Chapter 16
Holden
The final couple struck their pose to a roaring round of applause, the glittery confetti cannons firing off with a dramatic pop!
that left a shimmer in the air. Barry Mynt was back at center stage in a flash, gleaming like a holiday ornament under the lights as he declared the end of the competition and invited everyone to join the dancers on the floor.
I didn’t care who won.
Honestly, I couldn’t tell you a single move any of them performed. Not when Belle had been sitting next to me, looking the way she did, like she’d stepped straight out of a dream I didn’t know I’d been having until tonight.
Her laughter, her little gasps of delight at the more outrageous moves, the way her fingers stayed laced with mine under the table like she wasn’t even thinking about it, had all made everything around us feel a little quieter, a little more in the background.
The music shifted to something softer, smoother—“The Christmas Song,” still festive, but slower now.
I turned to her, my heart picking up speed. “May I have this dance?”
Belle’s eyes sparkled as she looked up at me. “Only if you promise not to step on my toes,” she said, the corners of her mouth lifting in a teasing smile. “But yes,” she added softly. “I’d love to.”
Warmth bloomed in my chest as I stood, guiding her through the scattering of tables and toward the center of the dance floor.
The music had softened into something slow and sweeping.
All around us, couples swayed under the glow of twinkling lights and the glittering chandelier, but all I saw, all I felt, was her.
I turned to face her, sliding my hand to her waist as she stepped closer, fitting against me like she’d always belonged there. My hand rested against the small of her back, the other holding hers, our fingers intertwined like they’d found something they’d been searching for.
The lights around the ballroom sparkled, casting a golden glow over her face. She looked up at me with this softness in her eyes that made it hard to breathe. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to deserve this moment, but I knew I didn’t want it to end.
She rested her head briefly against my shoulder as we swayed to the music. Soon she pulled back just enough to look up at me again, as if remembering something. “I talked to your aunt tonight.”
My chest tightened a little. “Maggie?”
She nodded. “She came to my room before the ball and said she wanted to talk.”
I held my breath. Belle had only broken up with Alex a few days ago. If Maggie was here to talk about “what this looked like” or to gently push Belle away from me…
“About what?” I asked, trying to sound casual, but my voice came out lower, rougher than I meant it to.
“About…us.”
I braced myself.
But Belle’s expression didn’t shift into guilt or uncertainty. If anything, she looked sure, grounded.
“She said she’s not surprised I wanted something different than Alex,” she said. “That she thinks you and I make sense. That she’s been hoping you’d find someone who could make you happy.”
It took me a second to register the words.
“She said that?”
Belle smiled softly. “She loves you like a son, Holden. She just wants you to be happy.”
I blinked past the tightness behind my eyes. For so long, I’d assumed that wasn’t in the cards for me—real happiness, the kind where someone saw you, chose you, and stayed.
“She said not everyone gets to be with the love of their life, but some lucky people do,” Belle added. “And that I shouldn’t be afraid to take a chance on that.”
Her hand pressed gently to my chest, right over my heart. I wasn’t sure she even realized she’d done it, but it felt like she’d anchored me there, right in this moment.
I swallowed, trying to gather my thoughts. “I’ve spent a long time thinking that wasn’t something I’d get,” I admitted. “That maybe I would never get to experience what other people do.”
Belle looked up at me with light in her eyes and a smile so bright it almost hurt to look at her. “Maybe you just hadn’t met the right dance partner yet.”
I didn’t know how someone like her existed in the same world as me, let alone that she’d fallen (literally) into my life, that we’d kissed under mistletoe, and that now she stood in my arms looking at me like I was something worth holding onto.
“Belle,” I murmured, her name heavy with everything I couldn’t quite say yet.
The music kept playing, but I barely heard it. All I could see was her. All I could feel was the pull.
Our heads were moving closer, like some invisible thread had been tugging us toward this moment since the day we met. As if everything in our lives had been leading up to this moment in time, where the two of us would fall for each other so effortlessly, so instantly, so perfectly.
And when our lips finally touched, the dam I’d built inside of me to protect my heart burst. Years of holding back, of pretending I didn’t want this, didn’t need this, came crashing down.
Every doubt I’d ever held—every lie I’d told myself about not needing anyone, about being fine on my own—crumbled under the softness of her mouth against mine.
I had spent years convincing myself that love wasn’t for me. That people left. That I wasn’t meant to be someone’s forever.
But here she was. Kissing me like I was worth staying for.
And for the first time, maybe ever, I let myself believe it. That I could have this. That I could be loved. That I deserved it.
The kiss deepened, slow and tender, and I felt something I hadn’t in so long. Hope.
Her hands slid up my chest, fingers curling around my lapels, and everything inside me went still and alive all at once.
I wasn’t just kissing her. I was handing her the pieces of me I never thought I’d give anyone.
Eventually she pulled back just an inch, her breath mingling with mine, her eyes searching. But neither of us spoke right away. The moment felt too full for words. Like speaking might shatter whatever bubble we’d been in.
Another beat of silence passed before she whispered, voice barely above a breath, “That didn’t feel like just a kiss.”
I swallowed, my heart thudding hard in my chest, grateful she was feeling the same thing I was. “No, it definitely didn’t.”
Her lips curved slightly, but her eyes stayed serious. “So what do we do now?”
I reached up, brushing my fingers lightly along her jaw, memorizing the shape of her. “We figure it out.”
“You live in Saint Paul,” she said softly. “I live in New York.”
“I know.”
“And this wasn’t supposed to happen.”
I gave a small dry laugh. “Tell me about it.”
She leaned her forehead against mine again. “But I’m so glad it did.”
“Me too,” I said. I let the silence sit for a second before I said what had been burning in my chest all day. “Belle…I don’t know how this works. I’ve never done this. I’ve never wanted to do this. But I can’t walk away from us…” I paused, my voice rough. “From you. Not now. Not after this week.”
Her hand found mine, her fingers lacing with mine like they’d always belonged there. “I don’t want to walk away either.”
My chest cracked open with those words. Relief. Joy. Fear. The emotions all tangled together.
“There’s a lot we still have to figure out,” she said, her voice shaking just slightly. “And I don’t want to pretend that it’ll be easy.”
“I don’t need easy,” I said. “I just need you.”
She smiled then, that same smile I had fallen for on the first day I’d met her. “So we’re doing this?” she asked, a little breathless, a little awed.
I nodded, squeezing her hand. “Yeah. We’re doing this.”
She exhaled, her lips curving. “If you’d told me when we first met that we’d end up here, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
“You mean falling for a devastatingly handsome hockey player?”
She swatted my chest playfully. “I meant,” she laughed, “falling and having a devastatingly handsome hockey player catch me, who would soon have me falling for him.”
I grinned, unable to stop the warmth blooming in my chest. “I guess you’ve been falling for me since day one, huh?”
“Oh, please,” she teased. “Let’s not forget who kissed who that day.”
We were both smiling now—wide, real, unguarded smiles. The kind you only wear when you know you’re exactly where you’re meant to be.
I tugged her gently back into my arms as the music swelled around us. “Well, for the record…I’ve been falling for you too.”
She leaned in closer. “Then let’s keep falling together.”
There were still things to sort out like miles between us, careers to return to, logistics that didn’t come with easy answers. But none of that mattered in this moment.
Because what we had? It was real. And we’d figure out the rest.
Together.
I dipped my head, brushing my lips against hers—soft, certain, and full of everything I hadn’t known how to say until now.
It might’ve started with a fall, a kiss, and a little Christmas magic…
But this?
This was just the beginning.