by Lizzie Lane
“I want to be,” she admitted.
“What else do you want?”
“I want you,” she admitted softly, feeling the words shudder through her with their rightness, “and a family of our own and I’d love for it to be in White Falls, but it doesn’t have to be. If the last year has taught me anything, it’s that my home is where my heart is and my heart is with you. But we have to be able to talk about the big things. Like this job. You always wanted to quit and move on to bigger and better things when you had it before. If you took it, would you be miserable?”
“I don’t think so. But if I was, it isn’t the only job in the world. This could be a temporary measure and we could talk about our other options if the bank isn’t working out.”
“I like that idea.” A weight she hadn’t even realized she felt lifted off her chest. This might actually work. She and her high school sweetheart might actually learn how to have a grown-up relationship after all. “I guess it sounds like you have a job interview to get to.”
She took her hand off the shifter, but Jase didn’t immediately put the car in drive.
“Jase?”
“Don’t move.”
He leapt out of the car and moments later the tailgate lifted.
“Jase, what are you doing?”
He ignored her, continuing to rummage through his carry-on. “I had a plan,” he called up from the recesses of the back of the car. Moments later, he found whatever he was looking for, making a small triumphant noise, and then the tailgate closed again and he opened the passenger door beside her, standing in the opening.
“I had a plan,” he repeated. “I had a whole speech and there was going to be mistletoe involved, but I’ve been planning too much without you and I want to plan with you from now on—”
“Jase,” Sam whispered on a gasp, catching sight of the ring box in his hand as he sank down to one knee in the snow.
“I’ve been carrying this around all year,” he admitted. “But it’s yours. Just like me. I love you, Samantha Whitney. Please marry me. Let me love you forever, wherever we are. Because you’re my home. The home I’ve been trying to get back to. And I promise we’ll talk about the big things. And the little things. And any damn thing you want. I’ll compromise so much—”
“Jase.”
“I know I broke your heart and it kills me, but I will walk across hot coals rather than ever do anything to make you cry again—”
“Jason.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s traditional to give the lady a chance to answer.”
He cringed. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I should have stuck to the script, but—”
He probably would have kept talking forever, but she leaned out of the car and grabbed his face. “Will you shut up and kiss me already?”
“So…yes?” Hope was bright in his winter blue eyes.
“Yes.”
“Oh, thank God.”
He kissed her with all the desperation and gratitude and love that she felt, until they fell back into the car and all the miscommunication that had pulled them away from one another vanished and they were perfectly together at last. Home.
The ring box—when he finally remembered to open it—contained a delicate emerald cut diamond solitaire that had been bought on a small town banker’s salary before he went off to make his fortune in California, and was all the more precious to her for that.
“I can get you a bigger one,” he offered as he slipped it onto her finger. “Or a different one, if this isn’t the style you like.”
“It’s perfect.” She shut him up again with another kiss. And when they broke away, breathless and rumpled, she eyed the rather comfortable-looking backseat. “Are you sure you can’t reschedule your interview?”
Jase laughed. “My insatiable girl.”
“I haven’t seen you in almost a year and we have something to celebrate,” she reminded him.
“I couldn’t reschedule even if I wanted to.” He held up his phone. “No service.”
Like magic, Jase’s phone chimed in his hand. He frowned at it. “That’s the voicemail notification. I guess we do have service.”
He lifted his phone, listening to the message. The events of the last day and a half replayed in Sam’s mind and a suspicion began to form, but she was distracted when Jase’s face lit with a brilliant smile. “That was Melanie,” he explained when the message ended. “She had a personal emergency and needs to reschedule to tomorrow. She hopes it isn’t too inconvenient for me since she’s really hoping I get the job.”
Sam broke into a grin. “I always did like Melanie.” Except for that two hour period when she’d thought Melanie was stealing her man. Luckily that wouldn’t be an issue any more. She had a ring on her finger and everyone would know he was hers again as soon as they—
Disappointment brought that thought shuddering to a halt.
“We can’t tell anyone we’re engaged.”
Jase frowned and stopped in the act of returning to his seat, straddling the center console. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not allowed to date until the show is finished airing. They can sue me for millions of dollars if I even hint at a spoiler and I think being engaged to someone else is a pretty big tell that I didn’t live happily ever after with Daniel.”
Jase cursed under his breath, but he rallied quickly, settling into his seat. “When does it finish airing? We’ll elope the next day.”
“My mother is going to want a big wedding in White Falls.” Sam paused. There it was again, the two of them planning their life together in opposite directions. But this time she met Jase’s eyes and saw the awareness of it there as well. “Compromise?”
