Page 116 of All I Want for Christmas… Is You
“Things? Do you mean…no, Dinah, don’t look away from me.” Oliver tipped her chin up. “Are we talking about pineapples, or something else?”
“Everything,” she whispered. “Pineapples, and animals, and people.”
“That isn’t true, Dinah. What about the kittens?”
Dinah raised her tear-stained face to his. “Mathilda’s kittens?”
Oliver brushed damp strands of hair back from her cheeks. “Well, yes, those kittens, but I was thinking of the kittens you had as a child. The barn cats. You took care of them, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but that was just—”
“Then there’s Penelope. You’ve been taking care of her since she came to the Pandemonium, haven’t you? And Maddy. You’ve always taken care of her as if she were your own sister.”
“Yes, but anyone would—”
“The puppy, too. You’ve been taking care of him since we left Dartford, though God knows he’s naughty enough to put anyone out of temper.”
Dinah sniffled. “Well, he doesn’t like me much.”
A hint of a smile crossed Oliver’s lips. “I don’t know about that. He didn’t chewyourpocket to bits.”
“Well, no.”
“No. Tell me then, sweetheart. What are these ‘other things’ you can’t be trusted to take care of?”
Dinah bit her lip. Once she said it, he’d know the truth, and there’d be no taking it back, but maybe…maybe she’d come too far for that, and maybe she no longer wanted to take it back.
“A heart,” she whispered at last. “Such a precious heart. I’m afraid if it’s trusted to me, I’ll make mistakes, and I’ll…I’ll break it.”
Oliver brushed his thumbs over her cheeks, but he was quiet for a long time before he asked, “Whose heart, Dinah?”
She tried to look down at her hands, but Oliver wouldn’t allow it. “No, look at me. Whose heart is so precious to you, you’re afraid to trust yourself with it?”
Dinah drew in a long, shaky breath, then she lay a trembling hand on his chest. Under her palm his heart was thundering, the beat strong and steady and true. “Yours.”
There was a brief, fraught silence, and then Oliver was gathering her against him, pressing his lips into her hair. “Oh, sweetheart. Don’t you see? My heart isn’t mine anymore. It’syours.Nothing will ever change that. The only way you could break it is by leaving me, and even then, it would still be yours.”
Dinah gripped his coat and let her forehead rest against his chest.
He held her, nuzzling her temple and scattering sweet, tender kisses over her cheeks, her eyelids and the tip of her nose. When her breathing calmed and her tears slowed, he eased her away from him so he could gaze down into her eyes. “Your heart is pounding.” He touched a fingertip to the hollow of her throat where her pulse was beating wildly.
“Yes.” She took his hand and pressed his palm flat against her chest, over her heart. “Perhaps it’s not frozen, after all.”
“It never was, Dinah.” He gazed down at her, his blue eyes bright with fear and love and hope. “It was just…waiting until it was safe.”
Dinah reached up and traced his lips with a hesitant finger. “It was waiting foryou. I-I love you, Oliver.”
Oliver closed his eyes, as if he’d waited a lifetime to hear her say those words, and needed a quiet moment to treasure them. When he opened them again, they were glowing with joy and love. “I love you so much, sweetheart. You’ll marry me, Dinah? You’ll be my wife?”
Dinah hesitated, but for only a moment. She was still afraid, but this was no time to turn coward. When a man like Oliver Angel offered you his heart you took it, and spent a lifetime cherishing it.
“Yes. I’ll marry you. How could I not, after such a courtship?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. “Or did we decide it was an escapade? A Christmas courtship caper?”
“It was a lark. A playful, harmless bit of fun, and the first in a lifetime of adventures together.” He smiled down at her, his dimples flashing.
Dinah’s breath caught. She’d seen Oliver smile thousands of times, but never before had she seen him smile likethis. It burst across his face like a sunrise, the warmth of its rays melting in an instant the last tiny shard of ice buried deep inside her heart.
EPILOGUE
