Before Exhale realized it, Christmas Eve was upon them. She and Taylor had spent the day being lazy around the house together, staying in their pajamas and watching Christmas movies and specials all day long. Around eight, she finally had to extricate herself from the complicated tangle of arms and legs they had become on the couch and head for her parents’ house. It had been fine at first, spending time with her parents and her sister, but now when it was time to go to sleep, she was miserable. Her mother had insisted on her presence for Christmas morning as a family, and though she had argued the fact that Ethan wouldn’t be there, her words were lost on Magdalen’s ears. It wasn’t that she hated spending time with her family, she hated sleeping alone after growing so accustomed to another warm body beside her while she slept. Since his return from his last trip to California, Exhale hadn’t spent a single night without Taylor. Already she ached for his quiet, yet very amusing, mumbled one-sided conversations as he slept, or for him to wriggle himself behind her and drape an arm across her waist so that they were spooning. She just missed him. And until then, when she found herself completely alone in her bedroom back home, she hadn’t realized how much that was possible, especially when they were still in the same city.

After what felt like hours of laying there, Exhale finally drifted off to sleep, not to waken again until bright and early the next morning when Echo shuffled into her room and shook her awake roughly. “Get up,” the younger girl said, stifling a yawn and clutching a flannel blanket around her shoulders with one hand while pushing on Exhale’s shoulders with the other. “Mom wants to get this present deal over with so she can start cooking. Get up, Hale!”

“Fine, fine, I’m up,” Exhale groaned, shoving Echo’s prodding hands away and sitting up slowly. She felt as though she had only been asleep for a few minutes as she stretched her arms over her head and felt a burning sensation go through her muscles and her back popped into place. She pulled a hoodie on over her pajamas and shuffled along behind Echo downstairs.

“It looks like Santa still makes stops over here!” Magdalen exclaimed cheerily when her daughters appeared still half asleep in the living room.

“Mom, seriously…I know this is fun for you and all, but Santa? I’m seventeen.” Echo rolled her eyes and plopped down on the floor in front of the Christmas tree.

Exhale sat next to her sister and nudged her with her elbow. “Be nice.”

Though they were now seventeen and nineteen, Magdalen and Sage still insisted on videotaping them opening their gifts and snapping several pictures as though it was their very first Christmas. Exhale was happy when the ritual was over and she ran back up the stairs with some new jeans and sweaters, a few DVDs and CDs she had wanted, and a car accessory for her new iPod in her arms, especially because that meant she would soon be seeing Taylor.

After showering and drying her hair, Exhale borrowed her sister’s fat curling iron to style her hair in the large curls that Raine had been perfecting for years. When that didn’t work quite as she had planned, she straightened all of the curls out of her hair with a flat iron and pulled the top half back into a small ponytail, fastening it with a silver butterfly barrette that was studded with rhinestones around the wings. She pulled on a pair of dressy khakis with a black sweater that clung to her body and a pair of black boots whose toes tapered off into a sharp point. After dressing up her outfit with a silver necklace and making sure her bangs fell in just the right way across her eye, she pulled on her thick black peacoat and made her way back downstairs. “Mom, I’m heading to Taylor’s, okay?” she said, sticking her head in the kitchen where her mother was already hard at work warming up all of the food she had spent the day before preparing.

“Okay, Hale, be careful. Did you see it’s snowing outside?”

Exhale’s eyes widened in surprise as she hurried over to look out the window over the sink. “Is it really? How great is that?”

“Snow is great, icy roads are not,” Magdalen replied wryly. “Promise me you’ll drive slow and be extra careful?”

“I promise, Mom,” Exhale said with a laugh, pulling her mom into a hug. “I’ll see you around three?”

“Okay, and don’t be late.”

“I won’t!” Exhale called, hurrying out the door. The world spread before her when she opened the front door was more beautiful than she could have imagined. A thin layer of snow covered the ground and whitened all of the houses up and down her street. Every home had Christmas lights, casting different colors and shapes in the white canvas of snow, and a few houses down she could see come children giggling and screeching as they engaged in a snowball fight. For a second, Exhale considered dropping down onto the lawn and making a snow angel, but realizing she didn’t want to be cold and wet on the drive to Taylor’s she resisted the urge and hurried to her car. While she sat inside of it, waiting for it to warm up enough to defrost the windows, she set up the car adapter for her iPod and snapped it in. She set the songs on shuffle, and grinned when the first strains of the familiar piano intro made their way to her ears. Soon she was on her way to the Hansons, singing at the top of her lungs to Crazy Beautiful.

