Family always comes first.
I just hope I can find a way to balance family, the farm and a bunch of celebrities!
Ethan Hall
Chloe steps around the counter, melting against my chest. I pull her closer, looping my arms around her curvy figure and resting my chin atop her head. When I breathe, I inhale the familiar fragrance of sugar cookies that always seems to follow my fiancée.
“I guess I better pull this off after convincing you to come all the way out here, huh?” she whispers against my shirt.
“This has nothing to do with me,” I sigh. “We’re going to pull this off because we can. This might be the first time we’re left in charge, but we’re not going to mess anything up. We can’t fail as long as we’re together. This Christmas is going to be great. I can feel it.”
She nods, not answering, and I take a good, long look around the beautifully bedecked lobby. Chloe had spent weeks meticulously decorating the lodge for this holiday season. She’d taken care in choosing every single ornament and garland and light. This woman doesn’t put that much effort into something and not succeed. I just wish she had as much confidence in herself as I do.
“And you didn't have to convince me to do anything,” I add. “I love being here with you. I love Pine Island. I love our life. I love you, Chloe.”
I’ve told my beautiful fiancée a million times that I'm happy as long as I'm by her side, but it seems she can’t hear it enough. As much as it pains me to see her doubt herself, I’m happy to reaffirm my love for her any chance I get.
My brother and I were orphaned at a young age after our adoptive mother passed away. She had cancer and not even her billions could stop the brutal disease. After we lost our mother, Owen and I had a near-endless source of funds on which to live . . . but we didn't have her. We could buy anything except for what we truly needed—a family.
So when I found Chloe, and her family took me in . . . well I don’t ever plan on letting go.
When I was a child, I never would’ve guessed my big brother and I would marry two dark-haired, hazel-eyed sisters, just as I never guessed that I would eventually call a Christmas tree farm my home. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It might have been a long and winding path, but I'm so happy to have found a place where I belong, and that place is with Chloe.
Her family has become mine.
However, it’s becoming obvious to me that I need to find some way to prove that to her. I can’t let her keep thinking that she’s forced me to settle in Pine Island. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.
After watching my mother slowly lose her life to illness, I know just how important every precious moment with family is. When Chloe’s dad had a scare with his heart last summer, I knew she’d want to come home. It was the right thing to do and I supported her decision whole-heartedly. I still do.
After all, what good was all that time spent getting a nursing degree if she can’t use some of that knowledge to take care of her own father?
There will be time for her to have a career caring for others later. Hopefully, there will be time for a lot of other great things in our future.
I know Chloe thinks the choice to move here has postponed some of our plans, but honestly, the only plan I have is to spend the rest of my life with her. But it seems no matter how many times I tell her that, she still feels she has something to prove.
If words aren’t enough to show Chloe how much I adore her, I think I know just the thing that will.
For weeks, I’ve spent every sleepless night contemplating what I could do to show Chloe how head-over-heels in love with her I am and how much she means to me. I’d considered some drastic options—everything from commissioning a massive painting of Darcy to tattooing Chloe’s name on my body. And, while some ideas were a bit more radical than others, nothing seemed just right. Then, as if a lightning bolt struck me, I woke up at three AM knowing exactly what needed to be done.
For Chloe, I’d plan a surprise wedding.
Off the bat that might sound just as extreme as a tattoo, but for Chloe— my stressed-out perfectionist—it’s perfect.
We’ve been engaged for what seems like forever, and part of the reason that’s the case is that she insists she hasn’t been able to plan the picture-perfect day that our love story deserves.
What I can’t seem to show her is that there’s no need for perfection. Any day spent with her is perfect as it is. Besides, she doesn’t have time to plan anything with how hard she works here at her family’s lodge so her dad can cut back.
She puts enough pressure on herself. She shouldn’t have to tackle a wedding, too.
And honestly, planning this big surprise has been really fun. The arrangements have already begun to come together. I planned for it to happen on New Year’s Eve, which is also when her mom and dad will be returning from their cruise. And of course I asked my brother if he and Margot could extend their stay so they could join in our special day.
Once I told Owen the news, he was happy to do whatever he could to make it work. Which it turns out, was just keeping the news from his wife. I’ve grown to love Margot, but that woman couldn’t keep a secret
