Page 76 of The Christmas Romance Wish

Alex spins me around and then boosts me onto the counter.

Gaze seizing mine, he says, “Emmie, I don’t doubt you. Not even a little bit. Nothing I say or do is ever or will ever be intended to undermine you. I respect you. I honor you. I love you.”

“I love you too.” The words come easy because they’re true.

“And part of love is risk. Exploring new places. Going on adventures together.”

He’s right. I’m just being stubborn. But why?

To protect myself from getting hurt.

Being alone is familiar.

But it’s not easy.

I go back and forth in my mind while we prepare the cookie dough, roll it out, and then make gingerbread boys and girls.

While they’re baking, Alex leads me over to the tree. It twinkles and the fire crackles. It’s a picture-perfect moment with Christmas carols playing in the background.

“The way you do Christmas makes me want to avoid it less,” I say.

“Does that mean you’re excited about tomorrow?”

I tip my head side to side. “Do you ask because you know I’m on Santa’s good list and he’s going to leave me something special?”

“That, and because we’re going to be together, celebrating the birth of our Savior...and it’s your birthday.”

I swallow. “Oh, right.”

He does too. “There’s something else I’d like you to have. But it’s not a Christmas gift or birthday present.” He points to a pair of stockings on the mantle that I only now notice. There’s one with my name and his. “Go ahead and see what it is.”

The bah humbugs quake. My limbs shake. I pull out the light blue velvet box.

Alex opens it and inside sits a sparkling diamond ring that reminds me of a snowflake.

He asks, “Emmie, will you be my wife and take me as your husband?”

The bah humbugs are more like butterflies fluttering around. They open their wings wide and take flight.

I tell myself they carry my answer with them because I’m left here, frozen.

Alex

CHAPTER 20

Emmie, more frozen than when we were sledding earlier, stands completely motionless in front of me. It’s like the words of my marriage proposal were a pause button. Her expression reveals neither a smile nor a frown, completely neutral.

“Marry me?” I repeat.

Blinking a few times, she asks, “Like the app?”

“No, like nonfiction. Real life. Emmanuella, will you marry me?” I attempt, hoping the third time is the charm.

She opens and closes her mouth but words don’t come. Nerves explode inside. Have I read everything between us all wrong?

“I thought we could do it soon, like tomorrow, that way you’d have better associations with this time of year.”

Emmie sits down on the edge of the sofa. She studies her hands for a long moment as if whatever she wants to say would be more easily shared by typing, rather than speaking. “Alex, I fled Florida and broke free from the girl I was while growing up there. Then, coming here, I realized that I got caught up in a city lie, hoping that it would fix my loneliness. But there even with its huge population, just like when surrounded by my brothers, I felt the same loneliness.”

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