no joke.
Teddy’s already at my place when I get home. Truth be told, he very nearly lives with me because he’s over every night. Technically he has a place of his own but he mostly uses it as an office and a closet. He sleeps at my place every night before heading to his place in the morning when I leave for work.
When I walk in, he stands, and I think he shoves something into his pocket but honestly, it might just be my overactive imagination or Teddy checking for his cell phone. It might not be anything important. Before him he’s got a mess of wrapping paper and ribbon on the table. I thought we’d wrapped everything weeks ago.
“What are you doing?” I shrug out of my coat and hang it on a hook near the door, toeing off my boots before I make my way over to the table.
There are a stack of presents wrapped, and a few unwrapped. I spy a puzzle and an art set, not yet wrapped, amongst the pile.
“Picked up a few extra things for my nieces,” he says, wrapping his arms around me.
“Hmm,” I murmur, sinking into his embrace. Loving the warm cuddle after coming in from outside. Loving him. He’s a big softie for those kids. It’s another of the many things I adore about this man.
“Teddy Carrington, are you hiding something from me in your pants?” Gah! I was going to be patient, I really really was.
“I’d never hide anything in my pants from you.” He kisses the top of my head and moves back a few inches, hands moving to his waistband. “Want me to take them off?” he teases, hands on the button, his eyes flashing in amusement. I love his eyes too. He always looks at me like he really sees me. Like he’s paying attention.
“We don’t have time for you to take off your pants,” I say sadly with a glance at the clock.
“I guess you’ll just have to be patient then, won’t you?”
I slow-blink at him. Like… patient for sex or patient for the diamond ring he’s hiding in his pocket?
He laughs like he knows exactly what’s going through my head.
We load the car with a pile of presents and the gingerbread cheesecake I picked up this morning from Ginger’s Bake Shop for tonight’s dessert. It’s in a pink bakery box tied with red and white twine for a little holiday oomph.
Christmas Eve with Teddy’s family is loud and fun and everything I expected. I’ve met most of them, but I’m introduced to a few new faces, uncles and cousins I’d not had a chance to meet before. His grandmother, Mrs Carrington, is the perfect hostess. There’s enough food to feel us all several times over along with a cheery house full of Christmas splendor.
And at the end of it, there’s an engagement.
His grandmother’s.
To Mr Owens. It’s quite romantic actually. He proposes to her in front of the entire family after giving a speech about how much joy she’s brought to him and how happy he is to have her in his life.
She says yes.
Champagne is popped—sparkling cider for the littles—and I’m glad to have been there to witness it.
“I’m quite sure you’re next,” she whispers to me later, as Teddy is warming up the car. He always does that for me, scrapes all the snow and warms the car up before coming back to walk me to the passenger door like a fairy-tale princess.
I’m quite sure I’m next too, because I’m not actually a fairy-tale princess and I’m more than capable of doing the asking.
“I heard about this thing,” I mention that night in bed. It’s dark and quiet in that way the world only ever is on Christmas.
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
“So hear me out,” I begin. We’re snuggled under my sheets, flannels with festive Christmas gnomes, and a thick comforter.
“Okay.” Teddy’s lip twitches in the light of my bedroom Christmas tree.
“You’re my favorite person in the whole world.”
“You’re my favorite person in the whole world too.” He flashes a warm smile, twining our fingers together under the blankets.
“Well, as luck would have it, there’s a way we can be legally bound to each other. Forever. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
Man, I’m really selling this.
“It’s more like a paperwork thing,” I interject, before I scare him off, “versus some kind of weird ritualistic ceremony.”
Err. No. That’s not right either. It actually is a bit of a weird ritualistic ceremony.
“The point is,” I continue, “the paperwork exists with which we could make that happen.”
“Huh, no kidding?”
He says it without a trace of sarcasm, as if this is a genuine revelation to him. I turn to face the ceiling so I can properly side-eye him.
“Ask me to tell you a secret, Noel.”
Ah, our favorite game.
“Tell me a secret. Unless it’s that you’re afraid of legal commitment or have made a previously undisclosed pact with a bunch of buddies from college not to get married until you’re forty.”
“I’m in love with you,” he says, tracing my bottom lip with his finger.
“Not a secret.” I shake my head.
“I wanted to ask you to marry me last Christmas.”
“When we’d known each other a week?” I turn back in his direction, curious.
“Oddly, you had me at ‘put on the Santa suit,’ so yeah.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t want to rush you though all the fun dating stuff, all our firsts as a couple, just because I couldn’t wait to put a ring on it.”
I bite my lip. I did really enjoy all those firsts.
“But if you’re that impatient…” He trails off with the sexiest grin he’s ever had.
“I am.”
“I had a much bigger thing planned, you know. It involved me on one knee and the whole bit.”
“It’s okay, I quite like you horizontally.”
Teddy laughs, and then he produces a ring from I don’t even know where. I think he had it under his pillow the entire time.
“Marry me.”
“Teddy Carrington, the only thing I ever wanted for Christmas was you.”
“So that’s a yes?” he asks, smiling as he slides the ring onto my finger.
“Ask me to tell you a secret.” I’m smiling so big I have to bite my lip to contain it.
“Tell me a secret, Noel.”
“It’s been a yes since last Christmas.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed Reindeer Falls! If you’d like to read more from me I’d suggest my WRONG series, which are currently in Kindle Unlimited for a LIMITED time. Flip the page for a book description or CLICK HERE to grab it now.
Have you met Dr Miller?
I have a history of picking the wrong guy. Gay? Player? Momma’s boy? Check, check and check.
Now I can’t stop fantasizing about one of the customers at the coffee shop I work at between classes. It’s just a harmless crush, right? It’s not like I ever see this guy outside of the coffee shop. It’s not like I’m going to see him while attempting to get birth control at the student clinic. While wearing a paper gown. While sitting on an exam table. Because he’s the doctor. Shoot. Me.
But what if, for once, the man I’ve had the dirtiest, most scandalous fantasies about turned out to be everything but wrong?
Wrong (Wrong Series #1)
Right (Wrong Series #2)
Fling (Wrong Series #3)
Trust (Wrong Series #4)