Page 98 of Mistletoe Mistake
“Hold on. Let me put this away safely.” Chuckling, he rolled it back up and returned it to his tube. “We can frame it and put it up in the apartment in New York,” he promised. “I want to see it every day.”
As pleased as I was that he really did like it, I still wanted to kiss him. As he placed the tube down on the bed, I tried once again to pull him to me, but still, he resisted.
“Wait, you still need to open your present. Then, I promise, we can spend the rest of the day doing whatever you want.”
I groaned at the delay, but as he picked up the box and handed it to me, my curiosity took over. The box wasn’t wrapped, so I lifted the lid to reveal… another box. I raised my eyebrows at him but he just smiled, waiting for me to continue. When I pulled out the second box and opened it, I found another, smaller box inside.
“Is the actual present the size of a pea?” I couldn't help asking.
“Keep going,” was all he said, his eyes shining as they watched me.
On it went. Finally, the sixth box looked different, not a gift box like the others but a small, velvet jewellery box, and I looked up at him in surprise. I hadn’t expected anything significant, especially since I had already told him I hadn’t spent any money on his gift.
“Open it,” he pleaded, his own patience clearly nearing its end.
With my fingers slightly trembling, I flipped open the lid to reveal a beautiful ring, unlike any I'd ever seen. A sparkling solitaire diamond was nestled beneath a cluster of tiny emeralds, with even tinier pearls. The pattern of the gemstones almost looked like...
“Mistletoe?”
I raised my eyes to Cole's as I asked the question, and he smiled back at me, that genuine, boyish smile of his that I loved so much. “Exactly. The diamond is us,” he explained, placing his finger on it, pointing at the large stone before running his finger over the other gems. “Under the mistletoe.”
I could hardly believe it. The ring was stunningly beautiful, and so incredibly thoughtful. He must have had it specially designed, and the fact that he would go to so much trouble meant more to me than any dollar amount ever could. I absolutely loved it.
“It's not just a ring though,” he said, his voice getting softer. “There's a question that comes with it.”
My heart raced again as I looked back into his dark eyes once more, trying not to get ahead of myself.
“Gemma, you know I've spent the last few years living by the rules I set for myself, but now, I'd like to set some different rules. Just one rule, really. One that says that you're with me, and I'm with you, forever."
Forever? The tears that had previously been in his eyes seemed to have transferred to mine as the meaning behind his words sunk in. It didn’t seem like I’d got the wrong idea at all.
"So, what do you think?" he asked me with an almost tentative smile. "Will you marry me, Gemma? Do we have a deal?"
Both of us had been in that moment before, with other people, but I knew my previous proposal hadn’t felt anything like this, and judging from Cole’s expression, it felt new to him too. And just like him, I didn’t have a doubt in my mind. “It's a deal.”
With the biggest smile I had ever seen on his face, Cole took the ring from the box and slid it on my finger, and then there was nothing on earth that could have stopped us from making the most of our nakedness and the fact that we had nowhere else to be.
It might have been a mistake that brought us together that night under the mistletoe, but I knew in my heart it was the best mistake we could have ever made.
~~THE END~~
HollyandJackson'sstorycontinues in the next book in the series,Candy Cane Challenge.
Turn the page for a preview from the first chapter!
~Jackson~
People always said that love found you when you weren’t looking for it. That couldn’t be more true of my best friend, Cole, I had to admit, as I watched him tying the bow tie of his tuxedo. He met Gemma, the woman he was about to marry, when he least expected it, and they both did their best to deny the depth of their feelings for each other as long as possible. It had been incredibly frustrating to watch from the outside, but incredibly satisfying in the end when they finally admitted what I had known right from the beginning: they were absolutely made for each other.
Maybe there was a lesson in there for me, a reason why I hadn't had any luck finding the right woman yet. Maybe I tried too hard, but to stop looking would be easier said than done. I wanted to find my partner, the love of my life, and I didn't hide it. One-night stands and casual flings were not for me. When I went in, I went all in, and I wanted to find the woman who felt the same way about me. It didn’t seem like too much to ask for.
“Does this look alright?” Cole asked me, giving himself a critical look in the mirror.
I couldn't help laughing. He never cared what anyone thought of anything he did, except when it came to Gemma. He wanted the day to be absolutely perfect for her, still not seeming to understand that all she really wanted was him.
“You know she'd be happy no matter how you looked, right? She probably wouldn't mind if you turned up naked.”
“Don't tempt me,” Cole muttered, straightening his tie again even though it had been perfectly straight to begin with. “Then we'd really give people something to talk about.”