After making her way slowly through the icy streets, she finally reached her destination. She knocked on the door of the Hanson's house, tugging nervously on the hem of her coat. It was only her second Christmas spent with the extensive Hanson family, and it was still slightly new and overwhelming. She had always considered her family to be rather large until the previous year when she had done this for the first time. The door swung open, and Exhale’s stomach sank when she realized it was a relative she didn’t remember. She forced a smile as the woman greeted her enthusiastically and pulled her into a hug. “Merry Christmas! Oh, you probably don’t remember me, do you? I’m Walker’s sister Celeste.” Before Exhale could muster a reply, Celeste guided her inside and shut the door against the cold air. “I can’t imagine how tough this must be for you! It’s so easy for us to all only have to remember one name, but for you to remember all of us...well, I imagine it’s a task! If you’ll just follow me, I think I remember seeing Taylor in the kitchen just a few minutes ago.”

Winding through the abundance of people and smiling as they greeted her, Exhale tried to keep up with Taylor’s aunt. “I’m not surprised he’s in the kitchen,” she said with a laugh. “If I’ve learned anything in the time I’ve known him, it’s that he loves to eat.”

Celeste laughed a hearty warm laugh that made Exhale instantly feel more at ease. “Oh, there he is,” she said, pointing to Taylor who was near the back door talking to another relative with a cookie in his hand. His thin frame was clad in a white button up collared shirt with a brilliant red sweater pulled over it, and a pair of dark jeans slung perfectly on his razor sharp hip bones.

As Celeste hurried off in another direction, Exhale made her way over to him slowly with a smile taking over her face. She loved just watching him. She loved the way he stood so casually with his shoulders back and his hip and knee jutting forward. She loved the way his hands were always moving as he spoke, and the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. She found herself wishing she could sit right where she was and just watch him for the rest of the day, but the urge to be beside him and be a part of this Christmas experience with him won over and she kept walking until she was at his side. When he turned to her and smiled, her heart melted. In a world where anything was possible, she would bottle up this feeling that she got whenever he looked at her and treasure it forever. It was impossible to put into words, yet the most wonderful feeling she could imagine. “Haley, when did you get here?” he said, pulling her close and kissing the top of her head.

“Just now,” she said, looking up at him. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.” Taylor paused and squeezed her shoulders gently before realizing they weren’t the only two people in the room. “Haley, you remember my cousin David, don’t you?”

“Actually, I think I do,” she replied, smiling at the guy their age who Taylor had been engaged in conversation with. “How are you?”

“I’m good,” David said, nodding his head and smiling. “Taylor was just telling me all about you getting into Nursing school. Congratulations.”

“Aw, thank you,” Exhale said, a light blush creeping over her cheeks.

“No problem. It was nice seeing you again, Exhale,” David said before excusing himself and leaving them.

“Baby, I can’t wait. I want to give you your present right now,” Taylor said, pulling her into a hug.

“Won’t it be rude of us to exchange presents in front of everyone though?” Exhale said, looking around the crowded kitchen.

“Your present is at my house anyway,” he said, taking another bite of his cookie. “You want some?” He extended his hand with the half eaten cookie towards her. “My mom just took them out the oven. They’re still warm.”

“You’re psycho,” she said, obligingly taking a bite of the cookie.

“Only for cookies. Come on, let’s go find my mom and let her know.” Taylor took her hand and led her through the kitchen to the dining room where Diana was setting the table. “Mom, me and Haley are going to run over to my house real fast and exchange our presents, okay?”

“Exhale, I didn’t know you were here yet!” Diana exclaimed with a smile, pulling her into a hug. “Merry Christmas! Are you staying for dinner?”

“Merry Christmas,” Exhale said, hugging her back tightly. She smelled like perfume and gingerbread cookies. “And I wouldn’t miss this dinner for the world. My family’s not eating until much later so we have plenty of time to stay over here.”

“That’s wonderful. Well, go ahead and exchange your presents, but hurry back. The food’s almost ready.”

Once they had made their way though the maze of relatives and Taylor had located his jacket in the stuffed coat closet, they ventured out of the house into the yard blanketed with a thin carpet of bright white snow. Taylor grasped her hand as best he could since both of their hands were gloved and led her around the driveway to the side of the house where the gravel path from his parents house to his own began. “We’re walking?” she asked, her teeth chattering as she glanced up at him confused.

