Page 25 of A Very Grumpy Christmas

“Merry Christmas, Kip. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Best Christmas ever,” she says, and I can’t help but agree.

It’s our first Christmas together, and I intend to make every other one perfect.

TEN

Ginger

Five Years Later…

Five years.It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since that Christmas when everything changed. Since I found out that my secret admirer—the man I’d been falling for in those letters—was Kip. Five years since that fateful kiss under the mistletoe that sealed my heart to his.

Now, here we are, five years later, and Christmas has become even more magical than it used to be.

I stand in the doorway of our cozy little house, watching the snow fall softly outside. The world is quiet, blanketed in white, and the Christmas lights twinkle in the trees lining our street. It’s perfect—just like the life we’ve built together.

Kip is in the living room, decorating the tree with the same focus and intensity he puts into everything. He’s carefully hanging ornaments, stepping back every now and then to make sure everything is in its right place. I can’t help but smile asI watch him, remembering how far we’ve come from that first Christmas.

“Kip,” I call softly, stepping into the room. “You’re going to run out of branches if you keep hanging ornaments that close together.”

He looks over his shoulder at me, a grin spreading across his face. “I’m just making sure it’s perfect.”

“It’s already perfect,” I say, crossing the room to stand beside him. I wrap my arms around his waist, resting my chin on his shoulder as we both look at the tree.

Five years ago, I never would have imagined we’d be here. But now, with the tree glowing warmly in front of us, the house filled with the smell of fresh pine and the faint sound of Christmas music playing in the background, I can’t imagine my life any other way.

“It’s beautiful,” I murmur, my arms tightening around him.

He leans down, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Not as beautiful as you.”

I laugh softly, rolling my eyes. “You’ve been saying that for years, you know.”

“Because it’s true,” he says, turning in my arms so that we’re face to face.

I look up at him, my heart swelling with love. There’s still a part of me that’s amazed by how far we’ve come, how lucky I am to have found someone like Kip. He’s everything I’ve ever wanted, and more than I ever thought I deserved. Five years, and I’m still falling in love with him every single day.

Goldfish comes into the room, and I bend down to scratch him behind the ears before he heads over to his dog bed in the corner.

Kip and I got married six months after we got together, in a small ceremony here in Wolf Valley. Then we spent two weeks inHawaii, enjoying the sun and water and each other. Two weeks after we got back home, we found out that I was pregnant.

To say that it was a whirlwind would be an understatement, but Kip was so strong and supportive throughout it all. It made me fall in love with him even more.

Since then, we’ve had our son, moved into a bigger house, and grown the business. I started working with Kip and Huxley at their company, and I’ve been handling the admin work ever since.

“You know,” Kip says, his voice soft, “I was thinking about that first Christmas, when I finally got the nerve to kiss you under the mistletoe.”

I smile, remembering it as if it were yesterday. “You mean when I ran across the room and practically jumped into your arms?”

He chuckles, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Yeah, that part. I still think about how scared I was that night, wondering if you’d actually want me after you found out I was the one writing those letters.”

My smile widens, and I press a kiss to his jaw. “I wanted you more than anything.”

“And now?” he asks, his voice playful but with a hint of seriousness beneath it.

“Now,” I say, leaning up on my tiptoes to kiss him softly, “I still want you. Always.”

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