He hauled her into his arms, silencing her with the firm press of his lips. His heart thundered in his chest. You love me. Please don’t take it back. He intensified the kiss, savoring her confession. When their lips parted, he kept her close. She was looking at him like he was the answer to all her prayers, which was so fucking fantastic that he wanted to holler it from the rooftops, because he knew without a doubt that she was the answer to his.

“I love you, too, Roni. I’ve felt it for a while, and I don’t know or care who is supposed to say it first. The only thing that matters is that we’re in this together. You—beautiful, talented, big-hearted Veronica Wescott, who I have thought about every single day for the past six months—love me, despite all my faults and my ugly past. I love you so much, baby, I ache with it.”

“I love all of you, Quincy, but what I feel is so much bigger than those three words. I love that we understand each other and what we’ve each had to overcome. I love how we support each other. How when I hear your voice, my heart goes wild, and when you reach for my hand, that simple touch fills me with so much happiness, I want to live in those moments.” Tears dampened her eyes, and she said, “When you’re studying and I’m reading or working on choreography, even though we’re just sitting on a couch or lying on a bed doing our own thing, we’re doing it together, and it feels so good, like I’ve finally found the place where I belong.”

“You have, baby, and so have I. Let’s make this our best Christmas ever.”

“I have a better idea.” She went up on her toes and kissed him, and then she picked up a string of lights and said, “Let’s make this our best Christmas yet, only to be outdone by next year’s.”

And that was exactly what they did, winding colorful lights around the tree and hanging the ornaments they’d bought, stealing kisses in between. They strung lights over the kitchen alcove, around the balcony doors, and around the bedroom doorframes. They decorated the bookcase with garland and a few ceramic holiday knickknacks. Roni had thought of everything, including a red runner for the table, a red-and-white tree skirt with silver glitter, and a wreath hanger for the door from the shop.

Quincy went into the bedroom to get the bag of throw pillows and saw that she’d already hung up lights around the headboard. She must have done it before he’d gotten off work, which made sense, since she’d met him downstairs and they’d gone straight to the tree farm. As he grabbed the bag of pillows, he noticed a light-blue frame on the nightstand and picked it up. It had the year written in white across the top and held a picture of them kissing on the slide the night of the scavenger hunt. God, he loved her.