“Where are you headed tonight?” Jackson asked from his spot on the couch. Kyle was sitting sideways with his legs draped over Jackson, and Jackson was busy running his hand through Kyle’s thick locks.
“I have no idea. Troy just told me to be ready by seven and to wear this dress.” She gazed at them and smiled. ‘You two look awfully cozy tonight.”
Kyle flushed while Jackson chuckled.
“Is it a special occasion?” she guessed.
Her son’s face turned an even deeper shade of red, and Joy couldn’t help but laugh.
“Okay, keep it to yourselves. And have fun while I’m out. Just be careful of the leg and remember to be safe. Got it?”
“Got it,” they both said and saluted her.
She rolled her eyes and then averted her attention when the doorbell rang. Joy opened it to find Troy in a perfectly tailored black suit and red tie. He was holding a bouquet of red roses and a bottle of champagne. “Wow. You’re really laying on the charm, aren’t you?” she said by way of greeting.
“Sort of. The flowers are for you. The champagne is for those two.” He nodded toward Kyle and Jackson and then placed the bottle on the table.
Kyle was so red he was almost purple now. Jackson whispered something in his ear that made Kyle choke out, “No! Don’t you even think about it.”
“Oh, please. I already know,” Joy said. “It’s so obvious by the way you’re acting that you might as well write hookup anniversary on your foreheads.”
Kyle stared at anything other than his mother while Jackson gave her a thumbs-up.
She chuckled while she took the roses into the kitchen and got them situated in a vase. When she was done, she breezed back into the living room, slipped her arm through Troy’s, and on their way out, she called, “I love you both. Don’t forget to be safe. There’s a new box of condoms in the bathroom cabinet.”
The front door shut, and Troy snickered. “I bet that’s going to be a mood killer.”
“I do what I can.” Joy flipped her long locks over her shoulder as if to say her job there was done.
“Well, don’t get too excited. At their age, the unease will probably only last about ten minutes,” Troy reasoned.
Joy eyed him and then laughed. Once they were in his SUV, she asked again, “Where are we headed?”
“Patience,” he said and then didn’t say another word until they pulled into the parking lot of the film set.
Joy frowned. “What are we doing here?”
“You’ll see.” He jumped out of the SUV and actually managed to open her door before she could even undo the seatbelt. He helped her with that too, and once she was on both feet, he took her by the hand and led her to the warehouse that they’d been using as their soundstage for indoor scenes.
“I’m not sure we’re supposed to be here,” Joy said, glancing around the lot to see if security was watching.
“Joy, it’s fine, gorgeous. I got permission.” He tapped in a code on the door, and a moment later, he led her inside and she let out a gasp. The entire inside had been transformed into a winter wonderland, complete with an ice-skating rink.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, turning to him with damp eyes. No one had ever done something like that for her before. “How did you do this?”
“I had a little help from production.” He guided her over to a table near the skating rink. Place settings were already laid out with covers over the plates. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes. I had no idea what we were doing, but I assumed dinner at some point.”
“You assumed correctly.” He removed the covers, and she grinned at him.
“Salmon risotto. The first meal you cooked for me,” she said.
“I still remember the look on your face. It does things to me,” he said.
Joy leaned over the table and gave him a long, slow, searching kiss, and whispered, “You do things to me.” She sat back in her chair and shook her head in wonder. “You miss nothing. The salmon, the ice rink. I told you once that it had been my dream to be a skater when I was a kid and that it still made me happy when I was on the ice.” Her gaze shifted to the piles of fake snow and a wooden sled. “That’s from when I told you about all the times my mom went sledding with me instead of sending me to school just because she wanted to.” Joy scanned the details of the room from the twinkling fairy lights that matched the ones on her own tree perfectly to the funny Santa garden gnome. Each and every detail was a memory of hers from her childhood, and he’d recreated it.
She reached out and clasped his hand. “This is so wonderful, and I love it, but I don’t understand. Why did you do all of this? It’s not even Christmas.”
He gave her a soft, shy smile, and she had to fight the urge to kiss him stupid. It was a problem lately. Anytime he smiled, she wanted him. She was starting to think he’d become an addiction, except neither of them seemed to mind. “When you talk about your childhood, it always comes with a wistfulness, almost an air of longing. Like if you could go back, you would.”
Joy pursed her lips and thought about it for a moment. “Maybe. I do miss it. There was such a joy and innocence about winter back in those days. And I do miss the snow.”
“Okay, yeah. Well, when I got to thinking about where this relationship between us is going, I kept coming back to this.” He waved a hand at his handiwork.
“That you want to go back to my childhood?” she asked, raising one skeptical eyebrow.
He chuckled. “No. Not at all. I love the adult Joy exactly as she is.”
“Love?” she echoed, her entire body tingling. “Did you just say love?” It wasn’t something they’d said before. Joy had known her feelings for Troy were strong, but she hadn’t been ready to put that out there. Now, though…
“Yes, love. I love you, Joy. I’ve known it for a while. And I think you love me, too.”
“I do,” she breathed, placing a hand over her heart. “I love you.”
His smile widened. “That’s good. Very good.” He scanned the room again, and when he met her gaze, he said, “I did all of this to show you that with me, nothing is off the table. If you want the whimsy of your childhood back for the night, I’ll do what I can to make it happen. If you want travel, I’ll get the tickets to anywhere you want to go, whether that’s camping in the Sierras or flying to Italy.
“If your deepest desire is to stay right here in Premonition Pointe for the rest of your days, I’m good with that too. But I might request that you move in with me. Or, if you don’t like my house, we’ll find another one with a spectacular view, because if there is one thing I know about you, Joy Lansing, it’s that you’re always in a better mood when you wake up to the sound of the ocean.”
There were tears in her eyes, and Joy didn’t even bother to try to blink them back. Was this guy the one she loved for real? He was promising her a dream life, her dream life, on a silver platter and volunteering to share it with her as a true partner, one who understood her and cared about what she needed. It wasn’t something she’d ever had with Paul, and she just prayed that she gave at least half as much back to Troy as he gave to her.