Page 129 of Goode Tidings

"So I'm just Happy Man now?"

Marco shrugs and shoves the last of the food into his mouth. "I guess so," he says around a mouthful of food. "Thanks. Your snack plate gets my vote."

He disappears down the hall.

I go back to drawing. Callum reads every note. There must be twenty of them. "I assumed he had an active imagination," Callum says, removing the headlamp. "If I really thought he'd written notes, I would've read them."

"Don't be too hard on yourself. You lost your faith in humanity for a while. Of course you didn't automatically believe somebody was doing something so innocent and pure."

He looks me over slowly, a quietly content hum rumbling through his throat. "I'm not sure how I got so lucky with you."

CHAPTER 59

Callum

Later that evening, after Eden and I have made dinner and cleaned up the kitchen, and Oliver is asleep for the night, I build a fire. Eden loves the smell of woodsmoke, the pop and crackle of dancing flames. She's beside me on the couch, snuggled up against my side while my fingers tickle down her arm. Snow is expected overnight, and we'll wake up in a winter wonderland again. Another thing she loves.

Eden's been quiet tonight. Contemplative. I've learned she gets this way sometimes. She can't always be witty and bubbly and sexy. Scratch that last one. She's always sexy, no matter what she's doing. I'm so attracted to her sometimes it feels like I could come out of my skin. I am also hopelessly, unabashedly in love with her.

Eden is my very own good tiding.

The fire snaps, a piece of wood splitting in two. Eden's head rests on my shoulder.

The words I love you teeter on my lips. Am I supposed to say it, just like that? Without fanfare? No pageantry? Just a simple declaration, delivered from my heart to hers?

"Eden?"

"Hmm?"

I straighten a little, adjusting myself. She does the same, turning toward me and throwing one bent leg over my lap. She leans closer, an elbow propped on the back of the couch as she gazes up at me. Firelight dances in her brown eyes. A subtle shade of pink warms her cheeks, the corners of her lips pulling up into a serene expression.

My knuckles brush over her cheek. I'm dying to kiss her, but there's so much I need to say first. "On the day I met you, I couldn't believe the amount of chaos you forced into my world. But here's the thing: I didn't know how desperately I needed it. How much I needed you."

One of her shoulders shrugs delicately. "Someone needed to introduce you to puppy yoga."

I huff out an amused sound. "I hope I can do for you what you've done for me."

"You already have," she rushes to say. "There wouldn't be an Eden Paper Co. without you. I'd be designing backgrounds for the candle company right now, and even if that wouldn't be bad, that wouldn't be best."

I'm cupping her cheek with my palm, and her hands are on my chest. Her fingers drift back-and-forth over me. "I want to keep doing good things for you. I want to be your man, Eden. I want to hear everything about your day, and I want to be on the receiving end of every mischievous sparkle in your eyes. Life without you sounds dull and pointless, and I would rather not do it."

She releases the cutest little laugh, and I say, "I love you, Eden. I think I have since the moment I met you and you mocked me while I was naked."

"There's something to be said for kicking a man when he's down," Eden says, and I laugh. I laugh so often with her. More than I have in my whole life. I've never known what it's like to carry humor throughout my day. How much better it makes everything.

Eden's hands leave my chest, running up either side of my neck and bumping over my jaw until they come to rest on my face. "I love you, too, Callum. And I am so grateful that you chose to squat in this cabin."

That look in her eyes, those words on her lips? They tear me open. Expose me in the best way.

She leans in, and I meet her. I kiss her with my heart. Is that a thing? Because that's what it feels like.

"Take me to bed," she whispers. "I don't want to be apart from you at night ever again."

"Agreed," I say, and she wraps her arms around my neck as I scoop her into my chest and carry her to our bedroom.

When I make love to her, I do it with my heart. With my soul.

"I love you," I tell her. I say it over and over, and she smiles and says it against my lips.