Page 67 of Fa-La-La-La Faking It
“It’s okay,” she said, and she meant it. “Things got pretty...intense. And to be honest, I wasn’t quite ready to admit my feelings were real yet, either.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled. “But now you are?”
She nodded. “I am.”
A smile danced on his lips, and this time, there was nothing sad about it. “Good, because I got all the way to Texas Tidings and realized it didn’t feel at all like home anymore.”
Hope fluttered inside her. “Because Bluebonnet is your home now?”
“No, sweetheart.” Jace took a step closer so there was only a whisper of space between them. “Becauseyou’remy home.”
“Good answer.” She beamed at him. If he didn’t kiss her soon, she was going to have to go grab some of the mistletoe from Maple’s bridal bouquet. “Perfect answer, actually.”
“I’m glad, because I’m not leaving again...ever. I’m here to stay. While you were busy putting my uncle Gus in his place this morning—thank you for that, by the way, and we will definitely talk more about that later—I sold the Christmas tree farm.”
Adaline gasped. “You did? But what about your trees?”
“I can grow new trees anywhere. But there’s only one place on earth where I can spend the rest of my life with the woman I love, and that’s right here in Bluebonnet, Texas.”
“You...you love me? You want to spend the rest of your life with me?” Adaline’s head was spinning so hard and fast with all the breathtaking things he’d just said that she didn’t even register he was down on one knee in front of her until he pulled a small velvet ring box from the inside pocket of his tuxedo jacket.
“Adaline Bishop.” He popped the ring box open to reveal a glittering diamond solitaire in an antique filigree setting that Adaline had seen and admired all her life. “Will you break one last rule with me and love me beyond midnight? Will you marry me?”
Her hand flew to her mouth as tears began to swell. If she cried her eyelash extensions off before the wedding pictures, Maple was going to strangle her. “Is that—”
“Gram’s ring?” Jace smiled. There was something different about him now. He was still the same Jace Martin that Adaline had adored since fifth grade, but there was a new light in his eyes that she’d never seen in their lovely green depths before. It suited him. “Yes, it is. She gave it to me for safekeeping and told me it was yours when the time was right. I can’t think of a better time than right now, can you?”
Adaline shook her head. A Christmas Eve proposal...this was beyond anything she’d ever wished for. “Oh, Jace. Of course I’ll marry you. Now stand up and kiss me before the waiting kills me.”
He rose to his feet, slipped the ring on her finger and pulled her close. Just before his mouth came down on hers, he paused and murmured against her lips. “Must you always be so dramatic?”
“Yes, and I have no intention of stopping any time soon,” Adaline whispered as he kissed his way along her jaw and nuzzled her neck.
“Good.” He smiled into her eyes, and Adaline could see their entire future spread out before them—an entire lifetime of Christmases, each one more magical than the last. “Because I love you just the way you are, Cinderella.”
Epilogue
Gus Martin passed away two months after Christmas with Fuzzy nestled on his lap and Jace and Adaline sitting at his bedside in room 212.
In the weeks leading up to his passing, Gus taught Adaline how to play chess. He shared stories about his beloved wife, Marilyn, for as long as Jace would listen. And he let Gram drag him to every group activity the senior center offered, until the effort to get out of bed became too much.
When the three-foot Christmas tree in his uncle’s room began to drop needles on the floor, Jace replaced it with a new bookshelf he’d built himself at the workbench in Gus’s barn. Then Jace lined the shelves with the horse show pictures he’d found in the storage closet. In Gus’s final days, he spent hours looking at those photographs. When he died, the creased picture of Marilyn with her horse and Charlie the Cavalier was tucked inside the breast pocket of his new striped pajamas, right next to his heart.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this? We can wait if you want to spend a few minutes alone out here,” Adaline said to Jace on a cool spring day three weeks after the memorial service they’d held for Gus in the senior center lobby. Most of the residents had attended—due in large part to Gram’s not-so-subtle prompting—as well as all three Comfort Paws dogs.
Jace shielded his eyes from the sun and lifted his gaze toward the new sign attached to the front of the barn. “I don’t need any time. I’m excited about this. It’s what Gus wanted. It just feels right, doesn’t it?”
“It does.” Adaline rose up on her tiptoes to wrap an arm around his neck and reel him in for a kiss. “And I’m glad you’re excited, because I’mecstatic. So are the dogs. Maple is having a hard time getting them to sit still for a picture.”
Jace laughed. “If anyone can handle getting four dogs to sit pretty for a photo, it’s Comfort Paws’ intrepid leader.”
“Good point,” Adaline said, just as Maple let out a whoop of triumph.
“Nailed it!” She held the camera aloft and did a little dance in the field of wildflowers that had taken over the pasture where the barn sat.
Off to the right, on the section of the farm where Jace had planted new seedlings, tiny Christmas trees had begun to pop up from the soil. Adaline was looking forward to the days when their home would forever smell like Christmas Eve.
“Okay, the picture is done. Who’s got the champagne?” Ford asked, casting a questioning glance from person to person. All the Comfort Paws girls were there, plus the significant others of those who were coupled up—Ford, Jace and Cam.
