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“I do. It’s perfect.”
“Yay!” she gushes as I sit down, bringing her with me.
Setting the stick beside us, I cradle her to me, pressing my lips to hers, and our kiss is eager.
“Kids are in the room,” someone yells, but I don’t care. I’m lost in her. When she pulls back shyly, her face filling with color, I gaze at her, and the words are right there.
I love you.
God, I love you so fucking much.
Swallowing back the emotion that wants to suffocate me, I reach into my pocket. “I guess I should give you yours.”
“My what? We said no presents.”
“Shut up,” I deadpan.
She rolls her eyes as I hand her the small box that I wrapped in little snowman paper. “Aw, it’s glittery and cute.”
Only she gets excited for paper. “Open it.”
I realize everyone is watching, and I hope she doesn’t notice. She’ll clam up on me, and then I won’t get to indulge in her reaction. When she gets to the blue box, after hours of her opening the paper, she looks at me with a quirked brow. “What did you do here?”
“You’ll see,” I urge, taking the paper and throwing it over my shoulder.
“Hey! I wanted that.”
I ignore her as she mean mugs me before opening the blue box, and it’s like I fall for her all over again. Her eyes widen, her lips part, and I’m met with the sweetest intake of breath. Covering her mouth, she looks at me. “No.”
“Yes.”
“No, this is way too much.”
“No, it’s not.” I take out the necklace, holding it up. “A little backstory,” I start, chancing a glance at my mom. Of course, she’s blubbering like a baby. “My dad was really into jewelry. He bought my mom countless pieces—”
“Me too. Like, all the time. He loved spoiling us,” Amelia adds.
Sofia’s eyes flood with tears as she looks from Amelia to me. I flip it over to the back, and my name shines up at us. “He gave this to my mom the day I was born.”
She gasps once more, and then her gaze snaps to my mom. “This is too special—”
But my mom waves her off. “I have two other pieces. This is for you. Ryan asked me for something that would take your breath away. I knew that would.”
Her lips tremble as she looks back at me. Her eyes are swimming in tears, but I see such beautiful and unstoppable love in her eyes. I wanted to take her breath away, but she continues to take mine.
And I know she loves me.
Warmth floods my chest as I stare into her eyes, praying she doesn’t say those three words. While I want to hear them, bask in them, they’ll make it just that much harder to walk away from her. “Ryan.”
I ignore her plea and open the clasp of the necklace before placing it around her neck. It falls right in the center of her chest in the most perfect way. The way it’s supposed to. She looks down at it, holding it in her palm before glancing back at me, her tears spilling over. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Then don’t say anything.”
Her lips curve, and then she leans into me, kissing me hard on the lips. Her fingers dig into my cheeks as her tongue sweeps along mine, leaving me hard all over. When she pulls back, she shakes her head. “Always the overachiever.”
I chuckle as I nod. “You know it,” I say with a wink, and she cuddles into my chest, her fingers playing with the diamond pendant.
“Thank you.”
I kiss the top of her head. “Anything for you.”
With the excitement of Christmas filling the living room, I don’t feel anything but unstoppable love for this girl in my arms. As I hold her, I watch my family fuss and gush over each other. But in a way, I feel like I’m in my own world. With Sofia. When she tips her head back, her eyes gazing at me, a slow grin spreads across my lips. “Are you happy?”
“Beyond.”
But I feel like something is wrong. “What is it?”
“I miss my mom,” she says, her eyes filling with more tears. “And I feel so guilty because I don’t want to be anywhere but here. With you.”
“Don’t be.”
“No?”
“No.”
Her eyes burn into mine, and I lower my forehead to hers. “’Cause I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but with you. If that’s wrong, then fuck being right.”
Her lips rise into a grin, and she nods. “Fuck being right.”
Then our lips meet, and every coherent thought just floats away.
