I would have sobbed uncontrollably if the girls hadn’t been there and a whole pack of children hadn’t also looked on. Those hormones were a real bitch to keep under wraps. Jameson stole my breath away. After he’d given himself a ring, I expected that to be the end of it. He swore to be with me for as long as I wanted, and that was good enough. It felt half-done, just unfinished, even as I watched him play with the girls and we sat on the couch and it felt like a real family moment.
And then he went down on one knee and tried to say something romantic. I had zero doubt I would have definitely cried if the girls hadn’t taken it upon themselves to get involved. There was no way he could have planned it. The twins wouldn’t have cooperated if he actually gave them a job to do, so it was pretty damn obvious they liked him enough to climb on him regardless of what else was going on.
It was the ultimate vote of confidence.
I’d long believed that kids and dogs were the best judges of character, and if the girls didn’t like someone, we were gone. I didn’t know how to balance out a bunch of half-bears and half-wolves liking Jameson, since I wasn’t sure if they counted as animals or kids, but when Mischka skidded up to whisper in his ear, I expected some other unexpected surprise.
Jameson didn’t take his eyes off me but tilted his head in the kid’s direction. “I’m kinda busy, buddy.”
Another long whisper as I tried to figure out what to say. It didn’t help that we had a heck of an audience. In addition to the pack of children, a pack of adults watched as well, most of them grinning. I cleared my throat a few times, to make sure my voice worked, and tried to find the words to tell him what that moment meant to me. With or without the kids climbing on him.
But Jameson got there first. He smiled a little sheepishly. “I had a lot of really romantic stuff to say, you know. Poetry, practically. So moving and inspired that you’d be floating through the air from it. Mostly about how beautiful you are and how amazing, maybe a little bit about your ass…”
Someone male snorted from the crowd, and Kara rolled her eyes, mouthing, “Typical,” to me from behind Jameson.
But it just reminded me of that first night in the apartment when he told me he thought my ass was fantastic. I didn’t doubt he probably had a lot to say about my ass, although doing so in front of the children….
“Yes,” I said. I cleared my throat again and repeated. “Yes.”
Kara clapped her hands over her mouth and Sunny started crying, which made the big scary Russian guy roll his eyes and hug her at the same time. Jameson’s eyebrows arched. “Yes you want me to talk about your ass?”
“No,” I said. I squeezed the girls, since they wouldn’t leave me alone, and tried to remember what he’d actually said. “What you… I mean, yes, I’ll marry you. If that’s what you actually asked.”
“Yes, that’s what I actually asked,” he said.
Jameson laughed and got to his feet so he could swoop me up. Kids scattered and then raced around shrieking, the adults whistled and clapped, and he put me down long enough to kiss me.
I blinked away more tears and leaned against him, breathing him in. He smelled like snow and winter and also the girls, somehow, with them climbing on him. “You look ridiculous in those pajamas.”
“You look really fucking sexy in yours,” he said under his breath. He squeezed my ass to make sure I knew it, and took in a deep breath from my hair. “I can’t wait to marry you. We can do it tonight, I’m sure one of these weirdos has to be ordained somewhere.”
“I don’t even know your last name,” I said. I laughed and bent to pick up Viviana, who was more interested in pulling on Jameson’s beard. “Maybe we wait a few months.”
“It’s Roberts,” he said. “Good to go?”
I shook my head but couldn’t stop smiling, and watched as he took my shaking left hand in his to slide a beautiful diamond on my finger. “Where did you even find a ring in a blizzard? Did you borrow it from someone?”
“Better not to ask questions,” he said, then winked. He took Viviana under one arm and swung her around like an airplane, even though he never looked away from me. “I’ll get you a better one as soon as the snow clears.”
I eyed the ring dubiously. Not ask questions? What the hell did that mean?
“Don’t think about it too much.” Jameson kissed me again, a gentle brush of lips, then murmured, “Merry Christmas.”
I kissed him back and linked my arms around his neck, going up on my toes so I could look him in the eyes. “This is the best December of my life. Thank you.”
“Best December so far,” he said. Jameson’s grin spread and he wrapped his arms around me. “I’ve already started planning for next year.”
I laughed and he kissed me again and then Kara and Owen were there, and Sasha promised the ring wasn’t stolen, and Sunny whispered that it probably was but not to worry about it, and the kids shrieked about Santa’s polar bear, and my head spun. It would take months for me to figure out how things went from rock bottom to floating in the clouds. I didn’t know if Jameson could keep his promise to top that Christmas with the next, but I knew we’d have years together to find out how high he could raise the bar.
And I couldn’t wait to find out.