I love that he loves Christmas.
I love that he makes everything fun.
I love how much he shows that he appreciates me.
I love the way he looks at me when he’s listening to me talk about anything.
I love the way he makes me feel.
I love how he’s willing to take on projects he’s never done before and just assumes he can do it.
I love the color of his eyes. The way his hair has the perfect amount of curl. The way he looks in a t-shirt. Actually, the way he looks in everything.
I love his problem-solving, creative, thoughtful mind.
I love how much he loves his daughter.
I love how he talks about Clara with such respect and that their relationship was so great that her parents would still claim him as their son. I love that it gives me confidence that he’ll always treat me with respect, too.
I love how willing he was to do our Christmas traditions, like cutting and hanging snowflakes.
I love how I can talk to him for hours and never run out of things to say.
I love how much he can make me laugh with just a text.
I love how hard he worked to make his house a home and how important that was to him.
I love how safe and cherished I feel when his arms are around me.
I love how great a kisser he is.
Before long, every inch of the page was filled, even the margins. Sometime in the past week or so, she’d started focusingon what the relationship was doing to her planned-out and ordinary schedule. But as she worked on the list, she realized how much beauty and depth a relationship with Nick brought to her life and how much she had loved shouldering everything together.
Her friends had pointed out that she never did anything for herself and wanted her to figure out what she wanted. She, Rachel, had her very own wants and needs. And she was starting to understand what those were. Beyond how awful she’d felt after ending things, making the list helped her to realize that what she most wanted was a relationship with this man who she had spent this season falling in love with.
She looked over at Aiden, who was biting his top lip as he was cutting a snowflake out of a piece of paper that he’d decorated with his markers, and said, “You really like Nick, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“I really do, too. Do you want to help me think of something we can do to get him back in our lives?”
Aiden put his snowflake and scissors down and swung his legs around to kneel on the chair, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. “Yeah! Like what kind of something?”
“I don’t know. We can brainstorm. Maybe something with a lot of helium balloons, or building two snowmen holding hands and then spelling out something in the snow. Or… making him giant gingerbread cookies. Oh! Maybe we could decorate that cute tree in his front yard with some kind of decorations that would, I don’t know…”
Aiden was looking at her with his head cocked, his eyebrows drawn together.
“What?”
“Why does it have to be something big like that? Holly said her dad has a picture of you from your date and he looks at it all the time when he doesn’t know she’s paying attention. She saidhe talks about you a lot, too. I think he really likes you. Can’t we just go over there and you say, ‘Hey I really like you, too. Let’s go on dates again’?”
She just stared at Aiden. He had this simplicity thing down. Whycouldn’tit be that simple? “Aiden,” she said, “you’re brilliant.” She kissed him on his forehead. “Go get your coat and gloves and hat. Let’s go over to his house.”
Aiden got his winter gear on in record time, he was so excited. Bailey was so excited. Rachel was so excited. The three of them piled into her car, and she pulled out of her driveway.
eighteen
NICK
