Page 101 of Wrapped with a Beau

Next Year, May

Spring in Piney Peaks, Ves discovers, is just as enchanting as winter. Everything is in bloom, his kitchen remodel is finally done, and any second now, Elisha will be back from her work trip. The last week without her has, in a word, sucked.

When the Rowes took their annual holiday vacation to Goa, her absence didn’t ache as much as it did last year. Maybe because they FaceTimed every night and she “took” him with her on live video whenever there was something cool she wanted to show him.

Ves had done the same for her when he went to the city for the monthly brother-sister weekends he and Hanna had started ever since he decided to keep Maeve’s house. He let her pick whatever she wanted to do together—this time had been a Broadway show and Petrossian for their rich and silky hot chocolate and flaky croissants. Their latest adventure, which Hanna took very seriously, was narrowing down the city’s top three hot chocolates. Mission successful, Ves had just returned home to Piney Peaks.

“Honey, I’m home!” Elisha cries dramatically as she enters the living room. Like the kitchen, he’s updated it to match his tastes. A neutral palette, gray and cream with the occasional leather accent, and not a floral in sight. Well, except for the white peonies he got to celebrate her return.

“Welcome home, my love.”

“Ves, did you really leave the door unlocked?” she asks, incredulous, stepping around Thor and Thorin, who also missed her but won’t deign to stop for a hello. “We’re a safe town, but still!”

Seeing her again is like seeing the sun after a lifetime spent in gray cloud. Maeve’s necklace glints at her throat, and the white sundress she’s wearing makes his mouth run dry. He wants to pull the bow straps on each shoulder and let the cotton puddle to the floor.

“Can’t have you breaking in again,” he says, getting to his feet with a smirk. The banter is their thing, even though he returned her key to her a year ago. He leaves the document open on his laptop; he’s just started writing Chapter One of the new fantasy novel Dominique green-lit.

“Mm-hmm, but is it still breaking in if I’m wanted?” she asks, batting her eyes at him.

He thinks he’s wanted her from the moment he saw her, even if he wasn’t ready to realize it then. “I still can’t believe you thought I was the thief,” he says, amusement quirking his lips. He takes her hand, eyeing the baby-blue nail polish and the white daisies with their perfect yellow circle centers. “Little did I know you’d be the one stealing my heart.”

She groans but tugs him closer for a sweet peck on the lips, pulling back before he can deepen it. “Were you working on that line the whole time I was gone?”

He draws back, mock offended. “You mean it didn’t work?”

Elisha grins up at him. “Of course it worked. I haven’t seen you for a week. You just looking at me with those eyes is enough to ‘work.’ ” She quirks an eyebrow at his laptop. “How’s the writing going?”

It had taken him a while to figure out what he wanted to write next, and in the meantime, he’d taken Hero up on her offer to co-write the graphic novel. Arun is still crowing over the success of the collab, mostly because when Ves grudgingly admitted what a good idea it was after all, Arun got to deploy an “I told you so.”

While Hero finishes up the art, he’s moved on to his own new middle-grade series: about a boy new to a magical town, the local girl who takes him under her wing, and the adorable chocolate-brown mouse who accompanies them on their adventures, often sitting snugly in Alycia’s pocket or perched on Wesley’s shoulder.

“Wesley just met Alycia for the first time,” says Ves with a soft smile. “He doesn’t know it yet, but his life is never going to be the same again.”

Elisha grins ruefully, slinking her arms around his neck until they’re pressed flush, chest to thigh. “I still think the names are too on the nose.”

He folds her into his arms, heart to heart, as he lets her feel how much he’s missed her. Her moss-brown eyes fasten on his, breath coming in short gasps when he grinds against her belly. “Eh, I’m not exactly hiding it. I don’t mind if everyone knows that I’m totally and completely in love with you,” Ves murmurs.

“You open book, you,” she teases, skating her lips along his jaw. “Let’s go upstairs?”

“How was your trip?” he asks, pulling her to the stairs, making sure to lock the door on the way. He doesn’t want any future in-laws from across the street popping in to visit. They’ll see them tonight at dinner, along with Solana and Adam, plus Arun and Cade, who are bringing Hanna with them.

Where, if all goes like he hopes, he and Elisha will have some good news to share with their loved ones. Maybe his relationship with his parents will always be strained, but he knows this to be true: his real family is whatever he decides it is.

“Amazing!” she enthuses, so happy to be home she misses the look of profound love and pride on his face that almost gives him away.

After Sleighbells’s runaway success, a few more commercials, and a lineup for the next two years to film Lifetime and Hallmark movies in town, every other small town in Pennsylvania wants to know how she did it and get the benefit of her experience. With Danica’s unflinching support and the right words in the right ears, Elisha’s been given the task of leading a tri-county pilot program to revitalize the economy and bring new media interest to the region.

She even got to handpick her own team to help her, which means Ves has gotten to know Mia and Riley a lot better in the last few months. He’s even gotten the stink eye from Greg a couple of times, which, Ves supposes, officially makes him a local now.

He supposes it was inevitable that Elisha’s friends would become his, especially since Came to Sleigh adopted him as their newest trivia team member last January. And since Tori started her own team, All the Single Ladies, having a whole rivals-to-lovers competitive thing going on with Riley ever since her divorce.

“Everything you wanted?” asks Ves, unable to stop himself from dropping a kiss on her shoulder and fiddling with the bows. Just one tug is all it would take...

She catches his hand. Her ring finger is still empty, but if the next few minutes go the way he hopes, it won’t be for long. He thinks about the vintage engagement ring he bought in New York, the one he’s been hiding in his sock drawer for months. A heart-shaped ruby surrounded by diamonds. The candy-cane colors caught his eye the first time he saw it, and he knew at once this ring was the one.

“Everything I wanted,” Elisha confirms, and then she tugs him down for a kiss, arms wrapping tight around her beau. She pulls back, brown eyes sparkling. “How about you?”

He knows she isn’t just talking about work. He plucks at the straps, and by the time they reach their bedroom, the dress is fluttered in a heap halfway up the stairs.

“Everything I ever wanted,” says Ves. “Wrapped with a bow.”

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