Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“What is your mom’s favorite color?” I asked as we started to the other side of the store.
“Blue and red.”
“Your dad’s?”
Wes shrugged. “I don’t think he has a favorite color.”
I tapped my chin as we walked down one of the aisles then stopped. “Your mom and dad are all about family, and their anniversary is only a couple weeks before Christmas. So why not make it about family with a Christmas theme? We could do a wall that has photos of them when they were dating, married, with the birth of each of you kids. Then some photos of the four kids throughout the years. The grandbabies as well.”
Wes smiled, clearly liking where I was going.
“We can do a red and white color theme. White plates with red napkins. The centerpiece can be beautiful flowers with white candles and berries used in the decorations.”
“Berries?” Wes asked.
Reaching for his hand, I pulled him toward the exit. “Where are we going?” Wes asked.
“We need to go to Hobby Lobby!”
“What in the hell is Hobby Lobby?”
With a squeal of delight, I said, “Just wait and see!”
Four hours later we were filling the backseat of Wes’s car with bags. “I can’t believe we got all this stuff.”
With a giggle, I said, “I never dreamed you would like Hobby Lobby.”
Wes slid into the driver’s seat of his BMW. “That place was amazing. I got that Christmas tree for my mother at half off! It was like a Christmas paradise!”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m glad you liked it. I haven’t been since I sold my car. I forgot how much I missed that store.”
“That place could be dangerous.”
“That place is dangerous, and the back seat of your car and trunk is proof. I cannot believe you talked that kid into delivering the Christmas tree to your condo.”
Wes chuckled. “Trust me, I am paying him handsomely to deliver it. That’s the only downside of having a smaller car, no room for a ten-foot tree.”
“It will look beautiful in your place though.”
He nodded. “I think so.”
I’ll get with Angie, Harmony, and Rory to plan on getting together to make the decorations.”
“What about me, Finn, and Preston?”
Looking at Wes, I said, “If you think they’ll want to help with it all.”
“I know they will. Plus, Finn and Preston can’t stand to be away from their wives for longer than an hour. It’s sickening.”
Sighing, I said, “What it would be like to be loved like that.”
The feel of Wes’s gaze on me made me look in his direction. “What?”
“Have you ever been in love?”
Laughing, I shook my head. “No. What about you?”
He gripped the steering wheel a bit harder. “Once.”
I quickly remembered last year Wes leaving a club with a woman. Rory had mentioned something about an old girlfriend. I instantly wanted to know who the woman was. “Who was it?”
“We dated through high school and college. I asked her to marry me before I moved to New York, and she turned me down.”
To say I was stunned by his admission was an understatement.
“I’m sorry, Wes.”
He gave a one-shoulder shrug.
“Why did she say no, if you don’t mind talking about it?”
“She wanted a life here in Boston.”
I turned and stared out the front window of his car as he pulled out of the parking lot. “I think if I ever found someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, that one person who was my soul mate, I’d follow them to the ends of the Earth if it meant we would stay together.”
Wes didn’t say anything at first, then asked, “What if it meant leaving behind your dreams?”
It was my turn to shrug. “Dreams can be made anywhere. But love, the kind of love that only comes along once in a lifetime, that kind of love is worth fighting for. Or at least, I think it is. I’ve never experienced it before, but I’ve seen it.”
“You believe in soul mates?”
Smiling, I reached for the locket around my neck. “I do. I’ve seen it firsthand with my own parents. When I was six, I couldn’t sleep one night and snuck out of bed, thinking I could go to the kitchen and get some of the chocolate chip cookies I’d made with my mom earlier that day. When I got to the second landing of the steps, I heard music. It was Elvis Presley’s ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ playing. My father and mother were dancing in the middle of the living room.”
I closed my eyes and smiled at the memory.
“The way my father looked at my mother with so much love. God, I remember you could almost feel it in the air. And she looked at him the same way. They still look at one another the same way to this day.”
Turning to look at Wes, I said, “I made a promise to myself that night that the man I married would have to look at me the way my father looked at my mother. That’s the only kind of love I want.”