13. Wyatt

13

wyatt

“ D addy, are you paying attention? They’re about to tell us who won!” Lucy cries, tugging on my hand.

Honestly? I wasn’t paying much attention to the stage because I was staring at Josie, unable to pull my eyes away from her. She’s standing beside me, laughing at the story that Grams is telling her about Lucy, her pretty red-painted lips curved in a broad smile that takes my breath away.

I don’t think I’ll ever stop being taken by surprise by how beautiful she is. How perfectly she fits with Lucy and me. How right it feels to have her standing next to me as if we’re already a family.

Something I can only dream about happening.

“Yeah, bug.” I smirk, peering down at Luce. “I’m paying attention. But you know, even if we don’t win, you still get to meet Santa, right?”

She nods, giving me a slight huff. “Yes, but I want to ride with him on the float and throw candy.”

Of course she does, and I want her to be able to too, but even if we didn’t win the competition today, I think I still won.

Because I’ve got her and Josie.

I nod as I reach for Lucy’s hand, threading my fingers in hers, squeezing reassuringly.

“Is she nervous?” Josie whispers near my ear, and I nod, turning to look at her. Worry mars the space between her brows, furrowing it deeply, and I chuckle.

“She’s fine. She’s a lot like you in the way that she’s competitive as hell. She wants to ride with Santa.”

“I hope we win,” Josie finally says, reaching for my other hand, slightly surprising me. I know she’s been… more hesitant about things with us, despite the incredible sex we’ve had and how amazing the last few weeks have been.

I understand her feelings, and I wasn’t lying when I said that I would wait for however long she needed. I’m in this for the long haul, and I intend to prove that to her.

Not just for me but for Lucy too.

Last night, when I was putting her to sleep, tucked beneath her pink mermaid covers, she looked at me and asked, “Daddy, are you less grumpy because Miss Josie loves you?”

I almost swallowed my damn tongue.

“What do you mean?” I’d asked.

She chewed the corner of her lip, pushing her hair out of her face. “It’s just… one time Miss Josie said that when people are grumpy, sometimes they just need extra love. I think you’re not so grumpy now because you have my love and Miss Josie’s. Right?”

There’s no question that I love Josie. I’ve always loved Josie.

I loved her as a kid, and I love her now as a man.

And… it’s important to me that Lucy’s okay with that. Because she will always come first. She will always be the most important thing in my life.

So for a moment, I hesitated, mulling over the right response in my head before I finally said, “Would you be okay if Miss Josie loved me? And if I loved Miss Josie too?”

There wasn’t a single second of hesitation in my daughter’s face as her eyes lit up, and she nodded, a wide, toothless, yet very sleepy smile splitting her face. “Yes! I love Miss Josie sooo much, so I think you should too, Daddy.”

Her little eyes fluttered shut a few minutes later, and she drifted off to sleep.

So, she didn’t hear me as I whispered, “I already do, bug.”

It was a pivotal moment, even though I know my five-year-old didn’t realize how important it was, but having her blessing means everything to me.

The sound of Mayor Davis tapping on the microphone as he walks onto the stage pulls me from the memory of last night. I feel Lucy’s fingers tighten in mine, and I laugh.

This girl.

Mayor Davis’s pudgy cheeks are rosy as he walks further onto the stage. Today’s outfit is no less festive than all the rest have been. He’s got on a full three-piece suit in bright red velvet, paired with a green top hat with a plaid ribbon. Truly never fails to surprise me.

“Good afternoon, everyone! Today is finally the day. I know you have all been working very hard to complete this year’s list, and I am excited and proud to announce the winner of our annual Christmas List competition!”

A sea of applause sounds around the packed town square as the crowd’s excitement ramps up. It seems like everyone in town participated this year. I guess Mayor Davis was right. Even though I originally wasn’t interested at all in doing the competition or any of the festive shit at first, the competition really did get everyone involved and in the Christmas spirit. It definitely has made this Christmas one to remember.

Though, for me, it’s not only the list that’s responsible for that.

“I just want to say thank you to everyone for participating and for really working so hard to bring the entire town of Strawberry Hollow together to celebrate the season. After all, it’s the entire reason we have this competition in the first place.” He smiles and reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out a gold envelope, raising it above his head and twirling it through his fingers. “Now, without further ado, this year’s winners are…”

There’s a dramatic pause, one that nearly electrifies the crowd, including my daughter, who’s bouncing around on the tips of her toes. “Team Rowdy Reindeers! Congratulations! You will be riding with Santa in today’s parade!”

