By the time we separated, I was panting and smiling. “What about now?”
Eli’s face shone with hope as he turned from me. He immediately turned back, “Wait here,” he rasped.
When he reached to open the door, his uncle Nikko was waiting in the entrance and handed him a familiar box. “Always believe and never give up,” Nikko said softly as he reached to shut the door on Eli.
Eli came back to me and I laughed as he once again went down on one knee.
“If you catch pneumonia, I’m not nursing you back to health,” I joked.
He smirked at me as if he knew something I didn’t.
“Clara Wood, you’ve enchanted me since the moment you walked into my life. You danced your way into my heart and spun yourself into my soul… will you be my wife?” I caught his references to when I walked into the restaurant that first night, dancing at my first ball, and then spinning in my first snowfall — those moments held a magic I’d never had before and I wanted to experience them along with many others with the man waiting on my response.
“Yes.” All I needed to accept the forever gift he offered was to accept it and I did with that simple three-letter word. “I love you, Eli, and hope one day I’ll deserve you.”
“I love you, too, Sunshine. And, I’m the one who doesn’t deserve you. You brighten my world just by being in it.”
Epilogue
Eli Angelo and I were married on New Year’s Day. A little over eight months later our son, Fredrick Tomo Angelo-Wood was born. We didn’t want to wait and luckily with Eli’s grandfather — the judge — we were able to get our marriage license expedited. My grandmother paid for us to fly to Hawaii for our honeymoon. Unfortunately, I spent those five days getting to know all of the bathrooms on the islands. Freddy made himself known pretty quickly.
Now Freddy was a little over three months old and we were celebrating our first Christmas as a family. Grandma was putting the baby down for the night and Eli and I were getting the chance to play Santa for the first time. It wasn’t like our son was old enough to know but I wanted to have the full experience.
“What are you doing to the tree, Sunshine?” Eli chuckled as he came up behind me.
To this day, all he had to do was touch me and it sent shivers up and down my spine. It might explain the reason for my gift which I was caught hiding in the branches of the tree. Our son wasn’t even four months old… Sigh.
I chuckled at how quickly my life had changed. A week ago we had celebrated a year since our first date by going to this year’s Snow Ball. Grandma and Nikko finally went on the date to the Snow Ball she’d agreed to go on when she was seventeen. The two of them had been so cute and I had a feeling there would be more dates in the near future. Franny, who had become just as much a grandmother to me as my own, had taken little Freddy as her date and had spent the evening showing him off to everyone.
“I have something for the tree,” Eli whispered into my ear as he reached around me and hung something on a tree limb at eye level.
I gasped and a tear quickly slipped down my cheek. A beautiful white and glitter snowflake frame ornament held a picture of my mother and below it, in gold script, it said ‘Grandma.’
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered.
“So you like it?” Eli asked nervously.
“Of course!” I spun in his arms and wrapped my own around his neck.
Going up on tiptoe I pressed a kiss to his lips. Electricity snapped between us the second our lips touched and Eli tugged me closer as he reached up and palmed the back of my head. Using his grip he tilted my head and deepened the kiss.
I loved my husband’s kisses. Eli always put everything he was into each one which probably explained why I had the gift I was going to give him. I grinned against Eli’s mouth and he pulled away and gave me a fierce look.
“Do you find my kissing prowess funny, Sunshine?”
“Not at all, hot stuff.” I squeezed his ass and then pushed him away as I turned back to the tree. There was no way I could wait until the morning to give him his gift — not after the one he’d just given me. “I got you a new ornament, too,” I said as I reached in and pulled out the rectangle frame ornament I’d purchased two days ago after my doctor’s appointment.
Handing it to him, I stayed silent and waited for him to react.
“Um… Sunshine, why are you giving me a pink frame with the ultrasound picture of Freddy?” His face filled with confusion. “I don’t remember this one.”
“What makes you say that?” My grin widened as I fought to hold back my excitement.
“He loo—”
“She,” I corrected.
“He looks li—”
“She looks,” I corrected again.
“She?” Eli looked perplexed as he moved his finger over the image. “Looks like she is carrying a wand.”
“Yeah, she’s pure magic,” I beamed as I placed my finger on the tiny, blobby head.
“This isn’t Freddy, is it?”
“No,” I replied my grin had my cheeks hurting as I turned to wrap my arms around Eli’s waist.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“I’m sure daddy’s little girl will be spoiled rotten,” I giggled into his chest where I buried my face.
“Woo hoo!” Eli shouted as he lifted me up and swung me around the sitting room. “A girl!”
“Yes,” I laughed as he settled me down quickly and led me to the couch.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered as he rubbed my belly.
“She liked it, I'm sure,” I assured him with a chuckle.
“But how?” Eli stared at my stomach.
“Well,
