9. Evan

Evan

L ight filtered behind my eyes, and I blinked awake, finding a head of sandy hair under my chin. I lifted my head and wiggled my fingers, trying to bring some life back into my limbs. My right arm was under Holly's head, dead. My left was draped over her naked body.

And my cock was hard against her lower back. Didn't need to wake up that part of me.

After a lot of orgasms and a few more beers last night, I couldn't remember when exactly we'd made our way upstairs to bed. But I do know we hadn't slept like this, snuggled with each other, in months. Maybe more than a year.

I flopped onto my back and scrubbed my free hand down my face, my gaze on the ceiling.

It was Christmas Eve, the last day the farm would be open for the year. The last day for "sleigh rides" around the farm, which was really a truck decked out with wreaths and lights. Santa and Mrs. Clause would turn up for pictures for kids, people would drink hot chocolate and buy up the last of our bakery items, and we'd sell off the last of our trees. The entire family would come, all of my siblings, including Julie, who would fly up from Texas, so we could all celebrate.

And, hopefully, we'd have one more reason to.

Next to me, Holly inhaled a little snuffle. She always woke up with a hiccupped breath in the morning. It was adorable.

I twisted back around her, kissing the back of her neck. "Morning."

She stretched her arms above her head and legs out long, yawning. "Morning."

"How do you feel?"

She wiggled against me. "Tired."

"Tired?" I landed a slap on her ass and then squeezed. "You rubbing up on my cock like this doesn't feel like you're tired."

"You don't feel tired either."

"'Cause I'm not." I rolled her onto her back, easing her legs apart with mine. "I feel better than I have in a long time."

I bent, taking one of her nipples in my mouth, and she moaned, raking her fingers over my back. "Again?"

"Yes, again." I skated my hand over her stomach and slipped two fingers along the seam of her pussy, gently pushing inside. "Let me have one more."

"We have to get up," she said, even as she squirmed, widening her legs, pressing her mouth against my throat. She was warm and pliant, unselfconscious in how she arched into me, silently begging for more, and I sucked on her collarbone.

"Let me give you one more," I rasped against the soft skin of her breast then licked the tip.

"You gave me enough last night."

I shook my head. "I'm greedy."

She tightened the hold of her fingers in my hair, forcing me to look at her. "You know sex doesn't make everything better, right?"

"I know that. But it doesn't hurt either." I teased my fingertips in soft circles on her clit until she sighed, arching her neck. "I once promised you that you'd never regret agreeing to marry me." I urged her legs around my waist and brought the head of my cock to her entrance, gliding it up and down. "You gave up your life in New York City to move back home with me, and I took you for granted. I'm sorry." I made sure I had her eyes on mine before I slid home. "I know we have a lot to talk about, a lot to change, but I promise you won't regret it."

"I miss you," she whispered, her eyes turning glassy. "I miss us ."

Positioning my hands on the outside of her shoulders, I took my time, moving in shallow thrusts, never once taking my gaze from hers. "I'm going to be better. I'm going to make more time."

"How?"

"I'm hiring a field manager. I worked it out with Aiden. January first, we'll be putting up the job posting. No more ten and twelve-hour days. I'll be home before five, I promise. No weekends. No more early mornings."

"You think you can really do that?"

She wasn't asking if the farm could handle me taking time away. She was asking if I could personally manage to stay away.

I nodded. "I've missed you, too."

Then she pulled me down to her for a biting kiss, and I let my weight drop onto her, allowing us to simply hold each other, sink into this feeling again—that we were one, together forever. It had always been Holly and me, and I would quite literally do anything, give up anything for her.

I shifted us to our sides and held her leg up, thrusting deeper into her. "Holly, baby, I love you so fucking much. It tears me apart when you cry."

But that only made her glassy eyes overflow. I wiped a streak from her cheek. "Please don't cry. I'll fix it."

She laughed through her tears. "You can't fix it."

My heart stopped, and I froze.

"Evan, we have to fix it. You can't keep thinking you have to do everything on your own. That's why everything went wrong in the first place."

I bowed my head, breathing in relief.

She kissed my forehead then placed her fingers around my jaw, forcing my chin up. "You don't owe me anything. I gave up modeling and New York City because I wanted to, and I don't expect you to work so hard to make my life perfect."

"I'm just so grateful for you," I said as she tightened her leg around me, pushing me to my back so she was on top. And, fuck. "You look so good like this." I grabbed hold of her tits. "You feel so good."

"My life is perfect because you're in it," she murmured, rotating her hips to get what she needed, and I played with her nipples.

"I want you to marry me."

She laughed, dropping her head back to her shoulders, her skin reddening as she groaned. "I'm close."

"I know. I know. And I want you to marry me tonight. In front of the girls and our family."

She breathed heavily, her hips speeding up, her inner muscles clenching. "Once wasn't enough for you?"

"I'm greedy." I licked my thumb and rubbed her clit, helping her over the edge, and she broke with a low cry of pleasure. I followed immediately and towed her to me, her belly against mine, her head on my shoulder. "I have something for you."

"Not another orgasm, I hope."

"No." I chuckled and kissed her shoulder as I helped her to move off me. I handed her a tissue before she sauntered gloriously naked to the bathroom, her ass swaying with each step. I cleaned myself up too and pulled on a pair of underwear so I could get her present.

When she walked back out of the bathroom, she plucked one of my T-shirts from the closet and tugged it over her head. Her hair was a mess, and she looked like she could use a strong cup of coffee, but she was also smiling brightly, her brown eyes glowing brighter than any Christmas lights.

And I knew we'd be okay.

I held out the bracelet to her when she was close enough.

"What's this?"

"I made it."

She ran her fingers over the woven strings of white, gray, and dark red.

"Well…the girls helped me make it."

"You made me a bracelet?"

"Like the one you made me." Then I showed her the one I'd kept hidden behind my back, and she gasped. I'd stopped wearing it sometime in college because it had broken from being so old and worn, but I never threw it away. I think she'd assumed I did. "The girls fixed it. That's why it looks…different." They'd done their best, re-braiding the strings with new ones. It was much thicker than the original one Holly had made me over twenty years ago.

"Oh, my god." She covered her mouth with her hand. "I can't believe you still have it."

"Of course I do. Here." I tied her bracelet on and then held my wrist out so she could tie on mine. "Friends forever."

She grinned at me. "Friends forever."

I wrapped her up, lifting her feet off the floor, and she grunted out a breath, both of us laughing like kids as I spun us around. Once I finally set her down, I kissed her. "Marry me again."

"Yes. Yes, I'll marry you again."

And that's how we found ourselves in the barn, decorated to the hilt in garland and lights, with me in a button down and Holly in my favorite burgundy dress and our girls between us, smiling, as we promised, in front of our friends and family, to love and care for each other all the days of our lives.

"You may kiss the bride," my dad said, dressed up as Santa. Mom, Mrs. Claus, clapped and threw fake snow at us.

But it was Ari who tugged at my hand. "Daddy, real snow!"

Riley led the charge outside, Ari on her heels. Ryan sprinted out, shouting about a snowball fight, though I doubted there was enough to make ammunition. But with how the rest of the family followed, it seemed a proper battle was ensuing.

Except for me and Holly. We watched them giggling and rolling on the ground, the snowflakes slowly but increasingly becoming heavier. My wife shivered in my arms, so I held her closer, draped my arm around her.

Home . Wrapped up in Holly.

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