EPILOGUE
Charlotte
A few weeks later…
We sat in front of my brother Stone’s house, the engine still running.
I glanced at Crew. His jaw was tight as it always got when he was doing something outside his comfort zone. And meeting my entire family was definitely outside his comfort zone, even if he was a combat veteran. “It’s not too late to turn around.”
He turned off the engine. “No. We’re doing this.”
I leaned over and kissed his jaw. “I’ll make it up to you, tonight, I promise.”
He cupped my face, kissing me back. “You better.”
I grinned, imagining his reaction later on.
I’d bought a sexy set of Christmas lingerie complete with white fur and a red ribbon.
“Okay, here’s the cliff notes about my family so you don’t feel ambushed.
Last year, my family barged in without knocking and found Evie and Stone mid-decorating—spent the next twelve months turning an inside-out sweater and misplaced garland into a holiday legend.
Grandma runs the hot chocolate like a military op—she pretends it’s so good because of the cocoa, but we all know it’s the peppermint schnapps she sneaks in when no one is looking. ”
Crew gave a short laugh. “Breathe, baby.”
I smiled at him and continued. I wanted him to like my family.
“Jake and Connor heckle like they get paid per jab. Dad pretends he doesn’t cry when someone says something profound.
And Mom pretends she doesn’t notice. Grandpa naps exactly when you need him.
There’s probably a betting pool on something none of us agreed to.
And if Jake says red lace, we are changing the subject. ”
Crew’s mouth tugged at one corner. “Noted.”
“I mean it,” I said, and my voice softened before I could stop it. “They’re loud. They’re a lot. But it’s the good kind of a lot.”
He slid his palm to the back of my neck, thumb stroking once where my pulse jumped. “I can handle loud,” he murmured. “I just need to know where you are in the room.”
Something in my chest loosened. “With you,” I said, and opened the truck door.
The front door opened before we even got to the porch and the Christmas chaos hit all at once—the heat, the pine, the warm thrum of voices layered over the crackle of the fireplace. Jake and Connor materialized at Crew’s elbow like the ghosts of Christmas past and present wearing matching smirks.
“New lumber in the stack,” Jake announced, eyeing Crew like he was rating him for durability. “Think he knows the rules?”
“Rule one,” Connor said, counting on his fingers. “Don’t argue with Grandma’s cocoa ratio. Rule two, if Stone scowls, it means he’s happy. Rule three, if you hear family meeting, run.”
“Rule four,” Stone said, coming up behind our younger brothers. “Go help your grandmother.”
Jake groaned. “But we just—”
“Now.” Stone’s voice carried that big-brother authority that still worked even though they were all adults.
Evie came in behind Stone with a dish towel over one shoulder and that light in her eyes she only gets around Christmas. “Ignore them,” she told Crew, kissing my cheek and squeezing my hand. “We’re thrilled you’re here.”
I watched Crew take it in—all the overlapping threads that had always been my life.
He didn’t shrink back or puff up. He set our bag by the stairs, shrugged out of his coat, and rolled up his sleeves like a man who’d decided he belonged in the picture and wouldn’t apologize for it.
That did something to me. The confident way he moved, always wrapped in quiet.
Then the next wave hit. Grandma commandeered the stove for her cocoa, and Mom deputized me on cookie duty.
Dad and Grandpa commandeered the remote and argued good-naturedly about whose team choked harder.
Stone muttered something under his breath and then secretly adjusted the tinsel when he thought no one was watching.
Jake and Connor continued to circle like cheerful wolves, tossing out commentary and ducking when I aimed a dish towel at their heads.
“So, Crew,” Jake said, leaning against the counter with that trademark smirk. “Charlotte says you’re temporary. That true?”
Crew’s hand found the small of my back, possessive and sure. “Not anymore.”
“Good answer.” Connor grinned. “Because if you hurt our sister, we know where to hide a body in these mountains.”
“Connor!” Mom scolded, but she was smiling.
“What? I’m just saying—”
“Boys,” Dad warned, but his eyes were twinkling. “Leave the man alone. At least until after dessert.”
Through all of it, I felt Crew’s attention like a hand between my shoulders—never clingy, never gone, just there, steady as a heartbeat.
