A wide smile crossed my lips. “No,” I said. “It’s definitely not going to be platonic.” I looked deep into his eyes. “In perpetuity?”
He nodded. “This time you really are signing your soul away.”
I looked at him for a moment before I said, “All right, Mr. Lawyer. Got a pen?”
EPILOGUE
It should not surprise us that, at the end of a journey, our destination looks different than we imagined at the beginning. Everything looks different up close.
Elise Dutton’s Diary
Nicholas and I were married the next spring in a small Italian village called Greve, nineteen miles south of Florence, in the Chianti wine district. It was a very small wedding, which was what we wanted. My sister, Cosette, and her husband, Ron, came. From the law firm there were Alan and Careen McKay and Scott and Sharon Hitesman. From ICE, Zoey was there. She financially swung the trip by talking Mark out of some of his frequent-flier miles. Not surprisingly, she’s now carrying on a long-distance romance with an Italian guy named Dario.
The biggest surprise of our wedding day was the arrival of Nicholas’s sister, Sheridan. She came without telling him. And she came to forgive. I don’t think his joy could have been more full. To this day it’s one of the few times I’ve seen Nicholas cry. We still have hopes that his brother might someday forgive him as well. We don’t expect it, but we hope.
After our wedding, we honeymooned for two weeks in Rome and Sorrento and on Capri and the Amalfi coast, eventually flying back to the United States from Naples. When we got back to our home in Utah, there was a special wedding gift waiting for me—a Lladró of Cinderella and her pumpkin carriage. It was perfect. Maybe the figurine was really for Nicholas, but it doesn’t matter. The story is mine.
I no longer work at ICE. I quit two months after I found out I was pregnant. I’m due next February, coincidentally the same month my Hannah was born.
Life is good. I’d be lying if I said that I had stopped being haunted by ghosts or trying myself in the court of regret. But things are different. The judge and jury are more merciful. After all these years, they are willing to listen to reason. And in court I’m no longer arguing my case alone. I found myself a pretty good lawyer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo: Debra MacFarlane
Richard Paul Evans is the #1 bestselling author of The Christmas Box. Each of his more than twenty-five novels has been a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 20 million copies of his books in print worldwide, translated into more than twenty-four languages. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Mothers Book Award, the Romantic Times Best Women’s Novel of the Year Award, the German Audience Gold Award for Romance, three Religion Communicators Council Wilbur Awards, The Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award, and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, Keri, and their five children. You can learn more about Richard on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RPEfans, or visit his website, www.richardpaulevans.com.
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ALSO BY RICHARD PAUL EVANS
The Four Doors:
A Guide to Joy, Freedom, and a Meaningful Life
A Winter Dream
Lost December
Promise Me
The Christmas List
Grace
The Gift
Finding Noel
The Sunflower
A Perfect Day
The Last Promise
The Christmas Box Miracle
The Carousel
The Looking Glass
The Locket
The Letter
Timepiece
The Christmas Box
The Walk Series
The Walk
Miles to Go
The Road to Grace
A Step of Faith
Walking on Water
For Children and Young Adults
The Dance
The Christmas Candle
The Spyglass
The Tower
The Light of Christmas
Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25
Michael Vey 2: Rise of the Elgen
Michael Vey 3: Battle of the Ampere
Michael Vey 4: Hunt for Jade Dragon
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Richard Paul Evans
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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition November 2014
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Jacket design by Jackie Seow
Jacket photograph by Angela Butler/Moment Select/Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Evans, Richard Paul.
The mistletoe promise / Richard Paul Evans. —
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
pages ; cm
1. Christmas stories. I. Title.
PS3555.V259M57 2014
813’.54—dc23 2014034377
ISBN 978-1-4767-2820-9
ISBN 978-1-4767-2823-0 (ebook)
Contents
* * *
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
; Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Epilogue
About the Author
*Nightmare*
Richard Paul Evans, The Mistletoe Promise
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