Page 12 of Whiskey Holiday
I pull Winter closer. "Don't be sad for me, baby. Things worked out eventually. I made my way in life, and I'm proud of the life choices I've made." I shift a little. "Look at it like this. If I had not grown up in the system, then I probably wouldn't have enlisted in the Army where I met Nash. I wouldn't have taken him up on the offer to move to Mistletoe and start a business, and I never would have met you." Winter gives me a sweet smile, and I melt a little inside. "I'd say life has turned out pretty fucking great."
Cupping my cheek, Winter kisses me. "Well, I, for one, am glad you decided to move here."
"Me too, baby." I bury my face into the crook of her neck and breathe in her sweet smell.
"Tell me about your business. How exactly did you get started in what you do?"
I shrug. "I've always liked working with my hands. When I was a teenager, I would go around whatever neighborhood I was living in at the time and ask the neighbors to do odds and end stuff around their homes for money. Sometimes it was just cutting the grass, but there were times when I would fix a broken door hinge, or this old man asked me to repair a broken step on his porch. After fixing it, he asked me if I'd stain it. I didn't know what I was doing, so I used the computer in the library at school to research do-it-yourself projects. I learned early on and loved it. I loved taking something old or plain and turning it into something beautiful. That same summer, the old man had me back to help him put down a new wood floor in his house and also new countertops in his kitchen. That was the summer I turned eighteen. A couple months later, I enlisted."
"And when you got out of the Army, what did you do then?"
"I had a lot of money saved up from over the years, and I used some of it to buy an old fixer-upper. It wasn't anything like this place. It was a little three-bedroom house. I lived there while I fixed it up, then flipped it. I moved on to my next project, bought another place, lived in it for a while, and then sold it when I was finished. I was in my third house when I got the call from Nash. I didn't have any roots in Washington, so I took a chance and moved to Mistletoe. Best fucking decision I ever made."
Winterand I ended up staying up until past three o'clock in the morning. Exhausted from her day, she dozed off while draped across my chest as the two of us lay on the sofa. Here it is, nearly five in the morning, and I'm still awake just watching her sleep. I feel like the lord dropped an angel onto my lap. If I'm dreaming, I don't want it to end.
Soon, my body gives out, and sleep takes me. As I give in, I fall, holding the greatest gift given to me clutched in my grasp.
