Fairytale Come Alive (Ghosts and Reincarnation #4)(117)
Author: Kristen Ashley

“I’m making that official,” Prentice told her, his voice still sweet but it was again thick as Elle stared at the ring and couldn’t speak at all because her heart was still beating a mile a minute but now it was doing it in her throat. “That is the ring I wanted to give you twenty years ago. That is the ring my Elle deserves to wear on her finger, the ring that lays my claim to her, shows the world she’s mine and shows her how much she means to me. So that is what she’ll have.”

Elle’s eyes, filling with wet as her lips trembled, lifted to his and when they did his hand, warm and strong, curled around hers tight and pressed it to his chest.

“Merry Christmas, baby,” he whispered.

Elle stared at the man she’d loved for forever, the man who breathed life into her, the man who set her free, the man who, again, slid the perfect ring on her finger making all her dreams come true and she knew she was right earlier.

She had her happily ever after.

And it was happy.

So she stuffed her face in Prentice’s sweatshirt, yanked her hand free from his so she could wrap her arm around him again, both her arms spasmed and she burst into tears.

Prentice gathered her closer, pulling her deeper to his warmth and he held on tight as she wept tears of joy into his chest.

When this went on for a good long while, he whispered into her hair, “Baby, we need to get you inside. It’s cold and your legs are exposed.”

Her head jerked back then it jerked side to side.

Then she pulled her arms from around him, lifted her hands and placed them on either side of his head. With wet on her face, tears still spilling over, she got on her tiptoes to get closer.

And in a fierce voice, Elle told him, “When Cinderella is on her balcony with her handsome Prince, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, they don’t feel cold, Pren, they don’t feel anything. They just feel happy.”

She watched his face shift, go soft, his eyes warm and his arms convulsed around her as he murmured, “Elle.”

“I love you,” she whispered, got higher on her toes and touched her mouth to his then moved back half an inch. “I love you.” Her fingers slid into his thick, fantastic hair and she repeated, “I love you.”

“Elle –”

Her fingers clenched in his hair and she pressed her body deep into his.

“I love you, Prentice Cameron.”

Elle stopped talking and stared into his beautiful eyes, eyes she’d look into every day for the rest of her life and for the first time in that life she felt blessed.

Prentice allowed her a moment to experience that added gift then his neck bent and his mouth crushed down on hers.

Some time later, his body bent so he could lift her in his arms and carry her to their bed.

In their bed he gave her another gift and as often as she got it (which was often), it was always special.

But this time, after, sliding to sleep with Prentice’s warm, strong, big body curved into hers, his arm around her, his fingers laced in hers, keeping her safe, holding her close and doing it with his ring on her finger, it was beyond special.

It was magical.

Chapter Twenty-One

Then they were gone.

And he knew she was too.

Elle

Elle was sitting in her Land Rover outside the school waiting for Jace and Sally to get out.

It was three weeks after Christmas, there was a dusting of snow on the ground and the weather had hit a chill so cold the snow was going nowhere, not for awhile.

Elle’s gaze was on the kids pouring out of the school but she didn’t see them. She had a dozen things on her mind.

First, she had to get Jason to his guitar lesson, something he requested after he got the electric guitar and, about five minutes after the last present was unwrapped on Christmas morning, he worked with his father to set it up. He strummed once, the sound blasted back from the amplifier and he instantly fell in ten year old boy love. Considering the amount of time he practiced, Prentice had agreed to the lessons. It was clear Jason was committed to the guitar and, further, Prentice liked the idea that it linked him to his mother in an unusual but beautiful way.

When Jason got his guitar lessons, Sally, not to be left out, declared she wanted dance lessons and gymnastics lessons. Surprisingly to this too, Prentice agreed. He decided at her age she couldn’t know which she had more of an interest in he was just pleased she had any interest at all. So he told Elle that Sally might as well try them both and later, if she was still committed, follow through with the one she preferred.

Therefore Elle had to get Jason to his lesson, Sally home to change into her leotard then off to her lesson, then, after dropping Sally off, head to Fern’s to make final decisions on furniture and bedding (their rooms were, at that very moment, completely bare and being painted, they were sleeping in the guest suite) then back through town to pick up Jason then Sally then get home and start dinner.

She’d spent the morning booking their Disneyworld holiday on-line, the rest of the day cleaning the house and doing laundry all the while intermittently making tea for the painters and she hadn’t thought once about what they were going to have for dinner.

So as she sat in her Land Rover contemplating the mad dashes through town she would soon be making, hoping she could do what she needed to do at Fern’s in time to pick up the kids as well as thinking about what she had in the fridge for dinner and not concentrating much on her surroundings.

Until she saw something that caught her eye and she focused on the figure that appeared to be trying to hide, and poorly, around the corner of the school.

Hattie Fennick.

Hattie Fennick with a camera around her neck.

Elle pulled in a shocked breath as she watched Hattie scanning the kids streaming out of the school and Elle knew, she knew Hattie was waiting to take Jason and Sally’s picture. Just like she sold her and Prentice’s story to the gossip magazine, she’d been selling the recent photos too. It was Hattie who was their source, keeping the photos and stories coming and thus the interest alive.

In fact, just last week they’d printed a photo of Prentice and Elle wandering down the sidewalk two villages over, having a date night, the kids at Fiona’s sister Morag’s house. They were illuminated by a streetlamp, Prentice’s arm was wrapped around Elle’s shoulders and both hers were wrapped around his stomach. Her front was pressed to his side, he had his head tipped down to look at her, she had hers tipped back to look at him, she’d said something to make him chuckle and she was laughing with him.

The caption read, It’s Wedding Bells for Isabella and Prentice! And in a little square at the bottom right corner of the photo was a blown up shot of her hand wearing Prentice’s ring and that had its own caption of, And her hunky architect is not messing around!