in the medical community and had them forward me any possible jobs. You wouldn’t have any trouble picking one if you decide to stay.”
“Why would you do that?”
He didn’t answer, only looked at her for a long moment and then hit the next slide. She had a hard time dragging her gaze away from him to read it, but when she did, her breath seemed to catch.
People who love you, it read.
The next slide featured an image of Winnie surrounded by the corgis, Rodrigo at his gingerbread birthday party with frosting on his cheek, Mariah and Dakota in parkas and beanies, then Lucy, holding hands with José and smiling at the camera.
He had gathered all these pictures, put this all together. He must have asked people to pose for him. Did they know what he was doing?
What a wonderful man. A sweet, thoughtful, wonderful man.
She couldn’t seem to catch her breath, feeling the hot trail of more tears sliding down her face. Finally Ethan clicked to progress the slide show one more time, and the next image made all the other thoughts fly out of her head.
It was a picture of Ethan gazing at the camera, his features serious, his eyes intense.
People who love you.
She looked at the image on the screen and then at the man beside her.
“What...what does that mean?”
He looked down at her, that unreadable expression shifting to one she recognized now.
Tenderness.
“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?” he said gruffly.
“Yes,” she answered, sounding as breathless as she felt. “Yes, I think I am.”
He smiled a little and took a step toward her.
“I love you, Abby. There. I said it. For a long time, I’ve worried that I wasn’t capable of love, that my heart was somehow closed off permanently.”
He cleared his throat. “I didn’t realize how wrong I was until you and Christopher came to town.”
He reached for her hands and tugged her closer to him. “I love you, Abby. I wasn’t looking for it, but you showed up with your big heart and your sweet smile, and I fell hard.”
“Oh, Ethan.”
He paused. “It would be easier for me if you would consider staying here in Silver Bells, but if you have your heart set on Texas, we can figure out a way,” he said quickly. “I don’t know if you know this, but we actually have a Lancaster hotel in Austin. I could work out of there as easily as I work out of the Lancaster Silver Bells.”
He would leave this place he loved, his grandmother, his sister, to follow her to Texas? If she had any doubt as to his sincerity, which she didn’t, it would have disappeared in that instant.
She could feel more tears slip out and was touched beyond words when he wiped them away.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry. Is it too soon for you? I know how much you loved your husband. I would never want to compete with that. I might not be him, but I would still be willing to love you and Christopher with all my heart, if you give me a chance.”
How was it possible that she had been lucky enough to be loved by two such amazing men? She sniffled a little and reached for his hand.
“I did love Kevin. He was a very good man and so many parts of him live on in Christopher. But love is a funny thing, isn’t it? When you open your heart to it once, it becomes that much easier to open it again.”
“I wouldn’t know,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve ever been in love.”
“This is the second time for me,” she told him. “And I have a feeling it’s going to be amazing.”
She reached on tiptoe and kissed him, feeling the wonder and the magic of the moment sparkle through her like new snow in morning sunlight.
He kissed her softly, tenderly, his gaze locked with hers. She wanted to memorize every moment of this. The firelight casting shadows on his face, the snow falling softly outside and especially the joy that seemed to soak through all the lost and lonely places inside her.
Soon they were cuddled together on the sofa, and she didn’t want this Christmas Eve to ever end.
“It’s past midnight,” he said sometime later, when they were both breathing hard and the lights on the tree had begun to blur. “Merry Christmas.”
She kissed him again, her heart overflowing with love and the joyful promise of many more beautiful Christmases