

Cradling the little girl to her chest, she dropped a kiss on her hair. “You know I’d take her in a heartbeat. Titi Criss will make certain she’ll have the most tricked-out dollhouse imaginable.”

Lily clapped her chubby hands. “I want a dollhouse.”

Joseph sat on the stool next Crystal. “You build dollhouses?”

Xavier cracked eggs into a mixing bowl, then whisked them until they were light and fluffy before turning them onto a heated stove-top griddle. “You didn’t know your girlfriend is an interior decorator?”

“I’m not his girlfriend,” Crystal countered quickly.

“My bad,” Xavier said with a sheepish grin.

Joseph stared at Crystal’s profile. He didn’t know why, but he wanted her to be his girlfriend only because he felt they were destined to connect. “I never would’ve thought you were a decorator.”

She shifted slightly to look at him. “Why not?”