Page 118 of Merry Mended Hearts

She pulled back, showing me her beautiful smile. “Yeah, that’s about it. I wanted you. I wanted to be as close to you as I could.”

I held her tighter. “Even though Christmas is over?”

Her eyes were a cerulean sea of blue, framed by long lashes. She cast her gaze across my face, from my brow to my eyes, to my mouth, and back again. The hunger to kiss her overwhelmed me, stronger than ever, but I held back, letting her finish.

“Yes,” she said, “and somehow, I’m as crazy for you now as I was back at your cottage.”

“Me, too,” I said.

“That radio may have gotten us together, but I haven’t heard any chimes in the air for a while, have you?”

I swallowed. My hands fisted at her waist. “No, I haven’t.”

“But I can’t stop this otherworldly pull to be wherever you are. Magic got us to notice one another, but it isn’t keeping us together. It’s you.”

I wouldn’t say that. “Me?”

“And me. It’s us. The rest is up to us.”

I pulled her closer. Heat spilled from her body, and I brushed my nose along her jawline. “I’m down if you are.”

She trembled in my arms, her eyelashes fluttering again. Man, I loved having that effect on her.

“I’m all in,” she said. “Or I wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m never letting you go again.” My words were a growl.

Grace’s eyes flicked to my lips. She licked her delectable mouth and then tipped it closer to mine so I felt her breath on my lips as she said, “I think we’re just meant to be together, and Santa knew it.”

“Remind me to thank him sometime,” I said.

And then I was done talking. I wanted—needed—to let her know just how much she meant to me, just how much it meant to have her back at Harper’s Inn, and how this was the only place I wanted her to be.

With me.

Her mouth was soft and yielding. It teased and captured while my hands couldn’t get enough of her. I pulled her tighter against me, my fingers gripping her hips, feeling her slim waist, enveloping her and keeping as her as close as I could. Yet, it wasn’t anywhere near close enough.

I bent just enough for a lower hold on her. Wrapping my arms firmly around her, I lifted her against my body. A little squeak escaped her lips as I held her there long enough to situate her on the desk, pushing Junie’s keyboard aside. Something else clattered to the ground, but I didn’t know what it was.

We could pick it up later.

I stood between her knees, kissing her. Parting her lips with mine. Grace kissed me with abandon, raking her hands through my hair, meeting me with as much fervor as I gave her.

“I’m never letting you go again,” I said, sweeping her hair away from her neck so I could have better access.

She tipped her head upward, allowing me full rein to roam at will.

“You made my heart come back to life,” I said between kisses. “I didn’t know it could, Grace. More than that, I didn’t think I could feel more for someone than I felt for Amy. We married young, but maybe love is like wine and gets better with age.”

She let out little gasp as my mouth trailed up to kiss the corner of hers. Her hand rested on the side of my scruffy jaw. “It’s harder to love when you’ve been wounded from it,” she said. “That’s probably why you’re feeling more.”

I rested my hands on either side of her, pressing my forehead to hers and squeezing my eyes shut. “You’rewhy I’m feeling more. I’m sorry I ever let you go.”

“How sorry?” she asked, nibbling her lip and eyeing my mouth once more.

“So sorry,” I said with a breath, placing my mouth on hers. And I’d spend every day I could telling her how much she meant to me.

EPILOGUE

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