Page 174 of Miami Ice

“I got the perfect dessert for you.”

“A yule log?” I ask.

Beckham furrows his brow. “No.”

“Gingerbread?”

“No.”

“Something peppermint?”

“Okay, it’s not that perfect,” Beckham concedes.

“Then what is it?” I ask eagerly.

He flashes me a huge smile. “Cupcakes for my Cupcake.”

As he kisses me again, I can’t imagine a more perfect dessert.

Or Christmas Eve.

And it’s all because I have the love of this man.

Which is by far the greatest gift I could ever receive.

Epilogue

July 1st

Beckham Bailey Residence

Miami Beach

This is nearly the second-best day of the year, besides Christmas morning.

That’s because it’s July 1st.

Officially kicking off Christmas in July.

I grin as I work on the jar I’m painting. Pomegranate red, of course, for the big Christmas in July show I’m doing in two weeks.

I glance around my studio. My new studio, that is, and think of how much my life has changed this past year.

Because my new studio isn’t in the artist rented space like I had originally planned.

Instead, my studio is in a room converted just for me in Beckham’s Miami Beach house.

Love for Beckham fills my heart as I look around the room. Beckham asked if I would like a room in his house purely as a workspace, with me being free to come and go as I pleased to work on my art. At first, I refused. I didn’t want to encroach on him in that way, especially as our relationship was so new.

But as Beckham helped me heal from my accident—and working with me through the emotional side effects caused by a concussion—I knew this was a man who was never going to leave my side. He told me I was it for him, and in the future, he’d ask me to marry him. There was no pressure for me to move in or even make his home the base for my art studio, he simply brought it up and left it for me to decide.

It didn’t take me long to come to the conclusion that a good first step was to base my studio out of his house.

And it turned out to be the best thing ever.

We picked a spacious room on the second floor to be my new studio. It’s a room overlooking the pool and the bay, with loads of natural light. Beckham hired an interior designer to create the space, with different areas for storage, shipping, and painting, and a sink was installed so I could rinse out my brushes. I have a gorgeous blue and white stenciled floor, and built-in white shelving and cabinets. I have a large island in the middle with blue chairs around it as my main workspace.

It’s beautiful, spacious, and I absolutely love it.

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