We only had a few more Christmases together before Chris and I would be graduating from college. And Nicole was right behind us. After that, who knew?
We’d have to make some big choices soon and that might mean we wouldn’t be able to spend the holidays together under the Frasers’ roof, just like we did every year since I’d moved next door.
I had so many incredible memories growing up with them. And I wasn’t ready to let them go. Not yet. Not when they had given me everything. My best friend. My girlfriend.
Nicole. My heart lurched at the thought of what I was putting her through. If I ever made it back, she would never let me live it down.
I’d already found myself looking for a better story. Something that would make me seem a little bit less lame. But I knew better. My girl was like a bloodhound. She always sniffed out the truth, and Chris was just as persistent. If I came up with some far-fetched story about losing my phone, they’d eventually figure it out and only tease me even more.
The thought warmed my heart.
It was strange the way I loved our dysfunctional relationship. But it worked for us. We teased each other relentlessly. That’s just how we showed our affection. But if anyone else ever said a harsh word about us, we’d be the first to knock them down, defending each other’s honor.
Over the years, we’d formed our own little family—two adopted kids and me from a broken home. It didn’t really make sense, but it just worked. Chris and Nicole were the two people in this world I whole-heartedly trusted and could depend on. They were my heart and soul.
That was the mantra I repeated to myself on this never-ending trek. They were why I kept putting one foot in front of the other despite the fact that I hadn’t been able to feel my feet for about the last mile or so.
Okay, let’s be real. It was Nicole’s face I was picturing.
Chris was the world’s greatest friend, but he couldn’t hold a candle to the girl I loved.
Again, I found myself cringing at how worried she probably was right now. It’d been hours since we’d last talked or texted. My phone, if I ever found it again, probably had a million missed calls and messages on it.
Stupid airplane bathrooms.
I shouldn’t have chugged that whole bottle of water. In my defense, what was supposed to be a two-hour flight turned into eight hours stuck on the same plane. I’d stupidly pulled my phone out in the bathroom on hour six, ready to risk the wrath of flight attendants by turning it on to send my probably frantic girlfriend a quick message letting her know I was okay. But I must’ve pissed off the TSA karma gods because the moment I had my phone in my hands we hit some nasty turbulence and it made a beeline for the toilet like it was stuck in some sort of tractor beam.
Why not, right? That’s just how my day was going. I wasn’t going to make it to Puerto Rico to see my mom or spend the holiday with my friends and family, so why should I be able to get a message to my girlfriend?
I’d been in the middle of weighing my options. Stick my hand in the blue goo to fish out my phone or retain the small fraction of dignity I had left—which wasn’t much considering I’d been stuck between a lady with a screaming baby and close-talking old man with some rank halitosis.
In the end, my need to talk to Nicole outweighed all reason. I was just about to reach in and fish my phone out of the toilet when some knuckle head completely disregarded the occupied sign and barreled into the tiny airplane bathroom, which of course didn’t have a working lock.
Why should it? Nothing else seemed to be working in my favor. So of course, it made perfect sense that in my shock of being barged in on I kicked the freaking toilet lever—because the floor seems like a great place to put that thing—and flushed my phone to who knows where.
I wasn’t sure if it was ejected into the great blue yonder at cruising altitude or if it was being held in a tank of that terrifying blue goo. Either way, I was pretty sure I was never going to see it again. Which was devastating before I found out I had two more hours to endure on my flight, not to mention the busses, cabs and a brisk blizzard hike ahead of me.
And let me tell you; trying to book travel without a phone is nearly impossible. If I made it back—and honestly at this point I’d accept no other outcome—I was certain I’d earned some sort of rustic traveler badge of honor. Or a write up in Travel + Leisure at the very least.
Nicole. Nicole. Just get to Nicole. You can stop walking when you get to her.
I repeated the words that kept me going over and over until they’d become as familiar to me as my heartbeat. I knew I had to be close. Northwood wasn’t that big of a place and it seemed like ages since I’d passed the city limits sign.
Just as I was trying to calculate my mileage a beacon of hope sparked up ahead. Whether I’d been imagining the smell of fried food or not, I knew I wasn’t imagining the Christmas lights I saw in the distance.
Yeah, okay, the angel running toward me that looked like my girlfriend—that was definitely a figment of my imagination. But hey, let’s see how well you’re doing after a day like this.
“Ian! Ian!”
Wow! Now I was even hearing voices? So this is what hypothermia is like?
When I’d set out on this crazy plan of mine, I’d never once thought about not succeeding. All I knew was that there was no way I was going to spend Christmas in an airport when I had the chance to spend it with the people I loved most.
Nicole’s face had been dancing in my vision all day, the driving force behind this crazy adventure. Even now as my imagination had her taking the shape of the angel running toward me, I embraced it. Picturing her was enough to keep me going, keep me putting one foot in front of the other. Giving up wasn’t an option. Not when I had her to come home to.
And Nicole—the vision in white I was imagining running toward me—she’d always been home to me.
“Ian!”
I heard my name one more time over the howling wind and then something hit me like a ton of bricks. It felt like I’d walked straight into a wall. No, not a wall, more of a solid body. One that hit me with such speed and ferocity that it bowled me over.
