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“I know exactly where I’m going to hang it,” he said proudly, pushing himself up off the floor and extending his hand to Mindy to pull her up as well.
He led her over to the couch, both of them laughing as Gus began to play with the wrapping paper still on the floor.
“We can clean that up later,” Mindy said with the wave of her other hand as they settled on the sofa.
He kissed her, and Mindy curled her feet up under her, tucking her head against Noah’s chest as he pulled up the Christmas movie they’d talked about watching.
“I have one more little surprise for you,” he said, his chest rumbling with the gravel of his voice.
“What’s that?” she asked, keeping her eyes fixed on the screen as he searched through the streaming service.
“I think I know what I want to do now that I’m going to be staying in Snowy Pine Ridge,” he answered, and Mindy sat up a bit, turning her head so she could see his face.
“I thought you wanted to do some consulting.”
“I’ll do that eventually, I think. But I want to start my own thing first. I’ve spent the last few days looking into it, and I don’t think I’m going to move into Theresa’s house right away.” He looked a bit sheepish at the confused look on her face. “I found a place to rent for a little while, since there are some repairs that I want to do to the house that are going to take some time. Especially since there’s part of it that I’ll want to convert to a shop.”
“A shop?” she repeated, her eyebrows flying up in surprise.
Noah nodded. “I’ll need somewhere to check out my customers and house some of the creations of local artists, which I plan to sell around the holidays. I want to transform the rest of the property into a Christmas tree farm.”
Mindy gasped, and Noah’s face lit up in an open, proud grin.
“That’ll be perfect,” she breathed.
“I think so too,” he said. “And Theresa would have loved it. There’s all that open space behind her house, and there are already a ton of pine trees out there. I’ll need to convert some of the land and bring in new trees, but I think it’ll be possible.”
Mindy was speechless for a moment, letting her imagination run wild with all the possibilities this new idea would hold. Finally, she was able to shake herself out of it enough to lean forward, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips.
“I’m so proud of you,” she murmured before snuggling back into his chest. “And I can’t wait to help you bring this idea to life.”
“Thank you. I’m sure I’ll need plenty of help. But I can’t wait to get started.”
Noah wrapped his arm around her shoulder as he found the movie and pressed play.
As the beginning credits started to fill the scene, Mindy snuggled even closer to him. In her mind’s eye, she saw a thousand more evenings just like this. Ones where she, Noah, and Gus were curled up on the couch, watching movies or just talking about their days. Those nights would be filled with laughter, with conversation, and with more love than she knew what to do with.
Mindy knew that to some people, her vision of the future might seem a little mundane, maybe even a little boring. But to her?
Well, she couldn’t possibly think of anything she wanted more.
* * *
