Page 21 of Naughty & Nice
Epilogue
Oliver
One year later…
Thick snowflakes flurry down from gray skies as jingle bells fills the air. It’s slow going on the highway but I don’t mind at all. Even with the snowfall and the howling wind slowing us down to almost a stop, I am happy to be on the road.
Last year at this time I was miserable and lonely when I took a similar trip. All the merry music and holiday hustle had me feeling a bit grinchy. I could never have known my trip to North Pole for a business meeting would change my life.
“Oh, I love this song,” bubbly and bright, Josie’s voice starts singing along.
“Said the same thing about the song before the last one, sunshine.”
Taking my eyes off the highway, I smile at her as she sings louder, drowning out my teasing. In her sexy red dress, crimson lips, and those thick golden curls she looks excited for the holiday. Truth is, I am excited this year too.
From the moment I met her, I knew she was going to change my life. We fell fast and hard and I never thought it would end. Until it did. When I walked into North Pole last year to find her waiting for me, hoping for a second chance, my life changed once again.
I tried to be cautious, to be careful, because the last time I gave her my heart she gave it back broken. But being careful never worked before. I never stopped loving her and I knew once I saw her again that I never would. I couldn’t deny her when she asked for a second chance I wanted as badly as she did.
We went back to Harmony Hollow to work on our build and us.
Together we designed an amazing flower shop with some open-air spaces and a beautiful greenhouse. It took us four months to complete the build and I loved every single minute of it. Working together again was easier than being together again, I won’t lie.
When we met five years ago, I was busting my ass to build my business and a life for myself. I came from nothing and I’d learned watching my parents that I couldn’t let up if I didn’t want to go back to nothing. Only I didn’t realize I had something my parents never did.
Love. Real, pure, unconditional, unending love.
Not just when I found Josie. With Keegan, my best friend and business partner. With his wife, Kady too. With our other partners Gabe and Brady and their families too. We built something with these people that my parents never bothered to build despite all their backbreaking work.
We built a family that has nothing to do with business.
I finally realized I did not need to be successful. I had all of them. I had good friends who were good people and cared about me. Taking time to enjoy them and appreciate what we built together made me realize I didn’t need to follow plans or blueprints to have something good.
Besides, finding Josie again gave me everything I had ever wanted.
Last time we were together, I thought we had to follow a timeline. Fall in love, get married, start a family, the usual. Only my sunshine doesn’t much like timelines. Or being on time. Or following any sort of any usual plan or rule in life, in general. It’s one of the things I love about her. Her ability to let go and let life happen to her.
This time, I finally took some cues from her. I didn’t demand labels or set expectations about what we were or would become. We just were. I wanted her forever and I believe she wanted that too, but maybe we had different ideas about that. After I realized I was okay with that, as long as I had her, being together became easy. Effortless.
During the build we made time for each other, but it was not serious. I mean, we were rarely apart, talked about our future, and made Keegan and Kady sick with how we couldn’t keep our hands off each other, but it wasnotserious. At least that’s what we told ourselves and anyone who asked.
Once we finished that build I started to panic. I didn’t wind up at a ring shop or prepare a proposal, but I feared she might take a job and be gone from my life again. When she did take a job, she refused to leave town other than a few weekends. By the third weekend, she was packing me a bag to go with because she said she couldn’t stand to be apart.
Now whenever one of us has a job come up, we consult the other. Not just to work together, but to see how it fits in our lives. Because we might have been dating to prove we were not serious but after our first weekend apart, we both knew better.
“I just want you here. All the time. If it’s too much…”I was terrified when I’d asked her to move in with me.
Instead of a ring and a proposal, I made dinner and asked her to move in with me. To stop living out of a hotel and pretending we weren’t really doing this. I asked her to let the wind take her where she belonged—with me.
“No, not too much. I think it can never be enough with you, Oliver. I am not walking away again. Yes. Let’s do this. Let’s really do this.”
Instead of moving her into the little bungalow I once shared with Keegan, I bought a house. One of the many Gabe and Brady had renovated in Harmony Hollow. Josie spent weeks making it ours before we spent an entire week christening each room.
Tonight, it glows with a huge Christmas tree in the front room and lights Keegan and I hung up after Thanksgiving. After a weekend in the North Pole—our Christmas tradition I hope we continue forever—I can’t wait to get back home.
“Who is hosting dinner this year?” she asks as I take the exit to lead us to Harmony Hollow.
“I think…we are? Chantel and Baker did year before last. Kady did ThanksgivingandChristmas last year. Makes it our turn, sunshine,” I say with a smile at her as she turns down the radio.
