(four months later)
"What do you think of a destination wedding? Barbados or Hawaii or Fiji or something? Beaches with white sand, a sunset on the horizon, waves crashing on the beach, all that?"
Sophie smiled as she carefully carried several hot mugs of coffee to the kitchen table, setting out milk and sugar to go with it. "I think it could be really nice. Would it just be the two of you, or would you actually invite your families? Or, even better, is this a way to avoid inviting your families altogether?"
"My mother is making me NUTS," Kat said with a joking growl as she took one of the proffered cups of coffee and stirred in two lumps of sugar before preparing one for Matt. "You know she's already got a wedding binder put together for us with all these clipped articles and wedding dress pictures? She's already planning the colours and schemes for my wedding to 'that nice Matthew Royston'." Kat banged her head on the kitchen table a few times. "I'll never survive the wedding planning, much less the wedding at this rate."
"Maybe destination is the way to go, then," Sophie said, looking up as Matt and Daniel trundled in, dragging a medium sized pine tree with them.
"Where do you want it, lady?" Daniel asked with a Cockney drawl, and Sophie clapped her hands together like a child, gazing at it. It was the perfect size, the perfect shape… Sophie had never had a real Christmas tree before, so Daniel had promised to find her the perfect one to replace all those years of a tiny, plastic Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
"Ooh… I don't know," she said with hesitation, looking to Kat for guidance. "What do you think? Where do you think Auntie Barbara always put the Christmas tree?"
"I think she had it in the den," Matt said, rubbing his hands together for warmth. "But you can put it where ever you like. Just don't make us move it ten times. I know women like to do that."
"Hey!" Kat shot at him from across the room. "Just because I couldn't decide where to put that chest of drawers…"
"It weighed about four thousand pounds, love. I think I still have a hernia from moving it a dozen times."
Kat stuck out her tongue at her fiancé, and then looked back as Sophie tried to decide.
Sophie thought, and then her eyes lit up. "The conservatory. Think how pretty it will be at night when the millions of lights on the tree reflect in the glass."
Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Millions?"
"Thousands?" Sophie amended with a pleading look in her eyes, making Daniel laugh. "Pleeeease?"
"Thousands. Maybe," Daniel said, picking up the tree and helping Matt maneuver it. "Why is it I can't say no to you?"
"Because you loooooooove me," Sophie said, drawing out the word and making Daniel laugh. He dropped a quick kiss onto her lips as he passed by.
"Yeah, yeah…"
With only a modicum of cursing and dropping only about a thousand pine needles, the two men managed to get the tree upright and steady in its base in the conservatory. Sophie and Kat gleefully unpacked boxes of ornaments Auntie Barbara had stored in the attic, cooing over every ornament, and making Matt and Daniel roll their eyes in unison.
"I think I'm going to need to spike my coffee if they keep this up," Matt said to Daniel, just loud enough for them to hear.
"Honey," Kat said, a warning tone to her voice as she smiled sweetly at him. "Play nice or go to your room."
Matt laughed, and then sat down behind Kat, pressing a kiss to her shoulder.
Within an hour, the tree had been completely lit and ornaments graced almost every bough. Kat and Matt admired their work, then left to meet Kat's parents for dinner in Hereford, calling out good byes and plans to get together again soon.
Sophie closed the front door after waving them off, then retreated to the conservatory, where Daniel had turned off the lights, making the tree reflect a thousand times in the glass.
"That is beautiful," Sophie sighed, sitting down on Daniel's lap on the couch, her eyes on the tree.
"It is," Daniel said, his eyes only on Sophie, making her giggle.
"I was thinking we could open a couple of presents early," Daniel ventured, and Sophie looked at him, horrified.
"What?!" she barked. "Are you one of THOSE people who open their presents before Christmas morning? Because if you are, we are going to have to have a serious talk. I think that's a travesty of the whole Christmas spirit of waiting and wishing, and poor Santa Claus would become totally…"
Sophie trailed off as Daniel pulled a small box from his pocket.
"That's not… that's not what I think it is, is it?" Sophie asked hoarsely.
"Depends. Do you think it's… a pony?"
"No."
"A new pair of handcuffs?"
Sophie giggled. "No."
"Barbie's dream house?"
Sophie socked him on the shoulder. "No."
"Good, because it's none of those things," Daniel said, holding the box out to her. Sophie took it in her shaking hands, tears falling as she opened the box, adding to the sparkle of the room.
"Marry me…"
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