“Alright, alright, my turn,” Gram announces. Everyone in the room looks towards her as she stands and shuffles towards the mantel. It’s decorated with fresh garland from the Wyte’s Christmas tree farm and hand-stitched stockings. Nutcrackersstand guard amongst the other decorations we put on the mantle year after year. Having shrunk a few inches in her old age, she really has to stretch to reach the folded piece of paper sitting amongst the nutcrackers.
“This one is for my sweet Noelle. My pride and joy and the reason why Holly House will only continue to soar once I’m gone.” She beams at me as she comes back to take a seat next to me.
“Grams, don’t say things like that. You’re not going anywhere anytime soon, not if I have anything to say about it,” I fuss.
“Or me,” Ms. Carol barks out, lifting her glass of spiked eggnog in the air. “She and I made a pact a long time ago to go out together. If you go, I go.”
The room begins to laugh as Grams hands me the piece of paper. Unfolding it, I’m left sitting with my mouth hanging wide open for the second time today. My hand comes to cover it as I scan over the document she’s given me.
“Well, Noey, what is it?” Eve asks, leaning over the back of the couch to try and catch a peek.
“It’s the deed to Holly House. And it’s in my name,” I manage to eek out before getting choked up. It’s dated more than a week ago, meaning I’ve been the new owner of the inn all this time and had no idea.
“I always knew you could do it, sweetie. Your parents knew it too.” She pats me on the leg with a reassuring smile.
“Thank you, Grams. I promise, I won’t let you down. Nick is actually going to build us a house right here on the property so we can be as close as possible. I’ll have to show you the sketches later; they’re beautiful. The house is going to fit right in with the property.”
“I’m sure it will, sweetie. I’m so happy for the both of you.” She gives me another loving smile. Swallowing hard, Idecide to tell her something I should have told her a long time ago.
“Grams, I’m really grateful you’ve left Holly House to me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, but I have to be honest with you.” I glance to look up at Nick who’s now standing behind me with a hand on my shoulder. He gives me a nod to let me know he’s okay if I tell her what we did.
“Nick and I, when we got married, it wasn’t real. Well, it was real but we weren’t getting married because we loved each other. I mean, wedidlove one another, we just were scared of saying it.” I take a quick breath and try to collect myself. “Our marriage was fake, so I could inherit the inn. At least it started out that way but it’s real now, I promise. I love him and he loves me and we’re staying married.”
“Forever,” he adds on. I smile up at him when he does. Looking back at Grams, I expect her to get upset with me but she only smiles.
“Oh, sweetie,” she starts before taking my hands into hers. “I know.”
“You know?” I gawk. “You knew the whole time and you never said anything?”
“How could I when I was keeping a secret of my own?” she says, waving her hands out in front of her.
“What secret were you keeping?”
“You know the family will I told you about? The one that says that Holly House can only be passed down to amarriedcouple?”
“Yeah?” I speak slowly, not feeling great about where this is going.
She smiles proudly and shrugs. “I made it up.”
“What?” I nearly shout. Nick laughs behind me and my friends’ faces are just as shocked as I feel.
She shrugs and looks towards Carol who has an equally shit-eating grin on her face. “Do you wanna tell them?”
“It would be my pleasure,” Carol says, setting her eggnog down on the side table. “Mary and I were having breakfast together a few months ago, talking about how stupid we thought the two of you were acting, pretending not to be waiting around for the other one to finally come to their senses and rekindle what the two of you share. Nick had been gone for more than ten years and Noelle had been running herself into the ground running the inn. Neither of you were doing anything to get back together before one of us died so we made a plan. I would play the frail old lady to get Nick home and Mary would make up a story about how Noelle needed to be married in order to take over Holly House.”
We’re all sitting in a stunned silence listening to her recant how she and Grams duped every single one of us.
“We didn’t know you’d take it as far asactuallygetting married, that was just an added benefit,” Carol shrugs, taking another long pull of her eggnog.
“We’re glad the two of you are finally back together and for good,” Grams says. “You two were always meant to be together; I’ve always thought that.”
“I would be so mad at you right now if it all hadn’t worked out for the best.” I laugh, shaking my head at her. I can’t believe she made it all up so Nick and I would get back together. More than that, I can’t believe it worked. I’ve always thought he and I were meant to be but I didn’t think it would take an elaborate plan made up between our grandmothers to bring us back together.
“Well, I, for one thing, amhappyto have been trapped in an elaborate ruse,” Nick says, pulling me up from the couch and into an embrace. “Because it brought me back to Evergreen, gave me back the love of my life, and gifted me with the best Christmas I’ve ever had.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” I agree as I look at him. Glancing outside, I see that it’s started to snow once more.
I was wrong earlier this morning when I said that the house was the best gift I’ve ever gotten. Because looking at him now, noticing how he’s looking at me, I know that this, what we have, is the best gift I’ll ever get for the rest of my life.
