“What?” I groan, my face falling in despair. I look at him then back at the presents under the tree. “You’re going to make me wait until later to open them?”
He comes to sit next to me after turning the fireplace on. He leans in and kisses the top of my head. “Yes, wife, I’m going to make you wait. Don’t worry, though, I have two presents I can give you right now. Ones I want to give you before we head to the inn for the day.”
“I guess that’s fine,” I mope, pushing my lipsout like a duck. “All of your gifts are at my place anyway; we need to stop for them on the way to Holly House.”
“And for you to get a change of clothes. I don’t think Grams would like you showing up in my shirt,” he comments, pulling at the bottom of the T-shirt I’m wearing.
“Definitely not,” I reply. I wait a beat before starting again. “So you said something about presents I can open now?”
His head falls back as he laughs and the sound of it warms me to the bone.
“Are you always like this on Christmas Day?”
“Why, yes, yes, I am. And I think it’s important for you to know that I am not changing. If we’re going to stay married, it’s important you know this about me or else this isn’t going to work.”
He brings his hand to my cheek and looks at me. “I love everything about you, Noelle. Even this. Nothing is going to change that.”
I can’t stop myself from smiling like an idiot before leaning in and kissing him.
“Okay, present number one,” he says firmly.
Standing from the floor, he walks towards his sketch table and pulls an envelope out from under massive sheets of paper. He must have had it hiding there so I wouldn’t find it. Sitting back down on the floor, he hands it to me. I look at the plain white envelope and scrunch my face up at him.
“Well, open it up.”
Doing as he says, I slide my finger under the seal and pull out the papers inside. As I carefully unfold them, the most beautiful sketch of a small cottage home starts to reveal itself. I gasp as I take in all the fine details, windows, and landscape. It’s the sweetest little home I’ve ever seen, like something out of a dream. Flipping through the other pages, I’m suddenly lost in a sea of land surveys and construction schedules.
“Okay I love the first drawing but the rest of this has me confused,” I say honestly.
He moves closer and takes the papers from my hands, laying them out in front of us in a very specific order he’s decided on already.
“This is the land survey for Holly House. It shows that you have about two acres on the back end of the property that’s usable space. There’s a ton of trees and overgrowth there right now, but it’s free to be cleared out. This next piece of paper is the schedule to break ground this spring once it warms back up.” He points to each piece of paper as he explains them to me.
“Break ground on what?” I ask, still confused.
“This,” he says confidently, pulling the drawing of the cottage into the middle of the papers, center stage. “Our house.”
I turn and look at him with my mouth hanging open. “Our what?”
“Our house, sugar. I’m building us a house. Well, I’m going to hire people to do the work because I just do the designing part. But this is where we’ll live once it’s all done. I know how important Holly House is to you; it only made sense that we be as close as possible to it in your first year of owning it.” His voice is steady and sure as he speaks. The fact that he wants to build us a house is one thing but the fact that he’s gone through the work for us to be on the same property of my favorite place in the world is something else entirely.
“You’ve really thought about this,” I comment, taking his hand in mine. My eyes are threatening to spill over with tears, truly touched by his gift.
“I think about you every day, sugar. Whether you’re here or not, I’m thinking about you. And us. And the life I want to create with you. It all starts here, in our home.”
I don’t even know what to say so I simply press up on my knees and wrap my arms around his neck. He does the same, bringing his hands to my lower back and holding me in place.
“I can’t wait to start our lives together either, Nick. This is the most special gift anyone has ever given me. I don’t even care what the second present is because it can’t top this.”
“Mmm, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. You might want to see the second gift I got for you first.” By the way the tone of his voice drops a few octaves, I know there’s a reason he didn’t want to bring this one to family Christmas.
“Give it to me and I’ll let you know if it’s better,” I say, sitting back on my knees.
“You have to go get it, it’s in the bedroom.”
I bite back a smirk and stand. Reaching for his hands, I pull him up to his feet. Walking backwards, I guide us back towards the bedroom, smirking at him as he follows along with me. When we reach the bedroom, he slams the door shut and we don’t come back out until we’re almost late for family Christmas.
I’m sitting on the couch in the library at Holly House with Grams sitting next to me while Nick is sitting in the armchair across from us. His parents and Grandma Carol are also here as well as Belle and Eve. They had spent time with their families this morning and promised to stop by for our annual Christmas exchange.
