Page 83 of Promise Yule Be Mine
With the wedding out of the way and seeing in the new year as newlyweds, we had to start overcoming the challenges that came with our decision.
To start with, we had to decide where we were going to live and figure out what we were going to do. In the end, Nova had decided he wanted life in a small town. After one more wedding in the big city he was ready to pack up and set down roots in Christmas Falls. Not that I wasn’t ready to move to the city forhim. Mom and Dad would’ve gladly come out of retirement to take over The White Elephant again, much to our joint dismay. But with Nova moving in with me he’d not only managed to get Mom and Dad to step away, he’d even sent them on a cruise so they could enjoy retirement.
“Did you only send them away so we’d have the house to ourselves?” I’d asked him in February after a very busy Valentine’s day at work.
“No.” He smirked. “But it was an added bonus.”
“Excuse me. What about me? You don’t have the house all to yourselves,” Nikita cleared his throat from the couch he was sprawled over, watching a movie on Popflix while also messing with some screws and motherboards. Probably building his next disaster robot.
“Of course not. How could we forget?” I said, putting my knife and fork down.
“Besides, you don’t mind hearing us have wild, unprotected sex.”
Nikita glared at us.
“If you had any I’d be happy to scold you about it, but no, you’re the perfect roommates.”
We both laughed, and just to make a point we spent that night moaning just to irritate Nikita while we cuddled and watched a movie in bed.
By April we’d signed a lease on a house and Nova signed a lease for one of the empty stores opposite Gingerbread’s Cottage.
“I’m not saying I want to stop doing weddings and stuff, but it wouldn’t hurt to diversify,” he’d said of his decision one day while he was helping me plan an event for The White Elephant.
“If you want to open a craft store, baby, I’ll support you,” was the only acceptable answer, and it was exactly the answer I’d given him.
And that was how Nova had ended up with three jobs. One as a wedding planner for Christmas Falls and the wider area. Another as an events planner for The White Elephant, helping me make the pub my own for the first time since I’d taken over. And one as the exclusive owner of the town’s first craft store, Winter Wondercraft, with everything one needed to make something artsy and beautiful, and classes to help those who felt as hopeless about their creativity as I had felt before I met him. And yet, despite all the extra jobs, he had more free time than ever before.
We spent Christmas day in our new home with Jenna and Conner, who were now an item. Officially.
“So, you still don’t know what you’re doing?” Nova asked Conner.
Conner smiled, grabbed Jenna’s hand and shook his head.
“Nope. Not a clue.”
“That must kill you,” Nova said.
“A little bit, but I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Conner replied and Jenna laughed.
Conner’s high-end restaurant was still in New York so they split their time between there and Christmas Falls. They were an unlikely pair. Jenna was still a hot mess—her words, not mine—and Conner was an organization freak. And yet they made it work, somehow.
“We’ll have a better picture once this little guy is here,” she said, rubbing her belly.
“I’m sorry,” Nova apologized. “I feel like we’re keeping you guys from living your lives.”
“Nonsense,” Conner said. “We’re more than happy to help you start your family. And it gives us an opportunity to get to know each other better and what we want to do.”
I held my husband’s hand and stared at Jenna’s belly.
We’d only started thinking about what way we wanted to start a family in September when Jenna had jumped at the chance to carry our baby. And only a month later she was pregnant.
“You’ve been together a year. You already know each other.”
“It doesn’t hurt to be sure,” Jenna said.
“Seriously? You forced us to get married after three weeks and you need more than a year, princess?” Nova said and we all laughed.
“I didn’t force you. If memory serves me right, you practically jumped at the chance to get hitched.”
