by Olivia Miles
He stepped closer, until there was no more space left between them, and then he kissed her. Right under the mistletoe.
Epilogue
The pub at the Carriage House Inn was crowded on New Year’s Eve, just as it always was, not that Cora would know. Even when her sisters encouraged her to get out each year, Cora usually found an excuse to stay home in her flannel pajamas with a good book.
But this year, her sisters were all on dates with their significant others.
And so was Cora.
She grinned at Phil across the table, who had insisted that they celebrate their sledding win tonight, as a proper date.
“You’re sure that Georgie won’t feel bad that it’s just the two of us?” Cora asked again, thinking that really, it had been a team win.
“She’s back at the cottage with my grandparents,” Phil said, brushing away her concern. It was Georgie’s second to last night in town, before she’d go back to live with her mother, but she’d be back again in two weeks. Now that Phil was planning to divide his time between Chicago and Blue Harbor until he sold his business, Georgie would come to town for her more frequent weekends with him.
“Have you decided what you’re going to do, once you sell the business?” she asked, knowing that he was having fun with the thought of the sale, seeing that it was something he was an expert at, after all.
“Nope,” he said, and then burst out laughing. “And isn’t that wonderful?”
Cora grinned. It was wonderful, and for so many reasons. “You know, I should probably tell you that you changed the way I see Christmas too.”
He looked at her skeptically. “Don’t tell me I’ve turned you into a Scrooge.”
She laughed. Like that could ever happen, though she had been tested. “You made me see that life moves forward. That we can’t let ourselves get stuck in the past. That sometimes new traditions are actually better than old ones.”
He gasped dramatically, and then winked. “I can’t take all the credit, though. Georgie told me you made a wish on that snow globe…”
Cora felt her cheeks flush. She might be the Christmas lady and a little Christmas crazy, too, but she was on a date, and she could just feel her sisters giving her warming glares, even though they were nowhere around.
“Well, now, it was just a snow globe…”
“Oh, not just any snow globe!”
Cora looked up to see her father and Candy standing beside their table. Candy was dressed in gold. And silver. And lots of sequins, because, well, it was New Year’s Eve. And this was Candy.
And Cora rather loved her for it.
“As it turns out that wishing ball works,” Candy said with a grin. She held out her left hand, where a sparkling diamond sat on her ring finger, catching the light that shone nearly as bright as the joy in her eyes.
Cora stared at the ring and then up to her father, seeing the same happiness reflected in his smile that she felt in her heart of hearts.
Yep, life kept moving forward, no matter how hard you tried to hold onto the past.
And Cora couldn’t wish for anything more.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Olivia Miles is a USA Today bestselling author of feel-good women’s fiction with a romantic twist. She has frequently been ranked as an Amazon Top 100 author, and her books have appeared on several bestseller lists, including Amazon charts, BookScan, and USA Today. Treasured by readers across the globe, Olivia’s heartwarming stories have been translated into German, French, and Hungarian, with editions in Australia in the United Kingdom.
Olivia lives on the shore of Lake Michigan with her family.
Visit www.OliviaMilesBooks.com for more.
