Snow Place Like Home (A Cozy AF Christmas 1)

I step back and look at him skeptically. This is nice and everything, but I don’t want to fall even deeper for him only to have him tell me that it was only a holiday fling once it’s time for me to go back to school.

“You know I have to leave in two weeks, right?”

He winces and puts a hand over his heart. “I know. Don’t remind me.”

“So, is this… like a two-week thing?”

The look on his face gets me right in the feels as he grips my wrists like he’s not going to let me go.

“No,” he says with the most intense eyes. “This is a forever thing.”

“But I have to go back to college.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“What?!”

“Not to college,” he says. “But we can rent a place while you’re there. I’ve been looking to buy another radio station and there’s one that’s on my radar close to your campus. Maybe I’ll buy it. What do you think?”

I’m stunned. I wasn’t expecting this.

“I think that Christmas is the time for dreams to come true. But…”

“You still don’t believe me? Why?”

“You haven’t settled down before even though hundreds of amazing women must have thrown themselves at you over the years.”

“Hundreds?” he says, trying not to laugh.

“Okay, thousands.”

This time he does laugh.

“How can I believe that you’re finally going to settle down with me?”

He reaches past me and grabs something out of the tree. It’s a little purple box that has my heart hammering away. Is that?

It is.

He opens it, revealing a giant diamond ring. It’s an old fashioned antique ring with a stunning diamond. Just like I’ve always wanted.

I love jewelry that has a history. That has a story. Not just a random ring that is one out of a hundred thousand other identical rings on the corner store. But something that is truly one of a kind.

And this is more than I ever could have dreamed of.

Ethan drops to his knee in front of me and I have to shake my head to make sure I’m not dreaming.

“Marry me, Mandy. Make this the merriest Christmas ever and marry me. Please.”

I drop to my knees in front of him as tears stream down my cheeks.

“Yes!” I say in a gasp.

He looks so thrilled as he throws his arms around me and we fall to the floor laughing and kissing in front of the crackling fireplace…

…and getting some practice for our honeymoon…EpilogueMandyTen Years Later…The kids are like wild animals as they jump on our bed on Christmas morning.

“What time is it?” Ethan grumbles as he rolls onto his back.

“Too early for this,” I grumble back.

Our three-year-old Andy jumps on his stomach and Ethan flies up with an oomph. “Okay, okay, I’m awake,” he says as he rubs his eyes.

I look over at the clock and there’s a five at the beginning of it. It’s too early to get up, but once I see the excitement on my four children’s faces, it’s contagious.

“Go make some coffee, Mr. Clause,” I say as I struggle to push Ethan out of bed.

He groans as he gets up. “All right, Mrs. Clause. Don’t get your pantaloons in a bunch.”

The kids are all gripping their overflowing stockings as they bounce up and down on the bed. This is the eleventh Christmas morning I’ve spent with Ethan and each one keeps getting better and better (and they’re starting earlier and earlier).

We got married two months after our first Christmas morning together when he proposed. It was a beautiful February wedding with all of our friends and family there.

It was funny to see Christine walk down the aisle as my best friend and then walk back down as my niece. It was weird knowing that I was now her aunt, but we both loved that we were finally family. After a lifetime of feeling like we were, it was finally official. It was legal. We were both Hearsts.

I smile at Ethan as he walks back into the room with two cups of steaming coffee.

“Merry Christmas, lover,” I whisper as he leans down. He kisses me on the lips and smiles back.

“Merry Christmas, Mandy. You’re still the best Christmas present I’ve ever received.”

We sit on the bed holding hands as we watch our kids dive into their stockings, marveling at each present they yank out. They’re between the ages of three and eight.

It feels like as soon as I push one out, Ethan is thrusting another one into me. He says he loves to see me walking around the house with his child in my womb. He always says he can’t help but knock me up. That he was put on this earth to breed me.

Well, the jokes on him now. After Andy came out, I made him get snipped. Four is more than enough for me.

That warm comforting feeling of being home with my family and the man I love fills every inch of me as the snow falls gently outside our window. It’s so snug and cozy in here as Andy shows me each candy cane and chocolate ball he received.