Page 19 of Yule Love Me

“You want romantic and I’ll turn this world upside down for you. I’d kill a man for just looking at you. I’d do anything for you until the day we leave this earth. If I leave before you, I’ll be with you every second until you follow me to the other side. I will never leave you.”

I smile and curl into him, my lips on his chest. I lay my ear on the spot I kissed and listen to his heart, so strong and sure. A heart that belongs to me.

A heart that matches mine beat for beat. I close my eyes and sigh, sinking into him, feeling his skin warm mine.

My hand reaches out and curls over his heart. “Love you, baby girl.”

“Love you more,” I whisper as I finally yawn and slip away, fading into dreams that can’t possibly be better than our reality.

It took a lot longer than it should have. But I got my man and I’m keeping him forever and ever.

We’re a perfect pair. Slightly dirty, slightly tarnished. But all love for each other.

That’s the dream. And happily, that’s our reality.

I love him and he loves me. The end.

Epilogue One: Petra

There’s something to be said about this most wonderful time of the year.

It’s Christmas in Magnolia Point again and this year is a lot different than last year.

I smile at Jeremy across the room and he lifts his glass of sparkling cider to me, his gray eyes shining with love.

We’ve been living together for about ten months now. We only dated for about three months and then we moved in together. Our families are in the room and there’s so much going on. So much laughter and so much joy. And we’re about to give more fuel to our parents’ overwhelming, out of control merriment.

My mother is hanging on Jeremy’s and they’re both laughing at something that our dads are doing. I can’t really tell from this angle but I’m sure it’s crazy! Since they started talking again in public it’s been nonstop crazy. They’re always up to something.

For instance, a week ago, we caught them riding four-wheelers in the woods. Covered in mud, they’d limped back into town and admitted that they’d crashed their borrowed atv’s and that they were in the woods. They couldn’t ride them home.

So Jeremy and I had gone to retrieve them with a tow truck that had to yank them out of a little bog back there. They were almost ruined so we’d had to pay for them to be fixed and then we’d ended up purchasing them since the owners decided to just sell them at a loss and buy new.

So now we’ve got atv’s that we can use. Or we could use. Jeremy can still use it but…

“What is this news that you guys are bursting to tell us?” My mother’s smile is huge and bright and I know what she’s thinking. I hate to disappoint her but I guarantee she’s gonna be happy.

Jeremy comes to stand next to me and puts his arm around me, holding his drink in his other hand. He smiles down at me and says, “you ready for this?” He’s as aware as I am that this news is gonna send this party into a tailspin.

I smile and nod at him. He murmurs, “You’re up. I’ll keep them from mobbing us!”

I laugh shyly and then smile at our family. “I’m well-aware that y’all think that we’re going to announce our engagement. That’s not what’s happening right now!”

I can see that my mother and Jeremy’s mother have both got tears in their eyes. They were so hoping this was it.

I smile and gaze into Jeremy’s warm gray gaze. “But we do have some very exciting news.” I turn to the gathered crowd and smile. “Jeremy and I are expecting a baby. Next year in June.”

The crowd goes wild and I briefly see Promise’s happy face right before I’m mobbed by two very happy older women.

“Oh, I’m so happy!” My mother gushes with tears in her eyes. “I wasn’t sure this day would ever come.” Her forehead creases. “But you guys will need to get married before the baby’s born, right? We’ve got so much to plan.”

Both Jeremy and I shake our heads. “No,” I say. “We’re not going to do that. We’re going to wait until we have the baby andwe’ve settled in. We want to make sure that we’re able to enjoy this time. Rushing around and trying to push a wedding ahead of the birth would just be crazy. More stressful than either one of us is willing to risk.”

Both of our mothers look sad but resigned which is more than we expected. We expected to have to fight harder.

But this is what we want.

Jeremy wraps his arms around me as the moms traipse across the room to our dads, keeping an eagle eye on their antics.

---