Page 90 of Wrapped with a Beau

Ves doesn’t want the Piney Peaks bubble to be popped by reality—he wants this life to be his reality. He wants this life in a snow globe to put up on a shelf, beautiful and tangible and his.

“Forget coming as Elisha’s plus-one,” says Adam, leaning in to speak into Ves’s ear. “We want you in the wedding party.”

Before Ves can do more than gape at him, Adam claps him on the back and heads off. As he and Solana flit among the crowd accepting congratulations and well wishes, it occurs to Ves just how quickly they accepted him as one of their own. At no point has either of them judged him or made him feel less than. No one in Piney Peaks ever has.

Maybe it’s not that he’s unlovable or that there’s anything wrong with his relationships. Maybe it’s that the tight-knit families of the Claires and Noras of the world are just shitty people who don’t understand that not everyone is like them.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to be loved unconditionally and unreservedly by the people who brought you into this world. But that’s a reflection of them, not you.

It hits him like a sucker punch: if he leaves, he’ll never get a chance to see if he and Elisha even have a chance in hell.

“Sorry about her,” Elisha says now, casting a fond look at her friend. “She knows we were keeping this casual, but she doesn’t know that it’s over for good when you leave.”

His stomach gives a sour lurch.

She sucks her teeth. “Shit. I didn’t mean ‘for good.’ I meant—”

“I know what you meant.” He hopes his voice doesn’t sound as hollow as he feels. “It’s getting a little much in here. Can we step outside for some fresh air?”

She hops off her stool and goes with him to the door. He holds it open for her before following her into the night. Lumpy snowflakes are gently tumbling down to join the untouched snow brushing streets, cars, and rooftops. It’s like someone’s dusted icing sugar all over the town.

“Beautiful,” Elisha breathes, tipping her head back. “Looks like it’s going to be a white Christmas.”

“Beautiful,” he agrees, looking at her instead.

She must hear the catch in his voice, because she burrows into his arms. He holds her close, sheltering her from even the slightest gust of wind, knowing that if he could, he’d do it for the rest of his life.

“You’re cute when you’re all cuddly,” she says, words muffled into his chest. Her hands wrap around his back, squeezing tight. “I don’t want to let go of you.”

He tucks his head on top of hers. “I was going to say the same thing.”

“I said it first.”

He starts to snort at her adorable, triumphant tone, but then disguises it as a laugh. “Fine, you win.”

Piney Peaks is so quiet. Literally, not a creature is stirring. Main Street twinkles with lights, but everyone is inside houses or restaurants. Spirals of smoke puff out of chimneys, trailing up to the stars before fading away entirely. The Christmas Market surrounding the church has wrapped up for the season, and as the church bell chimes ten times before plunging the town back into silence, Ves shivers.

In New York, it’s impossible to escape the sheer amount of life that hums on every street corner. He’s never stood outside in the open air and felt like one of only two people in the universe. It brings a clarity like he’s never felt before, along with a rush of determination to get this off his chest before his courage dwindles. “This is going to be the happiest and saddest Christmas of my life, Elisha.”

She pulls back to look at him. “Ves...”

Swiftly, he shakes his head. “No, let me say it. I know we said we wouldn’t do strings, but every inch of me is so goddamn knotted up in you that I can’t just go home and bury everything that’s happened in a box. I can’t. No, not can’t. I won’t. At this point, it’s a physical impossibility to walk away from this. From us. I want to keep seeing you. We can make this work.”

There, he’s said it. He’s handed her his heart and now he has to trust she won’t break it.

Elisha’s inhale is ragged. “Ves, I... I like you a lot. But I’ve done the long-distance thing before. And I know you aren’t Bentley, and maybe things will be different for us, but I don’t want to be naïve little Elisha again. I can’t feel like that again. All those years ago, when I waited and waited for Bentley to join me like he promised, all I could do was cling to the belief that he wanted a life here with me as much as I did. That he was choosing me. And with every missed day, with every excuse, I still wanted to believe in him so much. I put the kind of stock in us that kids put in Santa Claus.”

Her self-deprecating laugh skewers Ves’s heart as she continues, “I kind of hate myself for saying this, because I believe in the underdog beating the odds, but I can’t put myself through that kind of disappointment again. You know I came back home for my family, and it’s still just as important to me as ever. I can do weekends with you in the city, but eventually that won’t be enough for either of us. New York is your home. Piney Peaks is mine. Do you see that ever changing? Can you honestly say you’d be happy with having a girlfriend you only see a couple of days a week?”

The honest answer is no, he wants her every day, but they can still try, can’t they? “We can text. FaceTime. And I can come visit you here. We have options.”

Ves tries to sound confident, but fuck, he’s already coming around to her way of thinking. Technology connects people, but it’s also a reminder of the distance between them.

He wants to wake up every day with her legs tangled in his, her hand splayed possessively over his chest, her morning frizz tickling him as she buries her face in his neck. He wants to hear all about her day while cooking dinner together before cuddling up on the couch with Thor and Thorin and hot chocolate with way too many marshmallows to watch a film. He wants to end the night making love and falling asleep in each other’s arms.

Anything else would fall woefully short of what he yearns for.

“I love that you want to try,” she says, sounding impossibly kind. As she always is. “And we can still be friends, obviously, but this has been my best Christmas in years, and it would break my heart if all these lovely memories were tarnished by a messy breakup. You mean too much to me.” Her eyes plead with him, made luminous in the reflection of the streetlamps. “Let’s just enjoy the next few days? I don’t want to ruin what we have. That’s why I think it’s best if we end things when you leave. Fantasies never live up to reality.”

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