Dazed and still lost in him, she blinked. “What?”
He smiled, his thumb tracing over her lower lip. “They’re stronger than lightning and rare, less expected. I never saw you coming. And every time I’m with you, touching you, kissing you, or just looking at you, I feel like my entire body is a live wire.”
“Superbolts,” she repeated softly.
He nodded. “Yup. You literally light me up inside, Jillian.”
Pressing both of her hands to his face, she squeezed it gently. “You’re already perfect for me. When you say things like that, it’s almost too much.”
He gave her one of his classic Levi grins. The one that said he wasn’t sorry at all and knew exactly how into him she was. “Want me to stop saying things like that?”
Jillian gave him a noisy kiss. “Don’t you dare.”
His hands wandered down to her hips. “Want one of your presents?”
“Now?” She let her gaze roam over him in his gray Henley that stretched over his chest, then followed with her hands.
With little effort, Levi lifted her and plopped her down beside him. Sliding one of the mini barn doors open on the coffee table, he pulled out an oddly shaped, somewhat messily wrapped gift. It was about the length of her hand and very narrow.
Handing it to her, he scooted back a bit on the couch. She tookthe gift. It was stiff, with a little ridge. When she looked up at him through lowered lashes he was smiling, but there was tension, or maybe nerves, peeking through as well.
“Unwrap it,” he urged.
Focusing on the present, Jillian tore at the holiday wrap to find a standard black pen, much like the ones she used at the lodge. This one, however, had a thin strip of paper wrapped around it.
“I am always running out of pens,” she teased.
Levi laughed, eased a little farther back, while Jillian picked at the tape carefully to unroll the paper.
Using both hands, Jillian held on to the pen while opening the curled paper.
WILL YOU MARRY ME?
Yes
Obviously
Absolutely
Jillian’s hand flew to her mouth automatically, covering her gasp. She dropped the pen and looked up at the same time to see Levi had slipped off the couch cushion to one knee. He held a stunning diamond solitaire on a thin platinum band between his thumb and index finger. His gaze was steady even though his hand shook just a little.
“You’ll need the pen. The note says it all but just in case you need to hear it, I love you, Jillian Keller. Nothing would make me happier than being your husband. I want to stand up in front of all of our friends and family and vow to spend the rest of my days loving you and sharing your life. Our life. I want to watch Ollie grow up with you, maybe have some more kids, travel, any of it, all of it. I want it all with you, Jillian. Will you be my wife?”
How was he talking? She couldn’t make words leave her mouth, so she nodded. Emphatically, her gaze jumping back and forth between the ring in his hand andhim.
“Use the pen, Jilly.”
She gave a watery laugh and picked it up off the floor, quickly putting large checkmarks in each one of the boxes.
Levi laughed and she tossed the pen and paper down, held out her hand.
“I love you,” he whispered as the ring slid perfectly onto her finger.
“I love you,” she said. “I can’t wait to marry you.”
He leaned up at the same time she leaned down, like they’d synchronized their movements.
Between kisses and laughter, some tears, and more laughter, he kept telling her how much she mattered, how much she meant. She said the same to him, marveling at the fact that, in some ways, her life hadn’t changed at all. She was in the living room she’d grown up in; the one she’d spent most of her Christmases in, in the small town she’d always considered home. But in other ways, absolutely everything was different. The familiarity mixed with the newness of it all was a kind of magic Jillian had never known. Levi Bright was the boy she’d loved and the man she’d marry. And while she’d learned the hard way that fairy tales weren’t real, she also knew the reality of spending every day with him was better than anything she could have ever imagined.
IT’S NEVER REALLY THE END.
