In the end, he drew a deep breath and handed it to her. He wanted to start with a caveat, but he held it back. Joey could take the jewelry to mean whatever she wanted it to mean.
She unwrapped the little black box, glanced at him, and then lifted the lid.
“Oh Adam,” she whispered. “This is incredible.” She looked at him and thrust the box toward him. He thought she might say,It’s too much. I can’t.
Instead, she asked, “Will you put it on for me?”
Swallowing hard, Adam lifted the diamond tennis bracelet out of the box and gently draped it over Joey’s wrist. It clasped easily, as good jewelry did, and he lifted her hand and kissed the top of her wrist and then the side and then the inside, before he looked at her again. “You make my whole life shine like diamonds,” he said.
She smiled too, a pinkish hue climbing into her cheeks.
“Is it lame for me to tell you I love you on Christmas?” he asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.
Joey pulled in another breath, and Adam gathered herinto his lap and tucked her close against his chest. “Because if it is—” He cut off and swallowed, not wanting to hold back the way he felt or wait to vocalize it.
“Then I guess I’m lame,” he finished. “Because I’m hopelessly in love with you.” He didn’t want her to feel pressured to say it back, so he quickly touched his lips to hers and sealed his declaration with a kiss.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-NINE
“Okay,” Joey said, as she led the way inside the furniture store. “I hope you’re ready for this.”
Adam simply grinned at her. “I survived that birthday party at Bryce’s house,” he said. “And that was after a concert too. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Joey was sure of it as well, because Adam was so good at coordinating details and handling dozens of moving parts that all of the concerts had gone off without a hitch. They had one more tomorrow for New Year’s brunch, and then one more on Monday.
God willing, Joey would be moving into her new apartment in three days, and part of her wondered why it mattered. Why had she felt so called to get her own place and move out?
She thought of the words Adam had said to her almost a week ago now:I’m hopelessly in love with you.
She hadn’t said it back to him, mostly because he’d taken her onto his lap and kissed her before she could, and partly because she wasn’t sure she was in love with him…yet.
She did love who she was with him because he inspired her to be a more confident version of herself. She’d started to see herself as smart and capable and wonderful—all of the things he’d told her many times.
“Oh, they’re line dancing,” Joey said as she opened the second set of doors into the furniture store and a rousing country music song met her ears. Sure enough, a loud stomp echoed through the store, followed by awhoop!, carefully timed to the dance and the music.
Adam took her hand, and she led him through the high-end living room section, and then curved through the bedroom area back to the more casual living area where Aunt Hilde staged their New Year’s Eve party every year.
Every yearwasn’t quite true, as various aunts and uncles had hosted over the years, but Aunt Hilde donated the furniture store every other year, as it definitely had the most room for everyone in the family.
This year, they obviously had a dance floor set up. Joey brought Adam right to the edge of the crowd, so that he could see the dancing. Men and women danced alike, with Rosie and Aunt Ev calling the dance from the front. Joey joined in clapping with everyone else, and a few moments later, the song ended. Cheers raised the roof, and people streamed off the dance floor.
“Hey, you made it,” Jem said. “Tonight’s concert was fire,” he added as he bumped knuckles withAdam.
“Thanks,” Adam said. “I mean, not that I played or anything.”
“When are you going to play?” Uncle Tex asked, and Joey gaped at him, her look mirroring Adam’s.
“I’m not going to play,” Adam said.
“I heard you were taking guitar lessons.” Uncle Tex lifted a cup of punch to his lips.
“Yeah, for two months,” Adam said. “I’m certainly not going to get on the stage with professional musicians.”
“Oh, is that what they are?” Uncle Jem teased.
“All right, all right, all right,” Uncle Luke yelled, the last time into a mic. The sound positivelybellowedthrough the building and it did cut through the chatter that had broken out after the line dance. “We have something pretty amazing this year,” he said, his whole persona shining. “A New Year’s unlike any other New Year’s.”
