The Billionaire Scrooge Next Door

by Olivia Hayle

“You said you couldn’t have a Christmas tree this year, because Evan’s fiancée is allergic, right?”

“Right,”

“I have space in m...

“I was going to make… well. Something for dinner.”

“Something?” I say. “That’s my favorite dish.”

“Good girl,” he tells me.

“You’re playing with fire,” he says through clenched teeth.

I grip him tighter. “Burn me.”

“I’m glad I came back to Fairhill and re-met you, Holly Michaelson.”

“So am I, Adam Dunbar.”

“I have to. You’re probably reconsidering dating me right now. You’re thinking ‘Wow, she’s a weird one’ and you’ll be driving back to Chicago tomorrow.”

“Not going to happen,” he says. “I have a Christmas tree to look after now.”

“Holly,” I say.

“You are the greatest thing to ever come into my life,”

“I wish I’d realized that sooner, so that I could have spent the past decade with you, too. But I’ll never stop being grateful that I came back to Fairhill and met you again. There are so few people in the world I’d decorate a Christmas tree with, sweetheart, but you’re one of them. The only one.”

“I want you to force me to put up Christmas lights on our house, to hog all the covers, to nag me into getting two rescue dogs. I want all of it, forever.”

“Holly,” I say. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she breathes. “Yes, yes, absolutely. Yes.”