Festive Hearts And Kisses (Hope Valley Christmas 2)

Epilogue

REED

THREE MONTHS LATER.

“I think that’s the last of it.” Paul stands and rubs the bottom of his back. “At least I fucking hope it is, anyway.”

I huff. “It was a few boxes.”

He laughs and flips me off. “Seriously, though...” He walks over and drapes an arm over my shoulder. “You’ve picked a good one.”

I smile, because he’s not wrong. “Yeah, I know.”

As if he heard us talking about him, Jerry appears in the doorway to the garage. “All done?” He eyes the pile of stuff Paul’s brought down from my old house. There’s not loads. I sold a lot of it to the couple who bought my house. As first-time buyers, they were more than happy to take it off my hands.

“Yeah.”

He smiles and walks over to pull me in for a kiss, which I melt into as usual. We’re still in the honeymoon phase, according to both Paul and Sean—I really wish I’d never introduced them—I disagree. I think this is just how it is between us. Three months down the line and he still gives me butterflies when we kiss.

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”

Paul fake gags behind him and I flip him off this time. That arsehole.

Jerry goes back inside after telling us lunch is ready and Paul sidles over to me. “Let’s hope he still feels like that after your surprise .” He uses air quotes, and everything. But I can’t be mad because there’s a tiny little bit of me asking the same thing.

My package arrives three hours later, well after Paul has made his escape. It’s dropped off by Jerry’s hot coworker, who I can grudgingly admit is a really nice guy, now that Jerry is absolutely off limits.

“Thanks for doing this. I was worried no one would take her.” He hands me the carrier.

I bite my lip, a tiny bit of worry setting in. “You think he’ll be okay?” I nod towards the house.

He laughs. “Jerry is as soft as they come. He’d have taken her himself if he’d known.”

“Okay, well, thanks for dropping her off.” I see him out quickly, before Jerry gets out of the shower.

And then I wait for him to come downstairs.

Frank, Fae and Kyla sit in judgement, watching me from the sofa as I pace about.

Nervous.

I wag a finger at them. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Talking to the animals now?”

I jump and turn round to find Jerry watching me with a bemused smile. “Everything okay?”

“So...” I rub my hands together, realising I’m doing this all wrong when his smile slips a little.

“Are you having second thoughts?”

Oh my god, Reed. “No absolutely not.” I shake my head. “No second thoughts here.”

Jerry relaxes but still looks a little confused. “But there is something?”

“Well, you know how you got me Fae for Christmas...”

Jerry winces. “I really shouldn’t advocate getting animals as Christmas presents. But yes,” he adds quickly when I sigh. “Go on.”

“Well, I felt bad that I didn’t get you anything and an opportunity arose for me to correct that.”

“It’s almost April. And I never wanted you to feel bad about that. I never expected anything.”

“I know, but...” I trail off, because at this rate we’ll just keep going round and round and I’m not sure my nerves can take it. “I wanted to get you something. And I really couldn’t say no to this.”

He looks intrigued now rather than wary, and my nerves morph into excitement. I glance at the three felines on the sofa watching us intensely. I’m hoping that Jerry’s not the only one who’s going to be excited. “Wait there.”

I return a few minutes later, cat carrier in hand.

Jerry raises an eyebrow when he sees it but otherwise doesn’t react.

Is that a good sign?

I only signed the contracts on our house yesterday. I don’t want Jerry to regret asking me to share his home after just one day. There’s a meow from the crate and Fae immediately jumps off the sofa and sniffs it. She meows back and, not gonna lie, I get a little lump in my throat.

“Open the crate, Reed.” Jerry’s smiling now, the soft, small one that he saves just for me.

So I bend, undo the clips, and pop the front off. It takes a few seconds, but eventually a grey head peaks out. She’s the same colour as Fae, but with white on three of her paws and a white patch on her chest. When she sees Fae, she makes a little chirping sound and rubs against her.

I’m not ashamed to admit it makes me tear up.

When I look at Jerry, his eyes are suspiciously glassy too. He walks over and takes my hand, both of us watching the reunion taking place on the carpet. “Where did you get her?” he whispers.

“From Mark. I ran into him the other day, and he mentioned that he needed to rehome her for reasons I can’t remember now, but I thought...” I gesture at the two cats still busily reconnecting. “I hoped that might happen.” His fingers tighten around mine. “And I hoped she’d make a good belated Christmas present. Not that we advocate pets for Christmas, of course.”

He laughs. “Of course.”

Jerry slips an arm around my waist. “Thank you.” He leans in and kisses the side of my head. “As belated presents go, this is the best.” He laughs again and shakes his head. “Four cats and a dog. You know they’re going to rip the piss out of me on Monday. This time last year I was one of the few people at our clinic not to have a houseful of pets, and now look at me.” He spreads his hands out. Jen has wandered in to see what all the fuss is about and is currently sat in front of Frank and Kyla, watching the other two cats with interest.

“You’re not mad are you?”

“Absolutely not.” He kisses me again. “But maybe no more pets as Christmas presents, yeah?”

I nod, because I can live with that. “This is enough, I think.”

“More than enough.” Jerry turns me towards him and kisses me properly. “It’s perfect.”

Yeah, it is.

And besides, we have a whole eight months before Christmas comes around again. I’m already looking forward to it, though, to spending it in our house this time, as partners not whatever we were last year. And who knows, maybe I’ll take a leaf out of Sean’s book and make it that little bit extra special.

But what matters most is that we’ve found our happily ever after, and I wouldn’t change a single thing.