Chapter 11
Tessy
Last night was magical.
After that amazing kiss, we went to a few more vendors, bought some cute home-made items, then watched the tree lighting ceremony.
It was a beautiful time.
Everyone was open, cheerful, and it’s a place like this that I’d love to visit again.
Hell, to be honest, it’s a place like this where I’d love to have a winter home. Come enjoy some smalltown feels and snowy days.
Not that I could ever afford it.
“What are you thinking about?”
I took the steaming mug of coffee that Joshua offered and waved my hand out the window.
We had a full day planned of more sightseeing, a sleigh ride, and I guess they were having a Winter dance that was open to everyone, and Joshua claimed we just had to go.
“This. I want a home, a winter home, in a place like this someday. Someplace I can retreat to for a weekend to get out of California and enjoy the snow. Someplace where it’s quiet, and nights by the fire is a must.”
“Don’t like Cali, huh?”
I lightly smacked his arm but shook my head.
“I love my home, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes it’s too much. Sometimes a girl wants snow.”
“And sometimes that girl needs to go after what she wants,” he teased.
I gave him the side eye, along with the smirk.
“I did, remember, I bought you at the auction.”
“Damn, you made that sound dirty.”
“Well, Joshua, you did screw me on our first date, did you not?”
He busted out laughing, shaking his head at my antics.
My phone buzzed and I glanced at the text from Melody. She loved all the photos and was glad I was doing this. She also couldn’t stop commenting on the fact that Joshua and I just looked amazing together. That we looked like the cutest couple she had ever seen.
Maybe I was biased, but I couldn’t agree more with her.
When we were near a mistletoe grove, that yes, the community put it there for visitors, so they’d kiss, which I found so dang cute, I snapped a picture of us kissing and sent it to her. She sent back the heart emoji. Though it wasn’t just one, it was about two dozen worth.
Everyone around us seemed to be just as happy as we were, which I loved. If things went ahead with Joshua, I wanted everyone to be okay with it. Both of our families, our friends, though Joshua hadn’t spoken too much about his.
“Is she texting you again?”
“Of course. She’s my best friend, and she’s going to want more pictures.”
“She won’t sell them to make a profit, will she?”
I wrapped my arms around his waist, standing on my toes a little to give him a kiss.
“Babe, if she was going to sell pictures to turn a buck, I’d send her the ones of your ass from when you were taking sex pictures.”
After all the fun, and even more pictures of the bow I removed, we looked through them, finding them to be beyond sexy, and have it only amp us up more.
“Yeah, those were nice.” He reached down and smacked my ass. “We better be going before I keep you locked up in here for the rest of the day and you won’t get to have any fun.”
“I mean, that’s fun too.”
“Woman,” he growled, making me laugh. I finished my coffee, set the mug in the sink, and then headed to the door, waiting on him.
“This is so beautiful. Who would have thought snow was such a gorgeous sight,” I wistfully said, taking in the mountains and the trees.
“Oh, it’s beautiful. Until you get caught in a blizzard or stuck shoveling it.”
“Don’t you like it?”
“Yes, I do Tessy. But I also know the downside of it. I filmed in enough places to have a love-hate relationship with all of this.”
I rolled my eyes but snuggled up under the blanket and drew closer to him as the driver took us around the area in the sleigh.
Even for it being mid-morning, this was beautiful.
I’m sure it would be far more gorgeous at night with the lights of the area, but that would be far too cold for my beach skin.
“I would assume there are plenty. Which is why I want a winter home, not a permanent home. Just one I could travel to every so often.”
“And there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think that’s rather a good idea. I only have the one, but there’s places I rent from when I leave Cali. I’m not sure I could actually deal with having a second home if it’s just me.”
I looked up at him, taking in even his side profile, and I’m yet again, amazed by the fact that no one was ever able to snag him up.
To me, Joshua was a dream man.
He was tall, successful, smart, witty, and dangerously goodlooking. But he was also caring, and smooth. He did have his moments though. I could see how he was when he was working; he is a hundred percent in his work. And nothing short of a family emergency would ever break him out of that.
“You’re staring.”
“No, I’m thinking is all. You’re a great catch, Joshua, do you know that? I mean, outside of the movie star, you’re still a really great guy. For the life of me, I just don’t understand how you really never had a serious relationship.”
“I did, actually. At the start of my career. It’s not big news and I don’t talk about it, but it certainly painted the light on any future relationships I had, until now.
She was a great friend that got morphed into a relationship.
Shortly after we started dating, I got called in for my first major movie.
“I was overjoyed, as was she. But unlike some of the smaller movies, I didn’t have time for her. I was working sixteen-hour days, then the promo pieces, the interviews, she just couldn’t handle it. Within a year, we broke up.
“It taught me that until I can either have someone who is as busy as I am, or someone who is okay with missing me, serious relationships just aren’t going to work. I love what I do, and I don’t see myself stopping any time soon. So, they were off the table.”
“You missed an option.” I offered, worried about what he might say. Worried that maybe he wasn’t on the same path I was.
“Yeah, and what’s that?”
“How about being in a serious relationship with someone who works very closely with you? Someone who can be away, but will also be there a lot of the time so you’re not forced to miss each other so much?”
He cupped my cheek, his thumb rubbing over the spot, and he grinned.
“I think that sounds like the perfect serious relationship for me.”
And then he kissed me, forcing every thought and worry I had right out the window. Between last night and this right here, his feelings for me were ringing as true as my feelings were for him.
And I was on board with it.
My heart was his, and I could feel just how much of his was mine.