Page 79 of When I Fall In Love

“We’ve been at it the whole day. The food’s ready, the table is set—Georgiana has done an amazing job—and Hunter just went up to shower. We’re all set.”

I glance from one thing to the next. In my haste to get one meeting in before the funny lull between Christmas and New Year’s, I didn’t give much thought to any of this. Hunter has been busy. The table looks beautiful all set for the nine of us, with silver and gold baubles strewn between the pine foliage and candles in glass jars.

“The tree. It’s real?” I walk up and touch the spiky needles.

“Yep, potted, so don’t worry, it will go back outside,” Lucy says. “Raiden came and forklifted it in so I assume he will forklift it out again too.”

“What?” I glance at the tree. It’s huge and has string lights all over it, but no decorations yet.

“Totally extra, I know. They’re nuts. To think Hunter planned for a forklift when he got this house designed just goes to show.” Lucy rolls her eyes as she rakes the loose strands of thick brown hair from her face where they’ve loosened from her ponytail. “I’m going to go home to freshen up, and we’ll all be here in two hours. You don’t have to do anything but decorate the tree.” Lucy points to the three crates of decorations that came with us from San Francisco, all Mom’s beautiful old things. “So relax, enjoy, and have a glass of wine.”

“I can’t believe you had the energy for all of this.”

“Ha-ha. Mon dieu, I woke up at three this morning! I’ll probably pass out right after dessert. At least the sofa is perfect for that.” She laughs and it lights up her face with a thousand twinkles of the string lights in her eyes. “I’m fine as long as I keep going. It’s when you slow down that the jet lag catches up with you!”

She leans in, does that double French bisous kiss thing, squeezes my arm, and is out the door before I can even get another word in. That one is going to take the world by storm.

I sink down into the sectional and take it all in. There are even two stockings hanging next to the fireplace. One is old and has been through the wash a few times, but it has May’s hand all over it in the quilting. It says Hunter along the edge in needlepoint. Facing it toe to toe is a fresher version of the same design, with Beth embroidered in a beautiful, bold red. It fills my heart with such warmth that May made this one specially for me, that it reassures me I made the right decision. Coming back to Ashleigh Lake has been written in my stars.

There are already some gifts under the tree, which must be Hunter’s purchases. If I add my last-minute gifts, there will be quite a substantial stack to take over to May and Bill’s house in the morning, because that’s where we’ll be having Christmas dinner tomorrow. In the whirlwind that was our move, I’ve neglected to buy Hunter any significant gifts, but luckily Mother Nature has sorted me out in that department. I make my way hastily to my purse, pluck out the gift I wrapped for Hunter in some tissue paper with a ridiculous bow on it, and shove it into his Christmas stocking.

I feel quite smug as I reach for the first box of Mom’s decorations.

“Beth? You’re home. Awesome.”

I glance up to see Hunter coming down the stairs in a black turtleneck sweater and dark blue jeans, his hair still wet from the shower. “Lucy’s left?”

“Hey.” I step up to him and he pulls me into a warm hug. Oh God, he smells so good. “She left a couple of minutes ago.” As he kisses me, one hand slips into mine and he presses me against him with his other hand in the small of my back. I just know what’s going to happen next as he turns us in a slow dance, kissing and nibbling at me in that way that makes me want to sink into him.

“How did your meeting go?” he whispers as he plants a row of kisses along my jaw.

“Well. Very well, actually.”

He pulls away and looks at me. “Yes? What did they say?”

“They can’t wait for me to get on board in the new year and they basically have a list of at least fifty people that need legal assistance. The cases are going to be diverse, and I’ll have to brush up on a lot of law, but I’m looking forward to it.” I called up a few local small-town attorneys within a certain radius for pro-bono work while I was still in San Francisco, as well as applying for admission to the Vermont bar. I’ve had quite few bites and am on my way to either starting my own practice or just slotting in somewhere where someone is keen to have me and where I can gain experience in other branches of legal work. For now, that sounds perfect.

“That’s great,” Hunter says as he twirls me out.

“Yes.” I laugh as I turn to a blur of string lights. “I love what you’ve done here,” I say with a smile when I’m back in his arms.

“You do?”

“It’s stunning. You were sneaky doing all of this on the sly.”

He chuckles. “Lucy, Georgiana, and Raiden were all here to help. Without them—jeez, you should see Raiden and Georgiana together when they’re on a mission—getting all this done would have been impossible.” He glances around the room. “They left your decorations for you. Want some help?”

“Yes.” My heart is in my throat. This is going to be hard and cathartic at the same time. “Let’s do it.”

For the next hour, it’s Hunter and me, going through all Mom’s beautiful decorations she made by hand, or collected over the years. There are a lot of childhood charmers, made by Kyle and me, some of them eyesores, some of them too cute, and I laugh through my emotions. “You know, every year I forget that she kept all of these,” I say as I look up at Hunter where he is hanging a clay star high up the tree. “And unpacking them and hanging them up is like opening beautiful memories that I’ve missed for an entire year.”

“She loved you so much,” he says as he reaches for my cheek to gently wipe away at a tear with the pad of his thumb.

“I know.” I look down at the leftover bits and bobs of broken baubles and other decorations that are just too crappy to put on the tree and fish out two more. “I hope Kyle will have it in him to come next year and spend Christmas with us.”

Hunter squeezes my hand. “I think he will.”

“There’re only two left,” I say as I reach for the last two hand-painted baubles.

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