“Do you take this elf to be your lawfully wedded wife?” Rod asked.
“I do.”
“Then you may now kiss the bride.”
A cheer went up from all my friends as I grabbed Chloe by the waist of her sexy-elf outfit and kissed her.
Rod had rallied the troops as soon as he heard the news. He’d gotten the word out to Martha Ellis, who had gone straight into action.
Half the town snowshoed their way over to Rod’s for a Christmas afternoon wedding. The ceremony had been held outside of his place, and we’d said our vows under the twinkling of Christmas lights hanging in the trees above us.
When I finally pulled away from our kiss, Chloe had stars in her eyes. She was glowing, and she was absolutely, exquisitely beautiful.
I’d never seen a woman as beautiful as her before in my life.
I wasn’t even sure I deserved her. But I knew I would do anything for her. I’d move mountains.
The only downside to our hasty wedding ceremony was that Chloe’s best friend Astrid couldn’t be here in person.
But Ellie had her brought up on FaceTime so she’d been able to see the whole ceremony from a distance.
My friend Cash came up and gave me a big slap on the shoulder. “Welcome to the married life club, man. Never thought it would happen to you.”
Then Jasper came up. We’d known each other since grade school, and we were more alike than anyone knew.
He nodded his head. Up. Down. Up. Down. Up. Down. And didn’t say a word. But that was enough to know he approved.
Holt pulled out an entire case of elderberry wine and announced, “We’ve got a dozen bottles here! Let’s get this party going!”
All the wedding guests were in their Christmas finery. Everyone had left their private Christmas celebrations to come join us here, so there were a lot of red and green clothes, along with a fair amount of reindeer sweaters.
Then before I was ready, all the ladies of the mountain grabbed Chloe away from me in an excited chatter.
They wanted to know everything about her. This was going to be one wedding reception to remember.
I ended up standing right there at the altar with my uncle Rod, watching the party get started.
“Can you believe I went and got myself hitched, Rod? I finally found a woman willing to latch on to my sorry ass.”
My uncle grinned. “You just had to wait for the right one to show up. And who would have ever thought she’d be into Christmas as much as I am? This was the best Christmas gift you ever could have given me.”
I gave him a quick hug, the manly kind that only lasts a few seconds but means a lot.
Then I stared out at my new bride as she chattered excitedly with my friends.
Chloe and I might have been a little crazy to do this, but I knew it would work out just fine. I knew that, because I’d never felt this way about any other woman in my life before. And I knew that meant she was special.
And now… she was mine. We’d have a whole lifetime together to uncover all the layers of who we were. And I couldn’t wait for each of those moments to come.
Epilogue
Chloe
Six years later.
“Go on, then. Your uncle Rod’s waiting.”
I watched Tommy scamper out of the house. Then I shook my head. He’d forgotten to put his shoes on again.