He fetched wood without being asked, lifted the cocoa pot when Grandma pointed with her spoon, fixed the loose chair leg with a quarter-turn of his wrist, and gave Mom the kind of yes, ma’am that earned him an instant seat at our table.
When our eyes met across the room, his softened—just a fraction, just for me—and it undid me faster than any pretty line.
“Group photo,” Jake announced, because of course he did. “Hands where we can see them, Evie.”
Evie raised her eyebrows. Stone sighed like a martyr and pulled her close enough to shut Jake up with a look.
I slid in front of the tree, and felt Crew step behind me, his palm finding my waist as if drawn by a magnet.
The flash caught me laughing. The second caught Grandma scolding Jake about posture.
The third caught Crew’s mouth at my ear.
“After this, I’m finding a wall and putting you against it.” It should not have been legal for words to do what that did to my knees.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I whispered back, and tried to keep my face neutral.
We made it through presents without any major incidents.
Grandma slipped schnapps into the cocoa and Mom insisted the bows be saved.
Grandpa tucked one behind Grandma’s ear, making her blush.
It didn’t take long for Jake to launch into the greatest-hits reel from last year’s garland incident, complete with the dramatic reenactment of Stone threatening to throw him in a snowbank.
“I’m just saying,” Jake continued, dodging a throw pillow from Evie, “if we’d had a betting pool on how long it would take Stone to propose, I’d be rich right now.”
“You lost that bet,” Connor reminded him. “I won.”
“Technicality.”
“Fifty bucks says Crew proposes before Valentine’s Day,” Jake announced suddenly.
“Jake!” I threw a cookie at him.
“What? I’m just saying, the man looks at you like—”
“Finish that sentence and you’re sleeping in the barn,” Stone warned.
Eventually, the edges softened as night fell.
The tree twinkled with lights. The kitchen quieted to the sound of pans being arranged for morning casseroles.
Stone turned the lights down the exact way Mom likes them on Christmas Eve and pretended it was accidental.
One by one, the noise diffused into yawns and hugs and where’s my overnight bag and don’t take the good pillow and a last sweep for that one gift bag that always hides under the couch.
I slipped into the hallway to breathe, and Crew followed like I knew he would—no stealth, no performative growl, just the warm weight of his presence.
He caged me gently between the wall and his body, not trapping, just containing, his palms braced either side of my head.
The house was all soft glow and familiar creaks.
For one second, I felt the wild ache of before—the years of handling every load, deciding every detail, pretending I didn’t mind shouldering it alone. It rose, then eased, because he was actually here and not going anywhere, and that truth sank into me like heat.
“Too much?” he asked.
“Not with you here,” I said, and watched it hit him—the way the tension in his jaw eased, the way his breath left him.
He tipped his forehead to mine. The beard scrape at my temple, the scent of snow still clinging to his flannel, the muscle of his chest pressed to my palms when I slid them up under his shirt.
“Say it again,” I breathed. He knew what I wanted to hear. What I needed to hear.
“I love you.”
Something sweet and fierce swelled inside me. He kissed me like a man who planned to spend his life making good on promises—slow at first, then rougher when I opened for him and gave him the sound he always drew out of me.
He pulled back an inch, eyes dark. “Where are we sleeping?”
I smiled up at him. “Who said we’re sleeping tonight?”
I squealed as he bent down and put me over his shoulder.
“Crew, you can’t,” I protested as he carried me through the living room.
Stone glanced up from the couch and offered the kind of resigned big-brother grunt that counts as approval in this family.
Mom pretended not to see. Grandma absolutely saw and smiled into her mug like a woman who enjoys being right.
Jake opened his mouth, but Connor elbowed him before he earned them both a lecture.
“Told you,” Jake muttered. “Valentine’s Day, easy.”
“You’re an idiot,” Connor said.
“No, I’m fifty bucks richer. Called it.”
Evie giggled and said, “First door on the right, Crew.”
He nudged the door to our room open with his boot, then closed it just as quietly. He set me on my feet and immediately crowded me back to the edge of the bed, mouth at my throat, voice a sinful scrape that made my knees soften all over again.
“Merry Christmas, Charlotte.”
“Merry Christmas, mountain man.”
“Now,” he said, and the way he said it dragged a shiver straight down my spine, “where were we?”
“Right here,” I answered, as I let him show me exactly how forever feels.
Here’s a little something extra!