Page 20 of The Holiday Set Up

Strings of red and green lights hang overhead and shine in front of the night sky behind the glass ceiling. Mariah Carey sings Christmas jams and friends and family all sing and dance along. This is what Christmas is all about. My heart is so full as Dalton wraps his arms around me and whispers Merry Christmas and he loves me. I love him more than I’ll ever know how to say but I return the sentiment. This man has brought so much joy, love, and excitement to my life in such a short time I can only imagine what our future holds.

Epilogue

Christmas Morning

Blair

I stayed up all night writing last night, so inspired by the joy and love I was surrounded by. When I lost the publishing house deal because I still couldn’t manage to bake anything edible without Dalton’s help, I decided to start a new Christmas series but this one will take kids to another world. Like the North Pole if Fitzy got to have her say. I’m only halfway through the chapter book but I have a feeling my readers are going to love it. All adventure and fun with absolutely no oven required.

My eyes are heavy, so I keep them closed as Dalton places his morning kisses strategically. I moan and press back against him, his morning wood making me more excited than the presents downstairs.

“Mmm.” He groans. “Merry Christmas, baby.”

“Merry Christmas,” I say arching my back, pressing my ass into him harder.

“As much as I want you right now…I have a surprise for you.”

“What!”

My eyes pop open and I turn around to look him in the eye. How could he possibly top bringing my sister here all the way from California?

“Come see,” he says jumping out of bed and over to the balcony. It overlooks the pool and when I get over there to join him I hear singing coming from down below. I step out and brace myself on the glass balcony and look down to see all our friends, my sister Poppy who stayed in his condo last night, and the one and only Fitzy Fitzpatrick.

I laugh as they sing “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas,” which he knows is my favorite and when I look over to thank him he’s down on one knee. I gasp in surprise because even though we’ve talked about getting married someday, I still didn’t think it would be anytime soon.

“Blair, you are the love of my life. You’ve given me a reason to come back into the world and I want to start living it with you as my wife. Will you marry me, baby?”

I burst into tears and instantly become a blubbering mess. He opens the box with a beautiful oval-cut diamond with a band of tiny blue sapphires. My heart is so full and happy and all I want to do is say yes but my breath keeps hitching as I cry so I nod. He grins up at me as he slides the ring on my finger. It fits perfectly. Standing, he takes me into his arms and lifts me in an embrace full of so much love, respect, and loyalty.

“You are going to hate your Christmas present,” I say and he just laughs.

The chorus of friends down below all shout and cheer and when he finally lets me back down to the floor we wave our thank you.

“You definitely outdid me this year Mr. Andrews but I’ll get you back. I still have some tricks up my sleeve.” I tell him wiping my wet face as we make our way downstairs.

I have garland wrapped around the railing and bend down to turn the lights on. I notice him checking out my ass, so I give him a sexy wiggle that makes him laugh.

“Ok, future Mrs. Andrews, bring it on.”

“Well, I’ll start with this.”

I grab a box from under the tree and hand it to him. It’s plain red with a green bow and he tears through it easily and brings out the sweater.

“No way,” he says surprised and the happy smile on his face has me bouncing in my seat with excitement. The dude’s sweater from his favorite movie the Big Lebowski is something he’s always wanted and as silly as it is I see how much he loves it.

“Yes, way. Do you like it?”

“Are you kidding? I love it, baby.”

He puts it on one sleeve at a time and crawls to me, but before he can kiss me, I stop him.

“The best part is upstairs.”

He looks at me in confusion and I jump up and run to the spare bedroom I fully remodeled to be his new office.

“Now that you're Dalton again you can go back to the numbers you love and accounting,” I say, opening the door to reveal all my hard work. I even had little business cards made up and as he comes around the desk to sit down, he seems to get emotional.

“Come here.”