Page 68 of Better Not Pout
When I look back down at the letter in my hand, I notice another small, folded card that’s peeking out of the box. I lift my brow as I open it, immediately recognizing my Grams’ flowery script inside. I flick a glance at Wells, who nods, signaling me to read it out loud.
My darling girl,
By now, you’ve probably started to realize that your Gramps and I had a hand in your new beau arriving next door. I know that you hate when we meddle, but I think that this time… we got it right.
When we read his letter, we knew that we’d found the right man to buy the empty store, and also just maybe he’d be the right man for our granddaughter, too.
Yes, we may have intervened with fate just abit, but there’s no doubt in either of our minds that the two of you would’ve happened even without a little push from us.
What’s meant to be will always find a way.
And it seems like he found his way right to Mistletoe Falls, and… to you.
Love you always,
Grams and Gramps
A laugh spillsout of me, and I look at Wells, shaking my head. “God, their meddling really has taken on a whole new level. I can’t even believe… I can’t believe that they’re part of the reason you’re here, Wells. I had no idea.”
He scoots closer and lifts his hand to my jaw, cradling it in his palm. “Me either. But… Fate. Divine intervention. All of that? Hell, I don’t know if I even believed in that. Until now. Whatever it was… whatever happened, it led me right here. You wished forme, Rosalie. How the hell did this even happen?”
“I don’t know, Wells. God, I wrote that letter thinking it would literally never see the light of day. Literally, just something silly with Kennedy. And then you just moved into the store next to ours, and all of a sudden, I realized how many of those things you were checking off a list that I wrote before I even knew you existed.” I laugh, brushing away stray tears.
His warm brown eyes are soft and shining with sincerity as he sweeps his thumb tenderly along my jaw. “The best decision I ever made was coming here. You’re part of that, Rosalie. I know that…” He trails off, his gaze moving down to the letter before lifting back to mine. “I know that we said things would end after Christmas. I know it was supposed to be fake and temporary, but the thing is I don’t want it to be. I knew that before I read your letter, but even more so now. I want this between us to be real.Whatever you want it to be, whatever label, I just don’t want it to end.”
My heart feels like it might pound right out of my chest at his admission, cracking open the part of me that I was concealing the same feelings for him behind.
I was worried they wouldn’t be reciprocated or that it would complicate everything.
But knowing that he feels the same… it causes fresh tears to well in my eyes. Reaching up, I curl my finger over his hand that’s holding my jaw, needing to feel him the same way.
“I want that too. I was just afraid to tell you how I felt because I didn’t want to make this awkward if you didn’t feel the same.”
“Rosalie,” he says, interrupting my ramble with a low, deep laugh. “How in the hell could Inotbe crazy about you, Sugar? I’ve spent the last few weeks so wrapped up in you, I don’t know the way out. I can’t go back to the way it was before, like I don’t know how beautiful you are. How kind, passionate, driven, and witty. How sweet your smile is after taking the first sip of yoursugar milkfrom Frosty’s.”
His mouth curves when I laugh, the sound watery from all of my tears, then continues. “Or how you talk to Penny like she’s going to talk back when you think no one’s paying attention. Or the way you put everyone before yourself without a second thought.” He leans in closer, lowering his voice into a hushed whisper. “How you fall apart on my cock, screaming my name. How you’re soft and warm first thing in the morning when you’re wrapped around me. Now that I know what all of those things feel like… I don’t want to have to walk away and pretend that I don’t want you.”
If we weren’t in my grandparents’ living room, I’d launch myself at him and crawl into his lap, but instead, I just crush my lips against his and kiss him. I can taste the saltiness of my tearscombined with the sweet taste of eggnog, and I’m surrounded by Wells, completely enchanted by him.
I tear my mouth away and stare back at him. “How are you even real?” I laugh but shake my head when he does too. “But seriously, I spent the last month thinking that I was losing my mind. That somehow, Santa was actually granting my Christmas wish. I questioned my sanity far too many times.”
“Promise I’m real.”
Lifting his letter between us, I run my thumb along the black ink on the pages. “I can’t believe my grandparents knew all of this about you before I did. This was… really vulnerable and beautiful, Wells.”
“I had no idea what to expect when I came to Mistletoe Falls. I mean, yeah, I’d been here before, but only to visit when we went to Cedar Ridge. But now that I’m here… all I can think about is planting roots. That’s not something I ever thought about with hockey because I was on the road more often than I was home. I lived out of a suitcase. Living here has made me realize how much I want those roots, to invest in something the way I did hockey.” Wells drops his forehead against mine as he inhales deeply, breathing me in. “The whole time I thought I was searching for a place to call home, when all along, I was searching for you, Rosalie.”
Those silly tears turn into a strangled sob that spills past my lips, and once again, I’m slamming my lips to his, my fingers tangling into the collar of his shirt and pulling him closer.
God, this man.
He kisses me like he’s trying toprovethe words. Until I’m breathless. Until I’m nearly in his lap from the need to be closer to him.
When I pull back to look at him, we’re both trying to catch our breath, his whiskey eyes hazy and unfocused.
“Does this mean that you’ll be my girl? For real this time?” he asks.
Without a single moment of hesitation, I nod. “Yes. I’ll be yours.”
