Epilogue
AVERY
A few months later
“Matthew, have you seen the latest shipment of ornaments?” I ask, rifling through a stack of boxes.
“I think it’s in the corner.” His voice shouts from the next room.
“Which corner?” I mutter under my breath, looking across the room at an equally large stack of boxes.
Right now, the glass counters are still empty and the walls are bare, except for one photo.
Shortly after we took possession, Sam gifted us a framed copy of us and our gingerbread store before it was ruined.
I smile as I glance at it, thinking of how much has happened since that day.
Placing my hands on my waist, I turn toward the boxes in front of me, huffing.
“Find it?” Matthew asks, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind me.
I lean back into him, taking a deep breath, feeling my stress start to lessen. “No.”
“It’s in here somewhere.” He kisses the side of my head before unfolding himself from around me and walking to the other stack of boxes.
It’s been a month since the sale of the candy store put the property into our names, making us the official owners of what was The Sugar House Candy Shoppe.
After it was discovered that Cal and Lance were doing some unethical business, the police got involved, which resulted in Lance being forced to sell all of his properties.
Matthew and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to start our new lives together.
So now, I run the Gingerbread Grove office for C.O.C.O.A.
, expanding the number of families we can help outside of the Kamloops area and arranging day trips for our families to experience the Grove on bus tours.
I’ve also been active with the city on revitalizing the tourism to the town, working more to promote a welcoming atmosphere, instead of one centred on rivalries and competitive games.
There are, however, certain people in town that will not leave Candy Cane Creek alone and have staged a sort of…
off-season battle. I’m still in the middle of discovering what that all means, but posts on GingerSnap show that it’s thankfully nothing more than more knitted gingerbread men cast about the other town and retaliation in the form of plastic candy canes being stuck all over the middle of our town square.
It’s a work in progress.
As for Matthew, he’s moved his business into the back of the store, running his portion of the company from there.
Mitch still works out of Vancouver, and there’s a little bit of tension between them because of it, but for now, it works.
And the best part? We live in the apartment above.
It’s covered in just as many unpacked boxes and mismatched furniture shoved into rooms, but it’s ours.
“Is this the one you’re looking for? He asks, holding out a red box.”
“Hmmm, maybe.” I take it from him, not recognizing the decoration on the top. “Wait, no. I didn’t order anything that looks like this.”
“Why don’t you open it and find out?” He’s staring at me intently, which makes me narrow my eyes at him.
“Is something going to jump out at me?”
“What? No. Why would you ask that?” His eyes open wide in shock.
“Is it alive?”
“No.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I don’t see air holes, but…”
“Avery, just open the box,” he sighs.
Giving him one last once over to make sure none of his normal tells lets me know there’s anything that will make me drop and run, I pop the lid off the top to reveal a small velvet box inside.
“I definitely didn’t order this.”
“Are you sure?” He takes the box from me, sliding the smaller one out and dropping to one knee.
“Did you drop something?” I get down on a knee, too, feeling around the ground for anything that might have fallen.
“Avery...”
“Yeah?” I ask, looking around, trying to see anything that might have been dropped on the wooden floor.
“Avery, look at me…” The tone in his voice has me snapping my attention up to him.
He has opened the box to reveal a round diamond with emerald and ruby stone accents to make it look like holly wrapping around it.
I gasp, bringing my hand to my mouth.
“Avery, will you marry me?”
Tears fill my eyes when I take in the picture in front of me.
It’s not just Matthew asking me to marry him; he’s asking me to build a life with him.
Share our hopes and dreams. Work towards a shared goal and future where we watch TV shows and movies together.
He laughs at my corny jokes and pretends like speaking in quotes is hilarious.
Where we can spend every Christmas together for the rest of our lives.
When I give him a wholehearted ‘yes’ and fling my arms around him, knocking him to the floor, I’m not just saying yes to the dress and the party. I’m saying yes to us. Forever.
And that makes me the happiest elf on the planet.