A Very Married Christmas: A Silver Bell Falls Holiday Novella(15)

“Mel…” he repeated with a sigh.

“And we still haven’t picked a wedding date!”

That one seemed to shut him up.

Literally.

His mouth snapped shut.

Nodding and smiling with just a hint of victory, she went on. “That’s right. We still have to look at the calendar and pick a date. I haven’t forgotten that, have you?”

He mutely shook his head.

“And—again—if we don’t sit down and do this now like we had planned, it will get pushed aside and then what? Then it will be months or even another year before we talk about it again.”

“I don’t think that will happen,” he argued lightly.

“But you never know! With the distraction of this trip and then the contract and then the book and then the movie…where will it end, Josiah? What happened to you on Sunday should teach us that life is precious. We shouldn’t put off tomorrow what we can do today! We need to stop wasting time and take care of the things that matter most!”

She was spiraling; she knew she was spiraling and yet she couldn’t stop.

“You are what matters most to me!” she cried, taking his good hand in hers. “Why would I go to Manhattan and leave you when you need me? Why would I stop being productive at my job when I don’t have to?”

This time he did stop her. “Mel, sweetheart, you need to relax a bit. I don’t think you’ve taken a breath in over a minute.”

She realized she was a bit breathless…

“But you get what I’m saying, right?” she questioned.

“I do, but…I don’t know. I still think you should go. It’s been a while since you’ve taken a trip and for all you know, the time away will help with your creativity.”

“My creativity is just fine right now, whereas you are not.”

Rolling his eyes, he squeezed her hand. “I love you, Mel, and I love the way you take care of me, but you’re worrying for nothing. I’m a grown man and I can take care of myself.” Then he shrugged. “You know, if your dad can come and stay though, that would be great.”

He had a point, dammit. Her father would come and stay with Josiah in a heartbeat. The two of them would be just fine for a few days and really, she didn’t need to take a lot of extra time.

Although…Christmas shopping in Manhattan was kind of awesome.

No! she chided herself. You can go on this trip strictly for business. There was no time for pleasure. Josiah needs you!

With a small sigh, she knew he was right. She’d call her dad and ask him to come and stay for a few days. And he’d agree even though he had a job he had to go to and that would mean Josiah would be on his own most of the day. No doubt he’d try to go down to the station if left to his own devices and…

Wait.

She didn’t have to leave him home alone.

He could come to the city with her! They could have a little romantic getaway!

With a happy gasp, she looked at him with a big smile. “Come with me!”





Chapter Six



Four days later they were walking around Manhattan giddily close to each other as they took in all of the Christmas decorations.

“I can’t believe you’ve never done this before,” Melanie said. “With you being such a fan of the holidays and not living all that far away from the city, I would have thought you would have come here at least once in your life.”

“I’ve been to the city before,” he mildly corrected, “just never at Christmas. I mean, why? I live in a town that has the greatest celebration. I don’t need anything more than that.”

She looked up at him as if he were crazy.

And he kind of was.

As much as the little town of Silver Bell Falls was starting to grow on her, there was no way anyone could compare its holiday fanfare to what they were seeing right now. And as much as she wanted to point that out to Josiah, she figured it was one of those things best kept to herself. Instead, Melanie focused on finding them a place to warm up and get something to eat.

“So, what are we in the mood for? You won’t find food like this anywhere.”

“Now that’s something I definitely remember from when I was here last.”

“And when was that?”

“I don’t know…maybe when I was twelve?”

“Josiah!” she cried. “Seriously, how could that have been the last time you were here? I don’t understand that!”

He shrugged his good shoulder. “You know I’m not a touristy kind of guy and coming here, that’s what you have to be.”

Stopping in her tracks, she turned and faced him. “Then why did you agree to come with me? If you don’t enjoy this kind of thing, why bother?”

As Josiah was prone to do, he gave her a patient smile. The man was seriously too laid back and sometimes she wanted to rattle his cage and get more of a response from him.

“I came because I wanted to spend time with you,” he said easily. “This is where you needed to be. It’s not often that I have a lot of free time and—I’ll admit—I was banking up my vacation time and saving it for our honeymoon but…”

“But what? We’re still taking a honeymoon,” she gently chided him. “And you’re on a medical leave of absence right now. No one’s counting this against your accumulated time. Because if they are then…”