As if he couldn’t feel the cold air rushing into his face, Taylor grinned and nodded his head. “Don’t you want to enjoy this? I can’t even remember the last time it snowed on Christmas!” he replied happily, stretching out the arm that wasn’t attached to her and catching snowflakes on the arm of his black coat.

“I bet you already opened my presents,” Exhale said with a laugh.

“I did no such thing!” Taylor exclaimed.

They had finally arrived at his front door, and Taylor felt in his pocket for his keys. As soon as they stepped inside, Bella was winding around her ankles with excitement. Exhale laughed and lifted the cat in her arms as she walked into the warm house. “Merry Christmas, Bella!” she said, allowing her to lick her face in greeting. Her little body was shaking with the sudden cold that had entered the house with them, so Exhale did her best to warm her as she followed Taylor into the living room.

Taylor was bent excitedly in front of the tree under which only his and Exhale’s presents remained. The rest he had brought over to his parents house that morning when he had joined them to exchange presents with all his siblings. A smile beamed wide across his face, but Exhale could tell he was nervous, the telltale sign being that the hand that wasn’t holding the gift out toward her was raking through his hair. She set the cat on the ground and laughed at Taylor. “Can we at least sit?” she asked, lowering herself to the ground and folding her legs Indian style.

A light chuckle passed Taylor’s lips as he sat across from her, still holding out her gift. She took it from him and laughed. “I’ve been dying to see what it is!” she said, tearing into the paper. If she wouldn’t have caught herself, the smile would have slid off her face completely when she saw what the gift was. Inside the rectangle box was a leather organizer. Disappointment slowly seeped through her, but then she felt selfish. Even before they had began dating, when they were just friends, every gift from him had been something unique and personal. Every gift had had some sort of meaning or motive behind it and it was always obvious that he spent a lot of time thinking of the perfect thing to give her. She turned the organizer over in her hands, trying to look excited, but failing miserably. It seemed so impersonal and generic. “Thank you so much!” Exhale said, looking up into his eyes and forcing as much cheeriness as she could muster into her voice. “I’ve been needing one of these.”

Taylor’s face fell. “You don’t like it.”

“Tay, I love it!” she gushed, opening the organizer and flipping through it. “It’s perfect!” She could tell he didn’t believe her, so she reached past him and grabbed his gifts from beneath the tree. “Now open yours!” she said, pushing them towards him.

Her stomach churned with anticipation as she watched him rip the paper and expose the box of the new digital camera she had bought him. His face lit up suddenly, his failed gift forgotten, as he looked up at her in surprise. “Haley, how did you…”

“I’ve been saving all year and looking in every store until I found one that was perfect. It’s nice and small so you can carry it everywhere with you since you’re always complaining about how big and bulky your old film camera is. And I know how jealous you are of Isaac’s, so I made sure this one was even better,” she said with a proud grin, glad she had gotten him something he really wanted.

Taylor pulled her into a tight hug and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you, Haley. It’s awesome.” It wasn’t until he sat back that he remembered there was another gift from her sitting beside him. “And you got me something else?” he said with genuine surprise. Inside the second box was a small black leather camera case with his name across it in gold lettering. “I really can’t believe you did this, Haley,” Taylor said, turning the case over in his hands.

“Well, it’s all you’ve been talking about getting since forever, you just never get around to looking, so I figured…” Exhale stood up and started gathering up the ripped wrapping paper that Bella was pouncing on and walking towards the kitchen to throw it away.

“Haley, wait.” Taylor grabbed her arm to stop her. When she turned around to see what he wanted, he was down on his knee and smiling. “I got you something else.”

She audibly gasped when he reached in his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box, knowing instantly what was inside. “Taylor…”

Her hand shook in his grasp as he began talking and the balled up wrapping paper slowly slid from the other hand. “Haley, I love you more than I could have ever imagined loving someone. My happiest moments are waking up next to you in the morning and coming home to you at night. I want every day of the rest of my life feel like that. So I want to ask you something…” He drew in a deep breath, cracked open the box to reveal the ring inside, and said slowly, “…will you marry me?”

Tears were pouring from her eyes and her lower lip trembled as she slowly nodded her head. “Yes,” she whispered, her voice cracking slightly. “Yes!” she repeated, her voice louder and clearer. Taylor laughed and slid the ring onto her finger before rising and grabbing her into a tight hug, lifting her feet off of the ground. “Oh my God,” Exhale said, the tears continuing to come as she squeezed him tightly.

