Page 30 of Falling Back to You

Dad walked me to the door and hugged me tight. “You’re welcome anytime, Noelle. The door’s always open.”

“Thanks, Dad.” I kissed his whiskery cheek. “It’s good to see you.”

“Come for dinner sometime? I make a mean pot roast.”

My dad cooked? Wonders never ceased. “I’d love to.”

Chapter ten

Noelle

13 Years Ago . . . mid-July

“Noelle!” Cal’s excited holler boomed over my Steven Curtis Chapman CD playing “Live Out Loud.”

“In the kitchen!” I scrubbed the hardened remains of spaghetti from the counter. Would it kill my sisters to clean up after themselves? We weren’t talking earth-shattering ideas here. Rinsing off the spaghetti sauce and putting your dishes in the dishwasher weren’t hard concepts.

If Olive could play every musical scale on the piano in less than ten minutes, surely she could spare thirty seconds to rinse out her canned salmon tin.

I gagged at the rancid odor, pinching my nose with a shudder. Don’t forget you promised to pick up Ruby from Vacation Bible School this afternoon.

My fiancé barreled into the kitchen and caught me around the waist, swinging me off my feet.

“Cal!” I shrieked, but the weight eased off my shoulders as I hugged his neck—strictly for balance—and a laugh bubbled out of me. Cal was good at making me laugh. “Not that I’m complaining, but why are you here?”

He set me down so my feet touched the linoleum again, but he didn’t loosen his hold on my waist. “Ijustneededtoseeyou,” he mumbled into my neck.

My brain tried to decode the smooshed-together words without success. Unless he’d said “Eyes, needles, igloos,” which didn’t seem likely. “Come again, Cap?”

He chuckled at the nickname, warm breath puffing against my skin. “I just needed to see you, Holiday.”

“Here I am.”

Cal straightened, ocean eyes dancing. “Marry me?”

“You already asked.”

He lifted my left hand, wearing his ring, from his shoulder to his mouth, kissing my wrist. “Lucky me. Any chance we can elope?”

“And risk your family’s wrath? I don’t think so.”

“My family could never hate you.” Cal tucked a loose curl behind my ear.

The gesture sent tingles down my spine. “You okay?” He’d always been physically affectionate, but this was extra sweet.

“Just can’t believe we’re about to move to Seattle.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Five weeks till you’re all mine.”

A blush heated my cheeks, but I cupped his face. “I’m so proud of you.”

At the end of June, Cal, his parents, and I had traveled to the NHL Draft ceremony. He’d been drafted in the first round to Seattle, and we had to be settled in the city by the end of August so he could hit the ground running in September with training camps before the season started.

He kissed me softly but thoroughly. The man knew how to kiss. When he leaned back so our foreheads touched, he said, “I don’t deserve you.” He sighed and tugged at the apron strings tied at my back, winding them around his finger. “I have to run. Jules needs a ride.”

“Make it up to me tonight?” I teased, fiddling with his backwards cap.

He grinned wolfishly. “You and me. It’s a date.”

You and me. My favourite words. I rewarded him with a quick peck.