Page 28 of Christmas Past
His started to pound a rough tattoo against his chest.
“What’s it telling you?”
“That you brought me here because I mean more to you than you understand.”
Chad swallowed. And swallowed again. His eyes started to burn. He stared into Bella’s eyes. And he knew. He just knew.
He’d just been handed the greatest proof he’d ever had. The only proof that really mattered.
“You said there was no proof.”
“Of what?”
He waved a shaky hand, buying himself time. “Any of it. Love. Hope. Magic. Instinct.”
“And I’m wrong?”
“You know I care.”
She nodded. Smiling through her tears. “But only now, because you finally opened your heart to me.”
“So…you’re going to be…sensing me…for the rest of my days?”
“I’m empathic, Chad. Get used to it.”
“I have no idea what love is, but my instincts are telling me that this is it.”
He wasn’t touching her. Didn’t trust himself to ever let her go if he had her in his arms.
“This is a smidgeon,” she told him. “A beginning of something that is never going to end.”
He wasn’t sure it could get any better than that moment. But he was willing to be her student if it meant his life would hold more days like the two he’d just spent in her home.
“Love isn’t something you put in compartments, Chad. It’s not something that turns on and off based on a plan. Or a schedule. It just is. It’s huge and wonderful. And it hurts, too…”
When your loved one dies in the midst of a home invasion. Or is snatched from a diner.
“But if you let it live and breathe inside you, you will know pure joy,” she said.
“I’ll know pure joy if you’ll spend the rest of our lives by my side.” He heard the words. Wondered what he’d done. Couldn’t take them back.
Didn’t want to take them back.
“You sure about that, Sheriff?”
He had no idea how he knew. But he did. “Yes, Bella, I’m sure.”
“I’ve heard that if you kiss a woman in this gazebo, you’ll be married to her before a year is out.”
She was messing with him. He saw the glimmer of humor in her eyes.
But he took her up on her offer.
And he knew, just knew, that she was going to be his wife.
Before another Christmas passed in Christmas Town.
~*~
