Four days later they were walking around Manhattan giddily close to each other as they took in all of the Christmas decorations.
“I can’t believe you’ve never done this before,” Melanie said. “With you being such a fan of the holidays and not living all that far away from the city, I would have thought you would have come here at least once in your life.”
“I’ve been to the city before,” he mildly corrected, “just never at Christmas. I mean, why? I live in a town that has the greatest celebration. I don’t need anything more than that.”
She looked up at him as if he were crazy.
And he kind of was.
As much as the little town of Silver Bell Falls was starting to grow on her, there was no way anyone could compare its holiday fanfare to what they were seeing right now. And as much as she wanted to point that out to Josiah, she figured it was one of those things best kept to herself. Instead, Melanie focused on finding them a place to warm up and get something to eat.
“So, what are we in the mood for? You won’t find food like this anywhere.”
“Now that’s something I definitely remember from when I was here last.”
“And when was that?”
“I don’t know…maybe when I was twelve?”
“Josiah!” she cried. “Seriously, how could that have been the last time you were here? I don’t understand that!”
He shrugged his good shoulder. “You know I’m not a touristy kind of guy and coming here, that’s what you have to be.”
Stopping in her tracks, she turned and faced him. “Then why did you agree to come with me? If you don’t enjoy this kind of thing, why bother?”
As Josiah was prone to do, he gave her a patient smile. The man was seriously too laid back and sometimes she wanted to rattle his cage and get more of a response from him.
“I came because I wanted to spend time with you,” he said easily. “This is where you needed to be. It’s not often that I have a lot of free time and—I’ll admit—I was banking up my vacation time and saving it for our honeymoon but…”
“But what? We’re still taking a honeymoon,” she gently chided him. “And you’re on a medical leave of absence right now. No one’s counting this against your accumulated time. Because if they are then…”
“Okay, okay, okay,” he quickly interrupted and soothed her, gently caressing her cheek. “Don’t get all worked up. I wasn’t implying that anyone was taking my time away from me.”
“Oh,” she said with relief. “Okay. Good.” Tilting her head a little, she asked, “Then what were you going to say?”
With a soft laugh, Josiah took her hand and started walking again. “I was going to say that we still don’t have a wedding date and we haven’t talked about honeymoons either.” He looked down at her and grinned. “We’re seriously bad at this planning thing.”
She knew he was right. Even after she used that as part of her argument not to come to the city, once she changed her mind and asked him to come with her, all of their time and energy had been put into making travel plans and making sure Josiah was okay to fly. Then there was a lot of time convincing him how it was okay to be away from town for several days and that crime would not start running rampant if he were gone. His deputies were more than competent and he knew it, but…he didn’t want to admit it.
Either way, travel plans had been the hot topic and somehow the wedding talk had gotten postponed.
Again.
“Then it looks like we have a topic for our dinner conversation,” she said with a big grin. “So let’s…” Her words were cut off when she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. They stepped to the side of the sidewalk as she pulled it out. “It’s Christine,” she said, holding up the phone for Josiah to see the screen.
Answering, she listened to her editor while watching Josiah who seemed more than a little unimpressed with the amount of people walking around.
“Uh-huh…”
Why couldn’t he just enjoy himself? It wasn’t as if she were asking him to move here. This was just a few days of fun, playing tourist and getting away from their everyday life to distract him while he healed.
“So, what do you say?” Christine asked excitedly.
“Um…I’m sorry. What?”
“I said you and Josiah should join me for dinner! There’s an amazing Italian restaurant right next to your hotel and I’m not far from there. Come on, Mel. We can all meet up and talk about the meeting tomorrow!”
“Josiah and I are out right now and I’m not sure what our plans are,” she said carefully, looking at him to see how he might feel about it.
Reading her mind, he looked at her and nodded. Melanie knew he’d agree to go even if he didn’t want to because he was fully supportive of her career, but again, just once she wished he’d be a little unreasonable.
Sighing, she said, “Sure. How about we meet you there in thirty minutes?”
“Perfect! See you then!”
Sliding the phone back into her pocket, she looked up at him. “You totally could have said no to that.”
“You could’ve too,” he countered.
Touché.
“I know,” she said wearily, “but she caught me off guard and we were just talking about what we wanted to talk about over dinner and now we can’t and…”
“Mel, it’s all right. We’ll go and have dinner with Christine and then we have all night to talk. Hell, we have the rest of our lives to talk so…we’re good.”
