“You are the same for me. I love you so very much and I think our child is lucky to have you as a father.”
“I’m going to do my best to live up to that,” he promised.
“I know you will.”
Then he pulled her into his arms and dipped her low as he kissed her slow and deep. He had his world in his arms and he vowed to make sure he never let her slip out of them again.
Epilogue
One year later.
Paisley stepped out of the back of their house. They’d bought a home in the same neighborhood as Nolan, Delaney and Daisey. Olive and Dante had done the same as well. The three couples had grown closer and Sean was looking forward to seeing them all tomorrow night. Olive was six months pregnant with her first child and Nolan was trying to convince Delaney to have one too, according to Paisley.
Sean caught his breath as he always did when he saw her, her pretty blue-gray eyes lighting up as she noticed him. She smiled at him as she walked closer to him. Paisley had their son, whom they’d named Jack, in her arms. She noticed the horse-drawn coach behind him and started laughing.
“When you said dress warmly, I wasn’t sure what you had in mind. Now it makes sense,” she said as she walked toward him. When she got closer, he reached out and took Jack from her, nestling his son close to his chest and kissing him on the forehead. The three-month-old drooled and did his sort of smile. He was wrapped warmly in a snug one-piece thermal suit and had a beanie on his head. The carriage was just for show. They weren’t going to for a ride in it. But he wanted to ask Paisley to marry him and the carriage was the only place that felt right.
“Is it too cold for a few minutes?” he asked, gesturing to the carriage. It was the middle of the afternoon and the weatherman had predicted snow, but right now it was just sort of cloudy and cold. He had a space heater tucked into the carriage to keep them warm once they got into it.
His heart was so full when he looked at Paisley and his son. For all his fears that he wouldn’t be a good father, he’d found that fatherhood suited him. But he was pretty sure it was because he was sharing the parenting duties with Paisley. The both of them knew what bad parenting looked like and were determined not to repeat it.
“No, it should be fine. Jack is snug and so am I,” she murmured. “You look good, all clean-shaven and hair grown back to normal. Still looking sexy as ever.”
Sean was just back from six weeks of shooting in Europe and he’d missed them both so much. He had been waiting for the right moment to ask her to marry him. He knew nothing about marriage but he did know that he wanted Paisley to be his wife. He wanted them to have a lifelong claim on each other.
He laughed at her comment before he helped her into the carriage, handing her Jack before he climbed in after her. He put a thick woolen blanket over her lap and settled in next to her. The last time he’d been here with her, he’d been so sure that he could convince her to change her life and go back to the West Coast with him. He hadn’t realized that the one who needed the change had been him.
He took a deep breath as he slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into the curve of his body. He felt a stir of desire, but pushed it aside for now. He had important things to do before he made love to her.
“A year ago, I thought that this carriage was going to be the start of something new between us. No more lies, no more pretending to be something I wasn’t, and as I had expected everything changed.”
She smiled and shook her head as she laughed ruefully. “It sure did.”
“I don’t regret it. I wish I’d been the one to tell you my true identity but I think our path even though it was rocky was the right one.”
“Me too,” she said softly. “We needed that to realize how strong the bond of love was between us and to get us a ready to be parents.”
“I’m still not sure I’m ready,” he admitted. “But I am sure of one thing. You.”
“Me too,” she said. Then smiled and he leaned over to kiss her.
“I missed you when I was gone.” He had left three times over the last year to film projects and each time he wished she could have come with him. This time he’d taken steps to start setting up his own film company in Chicago, so he would be more in control of his projects and could stay closer to home.
“I missed you too. I’m glad you made it home for December and all of our Christmas plans.”
“Me too. I think if we do the same thing as last year it becomes a tradition.”
“Are you a traditional kind of man?” she asked.
“Turns out I am. And that leads me to the real reason why I have us sitting out here in this carriage.”
He shifted off the bench to his knee in front of her and took the ring box from his pocket. “Paisley Campbell, will you marry me?”
She let out a soft gasp and her eyes glistened with tears. “Yes!”
Jack let out one of his happy gurgles and Sean put the platinum-set, marquis-cut diamond ring on Paisley’s finger, getting back on the seat next to her. He pulled them both into his arms, cradling them close as a light snow started to fall. He’d found the role that he’d never realized he’d been born to play when he met and fell in love with her.
“You can’t resist with the perfect Christmas moments, can you?” she asked.
“No, I can’t. I want everything to be our version of perfect.”
He carried her and their son inside the house and they played Christmas music and danced with Jack until he went down for his nap. And then he made love to his fiancée and knew that he’d found more than he’d expected. He’d found a Christmas magic he’d never imagined existed.