“Dinner on?” Brady asked as they continued walking.
“Should be. I’m starving!” Liz said. “Must be the cold weather because lately I’ve been eating a lot more.”
Tanner raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Brady just chuckled and slapped her arm. “Has nothin’ to do with the weather, sis. I think it’s all the sex. Burns calories better than ridin’ I hear.”
“Brady! Seriously?” she shouted, and he dodged out of her way as she went to smack him. She turned to Tanner who was trying, and failing, to hold in his own laughter, and shoved him as he clasped his hands to his chest in mock shock. “Don’t blame me, he said it!” he said through his laughter.
“Screw you both.” She giggled and chased them, scooping up some fresh snow and attempting to stuff it down Brady’s collar, throwing the rest at Tanner. By the time they got to the house, they were all out of breath, covered in snow, and laughing like hyenas.
They clambered up the steps into the back mud porch, and as they filed into the kitchen, the aroma of beef wafted out at them. Liz’s stomach rumbled on cue, and as she looked up she could see Jake was expertly sharpening a knife, his sleeves rolled up, shoulders moving in perfect unison.
She stopped, drinking him in, and he looked up, saw her, and smiled.
Life was perfect.
* * *
“We’re all done,” she said as she closed the dishwasher door. Jake threw the dishcloth into the sink and pulled her over to him by her hand, swinging her onto the counter and stepping between her legs.
“We are?” he drawled, raising an eyebrow and leaning in to kiss her neck. “I’m thinkin’ I’d like to get started.”
She laughed as he tickled her neck and put her arms around his, blocking his access. “Stop it, Jake.”
“Never. You are too delicious,” he countered, and tried to worm his way in. She blocked him again and laughed as he growled and burrowed in through her hair.
Leaning back, he caught her eye, all traces of play gone, his eyes studying hers. She tilted her head and looked back. “What?”
“You are so fucking beautiful when you laugh,” he murmured.
“Um, thanks?” she replied, taking him in. He was thinking. “I know that look, Jake. What is going through that gorgeous head of yours?”
“Ah, fuck it,” he muttered, and pulled her down from the counter.
“Fuck it? What—” she said, almost tripping to keep up with him as he towed her through the house. The giant Christmas tree was twinkling in the darkened living room, the scent of the enormous fir tree sharp and pleasant as they entered. Her mother had insisted on a big tree this year, and had decorated it herself, much to Liz’s surprise, because normally that would have been too much up and down on the ladder stool for her joints.
Jake pulled her over by the tree and held her close to him, the multicolored bulbs casting festive oval blobs of light over the entire room.
“Listen, I know it isn’t Christmas yet, but I want to give you something now.”
“I don’t have your present yet, Jake, I mean—” He stopped her with a kiss, and she let him, the feel of his lips on hers always the best way to make her lose her train of thought or stop her argument cold. It was also really nice, loosening her stomach, his big body close to hers, suggesting something else entirely. She wondered if it would be prudent to steal in later and make love under the tree, or if that would be a bit too much for Tanner and Brady to handle, because she had a very hard time being quiet when she and Jake made love.
It would be almost worth it to do it anyway, after Brady’s earlier teasing.
“Give me a sec,” Jake said.
He reached into the tree and pulled out a box, wrapped in fire-red paper, with a fluffy white bow on top. He held it between them, and she looked down at it, then back up at him.
It was small, balanced on the palm of his hand, and Liz stopped being able to breathe.
Thatwas a jewelry box.
Her heart racing, she picked it up out of his hand and looked back at him, eyes searching his, hoping he would give away what was inside.
“Open it.”
She slid the bow off, then pried the ends of the wrapping paper open. A black velvet box with a domed top slid out. She stared down, her brain taking a moment to catch up with what she knew she was holding.
This was it; he was going to ask her to marry him. She wanted to both run away and dive into his arms at the same time, the contents of that box and what he was about to say exciting and scary in the same breath. She’d been completely blindsided by Darren when he’d proposed to her very publicly at a hockey game in Calgary.
