Quinn leaned forward and kissed her mother on the cheek before climbing out of the car and jogging across the parking lot. She waved, and the sound of the holiday sleigh bells on the door jingled as she disappeared through it.
“Let’s go have dinner.” I backed up and rolled slowly out of the parking lot.
“Am I too overprotective?” Sasha asked as I drove the short distance to Bay Bistro.
I shrugged. “I don’t know that any parent can feel too overprotective. I think all you can do is try to find a balance. It’s the best you can hope for.”
A short while later, Sherry was beaming at us as she filled our wine glasses. “Should I leave the bottle?” she asked.
“Just one for me. I’m driving. Do you think you can finish that bottle yourself?” I teased with a glance at Sasha.
Sasha rolled her eyes. “No. Just one is good for me too.”
After we ordered our food, my heart was thudding rapidly, the sound of it echoing in my ears. I’d told myself to wait until dessert, but I was too restless to relax.
I made a quick decision, sliding my hand into my pocket. The small velvet box warmed as I held it loosely in my palm under the table.
“Sasha?”
Her lashes swung up, and she held my gaze. I usually considered myself to have at least some eloquence, but I couldn’t seem to do this any way other than bluntly. “Will you marry me?”
Sasha’s mouth fell open in a pretty O, and her eyes went wide. “What?”
This time, I remembered to bring the ring out from under the table and open the small box.
Sasha
I stared at the ring—a simple platinum band with a row of sapphires along one edge. That alone had tears stinging my eyes. Because he remembered that Quinn worried about conflict diamonds, and as a result, so did I. Because when you were a mom, it was an endless experience of vicarious worry.
I swallowed, trying to calm the emotion threatening to catch me in a riptide as it rushed through me. “What?” I repeated.
Noah’s eyes held mine, his gaze steady and sure. “Will you marry me?”
I pressed my palm to my chest, almost fearful my heart might beat its way out. “Are you serious?”
“I’m so serious I even asked Quinn about it,” he said somberly.
I gasped. “Oh, my God. Yes! Of course, yes.”
I wasn’t really paying attention to what I was doing and almost knocked my wine over when I moved from my chair and all but threw myself into his lap.
Noah, because he was that kind of guy, reached over to steady the wobbling wineglass with one hand as he wrapped his other arm around my waist and held me close.
“For a second there,” he murmured, his lips near my ear and sending a hot shiver through me, “I thought you might say no.”
I lifted my head, immediately ensnared in his ebullient gaze. “Not a chance.”
He slipped the ring on my finger. Just then, Sherry appeared by our table again, a smile on her face and her eyes absolutely beaming with joy. “Is this what I think it is?”
I lifted my hand, and she inspected the ring, oohing and ahhing and then offering us a bottle of champagne.
“We’d love the champagne, but can we take it home?” Noah asked with a gleam in his eyes.
“Of course, but why wait?” Sherry asked.
“Because we’re picking Quinn up after this, and she’ll want to celebrate with us,” Noah replied.
Sherry slapped her palm against her chest, her eyes going misty. “Oh, you are a good man.” She squeezed his shoulder and then gave us our privacy.
I kind of forgot we were in a restaurant when I leaned up and kissed Noah. When I drew away, he murmured, “We do have an audience, you know.”
My cheeks flushed. “I was already a scandal here. A kiss isn’t going to make it any worse than getting pregnant when I was in high school.”
He chuckled as I slipped off his lap and returned to my chair.
Later that night, we refused to let Quinn have any champagne. “Really?” she pressed.
“Yes,” Noah said firmly.
“Let me see your ring again, Mom.”
She sat at an angle across from me on the big sectional in the living room. The Christmas tree lights were twinkling over by the bay window, and a fire was flickering in the fireplace as I leaned over to once again show her the ring.
She bit her lip, her gaze a little bashful when she looked up at us. “I love it.”
“Thanks for giving Noah your blessing,” I replied.
“Well,” she said when she leaned back and brushed her hair off her shoulders with a flourish. “It was necessary. Now, I have a show to watch. Can I go upstairs?”
“Off to your room,” I said, laughing when she leaped up from the couch.
Matilda followed her up the stairs. Noah had set up a TV for her in the guestroom upstairs the last time we came here with her.
I leaned into his shoulder. “All that power’s going to go to her head,” I teased.
I felt his shrug and then he leaned over to dust a kiss across my lips. “So what? I love you, you know.”
I looked up at him, once again feeling the hot press of tears at the backs of my eyes. Apparently, having a man I loved ask me to marry him turned me into a water fountain.
“I love you too. Are you sure? I mean, I come with a teenage daughter included, and it’s not always easy.”
“I don’t care how complicated it gets sometimes.”
I fell asleep on Christmas Eve, thinking I couldn’t quite believe my luck. Waking up on Christmas Day, one year after our first week here together, was too good to be true. My old hometown, which I’d run from as though my very self was on fire, leaving my scandal in my wake, had become my favorite place to visit. We’d already made new memories. We had more to make this year. I hurried down the stairs, my smile almost an ache of joy when I found Noah in the kitchen making coffee. “Merry Christmas,” he said as he turned.
Thank you for reading All I Need - I hope you loved Sasha & Noah’s story!
For more swoony & sassy romance…
All I Want is the first holiday story in Haven’s Bay. Dallas & Audrey shared one smokin’ hot kiss years ago. Dallas never forgot it. When they get snowed in before Christmas in Haven’s Bay, all bets are off.
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author J. H. Croix lives in a small town in the historical farmlands of Maine with her husband and two spoiled dogs. Croix writes contemporary romance with sassy women and alpha men. Her love for quirky small-towns and the characters that inhabit them shines through in her writing. Take a walk on the wild side of romance with her bestselling novels!
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Chapter One
ADELINE
The snow comes down in long, curving streaks and hits my windshield, where it melts because I’ve got the defroster turned up as far as it’ll go. When I was a kid I loved driving in the snow with my parents. I’d pretend we were in a spaceship, warping into light speed. Boldly going, et cetera.