Nick stole a glance at Rachel and saw the most elated smile on her face. It must’ve meant a lot to her that this family that was soon to be her brother’s was also claiming them.
On Nick’s other side, Holly tugged on his coat sleeve, then she got to her knees so she could whisper in his ear, trying to surreptitiously point to Noelle’s mom. “If you and Rachel get married, will I be able to call her Grandma, too?”
The question caught him off guard so much that he was almost too stunned to answer. He hadn’t thought Holly would’ve connected so many dots with him and Rachel, and he wasn’t sure if he should be worried that she was starting to form connections with her friend’s uncles in-law.
“Um, I don’t know, honey. I guess we should wait and see.” It wasn’t the best answer, and he knew it. But he hadn’t prepared himself for questions like that.
“Would you like to dance?”Nick asked, holding a hand out to Rachel, who was seated at a table.
He soaked in the smile she gave him as she set down her drink and stood, putting her hand in his. When they reached a good spot on the dance floor, he put one arm around Rachel’s waist and held her hand with his other, just like his mom had taught him and his siblings all those years ago at the army base in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
As they moved to the music, so in sync, he reveled in the feel of her in his arms and felt himself fall for her just a bit more, like he had been all night.
Shortly after they’d arrived, he and Holly went with Aiden and Rachel, where Rachel and Katie were prepping Aiden to be the ring bearer. As they told Aiden about how special andimportant his role was and what exactly he needed to do, Nick could see Holly getting surlier and surlier.
He understood that Holly felt bad that Aiden was getting so much attention and was being assigned a cool job and Holly wasn’t. But the groom was someone very important in Aiden’s life and Holly had just barely met the guy.
Holly getting upset and jealous seemed to happen a lot lately, which told Nick that she was struggling to adjust to the big move. And since she didn’t know anyone well except for Aiden, she was kind of taking it all out on him. He was about to crouch down to Holly’s height and talk to her about it. What he’d say, exactly, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like anything he could say would make her less jealous in the moment.
But before he could, Rachel turned to Holly. “And I have a huge and important job I could use your help with.”
Holly perked right up, all signs of dejection falling from her demeanor. “You do?’
Rachel nodded and took her by the hand to a small table by the doors that led into the chapel. It held the guest book and a basket of something. She told Holly that they wanted all the guests to toss rose petals as the couple came back down the aisle after getting married and that each guest needed a pouch of roses. They’d be coming soon, and she wanted her to hand one to each guest.
He was sure that the plan had been to just leave the basket on the table for each guest to pick up their own, but by the time Rachel finished talking with Holly, Holly was convinced that her job was the most important one of the entire wedding. He’d watched Rachel as she’d pulled off the magic, feeling his chest warming, his heart being tugged, that she would care so much for his daughter. What she had done had completely changed how the evening was likely to go, and he was so grateful to her for it.
But his feelings hadn’t stopped at gratitude. He’d fallen some more. The kind that left his stomach whooshing.
He’d sat next to her during the wedding ceremony and watched as she’d beamed at her son, walking up the aisle in his little suit, acting so proper yet with a wide grin on his face, and he’d had the thoughtWhen Clara said she wanted me to get remarried, this was the kind of person she was imagining. And he fell for Rachel a bit more.
It was just Jack and Noelle and the officiant at the front of the room, which felt so perfect for the venue and the crowd. They’d both written their own vows, which made practically the entire chapel start reaching for the tissues. When Rachel’s brother said, “I had always hated Christmas and thought it was impossible to get past it,” Rachel grabbed Nick’s hand. He gave it a squeeze as Rachel sniffed, dabbing at her tears with a tissue in her other hand.
“You came along and changed everything,” Jack had said. “I spent most of my life figuring that I would never find ‘the one.’ Then you walked into my office for an interview and I knew that day that you were it. But I spent the next year and a half thinking that a relationship with you was impossible.” He’d smiled at Noelle. “I should’ve known that, once again, you’d find a way to make the impossible possible.
“I’ve seen it time and time again since then, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, knowing that nothing is impossible.”
He’d gotten choked up hearing Jack’s vows, too. Between the words, the way they were said, and the looks that Jack and Noelle had given each other, it was impossible not to.
“I wish my parents were here,” Rachel had said, her words barely a whisper. He looked over at her, studying her. She hadn’t talked much about them, but so many emotions filled her face. And then she’d leaned into him, putting her head on hisshoulder. So he put his arm around her shoulders and he felt himself fall further.
All during the refreshments and chatting with guests, whenever his eyes weren’t on Holly, they were on Rachel. Everything about her, from the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled, to how freely she laughed, to how she always seemed to have all the details of everything in her head and knew just when to check on something or get something, to how she made everyone around her feel made him feel like he was falling. Hopelessly falling.
And now that they were dancing together and all the emotions he’d been experiencing all night felt like they were wrapped in the bubble of the two of them dancing, he didn’t just feel like he was falling. He felt like he’d been pushed out of an airplane. The parachute hadn’t been deployed—he was just free-falling and taking in the landscape and the exhilarating feel of the wind rushing past his face.
A part of his heart had been so damaged when Clara died. But even though he’d known it had been damaged, he’d ignored it and pushed on because being a single dad was hard. Being a single dad who was grieving was even harder. Some things, like that pain in his heart, he’d just learned to live with. It had become his new normal.
But tonight, he’d felt things starting to shift and heal and not hurt so much. Just being around Rachel brought a lightness that he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
He swung her out and she laughed as she twirled back into him, ending with her back against his front, and he held her for a moment as they swayed to the music. He’d seen her laughing so much tonight. That had done something to his heart, too, especially when he was the one who had made her laugh. Feeling her close to him, her breath tickling his neck did something else to his heart and made him feel things he hadn’t for so long.
As they moved around the dance floor to a faster-paced song, they saw Holly making up crazy dances with Aiden and Noelle’s nieces and nephews. Holly looked so happy. Maybe her heart was healing, too.
“There’s so much I still don’t know about you,” Nick said. “And I find myself wanting to know everything.”
Rachel smiled. “Me, too. What’s your favorite topping on a pizza? I mean, it’s not the deepest question ever, but if we’re ever going to share a pizza, it’s vital information to know ahead of time.”
So she was thinking about the future and seeing him in it. He was smiling with his whole face when he said, “Can it even be called a pizza if there isn’t pepperoni on it? But my favorite beyond that is black olives.”
