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Chelsea sang “Silent Night” in a sweet voice that was somehow really compelling. Paul, who was bringing in Christmas trees in stands, stopped to watch. She hit the final note and everyone clapped. Chelsea on stage clapped her hands, too.
“That was great, wasn’t it?” she asked.
“Finish the way, I showed you,” Lexie said. And Chelsea schooled the smile off her face and did a low bow.
“Can I see the video?” Chelsea asked, and Lexie tapped her phone and handed it to her.
Ben next to me looked at his watch and then his clipboard. “Take five,” he said. The little reindeer kick line scattered and Ben went to go sit with Chelsea and Lexie’s phone.
“You wanted to talk?” Lexie asked me, smiling.
“Yeah,” I said. “Can we go upstairs?”
“Sure. But remember I’ve only got five minutes. So…you know. Nothing fancy.” She handed Ben Baby Girl, who I swear growled at me as I walked away.
“Ben’s running the show?” I asked, following Lexie up to my father’s workshop. I was trying not to stare at her ass because my brother’s warning told me I hadn’t been paying attention and part of the reason I hadn’t been paying attention was because every time we were alone I was all over her. Or she was all over me. And frankly we weren’t always alone. I was kissing her all over town.
The sex was amazing and I wanted all of it, but not at the risk of losing out on talking to her.
She was wearing a pair of jeans and I couldn’t remember if I’d ever seen her in jeans before.
It was dark but warm up there. All the heat rising from the main floor heaters made the old hayloft pretty cosy.
“Ben is a natural director.” She said with a smile. “Now, why are you here?” I pulled her into my arms. She wiggled her eyebrows at me. “I told you, five minutes. Ben runs a tight ship.”
“No,” I said. “I wanted to talk to you. Matt stopped by.”
“Did you get in a fight?”
“Not this time. But he said…he said there have been a lot of people bothering you at the front desk.”
“They’re not bothering me,” she said, but she wasn’t looking me in the face. “They’re just interested in their next mayor’s wife. Go figure.”
“Matt said some guys—”
She pursed her lips at me. “Guys I have been handling for a really long time, Ethan. I’m fine. I promise.”
“I want to make it official,” I told her. “At the Christmas Eve thing, I want to get on a microphone and introduce you as my wife. To everyone.”
“Didn’t we do at that at the Jamboree?”
“No. We didn’t. We let gossips do all the work and it’s why people are coming to the inn to get a look at you and people are calling me all day pretending to ask questions about the election when what they really want is us.”
“Give them what they want?” she asked, smiling at me.
“Everyone gets what they want,” I said, and then I stepped back and there in my father’s workshop I got down on one knee.
“Ethan, what are you doing?” she whispered, and then grabbed my elbows like she was going to pull me back to my feet.
“You can’t stop it,” I told her.
“You’re really doing this?”
“It’s happening.”
And then…I was on one knee with the pretty blue box that the ring came in open in my hand.
“Oh my god, you really did it. That’s a real ring. Like a real, real ring.”
“Well, I couldn’t find another candy ring.”
“How long have you been planning this?” she asked, and I was painfully aware that not only had she not said yes, she hadn’t even reached out and grabbed the ring. She was just staring at it, her fingers pressed to her lips.
“Not long,” I lied. Since the night after we had sex for the first time. When I realized that I could be patient and love her enough for both of us until she caught up.
“So you bought a ring?”
“It was my mother’s.” She looked at me, tears in her eyes. “Does that bother you? Because we can go and pick out a ring tomorrow. Something you—”
“No. No, it’s so beautiful, Ethan. It’s so beautiful.”
“Then put it on, Lexie.”
“I still…what if you’re wrong about us?”
“I’m not.”
“But you might be.”
“I’m not.”
She shook her head at me, her tears giving way to anger.
“Listen, honey, you told people we were married. You should have a ring. Make it real.”
“I know. I kinda made a mess.”
“You made me really happy. You made me really happy when I met you. You’ve made me happy every day of my life since you’ve been back in it. I honestly can’t imagine my life without you.”
That seemed to tip her over the edge and with shaking fingers she took the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger.
