A Winter's Date (49 page)

He sighs heavily and pulls back to look at me. “You had me worried for a minute there, baby. I was about to beg.” He gently moves my hair away from my face.

I look down at my ring and giggle. “You took my breath away. You’ve given me every dream I’ve ever had in the span of one evening. You’re my happily ever after.”

He drops his forehead to mine. “Jesus, Heather, you’ve made me the happiest man alive. Thank you.” Lifting his head, he presses his lips to my forehead while he holds me snugly in his arms.

I turn my head to the side and look out at the beautiful scene before us. I will never forget this day as long as I live. I’m committing everything to memory: the rocks, the mountains, the lake below us, and the Milky Way . . . all witnesses to our engagement.

His hands move down to the small of my back. “Would you like to call your sister? Or my parents?”

I shiver and nod, taking one last look at the view. “Yes! Can we go back? I’m freezing, and I want to look at my engagement ring.”

He takes his jacket off and places it around my shoulders and I gratefully slip my hands into the comically long sleeves. I take in a deep breath because I’m surrounded by all things Noah.

“Let’s get you warm, ballerina.”

NOAH

This night couldn’t have gone any better, and right now I’m on cloud nine. She looks like a vision sitting there on the floor in front of the fire in her pink satin robe. That smile hasn’t left her face since we’ve been back, and fuck does it feel good because I put it there. She was distracted during our bath, looking down at her hand continuously. I guess it was a good distraction, though.

She’s currently on the phone with her sister. Her words are running together as she tries to tell Dani what our evening entailed. Heather looks back at me on the couch quickly and cups her mouth. “What? You knew?” She listens for another second before responding. “He asked you? Seriously?”

She turns her head and narrows her eyes at me cutely before pointing at me.
Well, it seems as if I’m in trouble.
I wink at her, and she beams up at me.

They talk for a few more minutes before hanging up. I get up to grab the bottle of champagne that has been chilling in the ice bucket and pop it open. “Would you like to call my parents next?”

“Yes!” she exclaims and looks up at me from the floor. I adjust my pajama bottoms before sitting down next to her, filling her champagne flute.

Once I set the bottle down, she shifts and moves onto my lap as she dials Ellery’s number. “I hope we’re not waking them up,” she adds as she sips on her champagne before leaning back against my bare chest.

I kiss the top of her head and wait for Ellery to answer. There’s one more ring before her voice is on the line.

“Hello?” she answers with a little hesitation. I smile because I know that she’s nervous as hell right now. I clear my throat and answer before Heather can.

“Mom? She said yes.”

Heather quickly turns around and looks at me with the biggest smile on her face. It’s the first time she’s heard me call Ellery
Mom
.

“She did? Oh honey, I’m so happy for you both. Hold on, Henry wants to hear the news too.” She takes a few moments to figure out how to put us on speakerphone and when she does, my future Mrs. Noah Ryan starts telling our story to my parents—our parents.

After I relive our engagement again through Heather’s memory, I hear my mom blow her nose loudly on the other end. I chuckle, and I hear my dad chuckle as well. “We couldn’t be happier for you two, son,” Henry speaks up.

“Thanks, Dad. We’ll need to go out to dinner when we get back next week. Oh damn, I don’t think we told you, but we got the house too.”

We both flinch a little when Ellery’s high-pitch squeal comes over the line followed by more nose blowing. “Oh goodness, this is the happiest day ever. You two are getting married, and you’ll be closer to us too.”

“We will be,” I say. “You’re both part of our lives.”

“Oh honey, you both mean so much to Henry and I. Listen, we’ve already spoken about this, and we would love to pay for the wedding. I understand that money is no longer an issue, but please let us do this. Heather? Darling? You wouldn’t mind, would you?”

She freezes on my lap and I move the hair away from her shoulder, pulling her robe down and kissing her skin softly. “Mom, we haven’t discussed anything yet, but that’s not necessary.”

“We know it’s not, but we would like to do this for you two. I don’t know how life brought the two of you together, but I’m not going to stand in love’s way. We’re going to encourage it. And I do not want to hear any ifs, ands, or buts about it.”

I drop my head back against the couch cushion with an exaggerated sigh. “Dad? Mind talking some sense into her please?” I feel Heather move and straddle my thighs and start kissing my chest. My fingers find her long, soft hair as Henry speaks.

“I’m on this side of the battlefield, son. I highly suggest conceding, because Ellery sure has her ways.”

I drop it for the moment because I don’t want an argument. Not on this night. “We’ll talk about it when we see you guys. Okay?”

“All right, darling, just answer me this: have you decided on a date?”

My eyes are closed with Heather’s lips on my chest when she stops kissing me. I open my eyes and raise my head to look down at my girl. She’s looking at me, her eyes are twinkling, and a smile is forming on her face. “Well,” she says, “I’ve always loved the snow . . . so I was thinking of a winter’s date.”