My jaw falls open as he announces our team. Lucy screams, jumping up and down with the biggest smile I think I’ve ever seen her wear, and she runs to Josie, who joins in the cheering and jumping.

God, I love these girls.

These Christmas-obsessed girls of mine.

“Daddy!” Lucy exclaims. “We won! Can you believe it!”

I laugh, shaking my head. “I can’t, bug. Go on, go up there and meet Santa.”

The crowd around us is cheering and clapping, and that only seems to make Lucy more excited. She doesn’t have to be told twice.She drops Josie’s hands, turning and sprinting for the stage.

I can feel Josie step back beside me, her hand slipping in mine, and when I glance down at her, those beautiful brown eyes are full of unshed tears.

“What’s wrong, honey?” I say, turning to slip my hands around the edge of her jaw, cradling her in my palms.

“I’m just… I’m happy, Wyatt. I’m so happy that it feels like my heart might actually burst,” she whispers quietly, so quietly that I can barely hear her over the buzz of the crowd.

“If you’re happy, then I’m happy, Josie girl.”

I watch as the column of her throat moves as she swallows, giving me a sweet smile. “I need to say something, Wyatt.”

“What’s going on?” My brow lifts, a sliver of anxiousness coursing through me.

Fuck, I hope I haven’t pushed her too ha?—

“I love you, Wyatt Owens. I have loved you since I was ten years old. Even when you weren’t here, a part of me loved you.”

Holy shit.

I’m still trying to let her words, the words I’ve been desperate to hear, sink in when she continues, those unshed tears now freely falling and wetting her cheeks. “It just… took a little while for my head to catch up with my heart. My heart seems to have always known that we’d somehow find our way back to each other. Even when I was too afraid to admit it.” She blows out a shaky breath and then sucks in an inhale as if trying to collect herself. “Wyatt, I’ve been living in the hurt of our past, and that’s not fair to either of us.”

“Josie…” I start, but she shakes her head in my hands, and I sweep a fresh tear away.

“Let me finish, please. I can’t wait another moment to tell you this,” she whispers, peering up at me through tear-soaked lashes, continuing when I nod. “I’m scared. Terrified, really. But last night, spending time with you and Lucy at home, doing nothing… I realized how much doing nothing with you means to me. How every moment I spend with both of you, I never stop smiling. My heart never stops squeezing at all of these little moments that, before you, I never considered to be special but that are now so incredibly special to me.” Josie pauses, laughing on a watery sob. “I realized that there’s nowhere else I would rather be than with you. Both of you. There’s no one else that I could imagine spending my Christmas with. There’s no one else that I would rather do a Christmas competition with and jump into freezing water that stole my breath. You steal my breath every single day, Wyatt Owens.”

Her dark eyes hold mine, burning into me, searing their way into my heart in a way that I know will never fade.

I can’t believe she’s saying that she feels the way I do.

Fuck, how often have I wished for this very moment in the last few weeks? Willing her to take my hand and jump with me.

“So what I’m saying is that I love you, I love your daughter, and I don’t need time or to think about that. I want to be with you, and I trust that you’ll protect my hear?—”

I lower my mouth to hers before she can even finish, cutting her off with a kiss that I feel in the depths of my damn soul, and I know that she does, too, by the way her hands fist in the front of my shirt and she sighs against my lips. I can feel it in the way she touches me, the way she kisses me back.

Josie may have been afraid to say it out loud or to even admit to herself what was happening between us, but I knew. From the moment I saw her again, I knew. I just needed to give her a second to get to where I was, and when she finally did?

It would feel just like this.

Like she was made for me, every inch of her, heart and soul.

I pull back and stare down at her, wearing a lovesick smile because I can’t help it, even if I tried.

“Finally, you caught up with me, honey.” I chuckle when her lip tilts. “I was waiting for you. I would’ve waited forever if that’s what it took, Josie. I love you, and I’m not ever going to let another day go by where I don’t show you that.”

Her arms wind around my neck as she lifts on her toes and presses her lips to mine again. Red lipstick be damned, I’m going to kiss Josie Pearce wherever and whenever I want.

“We’ve got a lot of time to make up for, honey.”

“We do. Good thing we make such a good team, then, huh?” she replies.

“The best team. It’s me, you, and Luce forever, Josie. All I need is my girls, and I’ll be the happiest man in the world,” I whisper against her lips, dropping my forehead against hers.

“You’ve got us, Wyatt Owens. Always.”

Standing in the middle of Town Square, my daughter on the stage laughing gleefully as she holds Santa’s hand and the woman of my dreams in my arms, the only thing I can help but think is…

The only Christmas wish I’ve ever made has finally come true.

THE END