Chapter 38
CHAPTER 38
LEIF
O n Christmas morning, Laurel and I woke up slowly but excited for the day. I’d barely slept, my eyelids sticking together as she turned in my arms, peppering lazy kisses across my chest. Her lips were so soft and warm against my skin that I groaned, scooting even closer to her and giving up on trying to open my eyes.
“We have to wake up,” she murmured sleepily, but already, I could hear the excitement creeping into her tone. “It’s coffee time. And Christmas. Merry Christmas, Leif.”
“Merry Christmas, bug,” I mumbled, my heartrate picking up its pace as realization dawned.
Today was Christmas. It was the day. The big day we’d all been waiting for. Me more so than others, but still. The Day.
My lids suddenly became unglued, the nerves and anticipation that had kept me up last night flying back into me at full force. I grinned, loving that the first thing I was seeing for the second morning in a row was Laurel’s gorgeous, heart-shaped face, her cheeks flushed after another night of cuddling up close to me and her sparkling brown eyes still soft with sleep.
“I love you.”
She smiled. “I love you, but we still need to get up. Everyone is going to be here soon and I definitely need caffeine and some time to wake up before we start getting ready for the day.”
“Let’s get to it,” I murmured, sliding my hand into her hair and pulling her to me for a deep kiss despite having just said we should leave the bed.
She chuckled against my mouth, melting into me and kissing me back, seemingly not caring about staying in bed for a few minutes longer either. In all likelihood, this was going to be the last alone time we had today, and I wanted to make the most of it.
Everyone was coming over to Deb’s house again for Christmas, just like we all had at Thanksgiving. My family, Gemma’s, Mariam’s, Dave, Doug, and a few others would be descending upon the Guntry home real soon, and while I was excited about having a big, family Christmas again for the first time since our breakup as teens, I also knew it meant it was going to be a busy day.
All the families had always been really close, and every few years, they liked to get together for Christmas. Since Laurel’s Mom’s house was massive, they always ended up congregating here. Jack had come a few times after I’d gone off to college, but for obvious reasons, I’d stayed away. This was my comeback year—and I planned on doing it with a bang.
Laurel giggled into our kiss when she pressed her lower half against mine and felt what was happening down below. “We’d better stop before that guy gets involved.”
“He’s already there,” I murmured, tightening my grip on her hair and stealing another hard, meaningful kiss. “Ten more seconds.”
She smiled and burrowed back into me, not needing any more convincing than that. Eventually, probably about ten or more minutes later rather than seconds, we were both panting and sated, flushed but happy as we started the day.
Deb was already in the kitchen when we walked in, both showered—separately—and wearing the Christmas tees she’d had overnighted for everyone. Mine was red with long white sleeves, and on my chest, it read, On The Naughty List, but I Regret Nothing .
Laurel’s looked the same as mine, but hers read, Dear Santa, They’re the Naughty Ones , with two arrows pointing toward either side of her. It paired nicely with Gemma’s and Mariam’s, both of which read, Okay, Santa. Before I Explain, How Much Do You Know?
“You guys look amazing.” Deb smiled and picked up her phone from the counter, motioning for us to get together for a picture. “I can’t wait for this year’s collage. The photos are going to be awesome. I love the slogans they’ve put on all these.”
“Same,” I agreed, leaning in next to my girl and pulling a funny face while Deb snapped her picture.
I took one of her and Laurel next, then a selfie of all three of us before we finally got around to making our coffee. After we filled our mugs, we moved outside to Deb’s covered patio to put the finishing touches on our giant, long Christmas table, sipping our drinks while making sure we were prepared for lunch.
The doorbell rang just before eleven, signaling the arrival of the first guests, Mariam and her family. After that, it just seemed to keep ringing until finally the house was full of people. Everyone talked and laughed as they sipped a wide variety of drinks they’d brought along.
Laurel smiled up at me. “I’ll go change the playlist. I feel like we’ve listened to this one enough this morning.”
I chuckled. “I know everyone loves Christmas music, but I always feel like by the end of the day, we’ve listened to all of it enough.”
“You Grinch!” she exclaimed laughingly, narrowing her eyes at me disapprovingly as she shook her head. “How dare you?”
I caught her waist and hauled her closer to me. “Call me whatever you want, bug. You know it’s true.”
She laughed, pressing up on her toes before giving me a quick kiss and then spinning out of my grasp. Dancing away from me to go change the music, she got distracted by Gemma, disappearing with her friend for a few minutes while my brother sauntered over to talk to me.
He smirked as he looked into my eyes, bringing his beer to his lips but not taking a sip just yet. “Big day, huh?”
“Big day,” I agreed, peering past him at the huge Christmas tree in the corner. Underneath it, gifts spanned the width of the floor in that area, but there was a little tinge of red hidden in the branches that I was checking on. “How’s Mom?”
“Better now that you’re back with Laurel,” he said lightly. “I never thought I’d see the day when she’d be happy to know that one of us wasn’t coming home that night because we were spending the night with a girl.”
“Not just any girl, though.”
He laughed. “Of course, the girl. You ready?”
“Nope.”
“You’re going to knock it out of the park, bro. Stop stressing. This isn’t even really a question. It never has been.”
My eyebrows arched. “Never? Really?”
“Okay, maybe for a few days, but you know what I mean,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder and taking a step back. “I made a few calls to start checking on the possibilities for that other thing we were talking about as well. It’s looking good. We should have some options for you to check out on your next visit to Tennessee.”
