EPILOGUE—Four months later
“Wow. You weren’t kidding,” Cole said, turning onto Main Street and under a banner that read, “Welcome to our Winter Wonderland.” It was the weekend after Thanksgiving, and Green Valley Falls looked like the North Pole at Christmas. Colored lights up and down each street, wreaths on every door, and each business window decorated to the hilt. “It’s gone from Hicksville to Whoville.”
“Christmas time here cannot be beat,” Holly said. “New York does all right. Rockefeller Center and all that, but yeah. We go hard.”
It had been four months since Holly had moved in with Cole. A week after he had “saved” her and declared his love, she’d quit her job, put some of her stuff in storage, unloaded the rest on her friends, and relocated to the concrete jungle.
For a while, they kept the option open of her finding her own place but quickly realized that wouldn’t be necessary. Every day was a new adventure and another opportunity to fall deeper in love. Plus, with the cost of rent? Fah-get about it.
Cole had convinced her that the city wasn’t a good fit for Dina and that, realistically, she didn’t need a car at all. So she’d left the pickup at Juliet’s to drive when she visited.
Lady was also not made for urban life. To an eighty-pound dog used to free rein on ten acres, apartment living was a jail sentence. Cole’s parents had stepped up to help by volunteering to watch her during the week.
Cole’s family had accepted Holly immediately and effortlessly. She loved spending time with them. She secured a job at Central Park, which fulfilled her need for nature, and she’d grown to love the city.
Being a cop’s girlfriend was different—and difficult. Cole had been promoted to detective, which made his hours a little more predictable and his job a smidgen less dangerous. But she still had to deal with calls saying he’d be late, and the fear that something had happened when she didn’t get that call. She’d come to terms with the sporadic schedule and hazardous nature of his job and took it in stride.
Cole parked, and they entered The Rusty Nail, where her friends waited.
“Holly!” they greeted in unison. She fell into their arms, and they engulfed her.
“It’s only been two months,” Holly said. “And we talk almost every day. Don’t act like you haven’t seen me in years.”
In September, before starting her new job, Holly had come up for a week to spend time with her girls and visit her dad again at the prison. She’d also flown to Spokane to see her mother, who had made a new life with her new husband and seemed to be doing fine.
They were seated at a large round table in the center of the restaurant and handed menus. She set hers aside. Like she needed a menu.
“How’s Lady adjusting?” Juliet asked.
“Okay, I suppose,” Holly said. “I told you how she was spending the weekdays with Cole’s parents, right? They have a big backyard and like walking her to the park.”
Juliet nodded.
“Well, she fell in love with them.” Holly pursed her lips into a pout. “Cole and I would bring her home for the weekend. We’d take her for walks and to the dog park, but she was always so excited to go back. We finally just came to an arrangement with Cole’s folks.”
“Which is?” Juliet prodded.
“She lives with them now,” Holly said, grabbing her chest. “I’m a part-time mom who visits my kid on the weekends. It broke my heart, but it’s best for Lady.”
“I’m sorry,” Tess said. “That sucks.”
“At least you didn’t have to give her away to strangers,” Faith said.
“I know,” Holly said. “I’m very grateful to Cole’s parents.”
Cole squeezed her hand under the table. “We could move to the suburbs,” he said. “I’m willing if you are.”
She knew he meant it, but it was too big an ask right now. They’d just barely settled in as a couple. Maybe in a few months.
“Moving on. Big news of the day?” Alex said. “Rick’s leaving town.”
“And I care about that because…” Holly said.
Alex raised an eyebrow.
“He’s not the only reason I left,” Holly said.
“Well, sure,” Tess said. “But still, any chance you’ll move home?”
Holly looked at Cole. As long as he was in New York, that’s where she would be. “Not anytime soon,” she said. “But, I mean, never say never, right?”
It wasn’t in their immediate plans to move, but Cole was eligible to retire in a few years. Who knew where they’d end up.
As the only man at the table, Cole took dinner like a champ. Listening to her friends’ small-town gossip and nodding sympathetically and solemnly over their dating woes.
“Then, after we’d already eaten, he says, ‘So, I don’t actually have any money. But if you buy dinner, I’ll write you a sonnet.’ And that was on top of him admitting he lived with his mother!” Faith said with a flourish, finishing the story of her latest online “match,” and causing them all to break into laughter.
“Ah, man. I miss you guys,” Holly said. And she did. Not enough to leave Cole, but it was fun to visit and catch up.
After dinner, Cole took her hand. “Let’s walk off all that food,” he suggested, heading toward the town square.
Holly patted her stomach. “All right, but I’m warning you. We go too far, and I’ll work up an appetite for dessert.”
The downtown park was dressed to the nines for the holidays. Two giant nutcrackers guarded the entrance. Multicolored bulbs shone through the snow on the boughs of every tree. Wreaths and Christmas-themed flags hung from lampposts entwined with twinkling lights. Candy-cane-shaped lights lined the path to Santa’s Workshop, aka the gazebo. They walked past a huge sleigh and eight life-sized plastic reindeer. Fat snowflakes began to fall, making it seem like they were in a snow globe.
“That’s where Santa visits during the Holly Jolly Jamboree,” Holly said, pointing to the gazebo. “Every year, my parents brought me here to wait in line to sit on his lap.”
“It’s pretty,” Cole said. He stopped and turned to her. “But not as pretty as you.”
“You’re not half bad yourself, mister.”
“You had a good time with your friends,” he said. “Do you regret leaving? Do you want to move home?”
She thought for a minute. Home was wherever he was, but that sounded too sappy to say out loud. “No. I do like seeing them, obviously. But I love my life in New York.”
“I’m very glad to hear that,” he said, taking her gloved hands in his and looking her in the eyes. “Holly, I love you. I love everything about you. You’re independent, smart, caring, and beautiful. Best of all, you’re sooo tall.”
She barked out a laugh. “I love you too, Robinson.”
He dug into his pocket, pulled out, and opened a little black box, revealing a gorgeous princess-cut engagement ring. “Will you marry me?”
Holly gasped, caught completely by surprise. This was so sudden. Wasn’t it? They’d only been together for five months. Was that enough time? Sure, she’d thought about it. Cole was so fantastic, who wouldn’t? But they’d never actually talked about it.
“I’m sorry to spring this on you,” he said, worry creasing his face. “You don’t have to answer right now. Take your time.”
As she stared into his eyes, warmth and love and certainty flooded her whole body. The doubts she’d harbored over whether she could trust her own judgment flew out a metaphorical window. And the convictions of her love for and trust in him were more rock solid than the diamond he offered her. “I don’t need time,” she said. “Of course I’ll marry you.”
He let out a sigh and smiled. “I planned to wait till Christmas morning, but I can’t,” he said. “The ring’s been burning a hole in my pocket for weeks.”
He ripped off her gloves and his own and put the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly.
“What is that? Like a carat?”
“One and a half,” he said. “My sisters helped me pick it out. Do you like it?”
“Like it?” She held out her hand to admire the sparkle. “I love it.”
All of a sudden, her friends were on them.
“Thought I smelled a diamond,” Faith said. “What’s going on here?”
“Cole just proposed,” Holly said with a grin. “Check out this bad boy.”
Amid ooohs and aaaahs, she showed off the ring. They screamed their congratulations and wrapped them both in a huge group hug.
Smooshed up against Cole, her friends surrounding them, she whispered in his ear, “I’m glad you were the one to find me in that Central Park tree.”
“I know I only broke your fall that day,” he whispered back. “But from now on, I’ll always be here to catch you. It’s you and me, babe. Forever.”
“Forever,” she agreed.
The End
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