Page 48 of A Christmas Spark
“I couldn’t decide.” Vanessa bit her lip. “Open them? I feel like I’ve been going crazy waiting to see what your reaction would be. I can’t wait for Christmas.”
“Well, I don’t think I can for yours either.” He gave her a mischievous smile and reached for the first gift, untying the ribbon and peeling back the wrapping paper. The moment he saw the “Overload of Christmas Spirit” t-shirt, he burst out laughing.
“This is perfect,” he managed between peals of laughter. “I should have had this when you first showed up in town, looking around like Christmas was out to get you personally.”
“In my defense, there were a lot of decorations,” Vanessa said, shaking her head. “I wasn’t used to that level of festive enthusiasm.”
Jackson set the t-shirt aside and reached for the second package, the one wrapped in Christmas tree paper. When he opened it to reveal the multi-timer device, his expression shifted to one of genuine amazement.
“This is amazing.” He turned it this way and that, fiddling with the dials. “This is going to come in handy for cooking. I’m always saying I need more timers…” He looked at Vanessa, a soft smile on his lips. “You’re always listening to me. I love that about you.”
Her heart flipped a little in her chest, and she nodded toward the last package. “Open that one,” she said excitedly, and Jackson grinned.
He leaned over and kissed her again, quick and sweet, before reaching for the third package. This one he unwrapped more slowly, as if he sensed it was something special. When he saw the special edition books, his breath caught.
“It’s the books I used to read as a kid.” He ran his fingers over the spines, his expression more touched than Vanessa had ever seen it before. “This means a lot to me, Vanessa. I have some copies at home, butthese…”
“The bookseller at Cheerful Chapters showed them to me. That was the hardest one to pass up. I knew you’d love it,” shesaid, a smile on her face. It had all gone so much better than she’d expected it to.
Jackson looked up at her, and she could see emotion shining in his eyes. “This is… these are incredible. All of them. I can’t believe you found such perfect gifts.”
“So you forgive me for breaking our agreement?” Vanessa asked, a teasing smile on her face.
“Only if you forgive me for the same thing,” Jackson said, picking up the small box he’d brought. “Though I have to warn you, mine is a little different from what we’ve been talking about.”
Vanessa’s pulse jumped in her throat as she looked at it. The box was small and square, wrapped in simple silver paper with a white ribbon. It looked elegant and expensive, and she drew in a slow breath, a suspicion pricking at the corners of her mind.
“Jackson, what did you?—”
Instead of answering, Jackson slid off the couch and onto one knee beside the coffee table, still holding the small box in his hands. Vanessa’s breath stopped entirely.
“The thing is,” Jackson said slowly, “there’s something I’ve been wanting to give you for weeks now, but it’s not really a Christmas gift. It’s more of a… forever gift.”
He held out the gift to Vanessa, and she took it, her fingers shaking as she undid the ribbon and gently stripped the paper away. When she opened the small black box, her heart nearly stopped as she saw a glittering round solitaire diamond set in platinum, shining in the lights of the Christmas tree.
“Vanessa Stewart.” Jackson’s voice was thick with emotion. “Will you marry me?”
She couldn’t speak for a moment, everything she wanted to say feeling like too much, her chest tight with the same emotion she heard in his voice. She couldn’t think, could only stare at the man she loved kneeling in front of her, with a future that shewouldn’t have imagined a year ago sparkling in that tiny velvet box.
Tears welled in her eyes and she nodded before she spoke, sliding off of the couch to wrap her arms around Jackson as she managed to answer him, finally.
“Yes,” she whispered, and then louder, as the Christmas lights twinkled next to them and the snow started to fall outside. “Yes, of course! Yes, I’ll marry you.”
She didn’t think she’d ever been happier than she was right then, in that moment, with the love of her life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
George stood outside The Toy Chest, his breath forming small clouds in the crisp December air as he watched Mabel through the large glass front door. She was helping a mother and her twin boys select what appeared to be matching toy trucks, and even from his vantage point on the sidewalk, he could see the genuine delight on her face as she laughed with the children. One of the boys was tugging on her sweater sleeve, clearly trying to show her something important about his chosen truck, while Mabel crouched down to his eye level, giving him her complete attention.
The scene made something warm and tender unfurl in George’s chest—a feeling that had been growing stronger with each passing day since their impromptu ice-skating date… maybe even well before that, he thought. Maybe he’d had that feeling all along, and it was just that he’d finally let himself admit what he’d known subconsciously for years.
Mabel meant a lot more to him than a friend.
George glanced at his watch—ten A.M. on a Tuesday. He didn’t have any specific reason for being here, no kitten-related emergency or tree farm business that required his presence. Mabel had Rascal for the day—he could see the kitten on herback in the corner, tossing a ball up and down with her paws. But he’d wanted to see Mabel. He wasn’t sure exactly what he’d had in mind, only that he’d found himself heading here instead of to the farm.
The realization that he’d essentially come here just to spend time with her should have been alarming. Not all that long ago, George would have scoffed at the idea of shrugging off the day’s work for such a frivolous reason. But something had shifted in him since that evening at the Christmas bazaar, since their ice-skating adventure, since the moment he’d kissed her under his gazebo. He felt less… tense. Less rigid. Less incapable of spontaneity, or irritated by it.
He walked in just as Vanessa was ringing up the toy trucks, and waved at Mabel, who looked at him with surprise. He breathed in the scent of pine and cinnamon deeply, before walking up to her as he tried to muster up his confidence.