“Thanks, bro,” I said, relieved that at least that half of the plan was going well. My gaze caught on that hint of red peeking out from between the branches and my heart stuttered. “Let’s just hope the rest of it pans out as planned.”
“Fingers crossed,” he assured me before he turned and walked away, heading into the living room with everyone else.
As Deb ushered us all to seats, Laurel and I joined her on a sofa pushed up against a wall near the tree. Once everyone had found a place to sit, either on a chair, a sofa, or simply on their asses on the carpet, she stood at the front of the room and smiled.
“Wow. It really is a full house again this year,” she said, her gaze sweeping across the room with tears shimmering in her eyes as she took it in. “Thank you all for being here again. It’s so great that we’re able to come together twice in as many months this year. Let’s see if we can do it again next year, shall we?”
Spontaneous applause and cheers rang out, and she pumped her eyebrows. “Without any further ado, Gemma and Jack have graciously volunteered to be our Santas this year. So come on up, kids. We’ve got a ton of food waiting to be eaten and just as many presents to get through before we go sit down, so let’s get this party started.”
My brother and our friend were grinning from ear to ear, handing out high-fives and fist-bumps as they made their way to the front of the room. As expected, the gift exchanges took a few hours with Gemma and Jack taking turns to draw a gift from under the tree, hand them over, and take pictures with everyone while donning Christmas-themed props from a pile on top of the mantel.
At the end, Laurel stood up, smiling. She set aside her gifts to make her way to the front of the room. Loud laughter and chatting rang out above the festive music, and eventually, she stuck her fingers between her teeth and whistled.
She laughed when instant silence fell. “Well, that’s impressive. I’ll make this quick. That’s all for today, folks. Thanks to absolutely everyone for absolutely everything. I’m sure you’re all starving, so let’s?—”
I pushed to my feet, my palms suddenly clammy as hell and my entire chest thrumming with the pounding of my heart. I cleared my throat. “Well, actually, I see one more gift.”
She frowned and glanced at the tree. “I’m pretty sure they got them all, babe. Just about seven stores worth of wrapping paper left now.”
“No, I definitely see one.” I stepped around her, reached in between the branches, and pulled out a little box wrapped in glossy red paper. “There we are. That’s for you. From me.”
As she took it, she sent me a curious glance, the shape and size of the package not hiding very well what might be inside it. But as she carefully started undoing the ribbon around it, I could see her struggling not to get ahead of herself, her lips constantly wanting to twitch into a smile before she forced them back into neutral.
When she finally worked her way through all the decorations and started picking at the tape, the wrapping paper came free easily and I lowered myself down on one knee. Looking up at her beautifully stunned face, I dragged in a deep breath and prayed to all the gods above—the ancient ones and those on Mount Olympus included—that she and I were on the same page about what we wanted.
“Laurel Guntry,” I started, clearing my throat again when my voice came out too husky the first time. “I have spent my entire life loving you, even during the times when I didn’t consciously know it.”
Ever so slowly, after she’d lifted the lid on the box and saw the ring inside, she moved her shock-shiny eyes to mine. They were wide and a little too fixed for my liking, but I pushed ahead anyway, reaching for her when I realized her hands were trembling just as much as mine.
“You and I have shared the best days of our lives together and the worst. We’ve already seen each other through sickness and in health. We’ve been poorer and now, happily, we’re both a little bit richer. Through the good times and the bad, we’ve stuck together like white on rice. And nothing would make me happier than to keep riding this crazy rollercoaster called life with you. Forever and always. I know I’m probably about eight years late asking you this on everyone else’s timeline, but you and I have always done our own thing. So what do you say, you finally want to marry me?”
Laurel gripped my hands, the ring box still between us as she stared so deep into my eyes that it felt like she could see to the bottom of my soul. Without a word, she nodded. Then suddenly, she shrieked and started laughing, throwing herself into my arms and nearly tackling me in the process.
“Yes! Yes, of course, I will. God, did you even need to ask?”
“Told you!” Jack’s voice rang out, but I didn’t give a damn.
She’d said yes and she was kissing me, her arms around me and our limbs a tangled mess on the floor, and I’d never been happier. I caught her face in mine, bringing it to me to lay a hard kiss on her to seal the deal while our families and friends burst out in hollers, cheers, and catcalls.
“This calls for some champagne,” Deb said, grinning at both of us as I finally got to slide my ring onto Laurel’s finger for real. It fit nice and snug next to the small promise ring, but I’d leave it to her to figure out what she wanted to do with that. “Congratulations, my loves. May happiness and joy follow you through all the days of your lives, and for heaven’s sake, Leif, don’t make her travel to Colorado to see her guy for too long.”
I laughed. “Already on it.”
“ I’m already on it,” Jack protested laughingly, coming over to smack his palm into mine and helping me up before he pulled me into a tight hug. “Told you there was nothing to worry about. Between that ring on her finger and the potential office spaces lined up for you to take a look at when you’re back in Franklin, this is officially the beginning of your happily ever after, bro. Enjoy it.”
I hugged him back, taking Laurel’s hand and pulling her into the hug with us. We spent the rest of the day eating and celebrating in absolute bliss. I was going to get to spend the rest of my life with the girl of my dreams—and sooner than she thought, I’d be moving to Franklin to make it official.