Page 79 of Please Send Snow
But all our friends join in and Dylan scampers up to dance with us. I pick him up when the song is done, and he leans in close.
“I got all my wishes,” he whispers in my ear.
“You didn’t get your train set,” I remind him. I happen to know he’s getting it tomorrow though, and I think Jake is more excited to give it to him than Dylan is to get it. It’s a really nice wooden one from the toy store in town.
“I picked a different one,” he tells me, slipping a wadded-up bit of paper in my hand.
I open it up and find that it’s the original version of one of his letters to Santa.
“It’s from today,” he tells me. “Dad put the good one in the box.”
His scrawled words in pencil have been corrected with Jake’s neat pen.
Frosting for Bronson
Please send snow
I want Maddie in my family
My eyes blur with tears, and I close them for just a second, wondering how I ever got so lucky as to be in this child’s life.
“Look, Maddie,” he whispers, pointing.
Sure enough, when I look out the window, it’ssnowing again on Angel Mountain. This time, it’s big lacy flakes that drift down like something on a Christmas card, and I feel so lucky to be in the lodge by the warm fire, surrounded by the people I love.
23
MADDIE
Iwake up in Jake’s bed on Christmas morning feeling like the luckiest woman alive. The wedding was so beautiful, and the thought of last night has me blushing before I even open my eyes.
I roll over to find my husband, but his side of the bed is empty already. He must be with Dylan.
I smile just thinking of the little guy. It’s Christmas morning, of course he’s up early. I’m just surprised I didn’t hear him.
I imagine him tiptoeing in here to find his dad. Jake actually getting up without waking me seems like kind of a miracle. But I guess I was pretty tired, and it’ssocozy in here.
Honestly, even now I’m almost tempted to stay in bed for one more delicious moment under the warm covers in this nice cool room.
But that would mean missing a minute with Jake and Dylan and I’m just not willing to give up a single moment with my new family.
I’m out of bed in a heartbeat, luxuriating under the hot spray in the chalet’s massive stone-tiled shower and then slipping into my coziest clothes.
As I pad down the hallway, I can already hear their laughter and smell sugar and cinnamon wafting my way.
I’m still too far away to make out their words, but I can hear Dylan saying something in his most excited squeaky voice followed by the thunder of Jake’s laughter.
That’s a sound I hope we’ll be hearing a lot more of in the years to come. The big man really seems like he’s let his guard down these last few weeks. And while the grumpy billionaire I met that very first day still makes his appearance from time to time, mostly Jake is more relaxed—quicker to laugh than to storm, ready to leave the business world in his office at the end of the day, and happy to spend time enjoying everything he’s worked so hard for.
When I reach the open living space I look across the holiday magic of the sumptuously decorated living room and dining room to the kitchen, where Jake and Dylan are at the island cooktopwearing Christmas apronsand flipping French toast.
Dylan is up on his step stool so that he’s just about even with Jake’s shoulder, which he’s leaning on now, an expression of pure happiness on his little face.
Jake’s eyes are on me and I can see in that flash of cerulean how much he loves me, and how glad he is that we get to spend this day together.
I feel it like a soul-deep hug, and gaze back at him, besotted. I’m lovesick and not afraid if my goofy smile gives me away.
“Look who’s here,” Jake murmurs to Dylan.
