Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 236(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Sister O’Halloran and the team thank us for a job well done. And they’re going to do it all again tomorrow as well!
I manage to convince Holly they can survive Christmas day without us and that we can and should have the time to ourselves, which she readily but wearily agrees to.
Already asleep in the car again before we get home, I slip Hank his Christmas bonus envelope before repeating the same thing, carrying my girl upstairs to bed.
“We’ll be taking a little break, Hank,” I let him know before he goes. Telling him he has until the first week of the New Year to himself, and I know he has enough cash to tide him over through it too.
“You’re too kind, Mr. Carter,” he says, eyes damp with emotion. But it’s the season for giving, and I should never have forgotten every time Hank was there for me all those years ago.
Holding Holly close in the elevator, it dawns on me.
I’m me again. I can remember everything from when I was a kid right up until I was mugged, met Holly, and now it’s like I have clear sight for the first time ever.
The future is so clear to me now as well. Our future.
Quietly opening our door, I lay her gently on the huge couch by the fire, stroking her face as she mews a half-asleep ‘I love you’ to me.
My hand moves to my breast pocket, and I find myself fidgeting.
Nervous for the first time in decades.
Someone’s laid out an awful lot of Christmas food on the dining table, but I can’t eat. Not at a time like this, and not because it’s all I’ve been looking at most of today.
I pace the whole penthouse repeatedly, ruffling my hair and chewing my lip. Even gnawing at my nails. Something I never do.
Why is this so hard? It should be the easiest….
“Steve? Steve, where are you?” I hear Holly call out.
Glancing at my watch as I dart back to the living room, I can see it’s past twelve.
Christmas day, officially.
“I thought you’d gone up to bed or…,” she says, but noticing the look in my eyes, she stops, asking if I’m alright.
“I’ve never been better,” I exhale. I instantly set down on my knee in front of her once she’s sat up, rubbing her eyes and blinking.
Even making the face I know I did when she sees all that food.
“What is it then?” she asks, sounding concerned now.
I swallow hard, trusting my gut and my heart on this one.
Willing to hedge every bet, every deal and everything I own on this one word I’ve longed to hear from her since I first laid eyes on her just a few days ago.
If I’d had it with me then, I may well have asked. But now’s the time. I feel it.
“Steve, you’re scaring me,” Holly says, touching the side of my face and moving it up to my forehead as if I have a fever.
I put my hand over hers, kissing her fingers and holding them out in front of her gently as I reach for the box in my pocket.
“Holly… I know it’s only been a few days. But I love you more than anything, I couldn’t live another day without you,” I say, my own breath catching when I see her own quickening.
Her clear blue eyes misting with tears. Her hand starting to shake a little.
Whether Madison did a good job or not, this is the one and only time in my life I have to ask this question. And Holly’s the only one I’ll ever ask, no matter what the reply.
Keeping her hand in mine, I thumb open the little red box, almost startling myself by the size of the shimmering, multi-cut diamond on a tiny white gold band.
“I wanted you the second I saw you, and now that I have you, I won’t let you go. Not for a minute. Just say yes, Holly,” I hear my voice rasp.
“Just say you’ll be my wife… Mother of our children… Teammates for life?”
It’s the lamest proposal I’ve ever heard, and if it was a business pitch, I’d be walking.
But Holly trembles some more, mouthing the only word I need to hear before I slip the ring on her finger.
Before she can say it aloud.
It fits perfectly. It is perfect, just like her.
“Yes,” she whispers, the rays of light from the stone dancing in her eyes as they fill with tears of joy, love, and everything neither of us have a word for.
“Yes. Yes. Yes!”
The silent snow outside falls a little heavier, lit by the muted fireworks plumes over the city skyline.
And I say a silent prayer of thanks, realizing that not only is heaven a real place we can experience in life, but it’s sometimes only as high up as the penthouse apartment of our building or the distance between two souls who’ve finally found each other.