Frowning, she looked up at him and had a strong urge to stomp her foot. “You know you can get mad at me sometimes, right?”
Now he looked confused. “Why would I be mad at you?”
“Isn’t it obvious? It’s like I keep finding excuses to keep us from planning our wedding!” Even as the words came out, Melanie was a bit horrified that she was saying them out loud.
The laughter she was met with wasn’t quite the response she was expecting either.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are,” he said, still chuckling.
“I don’t see how,” she murmured.
“We can both agree that we put off this discussion because we were building the house, right?”
She nodded.
“Then I got shot,” he added lightly and Melanie was amazed at how he could even remotely joke about it. “So that sort of put our conversation on hold that day.
“Not funny, Josiah…”
“Then we had to plan the trip,” he went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “Going to dinner with Christine doesn’t mean we can’t talk about the wedding. It just means we have to talk about it later.”
“Fine. But we have to promise that we will,” she urged.
Leaning down, he kissed her soundly and everything in her instantly relaxed as she kissed him back. When he lifted his head, he smiled down at her. “I promise.”
****
And he meant it.
He truly did.
But when Christine was the one to bring up the subject, Josiah couldn’t help but smile a bit to himself.
“So?” Christine asked midway through the main course. “Have you guys set the date yet? You’re in the new house and all and I know that was what you were waiting for.” She looked expectantly between the two of them.
“Funny you should bring it up because that’s what we were talking about when you called,” Melanie replied around a sip of wine. “This last week has been crazy and it seems like we keep getting distracted.”
Nodding, Christine took a sip of her own wine before responding. “Well, I would imagine Josiah’s accident took precedence over everything!” Then she looked at Josiah and smiled. “Although I have to admit, if Melanie hadn’t told me what happened, gunshot wound would not even cross my mind!”
“I was fortunate,” he said, hoping he sounded modest. “It could have been a lot worse.” Melanie instantly reached for his hand and he saw the tears in her eyes. They’d spent a lot of time talking about how scared she was and he had to admit, the situation had scared him as well. In all his years of living in Silver Bell Falls and as the sheriff, nothing like this had ever happened. And as much as he tried to comfort Melanie and assure her that he was fine and this was an isolated incident, he knew it was all too new and too fresh in their minds for them to simply gloss over.
Kissing Melanie’s hand, he smiled at her and looked at Christine. “It was a clean shot and other than being really sore, I’m good. Now I’ll have a couple of weeks off to sit around and hopefully start planning a wedding.”
Which—if they ever got to it—would be a great distraction.
Christine’s smile was bright as she looked at the two of them. “Do you have any ideas about when you want to do it? A summer wedding? Fall?”
Melanie looked at him briefly before responding. “I was thinking spring—you know, flowers blooming, warmer temperatures…”
“Ooo…that does sound nice.” Christine looked at Josiah. “Is that what you’re thinking too?”
In that moment, he was almost afraid to look at Melanie but…
“I was hoping for a Christmas wedding,” he said, his gaze focused on Christine and Christine only.
Her eyes went wide and if possible, her smile broadened. “Oh, that would be fantastic! And in your little Christmas town too!” She gasped and then looked at Melanie. “You would make a beautiful winter bride, Melanie!”
Beside him, he heard Melanie’s groan but if Christine did, she chose not to comment on it.
“And really, why wait? The two of you have been together for so long now and everyone can see how you were meant to be since the moment you met! On top of that, think of how much of the work would be done for you because everything around you would be so beautifully decorated and…”
Josiah tuned out at that point because he could tell Melanie was only half-listening. He squeezed her hand in encouragement and offered her a smile when she looked at him. Unfortunately, he could tell she was getting a little annoyed at yet another positive response to the mention of a Christmas wedding.
Clearing his throat, he interrupted Christine. “We have a lot to take into consideration, but we hope to make a decision soon.” Then he changed the subject to the food they were eating and that seemed to do the trick. The remainder of the meal was spent talking about their meeting tomorrow and all the ways this movie deal would help boost Melanie’s career. And at that point, he was more than happy to sit back and listen because really, what he wanted most was for Melanie to be happy and successful.
