A Mountain Springs Christmas

Chapter 18

eighteen

NICK

“You’ve got your coat, hat, and gloves?” Nick asked as he grabbed his keys and the bag he’d filled and opened the door leading to the garage.

“Check, check, and check,” Holly said. “But not check on my other shoe.”

She hopped on one foot toward the door as she put her shoe on the other foot, then he, Holly, and Rosy all went into the garage, hopped into the car, and put their seatbelts on. He pushed the button hooked to his visor to open the big garage door at the same time he started the car. He looked into the rearview mirror as the door raised, but saw lights turning onto his driveway. Squinting at the brightness, he tried to make out whose car it was.

“Huh,” he said. “I think Rachel is here.”

Confused, he turned off his car and they all got out, meeting Rachel, Aiden, and her dog in his driveway. “What are you doing here?”

Rachel looked a bit… sheepish, was it? “I came to talk to you. But you’re just leaving— I’m sorry. Do you need to go?”

He shook his head. “I was coming to talk to you.” Did he dare hope that she wouldn’t have shown up at his house today unless she had been every bit as unsettled as he was about how they’d left everything?

“You were?”

He nodded. “I wanted to tell you that I think I might have made a mistake.”

“Yeah? I made a mistake, too. A really big one.”

Hope started to fill him more. “Was your mistake in ending things? Because if it wasn’t, this conversation is going to get awkward very quickly.”

She chuckled softly. That was good. Right? “I might have freaked out because of my planner.”

He nodded. “I got freaked out because of my deceased wife.”

“Okay, you win.”

“I guess I didn’t have things figured out because dating again is so new. But then my father-in-law shared a lot with me that I needed to hear—things I hadn’t considered that made me look at our relationship in a different light. And I realized that I didn’t need to be freaking out about the things I was freaking out about.”

“Aww,” Rachel said. “Tell your father-in-law I think he’s pretty great.”

He definitely would. He needed to thank the man for himself again, too. “What about you?”

“Some friends set me straight. Aiden helped, too.”

“Tell Aiden I think he’s pretty great.”

“Don’t worry,” Aiden said from where he and Holly stood half a dozen feet away. “I heard. Does this mean that you two are going to start dating again?”

Both he and Rachel chuckled, then looked at each other again. She was so beautiful, her dark hair falling in waves just below her red knit cap. The snow was coming down in big chunks, landing on the cap and her hair. He couldn’t believe he almost let fear keep him from this woman, and he was so grateful that she was willing to talk about making things work.

“I would like to,” he said. “What do you think? And don’t feel obligated to say yes, even though it’s still your Season of Yes.”

She smiled and stepped closer to him. Their coats were brushing, their faces close enough that he could feel her warm breaths. “I would like to, also. Season of Yes or not.”

“Yes!” Aiden and Holly both said, giving each other high-fives. It suddenly made him wonder how much matchmaking behind the scenes the kids had done that he hadn’t known about.

“Can us seeing each other again start today? Because it feels like it’s been a million years since I last saw you, and this heart of mine has been going through some serious withdrawals.”

She smiled up at him. “Mine, too. And we can definitely start today.”

He had thought once at the beginning of their relationship that it felt like he had jumped out of a plane. This moment felt like their parachutes had safely deployed and they were landing more or less gently on the ground.

Holly and Aiden ran off to play in the snow in their front yard as more fell from the sky. He reached out to brush a snowflake from Rachel’s cheek. “So I won Aiden over, huh?”

“Yeah, but that was mostly because you showed him all the tools at The Home Improvement Store, and to a kid like Aiden, you opened up his mind to crafts on a much bigger scale.” She chuckled. “In all seriousness, though. You totally won him over. All the way. I think you won us all over.”

Bailey, the good girl that she was, took that moment to come over and sit at his feet, looking up at him like she just knew he was about to tell her how great she was.

“See?” Rachel said. “You even won Bailey over.”

He reached down and rubbed the sides of Bailey’s golden neck. “You really are a good girl.”

When he stood straight again, Rachel nestled into his side, so he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close to keep her warm. And then they just stood there, snuggled together, watching their kids and their dogs playing in the snow, laughing, and throwing snow up into the air. He couldn’t imagine a more perfect moment.

The night was cold enough to see their breath coming out in little cloud puffs, but with the low clouds, it wasn’t a bitter cold. The moon was only a sliver tonight, but it still shone brightly, lighting the snow that softly fell from the sky and reflecting off all the snow on the ground, making the night seem brighter than it was.

He kissed Rachel on the temple. “You’re pretty great, you know that?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

He didn’t know if she meant that she didn’t know or if she just wanted to hear more. Either way, he wanted to tell her how great he thought she was every day for the rest of her life. “Well, then, I better tell you.”

She turned so that she was facing him, and he wrapped both arms around her waist. “I love that you’re willing to try new things. I love that you’re always on top of everything. That you look out for everyone’s feelings. That you always make Holly feel important and special. I love that you make a schedule. And that your purse is divided into sections.”

Rachel looked down and laughed. Then she met his eyes again.

He continued. They were all coming to his mind so quickly that he couldn’t stop. “I love that you make me feel like I can accomplish anything. I love the way your lips quirk up—like right now—when you’re amused. I love how patient and understanding you are. I love that you’ve invited me and Holly into your life and that you’ve just as easily stepped into ours.

“I love that you’re understanding about my relationship with Holly’s grandparents and about Clara. I love that you bring so much joy to everything. I love that you make a point of celebrating things. People don’t do that often enough and I think it’s important. I love that you work hard and prioritize. And I love how you make me feel like I’ve come home.”

The whole time, she just gazed at him like she was soaking it all in. When he finished, she said, “I am speechless. Thank you.”

And then she rose on her toes and pressed her lips against his, sliding her arms around his neck, pulling them as close together as they could be in thick winter coats. Her kiss felt like a dream. Like a promise. A hope for the future.

When he’d pulled into this driveway the day he and Holly had moved to Mountain Springs, he never imagined he would be standing here on Christmas night, being so utterly and completely in love with someone he hadn’t even met then. He knew that Christmas was a magical time of year, but being there with Rachel showed just how magical it could be.

He wanted to spend a lot more time kissing Rachel, but not in front of the kids, and not outside in the cold. He planted one last kiss on Rachel’s lips, and then looked at the kids and dogs, who were starting to get cold.

“Should we go inside?”

Rachel nodded. “Then I can tell you all the things I love about you.”

For as awful as the day had started, the ending couldn’t be any better. He said, “Come on, kids,” as he grabbed the bag from the passenger’s seat. “Let’s go inside and warm up.”

“What’s that?” Aiden asked, pointing at the bag.

“We decided,” Holly said, “well, my dad decided but I helped, that since our parents met working on a fireplace and fell in love on that hay ride with the hot chocolate at Jack and Noelle’s wedding that he should try to woo your mom with hot chocolate by the real fireplace.”

Rachel’s eyebrow rose as a smile played across her lips. He should’ve known that Holly would tell everything.

“You fell in love with me on the hay ride?”

“And a million times since. What do you think? Should we go inside where it’s warm and I can properly woo you?”

She smiled. “I’d like that.”