“Maybe a simple wedding in White Falls the day after the finale?” he suggested.
“I’ll have to be in LA for the reunion special that airs with the final episode,” she explained. “And our mothers will want to be part of the planning. If we can’t tell them until then…I don’t know. Maybe it is better to just elope to Vegas on my way home from the finale.”
‘You aren’t a Vegas girl.”
“No,” she admitted. She’d never dreamed of an Elvis wedding. “It won’t feel the same if we aren’t surrounded by our family and friends.”
“So White Falls it is,” he agreed. “Next Christmas? Plenty of time for our mothers to plan—”
“Walking down the aisle to Christmas carols?” she asked, meeting his eyes and seeing excitement sparking in them. “And a honeymoon in the Winter Wonderland suite?”
He grinned. “Deal.”
“See?” Her own grin mirrored his, triumphant. “We can talk things out.”
“It’s a Christmas miracle.”
He kissed her, long and deep and sweet.
“You know,” she murmured when he pulled away. “I think I do believe in Christmas miracles.”
“Oh?”
“Look at the last few days. Whenever we were being stubborn, the universe or Santa or Baby Jesus or whoever you want to call it threw obstacles in front of us. But when we came together, the roads cleared, the car started…it was only when we were resisting one another that things went wrong. From the very beginning. The plane didn’t move until I agreed to sit next to you—”
“It couldn’t move because one of the passengers was refusing to take her seat,” he said pointedly. “But I can’t argue with the rest of it. Especially not if I get the girl.”
The Mistletoe Inn appearing out of the night right when they needed it, the car that looked like Santa’s sleigh suddenly being available right when they needed it, even the flight to Green Bay being canceled so they had to stick together and work things out—they might have had a jolly old elf guiding them to this moment.
But Sam wasn’t going to complain. Not when the love of her life was pulling her into the backseat, murmuring low about showing her the magic of the season and she followed willingly after him, finally home.
About the Author
Winner of the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart Award, Lizzie Shane lives in Alaska where she uses the long winter months to cook up happily-ever-afters (and indulge her fascination with the world of reality television). She also writes paranormal romance under the pen name Vivi Andrews. Find more about Lizzie at her website or follow her on Facebook.
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And don’t miss the rest of the Reality Romance series:
Marrying Mister Perfect (RR#1)
Romancing Miss Right (RR#2)
Falling for Mister Wrong (RR#3)
Planning on Prince Charming (RR#4)
Meet the other Suitorettes from Samantha’s season, Caitlyn and Sidney…
FALLING FOR MISTER WRONG
Between I will and I do, there’s room to fall.
Caitlyn Gregg just agreed to marry Mister Perfect on national television. There’s only one problem: as soon as the cameras stop rolling on their whirlwind reality show romance, she realizes she doesn’t love him. Returning home to Colorado as the show begins to air, she has only her doubts for company—until she accidentally sets her apartment on fire and finds herself in the arms of oh-so-sexy firefighter Will Hamilton.
Sparks immediately fly—and not just from her singed apartment—but Caitlyn is engaged to another man and is contractually forbidden from talking about the engagement, breaking it off, or seeing other men until the show’s finale.
Will doesn’t know what to make of Caitlyn’s hot-and-cold routine, until he turns on the TV one night and sees her being wooed by another man. Thinking she must be gun-shy after what is about to be a very public break-up, he tells her they can take it slow… but their insane chemistry has other ideas.
Falling hard for Will is against all the rules and every week she dreads Tuesday, knowing any episode could be the one that drives him away. When the truth comes out, will Caitlyn lose the man of her dreams because she already said yes to Mister Perfect?
FALLING FOR MISTER WRONG – Now Available
PLANNING ON PRINCE CHARMING
What would Cinderella do?
Wedding planner Sidney Dewitt is always the fairy godmother, never the heroine of her own love story—until she’s selected for the reality dating show Marrying Mister Perfect. It might finally be her chance to ride off into the sunset, but when she sneaks out of her room on the night before the show begins to catch a glimpse of her prince, the man she meets is far from Prince Charming.
The jaded—and recently divorced—host of a television show celebrating love and marriage, Josh Pendleton doesn’t believe in fairy tales anymore. He’s done with love and getting involved with a Suitorette is the fastest way to destroy his career, but there’s something about Sidney he can’t get out of his head.
On a show where everything is staged, could this be real?
PLANNING ON PRINCE CHARMING – Now Available
