Page 76 of All's Fair in Love and Christmas

“You do?”

He stands behind me, his chest warm at my back. I lean into him as his arms rise to pull me against him. He rests his chin on top of my head. “I do.”

I could stand here forever, but his family is waiting for us, so I take a step forward, and his arms fall away. “What do you think? Closer to the top or the bottom?”

“Bottom.”

We find a spot hidden by thick branches and hook the ribbon over a knob covered by spiky needles. “We’re ready,” Jeremy calls.

Feet patter amid laughter and good-natured ribbing. Albert holds Tracie back, and she makes a show of trying to break free while Nathan and Natalie surge forward.

Jeremy takes my hand, drawing my focus away from the game to his entreating eyes. He takes small steps backward, pulling me forward.

“Where are we going?” I whisper. I’m not about to object. I’ll follow him anywhere.

He lifts a finger to his lips. “You’ll see.”

“What about your family?” I only sort of care what they’ll think of me if I disappear in the middle of the game. Although, the more Jeremy looks at me the way he is, awestruck and amazed, the less I care.

Until I don’t care at all.

He leads me outside, and our breath puffs in white clouds in front of our faces. We didn’t stop for coats, which makes me wonder if Jeremy planned this little adventure. I think not. I think my organized, strategic man has let spontaneity take over.

Our feet crunch on the frozen ground until we stop near the edge of the backyard where the lawn gives way to towering trees and the underbrush of northern woods.

The warmth that had hugged me inside the house has beenchased away by the bullying cold. I try to suppress the shiver that travels from my head to my toes, but I’m unsuccessful.

Jeremy laughs. Not at me, but himself. “Guess I didn’t think this through. We can go back inside if you’re cold.”

My little brain police officer waves his stop sign at my agreement. Acquiescing is my reflex, but I don’t want to go inside. I want to be here with Jeremy.

I take his hands and pull them until they are behind me, then I place them on my back. His body heat envelops me, his proximity instantly warming my blood. I peer up at him. “Or you can keep me warm.”

His lips tilt as his head dips. “Even better.”

I think he’s going to kiss me, but he doesn’t. He just stares at me as if he’s memorizing the moment.

“Do you realize how much Christmas we’ve packed into the last couple of weeks?” His voice is whisper soft. A caress like a gentle wind upon the skin. “Snowmen, gingerbread houses, decorating, music, games, presents, food. But there’s one Christmas tradition going back almost three hundred years that I’ve never participated in before, and I want to right that wrong now. With you.”

I frown up at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

His eyes take on a glow. His lips twitch as if he knows a secret and he can’t wait to share it with me. “Look up.”

Hanging from a branch above our heads is a gathering of mistletoe.

Understanding immediately dawns, bringing with it a swell of happiness. We said we didn’t need excuses to kiss each other anymore, but I’m not upset if he still finds them anyway.

“I’ve received the best gift of all this Christmas.” Emotion thickens his words. Pulls my line of sight from the mistletoe above us to settle in his love-filled gaze. “You.”

He rests his forehead against mine. His eyes only an inch away. Before, this much contact would’ve made me itch to run away. Now all I want to do is run into Jeremy’s arms.

“I love you, Mackenzie.”

I breathe in his declaration, his love. Breathe out my own. “You have my heart, Jeremy.”

Some will say it wasn’t fair or right, Sofiya playing matchmaker and turning Jeremy and me into holiday workplace rivals in hopes of a romantic outcome. But as we kiss under the mistletoe, I think to myself, all’s fair in love and Christmas.