ready. I’ll work my whole life to become the man you deserve.”
“But why? Why not just stay at your parents’ house?”
“That’s not a commitment,” Hayes said. “If I was living there, I could walk away anytime. Here, I’m contractually obligated. And I want you to know I’m not going anywhere. I’m done pretending.”
“Pretending about . . . ?”
“Me and you,” he said, still not looking at her. “I pretended the day I told you we could just be friends, and I’ve been pretending ever since.” He stopped moving and looked at her. “I don’t want to be your friend, Pru. And maybe I’ve always known that or maybe I just realized it this week—I don’t know. But now that I know it, there’s no way I can keep pretending. There’s no way I can go back to my life unless you’re in it.”
Her eyes clouded and she looked at him, beautiful and earnest and everything she ever wanted. They fit, she and Hayes, better than she ever could’ve imagined.
“I don’t know how you feel about me,” he said. “But I know one thing. I know I love you. And not just like a friend. I’m in love with you, Pru. I think I always have been. I think that’s why I’ve never really been serious with anyone else. Because none of the other girls were you.”
A tear slid down her cheek. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that?”
He wiped the tear away with his thumb. “So, what you’re saying is, we should’ve done this a long time ago?”
She laughed. “Maybe we should’ve.”
“Why didn’t we?” he asked. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“Losing you.”
“Not possible,” Hayes said. “You’re stuck with me now. If that’s okay with you, I mean.”
“It’s more than okay.” She reached over and touched his face, the stubble on his chin slightly rough under her fingers.
They looked at each other for a beat, and then he grinned. “Did you hear the part where I said I love you?”
“I did hear that.” She couldn’t help it, she grinned right back. “And in case you’re wondering, I love you too.”
“Yeah?”
She nodded. “And not like a friend.”
His arms circled her waist and he pulled her body close to his. A breeze skittered over the backyard, and Michael Bublé crooned “The Christmas Song” from the phone in Hayes’s pocket. He ran a thumb over her bottom lip, then covered her mouth with his, kissing her slowly, deeply, purposefully, like a man intent on cherishing every last bit of her.
“We’re just going to go, Hayes,” Peggy called out from inside the house. “Howie and I have a date.”
He pulled away from Pru and smiled knowingly. “Bye everyone,” he called out, not taking his eyes off of Pru.
“Noni Rose strikes again,” she said without looking away.
“What can I say, I’ve got the touch.” He tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Now do you believe in magic?”
“Now do you believe in soulmates?”
“I believe in us.” He leaned down and kissed her, with all the kindness of a friend she knew she would love for the rest of her life.
Epilogue
Nellie returned from Paris a week after Christmas to find the Noni Rose box on her porch, a crisp envelope taped inside.
She smiled as she walked up the stairs to her office, eager to catch up on her matchmaking duties but also eager to finally, finally, put to rest one of the most difficult matches she’d taken on in her entire matchmaking career.
Prudence Sutton wasn’t only stubborn, she was in love, and from the moment Nellie realized it, she knew she wouldn’t rest until the dark-headed beauty was finally happy. And that meant doing a bit of pushing, which, anyone who knew her would tell you, she was quite happy to do.
Nellie opened the crisp white envelope to find a photo of Pru and her darling favorite nephew. She flipped it over to reveal, in Hayes’s handwriting: Our first Christmas together.
“Did it work?” Arthur stood in the doorway of the office, a wry smile on his face.
“Like a charm.” Nellie smiled as she fixed the photo neatly into the well-worn book of Noni Rose success stories right next to the wedding announcement of Howie Basford and Peggy Swinton.
Like a charm.
THE END
A Note From the Author
Dear Reader,
If you know me or follow me on social media, you know how much I love Christmas stories. Every Christmas themed movie is going in my queue, and I am going to deck myself