Chapter 21 Cole #2
He glances toward the perfectly fine ham, then back at me. “You sure you’re alright?”
The words are out before I can stop them. “I took a test.”
His expression shifts, brows lifting, mouth parting, but he doesn’t move. “What kind of test?”
“The… kind that tells you you’re pregnant.”
Silence. Thick, stretching, terrifying. He blinks once. Twice. “What?”
I swallow, voice barely above a whisper. “There were two pink lines.”
For a split second, I think he didn’t hear me. Then his breath catches. “You’re serious?”
I nod, tears pricking my eyes again. “I wasn’t sure at first. I thought maybe stress or the holidays or that bad yogurt in the fridge, but then I did the math and—”
I don’t finish because he’s already crossing the space between us in three long strides.
His hands frame my face, his thumbs catching the wet under my eyes. His chest rises and falls fast, like he’s been sucker punched. “You’re pregnant.”
“Apparently.” My laugh wobbles. “Surprise?”
For a long moment, he just stares at me—like he’s replaying every single moment that led here. Then his mouth curves into something so tender, so disbelieving it nearly breaks me. “Holy shit,” he whispers, voice rough. “We’re having a baby?”
I nod again, the tears finally spilling over. “You’re not mad?”
“Mad?” He huffs a laugh that sounds more like wonder. “Hailey, I’ve built houses, I’ve rebuilt my whole damn life, but nothing, nothing, has ever felt like this.”
And then he kisses me. Hard. Like his entire world just shifted under his boots and I’m the only steady thing left. I clutch his jacket, melting into him, the tears and laughter tangling in one ridiculous, perfect mess.
When he finally pulls back, his voice is low and reverent. “You’re gonna be the best damn mom.”
I laugh through another tear. “You’re not even freaking out?”
“Oh, I’m freaking out,” he says with a shaky grin. “But mostly because now I gotta baby-proof the entire house I just built.”
A watery laugh bursts from my throat. “You really think I can do this?”
“I know you can.” His palm flattens against my stomach, the rough pad of his thumb tracing small, absent-minded circles over my sweater. “We can.”
The front door opens again, letting in a swirl of cold air and the chaotic noise of family.
He grins at me, eyes glinting. “Guess we should probably tell them… eventually.”
I grab his hand, breathless, overwhelmed, giddy. “Not yet. I want it to be ours for a while first.”
He kisses me again, softer this time, and murmurs against my lips, “Merry Christmas, baby.”
“Merry Christmas,” I whisper back, pressing my palm over his, right where our little secret already lives.
The universe gives us about four and a half seconds to have it to ourselves.
Then Maddie’s voice slices through the entryway. “Hellooo? Are we hugging in here without me?”
Cole groans under his breath. “So much for ours.”
I wipe at my cheeks, trying to make it look like I’m crying normal, stressed-out-hosting tears and not my life just exploded into tiny twinkle lights tears.
We step apart just as the front hall floods with people.
My parents carrying a tin of cookies, his parents hauling in a cooler for some unknown reason, and Maddie with three tote bags full of gifts.
She sees us first. Actually, she sees me first.
“Okay.” She drops her bags right in the middle of the rug. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I say too fast.
“Everything,” Cole mutters at the same time.
Her eyes ping-pong between us, narrowing. “Oh my God. You two have that face.”
“What face?” I ask, voice an octave too high.
“The ‘we just did something’ face,” she says, pointing accusingly. “What did you do? Did you get married without me? Did you buy another house? Did you get a dog? Because I will not be the last to know about the dog.”
Behind her, my mom is stripping off her coat and already sniffing the air. “Something smells amazing. And why is Hailey crying? Are they tears of joy or did the ham dry out?”
“They’re—” I start.
“Hailey, honey?” my mom cuts in, head tilting in mom-concern. “You alright?”
And then everyone is looking at me. Every Bristol, every Simpson. The people who raised us, loved us, watched us fall apart and get put back together. They’re all standing in our foyer, boots half-on, snow melting on the hardwood, and I feel it, the urge to let it burst out of me.
I glance at Cole. He gives me that look, the one that says your call, baby. My throat wobbles. “Okay,” I say, laughing a little, wiping at another traitorous tear. “So… funny story.”
