A Mountain Springs Christmas

Epilogue

epilogue

KATIE

One Year Later

“The rehearsal went pretty well, don’t you think?” Connor asked Katie as they walked into the room with the tables all set for the rehearsal dinner.

“If you consider how many kids are part of the wedding party,” Katie said, “I think it went very well.” Family had been a big part of their wedding plans, and she was glad that it was as important to Connor as it was to her.

Her nieces and nephews were going to be flower girls and ring bearers, or had tasks of greeting guests, taking gifts to the gift table, handing out wedding favors, and being junior bridesmaids and groomsmen. Aiden and Holly had been calling Katie’s parents “grandma” and “grandpa” for the last couple of years, and somewhere along the way, they had just become part of the family. Katie considered them her niece and nephew every bit as much as she did her actual nieces and nephews, so they had assignments at the wedding, too.

Besides Emmalee, Katie’s bridesmaids included her four sisters and Connor’s recently engaged sister, Laura, whom Katie had become good friends with over the past year, despite living in a different state from her. Connor’s groomsmen were Katie’s four brothers-in-law, his best friend, Erik, a few of his other teammates, and Vaughan— his team captain from the Thunderstorm.

The Thunderstorm played the Glaciers in Denver last night, followed by two days without a game for both teams. With as perfectly as that lined up, they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to plan their wedding for tomorrow so that his old teammates could be present, too. The fact that the date was almost a year to the day since Connor ran into her at that department store the night before they first met officially was a happy bonus.

Tonight, with all their closest family and friends surrounding them, they were going to have a much more casual dinner before they got married tomorrow. And Connor’s dad was even present!

She’d been so proud of Connor for reaching out to him. There had never been abuse in his family, and before things between his parents got bad and his dad just disappeared, the two of them had been quite close. Connor seemed to feel that it was a relationship he really wanted in his life, so she supported him in moving forward at whatever pace he wanted to go. He and his dad weren’t back to the same level of closeness they’d had when Connor was young— they still had a long way to go in repairing their relationship— but they had made enough progress that Connor really wanted him there.

As they made their way toward their seats at the tables in the room, Noelle and Jack came up to them, their one-year-old in Jack’s arms. Noelle said, “Well, what do you think?” She spun in a circle, then struck a pose, showing off her dress that was a gorgeous deep blue.

“You picked out a good one,” Connor said. “It looks beautiful on you.”

Noelle grinned. “Thank you. For the compliment and for the dress.”

“I’m sorry that it took me nearly eleven years to replace the one I ruined when Katie was wearing it at that dance.”

“I'll forgive the delay— this one is definitely an upgrade. But I vote we keep this room a punch bowl-free zone for tonight.”

Connor laughed and said, “Deal.”

When Noelle, Jack, and little Gabriel turned to take their seats at the table, Katie turned to Connor, straightening his tie. “And what are you going to do to make up for my dance being ruined all those years ago?”

Connor leaned in closer to her, his breath tickling her ear. “I’m going to give you such an amazing time dancing at our wedding tomorrow that you will no longer even be able to remember another dance.”

A smile spread across her face. “Oh, yeah?”

“Or we can start tonight if you’d rather. Out there on the patio, after the dinner.”

Katie glanced toward the patio. “It’s snowing.”

Connor shrugged. “It’s Christmastime and it was at a Christmas dance, so it feels appropriate.”

“And I do remember a pretty amazing kiss in the snow.”

“Maybe we can recreate that while we’re at it.”

Katie grinned. She felt tingly and breathless just knowing that tomorrow, she got to marry this man. “Come on,” she said. “Let’s get to our seats.”

She loved that they got this more casual chance to enjoy the company of everyone they loved before the wedding tomorrow. And it gave all of those people plenty of opportunities to give them plenty of roasts.

“We joke about how speedy Connor is on the ice,” Vaughan said. “We just hadn’t expected him to go from meeting someone to marriage this quickly.”

Connor sat up straight. “Was it fast? Because I was ready to marry her back in April when I proposed. I didn’t think this day would ever get here.”

“It’s a good thing you like things to go quickly,” Katie’s brother-in-law, Ben, said, “since you’ll only get the three days over Christmas break for your honeymoon!”

“If you get to go at all.” Laura held up her phone. “I saw that there’s a big storm coming in that’s going to shut down the airport.”

Connor pointed at his sister. “Okay, that’s not even funny. It’s not true, right?”

By the look on Laura’s face, it really wasn’t. “Don’t worry,” Katie said. “We’re taking a long, slow, luxurious honeymoon in the off-season.”

“And we’re going to enjoy every minute of it,” Connor said, then lifted her hand and placed a kiss on the back of it.

“A year ago,” Noelle said, “everyone our age in Mountain Springs knew Connor as the guy who started a fight at a school dance, making us lose our dance privileges. Some in town knew him as the kid who used to play hockey at Mountain Springs’ rink. Others knew him as the kid who moved away and then became an NHL star.”

Aiden piped up, “And everyone at my school knew him as the elf who tore his pants!” and they all laughed.

“As great as those memories are,” Noelle said, “I’m glad everyone in this area now knows the real Connor. And I’m especially glad that we get to.” She held up her glass. “Welcome to the family, Connor.”

Katie loved the smile that overtook Connor’s face. He gave her hand a squeeze and held up his own glass.

