There’s no way in hell I’m leaving.
Not now.
Not yet.
The door opens and her eyes go wide and I hold the mistletoe over my head.
Cheesy as fuck, but I don’t care. I’ll do anything to get this girl.
“I love you, Evie.” I go for the big guns because it’s the goddamn truth and I need her to know that.
She is loved. By me.
“Everett,” she says her mouth hanging open.
She looks fucking perfect in her little leggings and her big old sweater; she looks like Christmas morning.
And she looks like mine.
“I should have never left you,’ I tell her. “Not before telling you exactly how I feel. You pushing me out your door, that is the last time I ever want to leave you.”
“Everett, don’t say things you don’t –” she tries to say, but I stop her.
“I know exactly what I’m saying. Some people might not believe in love at first sight, or whatever it is they call it. All I know is this, when I laid eyes on you, I knew you were mine. I don’t care what I thought before, about being some self-reliant mountain man, none of it matters if I’m alone. I thought I understood that after my family died, but I didn’t. Not wholly. I said I don’t want to waste another day of my life doing shit that doesn’t matter -- but I also know this, Evie, I don’t want to live another day of my life without you in it. If the one woman I want is down here in the city, there is no point to me being up on a fucking mountain.”
“Everett, you’re saying you want me to…”
I cut her off again. “I’m not asking you to change your life for me. I’m telling you I will change my life for you.”
Her eyes flutter with tears and I pull her mouth to mine, kissing her properly on her lips. Hard and true. A kiss full of promise. A kiss full of Christmas hope. “Screw my mountain.”
“I could never have you leave your mountain, that’s your home. You built something magical up there.”
“This is magic, Evie,” I tell her, pointing between us. “What we found is more than serendipity. It is magic. I’m not gonna lose that because I have some ideas about carving out a life for myself in the woods.”
“I want to live up there with you. I can do my job anywhere. Everett, I love you too. I was scared to say it because it felt so insane. To find something so true, so fast. So right. But we did. We have.”
“Evie,” I say, choking back the disbelief. “You really want to live up in the mountains? What about your sweater parties and your Jaegermeister?”
“Yours is the life I want. I want to live up there with you, I want to do something crazy, I want to be your wife and I want to have your babies. I’ll scrapbook the hell out of our life, I tell you that.”
“God, Evie,” I tell her, running my hands through her hair, wanting her closer, wanting her forever. “Let’s do this life together. In whatever crazy way we want.”
Her arms wrap around my neck, planting kisses on my face. I pull her into a hug, not knowing how I got so goddamn lucky.
“Marry me, baby. Make this the merriest Christmas.”
“Really?” She shakes her head, laughing between tears.
“Marry me,” I tell her again. This time more firmly, this time with conviction. Meaning the words with every ounce of myself.
“Yes. Yes, Everett, of course, I’ll marry you.”
I kiss her again, this time knowing I’ll never let go.
This time I kiss her, knowing I am hers and she is mine.EpilogueOne year later …A year ago I was a girl lost in the woods, lost in life. But then, the magic of Mistletoe Mountain took over and my life changed.
The front door opens, my man steps inside the cabin. Snowflakes are on his shoulders. He stomps his feet and pulls off his coat before hanging it up, and walks across the room towards me.
He leans down, kissing me on my lips, and then coming down further and kissing the crown of our little girl’s head.
“She looks so sweet when she nurses,” Everett tells me. Lorelei’s eyes are closed and milk drool escapes her mouth.
“She’ll sleep for a few hours, I bet,” I say, tucking my breast back into my bra, and bringing Lorelei to my shoulder. “Now, show me the tree. You didn't go for very long.”
“I wanted to get back to my girls.”
Everett goes to the door and begins dragging in our Christmas tree. I carry Lorelei to her bassinet and swaddle her tightly.
Everett’s once minimalist cabin has been overrun in the past year. First, it was all my stuff, then we found out we were expecting and Lorelei’s pink gear arrived.