Page 44 of Flown in for Christmas

He takes a deep breath. “These last few days with you have been nothing short of the best days of my life. I know what I said in the beginning about this being temporary, but nothing about this has felt temporary. None of it was fake for me. I started falling for you from the moment you said yes,” he says, and my pulse quickens. “I see clearly when I’m with you. There’s no dark cloud hangingover my head at what the future holds. And I can’t imagine a life where I don’t get to crawl into bed with you at the end of a long day.” His eyes shine. “The only future I want is the one with you in it. I’m in love with you, Joy.”

He loves me.

“Really?” I breathe, giddy even as the tears start to fall.

“How could I not fall for you, angel?” He cups the back of my neck in his heated palm and leans down. “You’re everything.” His lips meet mine and I melt into him, kissing him back. My arms fly around his neck and the applause that follows drowns in the background of the moment.

I break the kiss only to say, “I love you, too.”

He holds me tighter. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I whisper, popping on my toes to kiss him again. I know it’s only been an hour or so, but I missed this. Us. Him.

“Marry me,” he murmurs against my lips before slowly pulling away and dropping to one knee. The energy in the crowd shifts. Coos and awes and whistles surround us.

My eyes widen. “Nick.”

He gently takes my left ring finger in his hand as if to give it a tiny handshake. “I’d ask you to take the ring off and do this right, but seeing you without it for even a second would break my heart.”

My laugh is watery as I try to blink away the tears.

“Marry me, Joy. Be mine for real this time.” His grin is lopsided. “I promise you won’t regret it.”

“I never regretted it the first time.” I lean in, kissing him softly. “Of course, I’ll marry you.”

He smiles against my lips and lifts me in his strong embrace as he gets to his feet. “She said yes!” he shouts, and the room breaks out in wild cheers.

I blush, laughing as he spins me around twice before returning me to my feet. “You’re crazy,” I tease.

“Crazy in love with you,” he says deeply, holding me close as our family swarms us with love.

Epilogue.

Nick

One year later…

I sit on thecouch at my parents’ house, watching Tucker and Izzy tear into gift after gift. Wrapping paper flying left and right. Natalie gave up trying to catch it all after the third present.

My stunning wife is curled up beside me in her pajamas, my arm around her with her back pressed to my chest. Her hair is down and she put on a light layer of makeup first thing this morning—not that she needed it in my eyes.

She’s glowing.

I tighten my hold on her. The nervous excitement is starting to get to me as the presents dwindle one by one. We’ve only beenmarried for two weeks now, Joy was adamant about having the wedding in December, as close to Christmas as I would agree to without it being on Christmas Day itself.

“Woah! A transformer,” Tucker beams, turning to Joy and me. “Thank you, Uncle Nick.”

“And Auntie Joy,” Natalie says, smiling as Martina hurries to help him open the box before he breaks the toy in his haste.

“Look who finally made it,” my father announces, standing with ease. After finishing his treatments early this year, with astounding success, he was eligible for surgery. And I am proud to say, that my father is cancer free.

There is so much to be grateful for this year.

I stand as my cousin Eric walks in with his wife, April, and son, Michael. It’s been a few months since we saw each other last, but we talk almost every day. “Hey, man, Merry Christmas,” I say, patting his back in a quick hug.

“Merry Christmas.” He nods with a signature Davis grin.

When the investigators helped us track him down—therealEric (Davis) Mitchell—a year ago, it was a night and day difference from when Billy had shown up. My father hugged his nephew and cried. He looks so much like my Uncle Steve it’s jarring. Mom says it was the family drive Dad needed from missing his brother to push harder with treatment.

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