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“The season opens this Saturday. Do we want to cut our trees down first or wait, and let the customers get the best ones?”
“I have a small private field where I started to grow a few trees for us. There should be some ready to cut this year,” Emmett said.
“I had no idea you did that,” Lori said.
“It was right after Ember was born. I thought we might want to start cutting our own trees.”
Sebastian cleared his throat as if the admission was overwhelming for him.
Ireland moved to Emmett’s side, her hand on his cheek. He dropped his head so she could say something to him in his ear. It was a sweet, intimate moment, and my heart squeezed. Could I have that with Heath?
Heath opened the door today to something, and I hadn’t stepped through. Instead, I hesitated. I hoped I hadn’t closed the door on all future possibilities.
“Do you want to put up a tree at my house?” Heath asked me, and I smiled. “That would be great. I haven’t put up a tree since I moved.” Gram was the one who put up several at the inn. She even decorated one on the porch.
Heath grinned. “That changes now. What do you say we check out this private field tonight?”
“What if the trees don’t last until Christmas?” I asked him, knowing Gram always worried about that.
“We run a Christmas tree farm. You can always get another one,” Knox said reasonably.
Ember and Addy cheered, then ran around the yard, singing as they wished everyone a merry Christmas.
I’d never thought of the holidays as the happiest time of the year. Instead, I felt sad because I was supposed to spend this time of the year with people I loved. But Aiden was usually halfway around the world, and now Gram was gone.
“We’re going to create new memories. Starting tonight.” Heath squeezed my shoulder.
My eyes stung, but I nodded. “That would be nice.”
“We’ll meet at field number fifty-five,” Emmett said to everyone as they moved toward their trucks.
Inside the cab of his truck, Heath turned on the radio to classic holiday hits and said, “We create the life we want. My brothers and I wanted to be close as a family, so we each built a cabin on the same property.” He fell silent for a few seconds. “What I’m trying to say is that if you want something different, you can create that.”
“You make it sound so easy,” I said as I put my seat belt on.
He glanced over at me as we traveled over the bumpy lane. “Just close your eyes and imagine what you want.”
When my eyes closed, I got an image of waking up with Heath on Christmas morning and seeing his smiling face. Downstairs was a roaring fire and a tree with wrapped presents underneath. I felt everything, happiness and anticipation of spending the day with him, and then his family at dinner. Tingles erupted over my skin, and when I opened my eyes, I said, “Are you saying that whatever I imagine is possible for me?”
Heath flashed me a smile. “That’s the idea.”
“What if it doesn’t seem possible, or it’s too crazy or far-fetched?” It wasn’t. Not really, but I was scared.
Heath reached over and interlaced his fingers with mine. “If it’s something you desire, then you’re meant to have it.”
His words were so new to me, so earth-shattering, I didn’t say anything until he parked on the side of the lane and shut off the engine. His brothers’ trucks parked in front and behind us, the doors opening and laughter spilling out. But he didn’t move.
“That sounds—”
Heath unclipped his seat belt and touched the side of my face, turning me so I faced him. “Incredible?”
“I was going to say too good to be true,” I said hesitantly.
“Too good to be true is what you’re meant to have,” he said firmly.
“How can you possibly know that?”
“I wanted my family all in one place, and now we are. I wanted to be happy, and it seems like we are. Everything I wanted is coming true. You’re here. If you’d told me last year I’d be rooming with you, I wouldn’t have believed it, and now I love you. Anything’s possible.”
