Stretching my toes from beneath the blanket, I tap on the red wrapping, and Noah’s head shifts, his cheek pressed to mine.
“Is that for me?”
I nod against him. “It is.”
“That’s not fair, Juliet.” He kisses my temple.
“I can think of several ways you can even the score…”
He groans playfully, his hands coming down to tickle my ribs.
I chuckle, dropping my head back on his shoulder, so I can meet his eyes, and he lowers his lips to mine. I smile against him, whispering, “Open it, Noah.”
He holds my gaze a long moment, and then gently sets me aside and leans over, snagging it from beneath the tree. He eyes the packaging, the label reading from Santa to Noah, and a small grin forms across his face.
He looks up again, and I nod, my hands tethering together, my nerves at an all-time high.
As if in slow motion, he tugs the ribbons, and they fall from the side. The packaging is torn, and he gets to the white box beneath it.
My lips press together in a tight line and then Noah is lifting the lid, the contents of what’s inside coming into view, freezing his hands in midair.
His entire body is frozen, but ever so slowly, he allows the top to fall and it’s with shaky hands that he reaches inside, freeing the soft, black leather book.
Reluctantly, his eyes come to mine, but only for a second, before they go right back.
Noah falls onto his ass, and he swallows hard. “Juliet…” he hardly breathes. “What is this?”
Tears prick my eyes, and I fight to keep my breaths from growing choppy.
I scoot closer, slowly tracing the cursive on the cover.
The title no more than two words.
Riley Recipes.
Noah’s hand comes up, clenching over his mouth and jaw and he shakes his head. “Baby… I can’t,” he croaks, his eyes clouded as he looks at me.
“Look inside.”
A shuddered exhale leaves him, and he squares his shoulders, doing exactly that.
The moment his eyes land on the crisp, cream page, the recipe book falls to the floor, and he buries his face in his palms.
When he looks up, it’s to grab me, to drag me to him and drape me across his lap, to bring my lips to his, so he can kiss me with every bit of himself.
It takes several moments for him to pull back, and when he does, I smile softly.
“Can I read it to you?”
He nods, locks his arms around me, and closes his eyes, hiding his face in my chest as I pick up the cookbook.
“This book is for my favorite boy. The boy who gave my life meaning and purpose. It’s for the boy who made me a mother, the one thing I aspired to be since before I could remember. It’s for the boy who surpassed my every expectation and grew to be a man I couldn’t be prouder of. Truly, my soul can hold no more pride as you’ve taken up every inch already, and I know you’ll only come to be even more astonishing.
This recipe book is for you, my sweet Noah, and inside, you will find me in memory. My heart is so full, as I hope your, one day, wife and children’s bellies will be as you turn the page and create for them all the meals I created for you. And just like that, you’ll find I’m forever with you, alive in aromas that shall one day fill your home as they filled ours.
My hope is that you’ll add to this someday, create more Riley family recipes with the woman who holds your heart in the palm of her hand, just as you hold hers.
With every bit of my love,
Mom.”
Tears fall from my eyes, and Noah’s thumbs come up to catch them, his own cloudy with emotion.
“On one of our visits with her, I asked her if she would be willing to help me make this for you, and of course, she said yes. I started calling her when the timing worked out, and I’d record while she spoke. Some days we’d only get through a half of a recipe, and others, she’d fly through two. I typed them all up and the people at the print company helped me get them all together.”
Noah’s throat bobs as he swallows, and he shakes his head. “This is…”
He’s speechless, but he doesn’t need to use words for me to understand what he’s feeling.
I just do.
His eyes cling to mine, and I’m overcome by the pure adoration within them.
This man loves me with all that he is… and more.
I’m not sure what I did in my life to deserve him, but he’s everything that I have ever hoped for, beyond so.
I spin in his lap, my legs coming around behind him, my hands gliding up his neck until my thumbs are sliding along his jaw, the tips of my other fingers grazing the edge of his fade. “I love you, Noah Riley.”