Page 38 of The Grinch and His Curvy Christmas Miracle
Outside, snow falls in lazy flakes, blanketing the yard in soft white.
It’s quiet and beautiful, the kind of quiet you only get in the woods.
Until the shouting starts.
“Mommy! Look! He has a carrot nose!”
That’s our four-year-old, Will, announcing his masterpiece.
“He needs hat,” Ben, our two-and-a-half-year-old, insists with a fierce pout.
Ryder’s crouched in the snow beside them, sculpting the body of what I think is supposed to be a snowman, though with the help of two toddlers, it currently looks more like a snow blob.
He glances over his shoulder and grins at me. Hatless, snow in his beard, cheeks red from the cold.
And God, I love him.
Nestled in my arms, little Rose sleeps. Six months old and bundled in a fleece onesie that makes her look like a marshmallow.
Her tiny fingers curl around the edge of my coat as I rock her gently, watching the boys pile snow onto Ryder’s boots instead of the snowman.
Five years ago, I stepped into that cabin alone, thinking I was just escaping the world for a little while.
Now I have a whole world of my own.
Our wedding was in January, three weeks after I met my grumpy mountain man.
I wore a simple cream dress. Ryder wore his cleanest flannel. We said our vows with snow falling outside and a fire burning inside.
Evan stood beside Ryder as best man, beaming the whole time.
His now-wife, Aileen, cried more than I did. They got married two weeks later. She’s family now. Both of them are, like a sister and brother I didn’t know I needed.
My parents didn’t come to the wedding.
I found out through an Instagram story that they were on a beach somewhere warm, drinks in hand, smiling at someone else’s celebration.
It hurt. Of course it did.
But it didn’t surprise me. And it didn’t break me.
Because I was already whole.
Because Ryder stood beside me, holding my hand, holding my heart, and promising me a life full of messy mornings and soft nights and snow days like this.
And now? I look at our three kids, our life, the wild joy that spills out of this cabin every single day, and I know I was never missing anything.
Not really.
I press a kiss to Rose’s head.
“Hey, you three!” I call. “Don’t you think that snowman deserves arms?”
Will gasps. “STICKS!”
Ben squeals and runs off toward the trees, determined to find the perfect ones.
Ryder stands and brushes the snow off his jeans, walking toward me with that look on his face. The one that still undoes me after all this time.
