by Noelle Adams
“You can talk now,” he murmured, with an irresistible twitch of his mouth. “I’ve said my piece.”
A bubble of amusement burst, and she threw herself against his chest. “I need you too. I want you too.”
With a rough groan, he wrapped her in his arms, hugging her so tightly her ribs hurt.
“Oh, thank God,” she heard him murmur against her hair.
She was smiling as she finally pulled away, happiness flooding her heart, her expression. “I talked to Brad just now. He told me.”
David lowered his brows, despite the fact that he was clearly spilling over with the same feeling she was. “He told you what?”
“He told me what happened. About Grandpa. And everything.”
“He shouldn’t have told you. He promised.”
“I bullied him into it.” She reached up to stroke his bristly jaw. “I needed to know. You broke my heart. I needed to know why.”
The lines in his forehead became deeper. “I broke your heart?”
“Of course, you did. I was…I was crazy about you, and I thought you’d treated me like dirt. I just couldn’t forgive you. I couldn’t get over it.”
“I didn’t know.” He pulled her into a one-armed hug, holding her against his chest. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. It killed me. I was wreck, but you seemed to get over it so quickly. So I kept telling myself it was just as well, since you obviously weren’t serious about me.”
“I didn’t get over it quickly,” she admitted, her mouth muffled by his shirt. “I didn’t get over it at all.”
“I’ll make it up to you,” he promised. “Just give me a chance, and I’ll show you how much you mean to me, how incredibly precious you are to me.”
“As long as you give me a chance too.”
He leaned down to kiss her—deeper and more ardently than even last night. She responded, trying to show him through her eagerness, her responsiveness how deeply she felt about him.
Despite the fact that she was still half-crying, it was a pretty good kiss. It was about to overwhelm her when she accidently put weight on her ankle.
She jerked and gave a little cry at the jolt of pain. She had to cling to David’s shirt to steady herself.
The kiss broken, he reached out to support her. “Okay?”
“Yeah. Pretty good.” She was grinning. Couldn’t seem to stop.
“Me too.”
“So…so what now?” she asked. The spiral of emotions was finally leveling off, leaving as many questions as answers.
“I guess Brad and your mom will show up soo—”
“I meant what now with us, you idiot.” There was no way he could miss the soft affection in her eyes.
His face softened too. “I guess we should maybe start with a date. Do you happen to be free Saturday night?”
She snickered. “Yes. I can probably fit you. But why wait so long? Why don’t you join us for Christmas Eve tonight?”
His eyes were dark and rich and mesmerizing. “That’s a family thing, isn’t it?”
“You’ve always been almost family, and I’m inviting you.”
“Then I accept, but I’m still taking you out on Saturday night.”
She stretched up to kiss him, so that distracted them for a minute. As they were pulling away, she said, “Two dates in one week. My social life is picking up. I’ll have to reorganize all of my other boyfriends to make room for you.”
She was joking, and he evidently knew it. He lifted a hand to cup her cheek and gently wiped one tear from her skin with his thumb.
“You better not tell me the names of those other boyfriends or their cars and houses will be suddenly struck with a deluge of inexplicable catastrophes.”
She giggled helplessly.
“You understand, don’t you?” David continued, his expression and tone growing sober. “I’m not going to pressure you into anything you’re not ready for, but I don’t just want to date you. I don’t want you to date anyone else. I’m serious about this. I’m serious about you.”
She reached up to grab his face the way he’d grabbed hers. “I’m serious about you too. I don’t want to see anyone but you.”
“Really? I was trying not to scare you by moving too fast. I know we’ve just had the one night.”
She gave a huff of objection. “One night? I’ve been crazy about you since I was ten years old.”
He smiled. “That’s good to know. I know we’ll have to work a lot out, with us living in different parts of the state. But I’ll do whatever I need to do to make it work.”
“Me too.”
“I just want you to know—if you want to stay in Richmond, I’d even be willing to move. I know that’s in the future. I’m not trying to scare you.”
