Chapter Forty-Six
Two days before Christmas we pulled up to our Utah home. This was my favorite place on earth. I loved the beach house, but this is where we fell in love. As we got out of the car, I paused and stared up at the massive house.
Before Garrick had proposed, I said this place should be filled with love. And now it was.
This would be the place we reconnected. Unbeknownst to Garrick, the doctor cleared me for sex two days ago. It had been excruciating to wait, knowing I could have him inside me. But I wanted it to be special.
It had been hard to keep it secret.
These last two days were good. I saw Brooke each day, which helped me process and sort some of my thoughts.
“The future isn’t for us to understand. It’s for us to live.”
The words settled me. She always knew what to say to create deep thoughts while I debated what to do. I never felt pressured or guided to the path she wanted.
The freshly fallen snow and the clean mountain air did my heart wonders. Before we ascended the stairs, Garrick scooped me into his arms and carried me across the threshold. “You’ve already done this one.” I laughed.
“Just being thorough.”
“In all things, Mr. Shaw.”
He gave me a playful wink. I kept my focus on Garrick to see what he thought upon entering. Inside the house, Garrick paused and set me down, not saying a word.
Earlier this week, I’d arranged for the house to be decorated simply, like the Christmas with his mom rocking him that he remembered. The tree was near the fireplace. Two stockings hung on the mantle. And that was it. Underneath the tree was one wrapped present.
“When did you do this?”
I walked up and tapped his nose. “You’re not the only one who can do things on the sly. We’re going to check off one of your bucket-list items.”
He whispered., “A simple Christmas. You remembered.”
“Yes. I remember everything about you.” I used the words he so often spoke to me. “No phones. No technology. Just you and me come Christmas Eve.”
He picked me up and spun us around. “This is the best Christmas gift I could ever ask for.”
This was happiness. Pure and simple happiness.
~ ~ ~
Garrick hung up the phone. “It’s official. I’m putting my phone away. Hastings confirmed no one is the wiser about who killed Navarro. The investigation has been closed to the furnace blowing up in the house.”
“Good. I’m glad we have that behind us.”
“Me, too.”
The relief on Garrick’s face was evident as he rolled his shoulders.
So far, no one had come knocking on anyone’s door regarding his death. After the fire Hastings had set at the house, there had been no trace of anything left. And now, people scrambled to take over his territory. Since the Monroes weren’t vying for it, people left them alone. They hadn’t mentioned it, but it felt like they were distancing themselves from that lifestyle. Time would tell.
The fire crackled in our bedroom where I’d had another Christmas tree put up. Our Christmas Eve had been perfect—a day of napping, watching Christmas movies, and enjoying each other—and I thought sleeping next to the fire on the bedlike floor would be an amazing way to wake up on Christmas morning.
Garrick stood at the window, watching the heavy snowfall. Something seemed to be on his mind. I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. “What are you thinking about?”
“How perfect my life is.”
I kissed his shoulder, feeling the warmth from his words. “It is. With you it is, Garrick. Only because of you.”
Turning, he ran his hands up and down my arms. “When we get back, I think we should look at buying a house. Something like this we could make a home.”
“What are you going to do with the place on the beach?” We got married at the beach house. Though it was beautiful, Garrick never stayed there, preferring his apartment above the office.
“That was never a home. I’m going to sell it to the company. Let it be used for functions and meetings. I want us to pick out a home. Together. Maybe build. I have some different parcels of land we could look at and see if there was one you liked.”
Build a house. Something only for us. “I like the sound of that. Will it be a cabin, too?”
When Garrick first brought me to Utah, he’d said we were staying in a cabin. Clearly we had two different definitions of the word. Garrick chuckled. “I think a cabin like this will do quite nicely.”
“Can we look at the land next week before I go back to work?”
“Yes, I’ll make the arrangements. When do I get to open my present?”
Earlier, I moved the present from downstairs to in here, under the tree. “When would it make it the perfect Christmas for you?”
With Garrick’s love of patience, I knew the answer. “Right now.”
I giggled. “Okay, you can open it.”
Like a child on Christmas morning, Garrick went to the tree and grabbed the present. He tore into it and pulled out two smaller boxes. One had a number one printed on the top. “This one first?”
“Yes.”
He opened and found a silver watch.
“Read the inscription.”
On the back it said:
You are every hope and dream I’ve ever had.
“I know you have a watch, but when I met you…time started over for me.”
Garrick tilted the watch. “What’s on the second hand?”
I kissed him. “Emerald dust. Your steadiness, like a second hand, keeps me grounded.”
His eyes shot to mine as he put the watch on. Garrick knew how much I loved his green eyes. “I will treasure this always and be there for you in all things. I love you, Knoah.”
“Love you, too. Now open the second one.”
He tore into the paper covering the second box and saw the note in the bottom of the black box.
What you seek is in the fridge.
“What’s this?”
I shrugged and winked. “I guess you’ll have to go find out. You’re going to have to work for this present.”
Taking off, Garrick hurried out the door. Crap, that left me with little time. I hurried to the bathroom and stripped off my clothes. My red silk lingerie had been hidden under some towels.
With no time to spare, I raced to the floor in front of the fireplace and lay down on my side.
Whew. That was fast. I worked on calming my breathing. It wasn’t very sexy to have someone nearly out of breath sprawled on the floor. Garrick came back through the door with the bottle of champagne and two glasses. In the fridge had been a note saying “Take this back to your wife.”
His eyes fell to mine and widened. The desire flared in them but then cleared. In its place, fear clouded his features. “Knoah…the doctor…We can’t.”
Slowly, I stood and walked over to him. “We can.”
“What? No, we can’t.”
“I asked the doctor to say we couldn’t. When we were together again for the first time, I wanted it to be special. I wanted it on Christmas Eve. This is our new beginning. A fresh start.”