When he set her back on her feet, he brought his hands up to her face and swept the tears away with his thumbs. “I’m so sorry about the organizer,” he said with a gigantic smile. “I knew you’d be disappointed with it, but I thought it would make the moment more of a surprise.”

“Good diversion,” she replied with a sniffle.

“But actually, I got you an organizer for a reason. We can use it to help us keep track of the wedding planning. I just couldn’t tell you that without giving everything else away…”

“You really do think of everything, don’t you?” Exhale laughed through the last few tears making their way down her cheeks. “I can’t believe we’re really engaged…” she breathed happily. “Oh! When are we going to tell everyone? I mean, do we still have an engagement party? I’ve never done this before!”

Taylor’s head tilted as he laughed heartily. “Why are you asking me? I’ve never done this either! We can tell everyone today and worry about an engagement party later. How’s that sound?”

“I think just about anything would sound perfect right now,” Exhale laughed, holding her hand up to inspect the ring. The platinum band fit around her finger perfectly, and it was so simple and elegant that she fell in love with it as though she had picked it out herself. In the center was a round diamond, and on either side of it was a tiny teardrop diamond. “Taylor, this is beautiful. You picked this out all by yourself?”

Taylor’s cheek flushed briefly. “Ummm…not quite. I had a little help from Jessica.”

“It’s perfect,” she gushed, pulling him into another tight embrace. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed suddenly when they broke apart. “I have to call Raine!” Taylor laughed and resumed the task she had started of cleaning up the discarded wrapping paper as Exhale dug in her pocket for her cellphone.

After three rings, Raine greeted her on the other end with, “Merry Christmas!”

Without returning the sentiment, Exhale said quickly, “Do you remember the one thing we always said we’d tell each other first no matter what?”

“Yeah…” Raine trailed off. Then suddenly she screamed, “YOU’RE ENGAGED?!”

“Yes!” Exhale exclaimed. “Can you believe it?!”

“Oh my God, Hale, I’m sooooo happy for you! How’s the ring? Is it huge?”

Exhale laughed heartily, melting against Taylor when he snuck up behind her and wound his arms around her waist. “Four carats,” he said into the phone upon hearing Raine’s loud voice ask her question.

“Holy crap!” Raine gasped. “Taylor, you did good. Even without seeing it, I give you my approval.”

Taylor laughed and kissed Exhale’s cheek. “Come on, fiancée, we have to get back.”

“Oh my gosh, ‘fiancée’!” Raine gushed. “I’m so excited for you, Hale! Congratulations and I love you!”

“I love you too,” Exhale giggled. “I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll talk details, okay?”

Once the friends had ended the conversation, Exhale spun around in Taylor’s arms and planted her lips on his. Taylor brought his hands up to her face, trailing his thumbs over her cheekbones and along her jaw line as she prodded at his lips with her tongue. He parted them eagerly, mingling his tongue with hers. A sudden dizziness settled over him reminiscent of their very first kiss, and he sighed when they broke apart. Resting his forehead against hers, Taylor touched his lips to the tip of her nose before whispering, “Thanks for saying yes.”

The cold and snow couldn’t touch them as they walked back to the Hansons, sneaking silent smiles at each other. Exhale was sure it had all been a dream, and kept checking her hand to make sure there was really a ring there and assure her that it had really happened. As they approached the house, Jessica appeared in the backyard through the kitchen door, a mischievous grin on her face. “Well?” she asked expectantly, knowing from the smiles on their faces that the proposal had taken place.

Detaching from Taylor, Exhale ran over to the smiling girl and grabbed her into a tight hug. “Jess, you are the best. The ring is absolutely gorgeous,” Exhale gushed happily. “I can’t believe it, we’re going to be sisters!”

“Hale, what are you talking about?” Jessica said quietly as she returned the enthusiastic hug. “We’re already sisters.”

Exhale pulled back from the embrace to look at Jessica’s smiling face, and another round of tears pricked her eyes. “You’re right, what kind of nonsense am I talking?”

Taylor approached them, slinging an arm around each of their shoulders. He planted a kiss on Jessica’s head and smiled. “Quit making my fiancée cry,” he chided jokingly. “She’s supposed to be happy!”

