Page 128 of Win Some Love Some
“Nora, this is officially too many pies.”
“Hardly. It’s ten pies,” I said, pulling a second box of pies out of the back of the truck. It might be too many pies, but I was never going to let him know that.
“That’s too many.”
The driveway was already filled with cars. Everyone was here. We were late because right as we got into the truck to leave, Nick said he forgot something for his mom and ran back inside.
We were already running late because baking ten pies took a long ass time and I was trying to make videos while I did it. So two had just come out of the oven and needed time to cool before I could put them into the box to carry.
“Nick, there are more people here this year. Don’t blame me your half-brothers are producing children at an alarming rate.”
Wyatt and Sydney had twins three months ago. And Liam and Kit welcomed their first child together just last month.
“They can’t eat pie. They’re little babies.” Nick stepped up beside me. He wore a very nice grey cashmere sweater over his black t-shirt, and he’d gotten all the grease out from under his nails.
We also might have been late a little bit because he was so handsome and I felt compelled to show him.
“Don’t forget, Charlie’s bringing her boyfriend and Julian is bringing his boyfriend. More boyfriends mean more pie,” I said. I tugged my new red coat down with one had. Jeanie McNeil was opening a thrift store in town and she let me take whatever I wanted after doing a series of videos for her.
“If you say so,” he grumbled. The driveway had iced over in an early freeze and my heels were no good, so Nick put an arm around my waist and basically pushed me up the driveway beside him. I started laughing.
“Don’t laugh,” he said, watching the ground carefully. “Or we’ll go down.”
I was hoping someone would have heard our truck pull up, and like last year, would take the initiative to come greet us.
Because, no joke, pies were heavy.
Just thinking about last year brought a smile to my face. It was one year ago today, that Nick had officially asked me to move in with him. One year of fighting over closet space, fighting over whether or not he should open a second garage and expand his business, one year of amazing sex, incredible cuddles, a new kitten (one of Calico Cove’s feral mammas had given birth to an all orange litter and I could not resist) and love.
All the love I could have ever wanted.
Nick was stubborn, sometimes difficult to pry information from, uncaring about anything related to accounting, and hated taking pictures with me. He absolutely refused selfie videos too, despite having once been a viral sensation.
And yet, I loved him more than any other person I could ever imagine.
“What?” he asked me.
“What?”
“You’ve got a funny look on your face.”
I smiled. “I was remembering last year. Remember when you got down on one knee to ask me to move in with you and everyone freaked out?”
“Yeah, hysterical. Your sisters were disappointed with my lack of romance, your father was pissed at me all night because I didn’t have a ring and RJ kept threatening to beat me up anytime he was in earshot. Lots-o-fun.”
I laughed. “Well, at least we won’t have that problem this year, since I already live with you.”
“Oh, hold on. I forgot,” He put his box of pies down on the driveway, but they started sliding. “Shit!” I cried. “Catch them.”
He caught them and set them on the frosty grass. “What are you doing, Nick?”
“Here, give me that box too.”
He took my box and set it down on top of his. “Nick, we’re already late. What did you forget…”
He got down on one knee.
“Oh my God, did you slip? Are you slipping?” I grabbed onto his shoulders like I could pull him up, but I fell down on my ass.
