A Very Married Christmas: A Silver Bell Falls Holiday Novella(8)

Placing his phone back down on the nightstand, he walked into the bathroom and took his shower. As he luxuriated in the large, tiled space, he couldn’t help but remember all the times he had dreamed of this—not just living with Melanie, but having a shower that was big enough for him. The time he spent living in his tiny house before moving into the cabin with Melanie had been met with several challenges.

The shower being the biggest, ironically.

So to have a spa-quality bathroom with a shower not only big enough for him, but big enough to fit several people? Yeah, this was like a dream come true. And if he wasn’t careful, he’d spend way too much time in here and he needed to get to Melanie and their breakfast before his wedding helper and co-conspirator arrived.

Shutting off the water, he quickly toweled off and got dressed. By the time he walked into the kitchen, he was surprised to find the table set, coffee made and a platter of pancakes waiting for him on the table.

He let out a soft laugh. “How long was I up there?”

Melanie turned to him with a knowing grin. “I can see that shower is going to be an issue. Should I be jealous?”

He took the teasing as it was meant. “I can’t help it. It’s glorious.”

“That we can agree on,” she said lightly as she plated up some sizzling bacon for them.

“Bacon too?” he asked with surprise. “I must have been very good this morning.” He went to grab a slice, but she swatted his hand away. “Ow!”

“Stop. I had to make a little extra. My dad called and is stopping by. I wanted to make sure we had enough food.”

There were enough pancakes on the table to feed a small army, he thought, but kept it to himself. “How come John’s coming over? Is everything okay?”

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. Josiah stayed in the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee while Melanie ran to let her father in. He heard their greetings and hid his smile behind his coffee mug when they both walked into the kitchen.

“Hey, Josiah,” John said as he came over and shook his hand. “Hope you don’t mind me barging in on your breakfast.”

“You know you’re welcome here any time,” Josiah replied smoothly and then motioned to the pot of coffee. “Help yourself.”

“Thanks.”

“You were a little cryptic on the phone, Dad,” Melanie chimed in. “What’s going on?”

The three of them sat down at the table and began helping themselves to the food.

“I’m struggling with the plans for the house,” John said, cutting into his stack of pancakes. “I have loved living in the tiny house, but—similar to the issues Josiah had—I definitely need more space to do the things I want to do.”

“Like what?” Melanie asked, looking mildly confused.

“I want to be able to have a Christmas tree,” he said casually. “I remember Josiah telling me about how he hadn’t thought about that when he purchased the house and how he had to decorate the cabin that first Christmas in order to use his decorations.”

“So you’re designing your new home based on a tree?” Melanie deadpanned.

Both John and Josiah chuckled. “It’s not just that,” John explained. “And it’s not like I’m talking about a lot of extra space, but definitely more than I have now.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I’m going to want at least two guest rooms for when you two have kids, which I’m hoping is going to be soon. I’m not getting any younger, you know.”

Josiah merrily bit into a slice of bacon as he watched Melanie’s eyes go wide.

“Dad, we haven’t started talking about kids. We’re not even married yet!”

John placed his fork down and looked at his daughter. “And that’s something else I wanted to talk to you about. The two of you have been engaged for almost a year now. Don’t you think it’s time you set a date?”

“Funny you should mention that, John,” Josiah said, “because Melanie and I have been talking about it this past week.”

“Excellent! Oh, that’s good news! So…when’s the big day?” John asked anxiously.

Josiah looked across the table at Melanie, who was still sitting there wide-eyed.

“Uh…well…” Melanie began.

“Actually, John, we’re not quite in agreement on that yet,” Josiah jumped in to explain. “Just this morning we agreed to pull out the calendar to try to decide.”

John looked between the two of them and smiled. “Mind if I help?”

“Dad, I don’t think you want to…”

“Mel, your dad could be the exact thing we need to help us make our decision. He’s an objective third party,” Josiah reasoned.

“I guess.” But she didn’t look completely convinced.

They ate in silence for a few minutes before John asked them to catch him up on what they were thinking in terms of wedding dates. Josiah went first and laid out his plans for a Christmas wedding—including everything they had seen the previous day with Hank and Lisa’s barn and how so many of the details were already taken care of since Lisa had the barn ready.

“Wow,” John said, nodding. “It sounds amazing.” Then he looked at Melanie. “And you didn’t like it?”