Page 81 of Joy to Noel
He meets my eyes again when he says, “I thought about you every second, love.”
Weak at the knees, I latch on to him more firmly as I murmur, “You brought back the accent I asked for.” Liam grins before kissing me more thoroughly.
As we drive the hour back to Noel, Liam tells me all about the time with his family, starting with his heart-to-heart with his mom on the flight over, and ending with the genuine joy and happiness of their Chuseok dinner with his grandparents and his uncle’s family.
“I’m really, really glad I decided to go back this year. Thanks for making it possible,” Liam says from the passenger seat.
I glance over to see Hamlet still plastered against Liam’s chest, paws draped on his shoulders as though he’ll never let go of Liam again. The sight makes me melt and laugh at the same time. “It’s not like Hamlet is hard to take care of. At least, not once he accepts you into the pack and stops plotting to quietly murder you.”
I don’t have to look at him to see the eye roll on Liam’s face. “He was never going to murder you,” he says with an exaggerated sigh. “But also, it was more than having Hamlet taken care of. If not for you, I don’t know that I would have been willing to face the complex feelings thatresurface when I’m with my whole family. If not for your persistent attempts to get me to peel back my protective layers.”
“Aww, the ogre is an onion,” I joke, alluding toShrek. Liam rewards my remark with a pinch to my side. “Hey! You’re going to make me swerve off the road with that behavior!”
Liam reaches over and curls his fingers into my hair, massaging the base of my neck. “Maybe you need to pull over for a minute. It’s been way too long since I’ve kissed you in private,” he says, voice thick.
My voice is breathy when I attempt to scold him. “Just be patient. We’ll be home in, like, ten minutes.”
“I’ve told you before that patience is not one of my virtues,” he murmurs, voice close, just before he skims a kiss where my jaw meets my ear.
The shiver that skips down my spine nearly does make me swerve off the road.
As we pass the nearly-finished apartment complex, Liam catches me completely off guard with a declaration. “I’m turning in an application for one of those apartments.”
Now, I literally do swerve off the road. At least small towns don’t have heavy traffic patterns.
“You what?” I ask in shock, putting the car into park.
“I’ve decided I want to stay in Noel. Or, rather, I think I decided that several weeks ago. But I stopped fighting the decision,” Liam says matter-of-factly. “I still need to figure out if I’m going to stay on permanently at Pure Fur All or look at other options, but I know that geographically, I want to be here in Noel. With you.”
My breath is stuttered, too short to take in enough oxygen.
On the upside, I turned down the copywriting job in KC. The more they described exactly what I would be doing, the less I wanted to do it. Although they were willing to take a chance on me given my past experience, I just couldn’t bring myself to write quippy hooks for Instagram ads. So, I’m not imminently moving away from Noel.
On the downside, I still don’t know what my long-term, end-game plan is. Every week, I look for job postings at publishing houses, hoping I’ll find a proofreader opening. But the Christmas magic isn’t magicking. Most of the remote contract positions I can find are morefocused on copywriting, not copyediting and proofreading. LinkedIn keeps feeding me suggestions of open positions at marketing firms in Kansas City, thanks to me applying to the last one. Iwantto stay in Noel . . . but will I be able to make ends meet here? Emily has offered me a temporary job helping to organize details for Christmas Fest, but after the holidays, I could be forced to make a hard decision about my living situation.
You’re a terrible person, Madison. You should be honest with Liam about your situation. You should be honest about MJE failing. Admit that you’re a failure.
But admitting to Liam that I’m a failure is the last thing I want to do. I’d rather undergo surgery sans anesthesia than admit to Liam that I screwed up on this whole self-rediscovery path. That I picked the wrong thing.
Plus, Liam’s love feels so right, like my path was always meant to lead to him. To our paths converging into one. I want to stay here in Noel with him. Surely, I can figure out a way to make it happen.
I think Liam misreads my shocked silence as nothing more than surprise and joy that he’s decided to stay. Because his smile grows wider the longer I’m speechless, until he pulls my mouth to his and gives me a different reason to not talk.
Ihaveto find a way to make it work here. Force my path to lead here. Because I love this man too much to go somewhere without him.
Chapter thirty-three
Liam
November
“I’m so proud of the contributions that each and every one of you has made to bring this day to fruition. The way you’ve rolled up your sleeves and jumped into the mess to not only get things on track but ahead of the curve is admirable,” I say, slowly scanning the faces of the Pure Fur All employees in the room. “But there’s one person who’s responsible for this day more than anyone else, so I’d like to invite Beau Olson forward to cut the ceremonial ribbon.”
Although the new freeze-dried food production equipment has technically already been used for small test runs and training, today will be the first official day of production. Beau holds the giant scissors over the ribbon for a promotional photo alongside Emily, the town mayor. When he clips the ribbon, a massive cheer rises from the crowd of plant employees.
Beau and I have worked a lot of overtime together over the past month to make today happen, but it’s all worth it when I see the elated faces of everyone here. Faces that are sure of their town’s future. Sure of their job security. Sure of themselves.
As I walk back to my office, I text a photo of the ribbon-cutting to Cal. He immediately calls me.
