Page 94 of Jam and Jingle Bells
“It’s holding me,” I answered immediately. “Santa came through already.”
“I hear he’s like that,” he teased, kissing my neck. “Sometimes he just knows what you need or want.”
“Because he sees you when you’re sleeping,” I sang off-key.
He turned me to face him, grasping my face. “He does, sometimes he watches you for hours. He can’t believe he found someone so special to be his. He wonders where you were all those years when he was struggling to put one foot in front of the other, but then he remembers, those steps were what brought him to you.”
I slipped my hand up to his cool cheek. “When I wake up every morning, I’m always so grateful he found me,” I promised. “Now we can take those steps together.”
He nodded, his eyes never leaving mine. “I sure hope you mean that, Addie.”
“Of course I do—” My lips froze as he lowered himself to one knee and I grabbed his arm. “Your heart?” I asked, but when I looked down, I noticed that it wasn’t his heart at all that brought him to the gazebo floor, at least not his physical heart.
“My heart is healed, Addie,” he said, holding up a red velvet box. “Physically and emotionally. I owe my life to you in multiple different ways, but I know you don’t want me to feel like I owe you anything.”
I shook my head, tears in my eyes as he knelt before me. “No, I don’t. I love you.”
He smiled a shaky smile. “I love you too, so I decided maybe I had a compromise to me feeling like I owe you my life.” I tipped my head and he winked his Santa wink, so I didn’t say anything. “I want to make you my wife.”
I laughed through my tears and he was grinning equally as much when he cracked the box open. The tremor in his hand gave away his nervousness, though.
A heart-shaped diamond solitaire twinkled back at me. “Addie, will you marry me and be my Mrs. Claus forever?”
My gaze sought his as I dropped to my knee, taking his face in my hands. “I would love nothing more than to spend all my days wrapped up in your arms. I would be honored to be your Mrs. Claus.” I laid a kiss on him that brought out a whoop of joy from someone outside the gazebo. Clapping ensued and we tore our attention from each other to see our tribe standing around the gazebo cheering us on, Ivy snapping pictures as my mom cried tears of joy.
“I guess there’s only one thing left to do,” he said, pulling the ring from the box and holding it up. “Let’s make this engagement official.”
He slid the ring on my finger and then kissed it, his eyes the perfect melting pot of hot chocolate. “You are where my future rests,” he whispered. “Whether we are in Bells Pass or the North Pole. As long as we’re together, I’m home.”
Epilogue
Four Months Later
“Where are we going?” I asked for the third time since he stole me away from the salon to take a ride. It was spring and the snow was melting around the tulips in the flowerbeds.
“I told you, it’s a surprise,” he said, his laughter evident in his voice.
“Okay,” I said, checking the clock on the dashboard, “but I have a color at six tonight.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Trust me, three hours is long enough for this surprise. I have a class at six too, but when we’re done it might be time for naked yoga.”
I nearly choked on my tongue because as much as we tease about naked yoga, we had never actually done it. Something told me he might not be kidding about it tonight. He turned left and I glanced at him. “This is my mom’s neighborhood.”
“Yup,” he said, pulling up in front of a house.
“And this is her house.”
“Yup,” he said again.
I pointed out the window at the sale pending sign. “She didn’t tell me there was someone interested in the house.”
He jumped down from the truck without answering and opened my door for me. “How odd. Maybe she hasn’t had time.”
He opened the gate of the chain-link fence and ushered me up the sidewalk. “I literally just talked to her this morning. Why are we here? Are we supposed to get something for her?”
He held out a bandana and wrapped it around my eyes, clipping it in the back. “It’s a surprise.”
“Ellis, seriously? I grew up here. Trust me, nothing is a surprise inside those doors.”