Writing was a passion of hers and he knew that even though it sometimes came across as being a burden, she loved it. The publishing world was forever changing and it was getting harder for her to find ways to stand out in a sea of talented writers. He hoped this movie would help her achieve her goal.
He was learning so much about her job and he had to admit he had no idea so much went into it. At first glance, he thought, okay, you get an idea for a story and you write it. Boy, was he wrong. There was so much more to it and he was in awe of how talented she was and how she balanced everything she needed to do—writing, editing, marketing, promoting, cover designing…it was exhausting just thinking about it.
When the meal was over, they thanked Christine and promised to see her tomorrow. Well, Melanie did. There was no reason for Josiah to go with her. It wouldn’t look particularly professional for him to be there and besides, he planned on doing a little sight-seeing or shopping while she was out. It wasn’t his favorite way to pass the time but he figured it was the best option for him.
Since the restaurant was right next to the hotel, their walk back should have been short. All he wanted was to go to their room and relax, but they weren’t far from Rockefeller Center and Melanie begged to go see the tree with its lights on.
How could he say no?
The temperature was cold but he was used to that. The constant throngs of people—however—were really starting to grate on his nerves. But when they turned that corner and the massive Christmas tree came into view, it almost made the whole trip worth it.
Beside him, Melanie chatted excitedly about how beautiful it all was and how she couldn’t believe how she’d never noticed it before and he had to admit, he loved hearing that. There was no way he could imagine her going through the rest of her life hating Christmas the way she had when he first met her. And as much as he loved the holiday, it was incredible to be experiencing it through her eyes.
They were overlooking the ice skaters and Josiah stood behind her and wrapped his good arm around her. “It’s kind of amazing, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “You see it on TV but it doesn’t do it justice. I mean…the energy, the vibe in the air is just…it’s infectious!”
Chuckling, he placed a kiss on her temple. “I was looking forward to going back to the room, but I’m glad we came down here to see this.”
The amount of people walking around them was staggering. Hell, the number of people doing the exact same thing as they were doing—simply standing and watching the skaters—was staggering.
“Look at that couple,” she said softly.
He laughed again. “You’ll have to be a little more specific. There’s a lot of them down there.”
“The older couple in the middle. She’s wearing a red coat with a white scarf and he’s got on the black coat…”
“With the red scarf,” he finished for her. They were an elderly couple—although from this distance he’d be hard-pressed to say how old. “I see them.”
“Look how happy they are,” she said with wonder. “I bet they’ve been coming here to skate for years.”
“It’s possible.” Although they could be tourists…
“I bet they’ve been coming here since they were young. Maybe this is where they met and fell in love.”
Ah…the romance writer in her was coming out. He wasn’t often privy to her creative process and this small glimpse seemed a little like a gift. “You think so, huh?”
Nodding, she said, “I bet right now they’re talking about how crowded it is now and how it never used to be this way. He’ll complain about it because that’s what men do…”
“Hey!”
“And she’ll tell him that this is the way it’s supposed to be—especially at this time of year.” She sighed dreamily. “They’ll talk about bringing the grandkids with them next weekend because that’s what they do and it will make for a wonderful memory.”
If anything, he fell a little more in love with her in that moment. The whimsical side of her was in slight contrast to the practical woman she normally was. He kissed her temple again. “That would definitely make for a wonderful memory.”
She nodded again and slowly turned in his arms. “We should have a memory like that.”
He looked at her curiously. “I’m not graceful enough on skates under normal conditions. I have a feeling with this sling I’d be at a real disadvantage.”
Laughing, she rested her head on his chest. “Not skating,” she said softly and when she looked up at him again, all traces of humor were gone and she looked…contemplative. Serious.
“Mel? You okay?”
A slow smile played at her lips. “You know what? I am. I really think I am.”
That seemed a little…cryptic, but he decided to wait her out.
“Skating wasn’t the memory I was talking about,” she said slowly, as if she wanted him to fully understand what she was getting at.
“O-kay…”
“Josiah Stone, you’ve opened my eyes to a world I had shut off. And as we’ve walked around the city today all I could think of was how wonderful everything looked, felt.” She paused and took a steadying breath and let it out slowly. “And I think…I think we can make something this magical for ourselves.”
He was afraid to get his hopes up, afraid he was reading her wrong. “So you’re saying…?”
“I’m saying…let’s get married for Christmas!”