Maddie shrieks preemptively. “I KNEW IT.”
“We were gonna wait,” I say, glaring at her fondly. “For like… five minutes. But I took a test before you guys got here and, um…” I grab Cole’s hand and drag it to my stomach, laying it there like punctuation. “We’re having a baby.”
There’s half a second of stunned silence. Then the house detonates.
“WHAT?” Maddie screams and launches herself at me so fast I almost go down. “YOU’RE PREGNANT? YOU’RE PREGNANT? WITH HIS BABY?” She’s crying and laughing and somehow hugging both of us at once. “Oh my God, I’m gonna be an aunt.”
Marla’s hands fly to her mouth, eyes immediately filling with tears. “Oh, sweetie.” She rushes forward, hugging us both, patting my hair. “A Christmas baby! Well, not at Christmas, but you know.”
My mom’s crying now too. “I’m going to be a grandma!” She turns to my dad like he’s not standing here, hearing all of it just like her. “Greg, did you hear? We’re going to be grandparents!”
My dad’s grinning so wide the skin around his eyes crinkles. He shakes Cole’s hand and pulls him in. “You knocked up my daughter, huh?”
“Dad!” I laugh, mortified.
Cole just snorts. “Yes, sir.”
“Good man,” Dad says, then pulls me into a careful hug like I’m made of spun sugar. “So happy for you, baby girl.”
There are arms everywhere, coats half-on, luggage forgotten.
Marla is already talking about tiny Christmas pajamas and stockings with the baby’s name on it.
My mom is asking how I’m feeling, was I sick, do I need to sit down, should we move dinner up.
Maddie is crying harder than anyone and taking selfies with me even though my eyes are blotchy.
“Texting the friend group chat,” she says, thumbing furiously. “Aunt Maddie era unlocked.”
“We don’t need a group chat about my uterus,” I protest.
“Oh, we absolutely do,” she fires back.
Cole’s dad, who’s been quieter, steps in close and claps his son on the shoulder, eyes soft. “Proud of you, son.” He turns to me. “Proud of you, too. You two… this is good.”
Cole pulls me toward him, tugging me closer to his side, palm spread wide over my stomach like he can already protect both of us at once.
“Alright, alright,” Marla says, wiping her eyes and trying to restore order. “Everybody inside, boots off. Babies don’t need pneumonia, well, future babies. Oh my goodness, I’m going to need to sit down.”
“Kitchen,” I say, laughing through new tears. “Food’s almost ready.”
“Did you eat?” my mom asks immediately.
“Not yet.”
“Then you need to eat. You’re eating for two now.”
“It’s the size of a chia seed,” I protest, but I’m already letting her usher me toward a barstool.
The whole crew moves like a very loud, very loving herd through the great room. Coats get draped over chairs, gifts pile under the tree, someone turns the music up, and the house fills the way I’d pictured it would when I first saw it on that ridge.
Full of our people. Full of laughter. Full of the life we made.
I catch Cole watching me from near the entryway, his family swirling around him, my parents talking to his. He looks… different. Not scared. Not overwhelmed. Just… settled. Like this is the thing he didn’t know he was waiting for.
His gaze drops for a second to his jacket, hung over the newel post. He pats the pocket like he’s checking something’s still there, then looks back at me.
He gives me that slow, private smile, the one that says the surprises aren’t done yet. And just like that, Christmas gets even better.
The thing about having both of our families in one house is that it’s loud. Louder than the time Maddie tried to teach my mom TikTok dances.
The music’s going, the ham’s getting sliced, my mom is absolutely bullying me into eating crackers and cheese “for the baby,” and Maddie is in the corner narrating the whole thing like she’s on a reality show.
“—and this, viewers, is the exact moment I found out my best friend is carrying my niece or nephew, and I didn’t even have any idea whatsoever—”
“Madison,” Cole warns, but he’s smiling.
He keeps looking at me. Keeps checking on me. Keeps putting his hand on my back, my stomach, like he can’t not touch me now that he knows. And every time he looks, his eyes flick to that jacket hanging on the newel post.
Alright, big guy. I see you.