The Christmas outreach program had gone so well for so many of the players that quite a few continued going to the same areas they’d been assigned at Christmastime throughout the year. Connor did the same, helping out with lots of town projects and celebrations. He was around enough, helping, that everyone in the Mountain Springs, Nestled Hollow, and Copper Mountains area knew him well. Half of them would be coming to the wedding tomorrow.

The rest of her sisters got in on the roasts, too. Becca did a whole bit about Katie’s “I do it!” tendencies that got the group roaring with laughter. “Luckily,” she said, “we talked her out of being the videographer for her own wedding. Seriously, though, Katie has come a long way since meeting Connor. Now she saves ‘I do it’ for things like beating everyone at board games, challenging Connor to ice skating races, and arguing with GPS directions.”

Katie laughed. The part about her wanting to be her own videographer was an exaggeration. She wanted her company to do it. Or, more specifically, the assistant she now had. Her business had exploded over the past year. Enough that she was no longer worried about living in her car and eating cold Ramen. The Glaciers had loved her work and had since asked her to do several other projects for them. And with how much they had shown her footage of Connor in ads, she was getting clients left and right, both in the Mountain Springs area and in Denver and its surrounding cities.

“Katie might have gotten past a lot of her need to do everything herself,” Emmalee said, “but I think she gave some of it to Connor.”

“Not just to Connor,” Bradshaw said, pointing between him, Connor, Erik, Davis, and Calloway. “We all wanted to make the centerpieces.”

And then all five men high-fived each other and nodded and talked about how they were basically professional florists now and how much everyone was going to love their centerpieces tomorrow. Katie loved that they were all not just willing but excited to do it again. They even thanked Emmalee several times for letting them. Of course, it put Emmalee on a high that she still hadn’t come down from.

Plus, Katie was pretty sure that Emmalee had a crush on Bradshaw. And after covering for her florist friend with the last-minute wedding a year ago, especially since the centerpieces and bridesmaid bouquets were made by NHL players, Emmalee’s business had exploded, too. Katie was no longer working for her friend, but Emmalee had been able to hire two assistants in her place.

Erik said, “I know you’d never guess it by looking at Connor now, as he wears his Denver colors with pride, but there was a time when he actually wanted to leave this great state.”

Several people gasped in mock shock.

“Seriously, though, you two. Congrats on buying your new place. I hope you have many happy memories there.”

Katie looked at Connor, and he had an expression of serene happiness on his face. His eyes were lit up just like they always were when something made him excited. She was excited, too. They just closed on the place, and she couldn’t wait to start living there with him. It was so cute and so exactly their style. It was halfway between the arena and Mountain Springs, so it would be easy for her to meet with clients in either location, and Connor wouldn’t have to go far to go to practices or a game.

They knew that Connor could get traded at any time to any team in the U.S. or Canada. If that happened, they would go wherever the NHL took them. It’d be an adventure. And if they did move away, they hoped that eventually, they would find their way back to Mountain Springs and raise a family there.

Katie’s dad stood and said, “You know, from the moment these two met, we could tell there was something special between them. And it wasn’t just because their last names were Allred and Greene and it was Christmastime.”

It wasn’t the first time they’d heard the “all red and green” comments. They decided to embrace it. In fact, the sign at the door to their wedding ceremony was a play on ones they’d seen before. It read, Just like Christmas colors, Allreds and Greenes belong side by side. So pick a seat anywhere— you’re loved by the groom and the bride . It might be a little cheesy, but Katie loved it.

“And since they fell in love at Christmastime,” her dad continued, “getting married right now feels perfect.”

She smiled and thought back to a year ago when they were on the hay ride and Aiden asked Connor if he was already in love, and Holly suggested that maybe Connor could fall in love on the hay ride. She’d heard the two kids telling people that they had, indeed, fallen in love on that night. They may have been right.

“I wish you two all the best life has to offer,” her dad said. “You already have each other, and that’s all you really need.” Then he held his glass high, and everyone else did, as well.

She and Connor looked at each other, smiling. Then she leaned against him, laying her head against his shoulder, and he kissed her hair. Tomorrow, she was going to put on a beautiful dress, walk down that aisle, and say “I do” to the man she’d been falling more in love with every single day over the past year. If she got to spend her life with him, that really was all she needed.

At the end of dinner, as everyone was getting into their cars and heading home or to a hotel for the night, she and Connor shared a moment together just outside the building as light snow fell softly from the sky.

He brushed a snowflake from her forehead, just above her eyebrow. His fingertips were soft and gentle, like always. His face was full of so much love, anticipation, and hope for their future together. She felt the same buzzing in both her heart and mind.

“Tomorrow,” she breathed.

“Tomorrow. I feel like I’ve been waiting my entire life for this moment.”

“You’re not getting cold feet?”

He chuckled. “You do remember that I hang out on ice for a living? I’m impervious to cold feet. You?”

“They’ve never been hotter.”

“Katie,” Emmalee called from where she stood at the open driver’s door of her car, “come on. We’ve got to get home so you can get beauty sleep before the big day!”

Connor’s eyes shifted for a moment toward Emmalee, and then his eyes returned to hers with a longing that had become very familiar. “Tonight’s the last time that ‘going home’ means going to separate places.”

Tomorrow night, they’d be leaving to go to their home. Hers and Connor’s. Heading home had never sounded so wonderful. A smile overtook her face. “I can’t wait. See you tomorrow, my soon-to-be husband.”

Connor’s smile was every bit as big as hers. “Tomorrow, my soon-to-be wife.”