He blinked hard, like an apology from her was unheard of. Bending over, she took his face between her palms, but she didn’t squeeze or make it look like some kind of babying gesture. Instead, she just seemed entirely genuine and imploring.
“I would never stand in the way of something that makes you happy, Harrison,” she said, her voice quiet and sincere. “Iamsorry if this has caused any tension between you two. I never meant to be the source of any discord. I know that you want to move forward with your life and that you’re not my baby anymore. I also realize that you shouldn’t have to be managingyour mother’s feelings while you’re trying to plan a wedding, and I am so, so sorry.”
She sighed. “I appreciate you both coming here to speak to me. I know it couldn’t have been easy.” She straightened up as she said it and went back to her chair, then looked at me, but her expression was no less sincere. “I owe you an apology as well, Aurelia. Clearly, you’re not your mother. She never would’ve sat us down like this to air things out. I’m sorry if my distrust of her has made you feel unwelcome.”
Her gaze flickered back to her son’s. “I’m proud of you, Harrison. I hope you know that. I’m so, so proud of you. If it’s my blessing you want, you two have it, but the rest? I’m just not sure the Van Alens will ever be family to me.”
I smiled as I looked between them, some of the tension in my chest easing. CC was probably never going to love me as much as she did her other three daughters-in-law, but at least it felt like we’d taken a few steps in the right direction for now.
Most of all, I was absolutely certain that she wasn’t going to try anything to detonate my relationship with her son, and that? That made absolutely everything else worth it.
CHAPTER 35
HARRISON
I hadn’t realized how badly I needed something like a Christmas market until we were actually there. After weeks of dealing with CC’s disapproval and Regina still circling like a hawk, it felt good to go to a place that smelled like roasted chestnuts and cinnamon sugar. The only drama here was whether to go with mulled wine or hot cocoa.
“What did I tell you?” Aurelia asked playfully as she dragged me along from stall to stall. “This is good, right? Getting away from it all for a bit was exactly what you needed.”
I couldn’t deny it. That conversation with my mother had helped to ease the tension that had been tugging my chest tighter than a drawstring. With CC no longer being a threat, Aurelia and I had decided to put the situation with her family on the backburner for the rest of the night.
Frankly, it had already been an eventful one. On our way back into the city from my parents’ estate, when she’d first suggested that we come to this market, I’d thought the stress of it all had finally made her lose it, but now that we were here, I had to admit, she’d been absolutely right.
I squeezed her hand and sighed. “Fine. You might not have been as completely nuts as I thought you were when you suggested this. It’s nice. Normal.”
She pressed a gingerbread cookie into my hand and stole a bite of it for herself, laughing when I pretended to be offended.God, she’s radiant when she laughs.
“Normal? Well, yeah, that’s kind of the point, but you and Iarenormal, Harrison. We’ve just been going through it a little bit.”
As we crossed the street into the park, she slid her hand into mine, not even hesitating for a beat. She just twined her fingers around my own like they’d belonged there all along. There was no second-guessing from my side either. I tugged her closer to my side, twirling her into me to slide my arm around her, our joined hands now draped over her shoulder.
It hit me then, the sharp and sudden realization that she wasn’t just some girl I was seeing. This wasn’t temporary. It didn’t have an expiration date.
She was real. We were real.
I blinked hard, wondering if it’d hit her yet, but since she hadn’t mentioned it, I decided not to either. Instead, I just let the knowledge burrow itself under my skin, wrapping me in a weird sense of peace. We found a bench and sat down together.
The whole park glowed like a snow globe come to life under the canopy of Christmas lights they’d strung up for the market. She leaned into my side, happily munching on another cookie she’d pulled out of the bag she’d bought.
“Should we—” I cleared my throat. “We should probably discuss money moves at some point, huh? We’ve had thewe’re really doing thisconversation. We’ve talked to my mom. If I can get my way, I still want to get married on Christmas Eve, but we’ve never really talked about what comes after.”
She glanced up at me, blue eyes twinkling under the lights. “Money moves, like what? Are you talking property, investments, life insurance policies?”
“All of the above,” I said after thinking it over for a beat. “Let’s start with the obvious, though. Property. Where will we live?”
She didn’t respond immediately, and I liked that she was actually giving this some thought. “That depends on whether we’re staying in San Francisco.”
My eyebrows moved up but not fast. It was an interesting point, and not one I had ever really given much thought to myself. “Okay, let’s imagine for a minute that we don’t. Where would you like to go?”
“New York, maybe,” she said, then got quiet for a moment as she chewed another bite of her cookie. “We could start fresh there. Open up our own firm, or a branch of W&S if you think your family would allow it.”
I shrugged. “Somehow, I doubt Sterling will have a problem and he’ll be the CEO soon, so we should be okay if that’s what we decide to do.”
Bells jingled from the stalls across the street. Kids darted around in the park while their parents sat on benches like ours, consuming the treats they’d bought. A guy came past selling hot cider and I bought us each one, chuckling when Aurelia grabbed a bag of candied almonds, too.
When she looked at me, her eyes were wide, like she was daring me to complain, but I didn’t. I loved her this way, smiling, playful, so vibrantly alive that it made my chest hurt. These last few weeks, it was like I’d slowly seen her coming into full bloom.
From the uptight, furious woman I’d first met, to the brutally honest, vulnerable girl who’d first called me about that deal, to where we were now, candidly talking about our future together like it had always been meant to be that way.
