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He smiled, soft and sure. “I’m an ex-CIA and special forces operative. I know stuff.”
She laughed through the tears, then cried harder, pressing her face into his chest for a second before looking up again. “You saw that, huh?”
“I try to see everything you do, baby girl,” he murmured, voice low and reverent. “Watching you makes me happy.”
She placed her hand over his heart. He pulled her close — one arm wrapping around her waist, the other cradling her hand against his chest. They barely moved, just swaying slowly in the golden light while the song wrapped around them and the rest of the world held its breath. A few women in the pavilion were already crying openly.
Sage looked up at him. He was looking at her — had been the whole time. Those steady gray eyes held everything: patience, strength, hunger, and a love so deep it steadied her soul.
“Cal,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“There’s mistletoe up there.”
He glanced up, then back down at her, a slow smile spreading across his face. “There is.”
“Izzy put it there, didn’t she?”
“Probably.”
A heartbeat passed. The air between them felt electric.
“So…” Sage breathed, voice trembling with want.
He brushed a tear from her cheek with his thumb, then slowly bent down. She rose up on her toes.
And Cal Meridian kissed Sage Thompson for the first time, soft and unhurried and certain, in the amber light, while the song played and the snow fell outside and the people who loved them held their breath and, one by one, let it go.
Mary Sue Ellen didn’t look away.
As Cal kissed Sage — two lonely, broken souls who had found each other like they’d been breathing the same air their whole lives — Mary Sue felt her heart crack wide open and mend in the same breath. Joy and sorrow tangled so tightly she couldn’t tell them apart.
She watched until the kiss finally softened and they rested forehead to forehead, glowing under the amber lights. Only then did she sit back in her chair, suddenly feeling every one of her years.
Her mind drifted back to a time long ago. To a bright-eyed best friend named Catherine O'Connor. To the boy Catherine had grown up with and eventually married — Thomas Meridian. And to the son the two of them had brought into the world together.
She whispered softly, alone at her table beneath the golden string lights, voice barely audible even to herself:
“Cathy… Tommy… I know I caused so much hurt. I’m so sorry.” Her voice cracked. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Maybe one day I can tell him. Maybe one day you can forgive me. But I just want you to know… your boy is okay now. He’s happy.”
She drew in a shaky breath, looking toward the couple again.
“I’ll watch over them. And their children. I’ll do everything I can. I promise.”
Then Mary Sue Ellen stood, smoothed her dress with trembling hands, and walked quietly outside.
CAL
“Cal…?”
Cal closed the heavy front door behind them, shutting out the cold. Sage stood in the entryway in her devastating black dress, staring into the living room.
“Yeah, baby girl?” he asked, shrugging off his tuxedo jacket.
“There is a massive tree. In your living room. Surrounded by stuffed animals.”
Cal glanced at her, keeping his face perfectly straight. “Hmm… yeah, looks like it.”