She actually laughed at the idea of her being scared by his passionate sincerity. She thought she might melt away in pure joy.
“I’m not sure I’ll want to live in Richmond the rest of my life, but that’s something we can figure out down the road. But, seriously, David, nothing you say is going to scare me.”
He turned his head and pressed a kiss into her palm. It was the sweetest thing. “So if I said I love you…”
“I’d say I love you too.”
He stifled a moan of joy or pleasure or exhaustion or relief, and then he pulled her into another kiss.
They were just getting into it when Rachel heard a car turn into the long driveway.
They pulled apart, almost sheepishly, and were standing together in the living room when Rachel’s mother walked in.
“There you are. Are you all right, baby? You’ve been crying. And what happened to your ankle?”
“I just twisted it,” Rachel explained, returning her mother’s hug and kiss.
“Sprained it,” David corrected.
“Twisted it.” She slanted him an annoyed glance at his interference, but he looked so adorably rumpled with his hair sticking out in all directions—and he looked so transformed with what could only be happiness—that she couldn’t hold onto her annoyance for more than a couple of seconds.
Instinctively, she reached out to put a hand on his chest—wanting to touch him, to know he was hers. He pulled her to his side, sliding one arm around her.
Rachel’s mother didn’t appear even remotely surprised by their sudden closeness.
“It’s good to see you too, dear, although I’d advise you to shave just as soon as you can. And thank you for helping Rachel out in the storm.” She reached up to give David a sound kiss on the cheek. “Now that you’ve gotten things worked out between you, do you think that you might be able to convince her to move home soon?”
“Mom!” Rachel wailed.
Brad laughed from the doorway of the room.
David laughed too. “We can talk about it. It will be up to her, but I’ll at least give her options.”
Rachel smiled at David rather sappily.
“Well, baby,” her mother said, turning her attention back to Rachel, “I was talking to Missy Roberson—you know she owns the gift shop in town. That place is the shambles. I’ve never seen so many tacky, useless items assembled in one place. But she’s going to be moving to North Carolina to live with her daughter.”
Rachel frowned, trying to keep up with her mother’s rambles, which were often difficult to follow.
“Anyway,” her mother continued, “I suggested to Missy that you should take over the business. You could do flowers like you’ve always wanted and combine it with the gift shop. Maybe showcase local art. Lots of people come through looking for antiques and country cooking. David could sell his furniture and you could—“
“Mom,” Rachel interrupted. “Let’s not get carried away.”
Her mother leaned over to kiss her cheek again. “Okay. Just think about it. Now Brad’s shower was just not up to par, so I desperately need another shower and to get out of these clothes before I start to get ready for tonight. You need to sit down and elevate your ankle.” She patted David’s chest. �
�David, dear, you’re joining us this evening, aren’t you?”
“I’ll be there.”
While her mother bustled out of the room, Brad came in all the way.
“Sorry, man,” he said, stretching his hand out to David. “I know I promised not to say anything. But she wouldn’t stop crying, and there’s only so much of that a man can take.”
“Brad!” Rachel exclaimed, much as she had reproached her mother earlier. She looked up at David. “I wasn’t crying.”
David chuckled. “Not even a little bit?”
“Well, maybe a little. But not when I was talking to Brad.”
“You didn’t cry when he accidentally locked you in that closet either and then couldn’t get the door opened for hours.”
Rachel shuddered at that horrible memory from when she was nine years old.
David leaned down and said against her ear, “I thought you were the bravest girl I’d ever known. That might have been the day I realized there was no other girl for me.”
There was no other man for Rachel. That much had always been true. And she still couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that David was actually hers.
But he was. She knew it because he had told her, and she knew it because she could see the truth in his eyes.
The story of her life had been retold—truth casting light onto all of the shadows and melting all of the ice.
And it had happened in only one night.
About the Author
Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances. For more information, please check out her website: noelle-adams.com