OREY HADN’T BEEN BACK TO SPENCE’S HOUSE SINCE HIS grandmother lived there, and it seemed strange to be returning after so many years.

She knew he’d leased the house to tenants who’d kept most of the servants on, and the place was as beautifully maintained as it had always been. Since Spence was staying there now, Corey assumed either he had decided to sell it and it was vacant, or else the people who’d lived there for years had moved out.

All the carriage lights were lit on the front porch, just as they’d always been whenever guests were expected, but tonight, a strange colorful glow was visible through the closed draperies in what Corey knew was the living room.

“I won’t be long,” Corey told Diana and her mother as she got out of the car and walked up the front steps.

Clutching the release form in her hand, she rang the bell, her heart drumming harder as footsteps sounded in the foyer, and harder still when the door swung open and Mrs. Bradley’s former housekeeper said with a warm smile, “Good evening, Miss Foster. Mr. Addison is waiting for you in the living room.”

Corey nodded, then she walked through the dimly lit foyer. Bracing herself for the impact of seeing Spence for the first time since that hideous scene in Newport, Corey rounded the corner and walked into the living room.

Then she braced herself again, trying to assimilate what she was seeing.

Spence was near the middle of the candlelit room, leaning casually against the grand piano with his arms crossed over his chest.

He was wearing a tuxedo.

The room was decked out for Christmas.

“Merry Christmas, Corey,” he said quietly.

Corey’s disoriented gaze drifted over the thick garlands draping the mantel, to the beribboned mistletoe on the chandelier overhead, to the huge Christmas tree in the corner with its red ornaments and twinkling lights, then it came to a stop at a small mountain of presents beneath the tree. All of them were wrapped in gold foil, and all of them had huge hite tags on them.

And all the tags said “Corey”.

“I cheated you out of a Christmas dance and a Christmas wedding,” he said solemnly. “I’d like to give them to you anyway. I still can, if you’ll let me.”

Spence had envisioned a dozen possible reactions from her, from laughter to fury, but he had never considered the possibility that Corey would turn her back on him and bend her head and start to cry. When she did, his heart sank with defeat. He reached for her and dropped his hands, and then he heard her choking whisper: “All I’ve never wanted was you.” Relief made him rough as he spun her around and yanked her into his arms, wrapping them tightly around her.

His wife laid her hand against his jaw and tenderly spread her fingers over his cheek. “All I’ve ever wanted was you.”

In the car outside, Mrs. Foster looked at the embracing couple silhouetted against the draperies. Her son-in-law was kissing her daughter as if he never intended to stop or let her go. “I don’t think there’s any need for us to wait,” she told Diana with a happy sigh. “Corey won’t be going anywhere tonight.”

“Yes she will,” Diana said with absolute certainty as she put her car into gear. “Spence cheated her out of one Christmas dance, and he intends to make up for it tonight.”

“You don’t mean he intends to take her to the ball,” Mrs. Foster said worriedly. “The tickets have been sold out for months.”

“Spence managed to reserve somehow, and we’re sitting together at it.” With a fond smile, she added, “We shouldn’t have any trouble finding the table. It has an unusual centerpiece. Instead of white orchids, it has a big red sleigh filled with holly.”