by Aston, Jana
She says yes.
Champagne is popped—sparkling cider for the littles—and I’m glad to have been there to witness it.
“I’m quite sure you’re next,” she whispers to me later, as Teddy is warming up the car. He always does that for me, scrapes all the snow and warms the car up before coming back to walk me to the passenger door like a fairy-tale princess.
I’m quite sure I’m next too, because I’m not actually a fairy-tale princess and I’m more than capable of doing the asking.
* * *
“I heard about this thing,” I mention that night in bed. It’s dark and quiet in that way the world only ever is on Christmas.
“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
“So hear me out,” I begin. We’re snuggled under my sheets, flannels with festive Christmas gnomes, and a thick comforter.
“Okay.” Teddy’s lip twitches in the light of my bedroom Christmas tree.
“You’re my favorite person in the whole world.”
“You’re my favorite person in the whole world too.” He flashes a warm smile, twining our fingers together under the blankets.
“Well, as luck would have it, there’s a way we can be legally bound to each other. Forever. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
Man, I’m really selling this.
“It’s more like a paperwork thing,” I interject, before I scare him off, “versus some kind of weird ritualistic ceremony.”
Err. No. That’s not right either. It actually is a bit of a weird ritualistic ceremony.
“The point is,” I continue, “the paperwork exists with which we could make that happen.”
“Huh, no kidding?”
He says it without a trace of sarcasm, as if this is a genuine revelation to him. I turn to face the ceiling so I can properly side-eye him.
“Ask me to tell you a secret, Noel.”
Ah, our favorite game.
“Tell me a secret. Unless it’s that you’re afraid of legal commitment or have made a previously undisclosed pact with a bunch of buddies from college not to get married until you’re forty.”
“I’m in love with you,” he says, tracing my bottom lip with his finger.
“Not a secret.” I shake my head.
“I wanted to ask you to marry me last Christmas.”
“When we’d known each other a week?” I turn back in his direction, curious.
“Oddly, you had me at ‘put on the Santa suit,’ so yeah.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t want to rush you though all the fun dating stuff, all our firsts as a couple, just because I couldn’t wait to put a ring on it.”
I bite my lip. I did really enjoy all those firsts.
“But if you’re that impatient…” He trails off with the sexiest grin he’s ever had.
“I am.”
“I had a much bigger thing planned, you know. It involved me on one knee and the whole bit.”
“It’s okay, I quite like you horizontally.”
Teddy laughs, and then he produces a ring from I don’t even know where. I think he had it under his pillow the entire time.
“Marry me.”
“Teddy Carrington, the only thing I ever wanted for Christmas was you.”
“So that’s a yes?” he asks, smiling as he slides the ring onto my finger.
“Ask me to tell you a secret.” I’m smiling so big I have to bite my lip to contain it.
“Tell me a secret, Noel.”
“It’s been a yes since last Christmas.”
* * *
I hope you’ve enjoyed Reindeer Falls! If you’d like to read more from me I’d suggest my WRONG series, which are currently in Kindle Unlimited for a LIMITED time. Flip the page for a book description or CLICK HERE to grab it now.
Have you met Dr Miller?
* * *
I have a history of picking the wrong guy. Gay? Player? Momma’s boy? Check, check and check.
Now I can’t stop fantasizing about one of the customers at the coffee shop I work at between classes. It’s just a harmless crush, right? It’s not like I ever see this guy outside of the coffee shop. It’s not like I’m going to see him while attempting to get birth control at the student clinic. While wearing a paper gown. While sitting on an exam table. Because he’s the doctor. Shoot. Me.
But what if, for once, the man I’ve had the dirtiest, most scandalous fantasies about turned out to be everything but wrong?
Wrong (Wrong Series #1)
Right (Wrong Series #2)
Fling (Wrong Series #3)
Trust (Wrong Series #4)
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank the Starbucks in Darien, IL for allowing me to sit for hours and hours like a total weirdo. Look, I think it’s weird too, and I’d bounce around to different locations to make it less weird but you’re the only Bucks nearby with the comfy bench seating and the good windows.
Plus you’ve got not one but TWO Pokemon stops I can spin from that seat. *shrugs*
Signed,
That lady sitting on the bench seat who never speaks & mostly orders from the mobile app while already in the store before scurrying back to her seat.
Also by Jana Aston
Wrong (Wrong Series #1)
Right (Wrong Series #2)
Fling (Wrong Series #3)
Trust (Wrong Series #4)
* * *
Good Girl (Good Girl Book #1)
Good Time (Good Girl Book #2)
* * *
Sure Thing (Best Laid Plans #1)
Plan B (Best Laid Plans #2)
* * *
Times Square
The Reindeer Falls Collection
The Boss Who Stole Christmas
If You Give A Jerk A Gingerbread
The One Night Stand Before Christmas
About the Author
Jana Aston likes cats, big coffee cups and books about billionaires who deflower virgins. She wrote her debut novel while fielding customer service calls about electrical bills, and she's ever grateful for the fictional gynecologist in Wrong that readers embraced so much she was able to make working in her pajamas a reality. Jana’s novels have appeared on the NYT, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestsellers list, some multiple times. She likes multiples.
If you’re on Facebook, I have a private readers group. I’d love for you to join us… Grind Me Cafe
