“I loved you though, even then,” she says. Her body is a silhouette against the backdrop of the roaring fire. Her long red hair flames, her soft freckled skin a constellation in its own right.
“I know you did, and that is what got me through.”
“And now you’re back.”
I smile, pulling her into my lap. “For keeps.”
She closes her eyes, the conversation stirring something so deep inside of both of us, skin to skin, we hold one another, but I need more.
I reach for my jeans and pull out the treasure I’ve stored. The present I dreamed I could give her.
Now I can.
“Your love was unconditional back then, Holly, no strings attached. You saw me as the man I could be, not the boy I was.”
Tears splash down her cheeks as she realizes what this moment is. What it will always be.
“I’ve loved you since the day we met, the day your father took me in. And I will never, ever stop loving you. I want to spend this Christmas with you, but also, every Christmas of the rest of our lives. Marry me, Holly. Be my wife.”
I offer her the diamond ring, the one that was my mother’s. It had been stored in a safe deposit box at the local bank, and was one of the few things I still had of hers. I came back in town and got it this afternoon.
“Yes, Hunter. Yes I will marry you.”
I slip the glittering stone on her finger, her hands shaking, her words practically causing my heart to burst from my chest.
“We’re really doing this?” she asks in a whisper. “You really want--“
I cut her off. “Yes. We are. You are my forever now, Holly.”
I ease her down to the floor, needing our bodies to entwine the same way our hearts did all those years ago.
When I enter her for a second time, she is crying happy tears, my cock opening her up, and her perfection taking me. “I’m your fiancée,” she whispers as I begin to fill her up, moving against her in a slow and steady rhythm. I want her first time to be sweet. To be gentle.
“Merry Christmas, Holly,” I say giving her everything I have to offer.
My heart, my soul, my forever.EpilogueHollyOne year later….I sit on the velvet sofa, watching as Hunter reaches to the top of the Christmas tree, placing the star on top.
“That good?” he asks, looking over his shoulder at me.
“It’s perfect,” I say. “Thank you.”
He steps off the ladder and returns to a tangle of lights. “We are running behind. Christmas is in a few days.”
“We’ve had a lot on our minds,” I say laughing, looking down at the newborn bundle in my arms. I gave birth to her two days ago, and just got home from the hospital this afternoon.
Hunter walks over to his wife and daughter, leaning over and kissing me on the lips, then kissing Merry on the forehead. “Her name is so fitting. She has made our lives so merry and bright.”
I shake my head in wonder at my mountain man of a husband, this man who takes out vulnerable teenagers for so many weeks of the year, helping them grow up. He spends the off season working with families, using his psychology degree to help facilitate hard conversations between teens and their parents. I’m so proud of the man he is. The husband he is.
Now, the father he is.
“Why are you crying?” he asks gently, setting down the strand of lights, and sitting down beside me. My heart stirs for him, it always does. It always has.
“I’m just so happy. Having a home with you, making this life. It’s the best Christmas gift in the world.”
He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear, kissing me again, his mouth warm and familiar. His body comforting, strong. Mine.
“I thought last Christmas was the best Christmas?”
I smile, remembering the pastor who agreed to marry us on Christmas day. Giving us the best anniversary in the world. It wasn’t Truman, of course, it was a colleague of my father’s in a neighboring town. It was simple, I wore white and Hunter wore a suit and we kissed under a ball of mistletoe after we said our vows. My friends Lila and Sarah were there, but that was all. Neither of us have family — instead, we made our own family.
“I suppose, when I’m sharing my life with the love of my life,” I say, “every Christmas will top the last.”
“I’d marry you all over again,” he tells me, his arm wrapped tight around me, our precious baby girl in my arms.
I rest my head on his shoulder, the roaring fire warming the room, the tree glittering in silver and gold, and the magic of Christmas all around.
Then I close my eyes, so tired from the day, having just given birth. Hunter knows that and he takes our daughter from my arms. I blink, sleepily, watching my husband hold his baby girl.