NOAH

It’s the morning after the best evening of my life.

Heather has agreed to marry me, and damn, I could not be more contented.

She stirs on top of me—her favorite spot—clad in her lace underwear. I’ve made the decision of a lifelong commitment to my ballerina, and I’ve never seen that spark shine so bright inside of her. That ember that won’t go out in my life—the one I won’t let go out—has grown into a glowing fire by night, one that can be seen by anyone. I place my lips against the top of her head and breathe her into my awakening senses. She lets out a deep breath and stills again, once she can feel the warmth from my bare chest.

I shut my eyes and replay the evening in my mind: from the Milky Way to the phone call to my parents. I grin when I remember the shock on Heather’s face when she heard me call Ellery
Mom
for the second time. As for the first time, I will never forget that day as long as I live.

After I had made the decision to ask Heather to marry me, it just seemed right . . . seemed like the right time. Heather and Henry were in his office, working on her physical therapy, so it was just the two of us in the room. I was watching Ellery busy herself in the kitchen—she’d insisted on making me a pie. I couldn’t get her to sit her ass down, so I just sat there and watched. I was sitting there at the island, my arms crossed over my chest, when something just told me . . .
now is the time
. . . so I didn’t fight it.

“Ellery?” I used caution when forming my next words. “Could I ask you to help me with something?”

She smiled and looked up at me as she wiped her hands on her apron, dusting it with flour from her fingertips. “Of course, darling, what is it?” she asked, not hesitating to walk around the island to stand next to me. Even with me sitting, I was still a foot taller than her, it seemed. My heart was pumping wildly in my chest, and my foot started to tap quickly. I looked down at her genuine smile and instantly felt a calm wash over me. It caught me by surprise, because Heather had been the only other woman to be able to calm me just as quickly.

“I’m going to ask Heather to marry me, and I’d love it if you would help me choose the perfect ring.”

I couldn’t help but laugh when she gasped and threw her arms around my neck. “Noah! Oh honey, yes. Oh, I’m so happy for you! Of course I’ll help you!” She was beaming when she pulled back to look at me and placed her palm on my cheek.

“Thank you . . . Mom.”

She stood there taking in the word, as if it hit her in the heart, before she just ripped her apron off and grabbed me by the hand. “To hell with the pie. It can wait.”

That was the first time I’ve ever heard anything resembling a swear word from my mother’s mouth. We told Heather and Henry that we were going out to lunch and then just outside of the city to one of Ellery’s favorite places to get supplies for her nursery business, which bought us some time to head to Tiffany’s in the heart of Manhattan.

She was more than a help. When I first picked out a ring back in London, I chose it in haste. The only thought in my mind was keep her, keep her, keep her. That turned out to be a disaster. This time, with my mother by my side, the selection process was much different. She perused the glass cases with a keen eye. She forced me to really think about Heather and what I could see my ballerina wearing. I laughed when she actually smacked my arm and scolded me when I told her that Heather would like anything that glittered.

“Noah Ryan, behave,” she scolded.

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied with a smirk.

Finally we came to the section of diamonds that were pear-shaped. I knew immediately that this was what my girl should have on her finger.

I’m snapped back from the memory when Heather bares her teeth, sinking them into my pec.

I grunt and look down at her. “It’s not nice to bite your fiancé, Heather.”

“It is if he likes it.” She giggles and sits up animatedly. “Can we go canoeing again? I loved it so much.”

“We can do whatever you want, but first I’m in dire need of a full breakfast.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal, handsome. I’ll go get ready, and we can head down. I think that I’ll order that hot chocolate again.” About to run her hand through her hair, she pauses to admire her ring. “I’m never taking this off.”

I laugh briskly and sit back to admire her face. “I’m glad you like it. Ellery made sure I put a lot of thought into it.”

“She did? She’s amazing, Noah. I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t wait to show the girls when we get back to the city.”

Heather swings her legs off of the bed and twirls once, before almost skipping to the bathroom to get ready for the day. I glance down at my watch on the nightstand and bolt out of bed.
Shit
.

“Heather? Don’t take too long. I don’t want them to close breakfast before we’re able to get down there.”

Her giggle makes my cock throb, and I have to keep my mind on breakfast. I walk into the bathroom to get ready too, while my hands grope her ass aggressively. “Mmm . . . you would think after last night that you ate enough,” she jokes as she raises onto her toes to get closer to me.

“I could never get enough.”

It doesn’t take us long to get ready and leave the room for breakfast. I make sure to smack her ass cheek before leading her out of our suite and down to the main dining room, where the smell of homemade breakfast wafts over us. I look down and she’s entirely oblivious to her surroundings. She’s back to looking at her hand. I chuckle and lean down to whisper in her ear, “Should I leave you two alone, or would you like to join us for breakfast?”

“Mmm? Us?” she asks quietly.

“Yes, us, you little shit,” Dillen announces loudly and jumps up from her seat.