I ignored her and kept my desperate gaze on the man I never stopped loving. The man I couldn’t stop loving, no matter how many Christmases passed by. “Josh, please…please believe me.”

Now Shelby addressed the guards like a queen on a throne. “Guards, do us and Neisha the kindness of removing her from the party before she embarrasses herself any further.”

The guards came forward like Terminators unpaused, and I braced myself to get yanked away.

“I knew it.”

Three words.

But they froze the entire party in place. Me. Shelby. The guards. All the decked-out millionaires who’d been watching our soap opera play out with wide eyes. Everybody but Josh….

He stepped forward, his river-moss eyes no longer cold.

They bore into mine as he said, “I knew it was you and not Shelby. From the moment I saw you again. I couldn’t say why. I thought I was going out of my mind. But somehow….in my heart, in my gut, I knew it was you.”

“Josh!” Shelby exclaimed behind him. “What are you saying. I’m the one who wrote those Christmas cards—”

He shifted his body, purposefully blocking her from my view as if she hadn’t said a word, as if she didn’t matter at all.

“I knew it,” he continued saying to me and only me. “I knew you were the one I was searching for all this time. The woman I’d been holding out for.”

Wait, he’d been holding out for me, like I’d been helplessly holding out for him?

His words hit me everywhere, slathering my sad, lonely heart in warmth. But the only out loud response I could come up with was, “Okay, well, here I am. Hi.”

He smiled, his entire face creasing with what looked like genuine happiness. Then, he said, “Hi, Neisha. Are we going to seal this big reveal with a kiss or what?”

There was still so much I had to explain. I needed to tell Josh who my father is…and the real reason Shelby hated me.

But in that moment, there was only one thing I needed to do. Wrap my arms around Josh’s neck when he drew me in for his kiss.

For the first time, my polite soldier gentleman had gone off plan. He kissed me, and I kissed him back. In front of Shelby. In front of all those elite party guests. In front of the world.

That first Christmas, I confessed my love to him in a card.

Last Christmas, I vowed not to bother him anymore.

But this Christmas….

Well, sorry, Mom, I’d be bringing at least one Donny Hathaway album back to the cabin to play along with all the Roberta Flack.

Because I already knew that I’d be spending This Christmas with Josh. And hopefully, every Christmas after that for the rest of our lives.

*     *     *