A Very Married Christmas: A Silver Bell Falls Holiday Novella(3)

“Fine,” she murmured. “I guess when I thought about our wedding, I envisioned it as being warmer weather. Outdoors. And a bit…rustic.”

Now they were getting somewhere.

“Rustic, huh? I like that idea,” he said.

“Really?” she asked, excitedly.

“Absolutely! I think we could look into renting out the barn Hank and Lisa built off of Old Main Street. They’ve used it for a lot of events in the past. What do you think?”

Then her eyes lit up because they were clearly on the same page. “That’s what I thought too! I mean…the few times when I thought about it,” she added. “When we went to the Valentine’s Day dance there last year, I remember thinking how wonderful it was and how I really liked the rustic look.”

Nodding, he took her hand in his. “And I think we can make it look incredible for a wedding.”

“I think so too!” And then she was in his arms and kissing him. And not that he was complaining but…this was only one small detail and they had many, many bigger ones to deal with.

But kissing Melanie was slightly addictive and he figured that maybe—just maybe—they could take a few minutes and simply enjoy each other before they dealt with any more wedding plans.

Melanie, however, wasn’t so inclined.

Lifting her head, she looked at him giddily. “So then we agree—the barn in the spring and it will be perfect and…”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Josiah said, putting some distance between them. “I’m not on board with the spring. I still want us to have a Christmas wedding.”

“Josiah, be reasonable. Please.”

That wasn’t quite what he was expecting her to say. “I don’t think I’m being unreasonable here. I tossed out a date, you tossed out a date, and now we…you know…negotiate.”

Crossing her arms over her chest she eyed him warily. “And are you going to counter every date I suggest with Christmas?”

Busted!

“Possibly.”

She rolled her eyes. “Then what’s the point? If you’re not going to give on this, then how is that fair?”

“Melanie…”

“And,” she interrupted again, “might I remind you of how you always do this to me?”

“Do what?” he demanded. “We’ve never tried to plan our wedding before!”

“Not the wedding, but everything else Christmas-related!”

Now he was totally confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Do you remember the parade?”

It would have been foolish to play dumb. He had totally manipulated her for her own good to get her to participate in the Silver Bell Falls Annual Christmas Parade when she first came to town.

“And how you got me to put up a Christmas tree in the cabin because you didn’t have room in the tiny house?”

“Well, in all fairness…”

“And then there was the tree shopping and picking out ornaments and…”

“Okay, okay…I get what you’re saying,” he confessed. “But you have to admit that even though you thought you didn’t want to do those things, you ended up enjoying yourself!”

“It’s still manipulation, Josiah,” she argued. “You suggest something, I say no and then you come up with some sort of crazy reasoning and in the end, you get your way! How is that fair?”

Unfortunately, she had him there. He’d always known that he did find ways around her objections to anything Christmas-related, but he also knew it always worked out and Melanie was happy. And he knew if she would just give him a chance, he could get her to come around to his way of thinking and their wedding would be beyond her wildest dreams.

Now it was time to time to go big or go home.

“How about this,” he said evenly. “Let’s make an appointment to go and see the barn decorated for Christmas. I know I can call Lisa and she can set it up so you can get an idea of how it will all look.”

“It’s not about the decorations, Josiah…”

“And if you don’t like it,” he went on as if she hadn’t objected, “then I promise to be more open-minded about another date.”

Melanie eyed him warily again. And with good reason, he imagined.

“What do you say, Mel? I can make the call and next weekend we can go and look and make some decisions.”

Her shoulders sagged slightly. “I guess it can’t hurt,” she murmured. “But I don’t see what the big rush is. Why not just wait until she gets the decorations up? Even if I agree to this crazy idea, we have a whole year to plan.”

Now it was his turn to be confused. “A whole year? Um…Mel? I was talking about us getting married this year. This Christmas.”





Chapter Two



A week later and Melanie was still fuming.

Inwardly mostly, but fuming nonetheless.

“There’s Lisa,” Josiah said. The drive to the barn had been spent in relative silence—as had much of their week. He looked over at her with a small smile. “Ready?”

“Yup.” Honestly, she was more than a little curious about how the barn was going to look when it was all decorated, but she was still peeved that Josiah couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal to her to try to plan a wedding in less than two months and at Christmas! It didn’t matter how much they talked about it this week—when they were talking—Josiah was still overly optimistic that they could pull off their dream wedding on such short notice. If time were their only issue, she could have possibly been on board. The time of year was her biggest hang-up.