I’m sitting on the barstool, nibbling on a roll to appease the pregnancy police, when he suddenly straightens. There’s this shift in him.
“Hey,” he calls out over the room. No one hears him. He tries again, louder. “Hey! Everybody, just, can you give me a second?”
My mom stops mid-sentence, my dad leans on the counter, Marla’s hands fly to her mouth again because she can tell something else is coming.
Maddie squints. “Wait. What’s happening now? We already got a baby, what could possibly—”
Cole walks over to the post, grabs his jacket, and pulls out a small black velvet box.
“Oh my God,” I whisper.
“OH MY GOD,” Maddie yells louder.
My parents both gasp. Marla tears up again. His dad smiles like he’s been waiting all day for this show.
Cole approaches and stands right in front of me, and even though we’re basically surrounded, it feels like it’s just us in our kitchen, on our ridge, in the house he built for me, for us.
He rests a hand on my knee. “I was gonna do this later,” he says, mouth tugging like I’ve caught him, “when it was just us. But since everyone already knows our other secret…” His eyes crinkle. “Might as well go two for two.”
My eyes burn. “Cole…”
He drops to one knee and Maddie screams once before slapping her hand over her own mouth. I can’t look away from him.
His big, rough hand pops open the box. Inside is the prettiest ring I’ve ever seen. He had to have picked it out months ago. He had to have been carrying this around, waiting for the right moment. And he picked our house, at Christmas, with our baby.
“Hailey Evelyn Simpson,” he says, voice low and shaky, “I have loved you with every ounce of my soul since that first time your lips touched mine. I loved you when you were just Maddie’s bratty best friend who kept calling me to help her fix her moving problems. I loved you when you showed up in Denver and turned my whole life on its head.
I loved you in the front seat of my truck, in a crappy motel, in this house when it was just beams—”
“Cole,” I whisper, laughing and crying, “you can’t mention the motel in front of my mom.”
Laughter ripples through the room.
He grins and doesn’t even look away. “I’ve watched you carve out a life here.
I’ve watched you love my family and let my family love you.
You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me…
and now you’re giving me the best thing I didn’t know if I’d ever get.
” His hand slides over my stomach and I lose it, a fat tear rolling down.
“So. I’d really like to make it official. ”
He takes a breath. “Marry me, Hailey,” he says, steady and sure. “Spend your life with me and let me show you how you should be loved and worshipped forever.”
My heart feels too big for my chest. “Yes,” I say immediately, nodding so fast my bun wobbles. “Oh my God, yes.”
The room explodes and Maddie is full-on sobbing again.
He slips the ring on my finger, his hands shaking just slightly, and stands, pulling me off the stool and straight into his arms. He kisses me like he’s sealing something, like he’s claiming me in front of every person who ever mattered to us.
When he pulls back, he presses his forehead to mine, eyes dancing. “Merry Christmas, Mrs. Almost-Bristol.”
I laugh, breathless, wiping at my cheeks. “Merry Christmas, Daddy.”
That earns us a collective groan.
“Oh my God,” Maddie says, slapping a hand over her face. “I did not need to hear the breeding kink version of Christmas.”
“Maddie,” Marla scolds, half laughing, half crying.
“What? We both know how she meant that.”
Cole just shakes his head and pulls me into him tighter. He leans down, lips brushing my ear. “Next year this is gonna be even crazier.”
“Next year we’ll have a baby in Christmas pajamas,” I murmur back, smiling so hard it almost hurts.
He squeezes my hip. “Next year you’ll be my wife.”
I look up at him, at the man who was never supposed to be anything but my best friend’s older brother, and I think, God, I almost missed this.
“Yeah,” I say, heart so full it could spill. “We did alright.”
Under the glow of the tree, surrounded by everything that matters, I kiss my future husband while our families cheer and the snow starts to fall outside. Merry Christmas to me.
Outside, snow drifts lazily past the windows, the glow from our tree spilling gold across the deck. Cole’s hand finds mine, his thumb brushing the ring now sparkling on my finger, and he smiles like the whole world finally makes sense.
Around us, laughter fills the house we built, the one that started as a dream on a ridge and somehow became forever. And as he kisses me, I realize this isn’t just our first Christmas together. It’s the beginning of each one after, forever.