She shakes her head, crying into her hands. “No, it’s perfect. Of course, he fell in love with you, Noelle. You’re the sweetest, kindest, most loyal human in the world. I just hope he’s good enough to deserve you.”
I sit down on the couch, trying to understand my oldest friend. “I’m still lost.”
She wipes her eyes, taking my hands in hers. “Don’t you see, Noelle? I’ve been such a bad friend to you. I didn’t even know you’d fallen in love. What kind of person am I?”
I exhale, still trying to see where she is going with this.
“I’ve gotten lost,” she tells me. “Somewhere along the way, my path got all messed up. I’m down this road and I don’t even want to be on this trail.”
“What are you saying?”
“I want to be the kind of person who knows when her best friend is in love. I want to be the kind of bride who wants to plan her own wedding. I want to be the kind of fiancée who doesn’t cheat on the groom because she is so desperate to sabotage the whole thing until it blows up.”
“So, you and James…”
She nods. “I came clean last night. After you left, I realized I was throwing everything away for a stranger with receding hairline. And not that I have anything against premature balding, but James deserves more dignity than that. Than me flaunting my unhappiness all over Linesworth.”
“Oh, sweetie,” I say, both shocked and also not surprised. The red flags have been there for weeks, months, maybe even years? Sophia never wanted this.
“It’s on me. I should have been honest with James a long time ago. And I never, ever should have handed the reins to my wedding over to you. It was the most selfish thing I could have done.”
Brooks walks in with mugs of coffee on a tray with cream and sugar. “I didn’t know how you take it,” he says to me.
Sophia twists her lips. “You’re in love but don’t know how your girlfriend takes her coffee? Impossible.”
“Stranger things have happened,” I say, taking my mug. “And I drink it black.”
“I’m shocked,” Brooks says with a laugh, adding cream and sugar to his.
“Good,” I say with a small smile. “I plan on keeping you on your toes.”
Sophia sniffles. “I mean it. I am so sorry for putting you through all that planning for nothing. We called off the wedding. It’s all over. Even my four-carat diamond ring. Gone. I gave it back.”
I set down my coffee and pull her into a hug, “That was so brave of you, Sophia.”
“See,” she wails. “You’re way to nice. This is the part where you get mad at me. Get huffy. Storm out.”
“No, it’s not,” Brooks says.
Sophia and I turn toward him. “What do you mean?” she asks.
“Well, it was never your dream, Sophia. It was Noelle's. Every detail, down to where the vows are made, to where the reception is held. Right down to the wedding dress.”
“So?” I say.
“So, it was never Sophia’s wedding. It was yours.”
“Right,” I say. “But I’m not getting married.”
Brooks sets down his coffee. “Actually, Noelle. I think you are.”
Sophia’s eyes are practically bugging out. “Okay, what is happening here?”
But tears are filling my eyes because Brooks is on one knee and he doesn’t have a ring in his hand, but I don’t need that. I just need him. This. Us.
And when he clears his throat, I stifle a sob. Everything I dreamed of having in my life, it’s here, it’s mine.
It’s ours.
“Marry me, Noelle. Be my Christmas bride.”
I nod, not doubting the moment, all those years alone that brought me to this day.
“Yes,” I say as he pulls me to him, kissing me and holding my face with both his hands. “Yes, I will marry you.”
Sophia is clapping, stunned but excited and when Brooks looks into my eyes they are as bright as the white snow-capped mountains.
“Then we need to get moving. There’s an arbor to build.”BrooksNoelle and I arrive at my parents’ house, holding hands and apparently beaming like lunatics because Mom immediately asks what’s going on.
I tell her what happened with Sophia and James, and that in the wake of that decision we made our own: we’re tying the knot, tomorrow.
Mom just about faints, but then she cries, and calls in Scout and my dad, who hobbles in on his crutches.
When Scout hears the news, she wraps her arms around me, crying the biggest, sweetest tears of joy you ever did see.
“Oh, Papa, it’s a Christmas miracle,” she says, melting our hearts.
And it is.
My little girl has had this empty place in her heart, waiting for a mama to fill it. Not just any mama. Noelle.
“And we’re moving here to Linesworth, sweetie,” I tell her. “So, you can always be close to Granny and Grandpa.”