Page 63 of Five Minute Man
“Merry Christmas Eve, Adam,” she said in that low, musical voice of hers. “Would you like to come in?”
“Yes, thanks,” he said, stomping his feet to get the snow off before stepping inside. He was immediately met with a push of warm, soft fur against his hand. “Hey, Max,” he said, indulging the dog with a rub.
“He missed you,” Holly said softly.
“I missed him, too,” Adam said, meaning it.
He then straightened and cleared his throat before reaching down into his pocket and extracting the contents. “You gave me a gift,” he said, “so it seemed only fitting that I give you one in return.”
Holly stared at the small package for several long seconds, but she made no move to take it. It wasn’t fancy, just a crinkled sheet of white paper folded around a box. Looking at it now, Adam realized he had done a pretty shitty job of it. Hell, he wasn’t good at that sort of thing on the best of days. He couldn’t help it if his hands were shaking like crazy when he had wrapped it.
“Go on,” he coaxed. “Take it.”
“You didn’t have to,” she said, but she reached for it, anyway.
He took some small pleasure in the fact that her delicate hands were trembling a little, too. At least he wasn’t the only one.
“Yeah, I did.”
She carefully pulled away the tape, just as he had done, revealing a small, black velvet box. Her attention, however, was focused on the inside of the paper she had just unfolded.
The last chapter of the book she had left him.
He heard her sharp intake of breath as she read the words. He, of course, already knew what they said.
“To be determined” had been crossed off, and beneath it had been written “And they lived happily ever after.”
Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up at him.
“Open it,” he commanded.
Holly did. She lifted the hinged lid of the little, black velvet box and gasped at the sight of a diamond engagement ring, flanked by stunning, smaller emeralds and set in a custom white gold setting.
“Marry me, Holly.”
No flowery words, no romantic poetry, just a heartfelt request.
Some might have thought Adam was taking a gamble. After all, he and Holly had only spent a couple weeks together before spending the next several months apart under some very unpleasant circumstances.
He knew better.
There was not a doubt in his mind that this was exactly the way things were meant to be, because he had read her story. In her written word, he had seen her heart. Her pain. Her love. Her forgiveness. He knew the depth of her feelings were only rivaled by his own.
“Yes...” she whispered through the tears.
Adam released the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding, and before she had a chance to change her mind, he slipped the ring onto her finger and crushed his mouth to hers.
She had said yes. He was never going to let her out of his arms again.
* * *
OH, HOW SHE HAD MISSEDthis. Missedhim.
It had all become clear to her when she had started writing her story.Theirstory. She loved him. Adam was the other half of her soul, and without him, she was miserable.
Once she allowed herself to accept that, everything else fell into place.
The last six months had been hell, but they had made her realize what was truly important. And as the details of what Eve had done and the extent of her illness had become known, Holly was ashamed she had not given Adam the benefit of the doubt. She had been so devastated, so ready to believe he had betrayed her, that she hadn’t been able to look past her own heartbreak to see that he, too, had been hurt.