I lay on my back, the icy snow blowing down my collar as a pair of warm arms wrapped around my neck. And suddenly . . . I was home.
I opened my eyes wider, rubbing them to clear the last bit of doubt. But there was no mistaking the gorgeous pair of brown eyes that stared back at me. I’d know them anywhere.
“Nicole?” I whispered, almost giddy with disbelief.
“Ian!” Her shaking hands traced my face like she was afraid she was hallucinating, too. And her voice . . . it tore my heart out. She said my name over and over again with such a mixture of fear and hope that there was only one thing I could do.
I kissed her.
I put every ounce of strength I had left into that kiss—and let me tell you, it was growing by the second. Her kiss thawed my soul, rejuvenating me with enough warmth to momentarily forget the snow around us.
I sat up with Nicole firmly in my arms, still kissing her as I pulled her onto my lap. She wrapped her legs around my waist, her heaving chest pushing against mine. “How?” she whispered when I let her come up for air. “How are you here right now?”
“It’s a long story.” The wind was lashing her dark hair in an icy tornado around us. I smoothed it back, tucking a few wild strands behind her ears. “All that matters is that I made it back to you.”
She kissed me again, her hands cupping my frozen cheeks. “I was so worried, Ian. Why didn’t you call?”
I huffed a laugh. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a good story. So good, I’m saving it as part of Chris’s Christmas present.”
She laughed. “It was that bad?”
“Trust me. He’ll laugh about this one for years. Maybe forever.”
“I don’t care what happened,” she finally said. “I’m just glad you’re here.”
“Me too
.”
I let her pull me back into another passionate kiss, reveling in the sensation of her lips crashing hungrily against mine.
This was why I’d been so desperate to get back.
And it was worth every freezing mile I’d traveled.
This girl . . . she owned my heart.
I never wanted to let her go. Not for a holiday. Not for a second. She was my family. And in that moment, I decided I was done spending time apart from her. “Marry me.”
“What?”
“You heard me,” I said, grinning so wide my frozen face felt like it might crack. “Marry me, Nicole.”
“Are you serious?”
“I don’t have the ring, but I don’t care. I can’t wait any longer. I’ve wanted to ask you to marry me since our very first kiss.” I laughed. “Maybe even before that.”
“Ian . . . what are you talking about?”
Oh, that’s right. I hadn’t told her. “That’s the real reason I was going to Puerto Rico. I told my mom all about you and how I wanted to propose. She wanted me to have her ring.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. And I’ll reschedule the trip, but I want you to come with me this time.”
“You do?”
“Of course! I want to marry you. I want you by my side, always.”
“Really?” Nicole whispered.
I was beginning to worry that the cold was getting to her because she wasn’t usually the one-word answer kind of girl. But I heard shouts coming from Champs. One of the voices sounded distinctly like Chris’s. Time was running out on our romantic reunion, but I was determined not to lose this perfect moment.
“Nicole, I’m so crazy in love with you that I practically completed The Amazing Race to get back to Northwood, and then hiked the rest of the way just to tell you that I’m done spending holidays without you. I’m done doing anything without you. You are my world, baby, and I think it’s time we start building that world together. So will you marry me already?”
Finally, her words broke free. “Yes!”
“Yes?”
She grinned and shrieked the word again. “Yes, I’ll marry you! Yes! Yes! Yes!”
This time I bowled her over, tackling her into the snow with excitement. “I love you,” I whispered between kisses, knowing without a doubt that this was the best rash decision I’d ever made. Somehow, the girl I loved, loved me back. I’d gotten my Christmas wish. Make that every wish from now until eternity.
Nicole Fraser was going to marry me!
I was the luckiest guy in the whole freaking world!
I clung to her tighter, worried I might float away as sheer joy filled my chest near bursting. Nicole slipped her hands into my hair making me shiver as our kiss burst into flames. The earth stopped spinning as I held my angel in my arms. This had to be heaven because I was pretty sure nothing would ever surpass this moment, this kiss, this girl.
Just as I was really sinking into a new level of bliss a packed ball of snow ruined it, smacking me hard in the back of the head.
“Dude, get off my sister!”
I looked up to see Chris and what seemed like half of Northwood High staring down at us.
I shook my head, a slow smile spreading across my face. “Sorry, can’t. She’s mine forever now.”
“What’s that mean?” Chris asked, as Archer and Marissa handed us jackets and lent a hand to help us up.
I helped Nicole into her jacket before slipping on the spare that Archer gave me. As I rubbed warmth back into Nicole’s arms a silent conversation passed between us.
‘Are were really doing this? Are we ready to tell everyone that we’d just gotten engaged?’
A knowing smile flickered across Nicole’s face and I winked at her before snuggling her against my side. That was all the answer needed. With my girl wrapped securely in my arms, I shared our good news. “It means we’re getting married.”
The group around us exploded with excited squeals and congratulations, but my eyes remained on Chris. He was my best friend, and Nicole’s brother. I needed him to be okay with this. I was hoping for more than okay . . . but sometimes it was hard to know how Chris would take things.
