Page 64 of Christmas Charms
“I love you, too, and I’m not going back to Manhattan. Owl Lake is my home.” I tip my face toward his until our lips are just a whisper apart. “And I’m home to stay.”
With a smile that lights up his entire face brighter than any Christmas tree, he lowers his mouth to mine. The kiss is electric, filling me with warmth and a joy so sublime that my heart feels as if it might burst. We don’t need mistletoe, and we don’t need Christmas magic. Aidan and I finally have the only thing we need—each other, with hearts wide open to everything fate has in store for us this Christmas, and each and every Christmas to come.
I press my hands to his chest when he pulls away, and his heart beats a furiously against my palm, steady and true.
I peer up into his beautiful blue eyes. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything,” he says, tucking a wayward lock of hair behind one of my ears.
“What made you change your mind?” I swallow hard, because we both know that back at the parade, he was almost ready to let me walk away for good. “What made you come find me?”
His expression turns serious. Thoughtful. “I wanted to right away. The second I left you there with Jeremy, I regretted it. But I thought I’d missed my chance. I thought it might too late to tell you how I really felt. And then…”
I tilt my head. “And then?”
“And then I saw a flash of something silver in the snow, right beside my foot. When I bent to take a closer look, I found this.” He reaches into his coat pocket, pulls out a delicate silver chain and holds it up between us. Charms swivel and dance in the glow of the twinkle lights that surround us. “It seemed like a sign.”
“My bracelet!” With a trembling hand, I wrap my fingers around the charm bracelet and clutch it as if I’m taking hold of every dream I’ve ever had.
The choice is mine now. Without the bracelet stuck on my arm, I can do whatever I choose. And I choose this—the here and now, and a happy-ever-after I’ve wanted since that day I rode atop a fire engine with a glittering tiara on my head, waving a candy cane as if it was a magic wand. The Christmas of my dreams doesn’t have to be over. It’s mine for as long as I choose to live it.
I hold out my arm, and when Aidan fastens it to my wrist for me, the clasp works just fine. While I’m marveling at it, I barely notice Aidan reaching into his pocket for something else.
He clears his throat and I look up to meet his gaze.
“There’s one more thing,” he says, opening his palm to reveal a small wrapped package topped with a shiny silver bow. “I couldn’t let you leave before I gave you your Christmas present.”
It’s small and square, and when I take it from him, my breathing slows as a memory from long ago takes over. Aidan grows quiet, and his expression is suddenly so reminiscent of the Aidan I first fell in love with, the young Aidan I used to know, that I half expect the arms on the big grandfather clock beside us to start spinning backward.
I tear off the paper. The box is new, but the ring inside it isn’t. It’s vintage rose gold with delicate filigree and an emerald cut center stone—the same ring he offered me when he first proposed.
“Oh, Aidan,” I say.
Jingle, jingle.
A gasp escapes me before I can stop it.
The bracelet! It never made its magic chime when Jeremy proposed. I’d been so disappointed in the strange turn of events that I failed to even notice.
Aidan gives my chin a gentle tap and guides my gaze back to his.
“Before you left for college, you gave that ring back to me and told me to ask you again someday. So I’m asking.” When he smiles, there are lines by the corners of his eyes that weren’t there the last time he proposed. A few silver bristles are visible in the scruff on his jaw.
We’ve been apart now for as long as we were together, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re ready now in a way we weren’t then. Ready to make our own magic. We’re taking something old and making it new again, just like the jewelry I love best. Perfect. Vintage. Timeless.
He caresses my cheek with a touch as gentle as a snow-kissed Christmas. “Marry me?”
I can’t get my answer out fast enough. “Yes!”
Then I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him, soft and slow. Aidan is charm and warmth and all the Christmas magic I need. He’s my home, my Christmas dream.
And I’m a firefighter’s sweetheart once again.
Epilogue
“Are you absolutely sure aboutthis?” Susan takes the check I’ve just handed her and slides it back toward me across the glass counter of the main jewelry case at Enchanted Jewels. “Because I don’t want you to rush into anything on the day after Christmas. I could probably get my boss to give you a few more days to make up your mind if you need more time.”
“She’s sure,” Maya says and slides the check back toward Susan with a perfectly manicured fingertip.
