Page 76 of Snow Globe Secrets

“Jesus Christ,” Mom said, pointing to the stairs. “Go, talk or whatever.” We both looked at her.

“Mom!”

“Just don’t take forever. It’s not my job to make excuses for you two to my husband.” She pointed again.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

She turned and went back to the kitchen. “I’m popping the cork now anyway,” I could hear her complain as I headed up the stairs. “I need a drink.”

Randall walked past me, brushing and squeezing my hand for a brief moment. “We should talk,” he said before taking the stairs two at a time.

“Slow down, babe. Wait for me.”

I made it to the guest room in time for him to have flopped on the bed, his legs still on the floor, his hands over his face, reminding me of myself during my talk with Mom.

“He keeps asking about my mystery man. And I want to shout from the rooftops that I’ve found a smart, funny, caring, protective, sexy future pediatrician, for all the world to hear, but especially for my best friend to hear.”

I climbed onto the bed next to him, kneeling above him. He removed his hands to smile up at me, lopsided and adorable and definitely a little tipsy.

“Maybe leave the sexy part out?”

His hands went right back over his face. “Your mom!”

I flopped down next to him at that one. “I was wearing your underwear!”

“Oh my God!” He leaned into me, tucking in but keeping his face covered. I wrapped him in my arms. “I hated not telling him. I’m terrified to tell him. Can’t he just figure it out, like your mom?”

“You’ve met my dad, right? He could walk in on us right now and not figure it out.”

“Maybe if I got the toy out …”

I jumped up. “Eww!”

“Yeah, sorry. Eww is right. This is so complicated.” His hands found their way under his eyeglasses, rubbing at his eyes in frustration before he took the glasses off to clean them. He was still bundled in his winter coat, with no access to soft material. I stood, lifted my untucked button-down, and yanked my undershirt out of my pants, standing on my toes and leaning over to offer it to him.

“Hi.” He smiled at me, his look still slightly unfamiliar to me without his glasses on but also like someone I’d known forever, someone I knew like I knew my own soul. I was sure right then and there that none of this was complicated.

“Hey, babe? How was your morning?”

“You mean outside of the existential crisis?”

I nodded as he dropped my undershirt, tucking it in with one hand and putting his glasses on with the other. He was dressing me instead of undressing me, and somehow, it was still really hot. He straightened my shirt, tapping my stomach when he finished, answering my question as he did so.

“I may have had one too many. Your mom is right; I’m not in college anymore.”

I kissed him softly. “You should go wash up. And then …”

His expression turned from hopeful to worried. “And then we have to go back down there with your parents.”

I looked at him then. We looked at each other, and that energy between us, softer, less intense, but no less strong than it had been when we were tearing each other’s clothes off, told me everything I needed to know. We would get through the complication of telling my dad, and any other complications that arose, because we were meant to be together.

Epilogue

Three Years Later

Randall

It felt like I couldn’t turn around in the cabin without running into a bloody Christmas decoration. Sure, they had been placed according to a design that Austin and I had worked on together, but it was also true that I may have compromised a little on the number and the placement and just the sheer amount of color and lights and … cheer that peppered the open floor space.