He looked between me and Nicole, his eyes darting to her bare fingers. “Where’s the ring?”
I felt my cheeks burn, still slightly embarrassed about my fiasco. “In Puerto Rico.”
“Where you’re clearly not,” Chris added, a gruffness to his tone.
“Yeah. It’s a long story,” I replied.
“It better be. You had her worried sick,” Chris snapped, pointing to Nicole.
I read the subtext—I’d worried him too. “I’m sorry. That was never my intention.” Chris’s unwavering glare made my pulse pound. After a tense moment I asked, “Are we good?”
Chris looked at Nicole and she gave him a little nod. Then Chris launched himself at me, pulling me into a bear hug that lasted all of five seconds before we cleared our throats, thumping each other on the back to prove our manliness.
Relief swept through me as I let go of my crazy best friend and tried to take a step back, but Chris wasn’t done with me yet. His embrace turned into a headlock as he playfully jabbed me in the ribs. “Don’t ever scare her like that again.”
“Okay, I’ll be sure to never scare Nicole again,” I teased.
“I wasn’t worried about you,” he said, defensively.
“Of course you weren’t,” I mocked.
Chris let me out of the headlock and narrowed his eyes at me like he was about to tackle me into the snow when Nicole’s gasp interrupted us.
We both turned to look at her.
“I just realized, you two are going to be brothers.”
“Already are,” Chris said proudly, dropping the macho act and slinging his arm around my shoulder.
“No, but like for real. He’ll be your brother-in-law when we get married,” she exclaimed.
Chris and I both looked at each other, grinning like the idiots we were. “Does this mean the official Cruz-Fraser snowball war is finally over?” Chris asked.
“No way, dude. She’s a Cruz now.”
“And we’re taking you down!” Nicole yelled, pegging Chris in the face with a snowball she’d stealthily crafted.
“Oh, it’s on!” Chris darted away from us, grabbing the arm of a tall blonde I didn’t know. He tugged her with him, ducking behind a car, already fashioning an arsenal of snowballs.
Nicole laughed as I dragged her behind a truck to take cover. Alex, Grant, Marissa and Archer followed us. Lucas and Casey joined Chris and the blonde, along with Tyler and Lexy.
The lines had been drawn.
“I like these odds,” Archer said, sizing up our team.
“Ooo! We can be Team Put a Ring on it!” Marissa sang, impersonating the infamous Beyoncé song.
“Or the Feyoncés,” Alex suggested, holding up her own blinged-out finger and mimicking the trendy dance moves.
Nicole’s laughter rang out as she joined them in a spirited rendition of hip-swishing and hand-waving that had me, Archer and Grant doubled-over with laughter. They were belting out, “All the jingle ladies, all the jingle ladies,” when Marissa whipped off her glove to show off her own bling.
I did a double take. “Whoa! What did I miss?” I asked, staring at the shiny engagement ring.
Archer grinned. “A lot.”
“Apparently.”
“I’ll fill you in later, babe,” Nicole said, planting a kiss on my lips. “Right now, it’s time to kick some butt!”
Just then Tyler sprinted into the clearing between our two teams, screaming as he ran.
“Snowball fight!” I roared and we opened fire, laughing as we pelted each other over and over.
Ah, now this felt like home.
My girl at my side, laughing with my friends while we all got way too competitive trying to prove who was the best athlete.
I couldn’t contain my grin when I recognized Nicole’s adorable game face as she h
urled a snowball at Chris’s head. When she hit her mark, she cheered and gave me a high-five while Chris called foul.
“Some things never change,” I said, grinning at her.
“But the best things do,” she replied, taking a break from the game to sneak me a quick kiss. “I can’t wait to marry you,” she whispered. Then with a wink, she jumped back into the fray, leaving me breathless.
Nicole was right. Maybe it was only the best things that changed. And with her by my side, I had a feeling they’d only keep getting better.
Chapter Twenty
Chris
Okay so this was a first. I was losing at something and I didn’t even care. No scratch that. I was losing and I was enjoying myself!
I knew it was all due to the fact that Chelsea hadn’t left my side since this epic snowball battle began. I mean, let’s face it, she needed me. The girl might look like a goddess, but an athlete she was not. It was kind of funny how much she needed my help.
I guess that’s what I get for thinking all girls were as tough as my tomboy sister and her sporty friends—who by the way were ruling the snowball fight. I mean, it really wasn’t fair. They’d played softball together. It was an unfair advantage. And then there was Alex Prince. The girl who’d actually been better than half the boys on the baseball team when she was at Northwood High.
The Feyoncés, as they’d dubbed themselves, had totally decimated us. But I was still going to make fun of Ian and Grant and Archer for letting the girls give their team such a lame name. Though, I guess it wasn’t so lame considering they were dominating us like the Queen B dominated the charts.
Our team name, Sleighin’ It, was much better. But the only thing we were sleighin’ was eating snow. I’d been hit in the face so many times I worried my cheeks might be permanently numb. But like I said, I couldn’t bring myself to care. Not when Chelsea was clinging to me like the hot girl in a scary movie.
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