Jenny
TWO WEEKS LATER…
The camera flashed and snow flurries danced in the air as they smiled and squeezed each other tight.
Their marriage was official now, and tonight would be their first night in Erik’s apartment instead of at the inn.
She and Gael had originally planned to fly back to Boston to pack up their own apartment. But Erik had sent for their things instead.
Jenny normally didn’t think much about his bank account, but the luxury of having their whole home carefully packed up, moved, and put in storage here made her stomach twist a little.
When she brought it up with Erik, he only chuckled.
“If I can’t spend some of that money making life easier for the people I love, then what’s the point of it?” he’d asked her.
She didn’t really have an answer for that, so she thanked him as graciously as she could, and inwardly was even more grateful.
Gael was happy to enroll in school at Trinity Falls Elementary right away. And her own remaining worries were soothed when he instantly had a dozen friends, and his teacher confirmed that he was doing just fine academically as well.
“Are we all ready to go have some lunch?” her father asked when he was finally finished with photos. “My treat.”
“We’d love that, sir,” Erik told him. “But I have a surprise for Jenny and Gael first. We just need to duck out for about fifteen minutes, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” her dad said.
“Should we meet you at the diner back in Trinity Falls, then?” Jenny’s mom asked.
“That would be great, Mom,” Jenny said. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
Her mom squeezed her arm and then the two of them headed down the steps to their rented car.
“Ready?” Erik asked.
“Yes,” Gael said enthusiastically.
Neither of them had any idea what Erik had in mind, but Gael always loved a good surprise.
Jenny, on the other hand, was a little nervous. With all the surprises they’d experienced in the last few weeks, she wasn’t sure she could handle another one.
They all piled into Erik’s SUV and headed away from the courthouse and back down the country road toward Trinity Falls.
It was hard to believe that the snowy landscape would melt into spring in a few more months.
Jenny had fallen in love with Trinity Falls under its blanket of snow.
She couldn’t imagine what it would look like with leaves on the trees, rows of crops growing in the fields, and flowers blooming outside the little houses. But she couldn’t wait to find out.
Before long, they pulled into the village. But Erik passed the town center and kept going, turning onto Princeton Avenue instead.
“Hey, I know this house,” Gael said as they pulled up beside the little cedar shake house with the big front porch—the same one they had looked at with Sloane just a few weeks ago.
“I guess they sold it,” Gael went on sadly. “There’s no sign anymore.”
“They did,” Erik said with a smile. “But I know the guy who bought it.”
Jenny’s heart skipped a beat.
He wouldn’t have, she thought to herself. He couldn’t have. There hasn’t been time.
But Erik was out of the SUV already, opening her door and offering her his hand.
“Erik,” she murmured, overwhelmed.
But he only squeezed her hand and grinned as he helped her down, before letting go to open Gael’s door.
“Did he invite us over?” Gael asked as he hopped out, for once not being the first one to catch on to what was happening. “The guy who bought it?”
“Something like that,” Erik said with a secret smile.
“He’s really lucky,” Gael said as they headed up the curved path to the porch. “This is the best house ever. Look, there’s a new wreath. And there’s wood in the holder.”
Gael was right, a beautiful pine wreath hung on the door, and the holder for kindling was full, there was even a wooden porch swing that Jenny was pretty sure hadn’t been there before.
When did he have time for all this?
“Here we go,” Erik said, slipping a key out of his pocket. “I think the guy who lives here should open it up.”
He held the key out to Gael, whose eyes got very wide.
For a moment, he only looked at the key. Then he looked up at Erik, who nodded to him. When Gael’s beautiful dark eyes turned to Jenny, she felt tears prickling her own eyes.
“Really?” he whispered.
“Really, really,” Erik told him. “If you want to live here, then we can live here.”
“Yes,” Gael yelped, already scrambling to the door and fumbling to get the key into the lock.
Jenny had a moment to compose herself as Erik showed the boy how to use the key gently and the trick of pulling up slightly on the heavy wooden door to open it.
“It’s not a new house, so it’s got character,” Erik explained. “And that also means it’s not perfect. But we still love it.”
“Things don’t have to be new for us to love them,” Gael said firmly.
“Exactly,” Erik agreed. “And this is a nice old house. I’ll bet it has stories to tell.”
Jenny followed them inside, cataloguing all the furnishings that had been left behind. It almost looked like they could move right in today.
“They left their stuff,” Gael said.
“Some of it,” Erik said. “But they couldn’t do without their books, so we’ll have to fill up all those bookshelves ourselves.”
Gael took off to the living room to see for himself how much space they now had for books and comics.
“Is this okay?” Erik asked Jenny quietly, taking her hand as light poured into the center hall from the cut glass on the front door, setting rainbows gleaming on the polished oak floor.
“This is… incredible,” she said, shaking her head in wonder.
“If I’d known we would be living here full-time, I never would have bought it without consulting you,” Erik said, his green eyes so serious. “I just thought it would be a nice place to stay when we came here for visits.”
“Oh,” Jenny said, too blown away at the idea of buying a house to use for visiting to think of anything at all to say.
“Now that we’re staying though,” he went on, “maybe you’d like to pick out something different, something bigger maybe?”
“No,” she said right away. “No, this is our dream house.”
“Look,” Gael yelled from the living room.
Jenny hurried in with Erik behind her and found Gael hopping up and down as he looked at the mostly empty bookshelves.
“There are already graphic novels here,” he squeaked.
“I thought you could use something to keep you occupied while you wait for your stuff to arrive,” Erik said, shrugging like his incredibly thoughtful gesture was no big deal. “No point having a house with a window seat and nothing to read.”
Gael laughed and grabbed for one of the books, now that he was certain it was his.
“The movers can bring your stuff out of storage tomorrow if you really want to live here,” Erik told Jenny.
“What do you think, Gael?” she asked her son. “Do we want to live here?”
“Are you kidding?” the boy asked, looking up from his new book with a big smile. “Of course we do.”
“There’s your answer,” she said, smiling up at Erik and wondering what she had ever done to deserve such a kind and loving husband.
“Great,” Erik said. “Your mom and I are going to walk around the first floor a little, okay?”
Gael nodded, his nose deep in his book.
“I was thinking we might update the kitchen, if you wanted,” Erik told her, excitement in his voice as he led her toward the back of the house. “But the main thing I want to work on is…”
“A tree house,” Jenny guessed, unable to keep the smile off her face.
“Exactly,” Erik said, turning and cupping her cheek in his hand.
It was cold outside, but as the soft light poured in through the windows, the radiators whistled slightly, and the sound of Gael laughing at his comic book drifted to them from the living room, Jenny thought she couldn’t feel any more warm and cozy.
As Erik gazed down at her, stroking her cheek with his thumb, Jenny couldn’t help noticing that he looked as happy as she felt. His green eyes were bright and the corners of his mouth teased up as he leaned in so slowly to press his lips to hers.
Jenny closed her eyes and drank in the warmth of his mouth and the tingle of joy that spread through her chest as he kissed her.
Everything was right with her world now that they would all be together forever.
***
Thanks for reading Captain’s Christmas Bride!