Jessica poked him in the side as the three of them made their way into the house. The three of them sat down to the enormous feast Diana and her sisters had prepared, and once the prayer over the meal had been said, dug in to the food along with everyone else. Exhale’s stomach was grumbling, but it wasn’t with hunger. She was nervous about the reaction his family would have to their announcement. Though she didn’t expect anyone to show any kind of negativity, that didn’t stop her from being a little apprehensive. So when everyone had finished eating, as evidenced by their groans of satisfactions while they leaned back in their chairs and rubbed their stomachs, Exhale’s chest tightened when Taylor stood up beside her. She held her breath as he spoke, keeping it quick and to the point. “All of you have met my girlfriend, Exhale,” he said, putting his hand on the back of her neck gently. “And well…as of about an hour ago, she’s now my fiancée.”

Surprise painted everyone’s features, except for Jessica who was beaming proudly at being the first in the family to know the news, and calls of congratulations came from every corner of the room. Suddenly Exhale found herself in a blur of faces as everyone hugged her and tugged on her hand to see the ring. Diana’s teary eyed face stood out, as did Walker’s warm smile, and little Zoë pulling on her hand and saying, “Avery told me that means you’re going to be my sister. Is that true?”

Taylor scooped his youngest sister in his arms, her crimson red dress hanging over his arm as he squeezed her tightly. “That’s exactly what that means, Zoë Genevieve.”

Zoë leaned over in Taylor’s grasp and kissed Exhale’s cheek before wriggling away from him and taking off as soon as he set her on her feet. Exhale leaned against him, a satisfied smile on her face as she became sure that everyone had gotten their turn to fawn over her. “All this over an engagement, imagine what’ll happen the first time I get pregnant. I’ll probably have a permanent sore on my belly from everyone rubbing it,” she laughed, tilting her head up to look at him.

“And just think, we get to do this all over again at your house!” Taylor laughed.

Exhale put her hand up as though she was modeling the ring. “I should just walk in the house like this, shouldn’t I?”

“Is your mom going to be okay with this? I know she still hasn’t gotten quite used to the idea of Ethan and Skylar yet. I don’t want to be responsible for giving her a heart attack,” Taylor said, his face suddenly growing somewhat serious.

“She’ll be fine,” Exhale said, waving off his concern. “I think she’s expected this for a long time now.”

Taylor was thankful when, hours later, he discovered Exhale had been right. Unable to hide the excitement, Exhale decided to tell her family prior to dinner, and Magdalen had been the first to pull them both into a crushing hug. She expressed some concern at them being so young, but once she was assured that the wedding wouldn’t be for awhile, she smiled and said, “I’m so happy for you guys.”

Echo seemed excited, but a hint of jealousy appeared in her voice as she realized that between all the attention Skylar was getting for the baby and Exhale was now getting for the engagement, there wouldn’t be much left over for her. But she brightened up considerably when Exhale expressed that after such a successful day of shopping together for Christmas presents, she definitely wanted Echo to come along to pick out dresses and to give input on the wedding planning. Skylar was absolutely beside herself, pulling Exhale into a tight hug and talking animatedly about all of the planning they could do together.

Everyone seemed excited for them, except of course for her maternal grandparents who expressed disapproval of an engagement at such a young age and while Exhale was still in school. But she couldn’t let herself be bothered by them when the rest of her family showed such enthusiasm.

Taylor and Exhale returned home late that night with cars full of presents that they had received from both families. After leaving her family for the night, they had gone along with Taylor’s parents and siblings to the mausoleum as they did every year to visit their grandmother. And for the first time since she had begun sharing in that tradition with them, Taylor didn’t leave sad, expressing instead how happy his grandmother would be for them because she had always loved weddings. Before crawling into bed, Taylor took dozens of pictures on his new camera of the Christmas tree, Bella, the ring, and him and Exhale together. “I’m exhausted,” he said when they finally collapsed beside each other in bed.

“Me too,” she sighed, snuggling closer to him and draping an arm across his stomach. “Today was perfect, Taylor. I’ve tried to imagine how you’d propose to me a thousand times since we started dating, and it was always some big and grandiose thing like a plane passing by with a banner that said ‘Will you marry me?’ or slipping the ring into a mint wrapper at our favorite restaurant. I never thought of you doing something so simple, and I never thought that something so simple could be so perfect. Does that make any sense?”

Taylor found her hand underneath the sheets and laced his fingers with hers before saying, “It makes perfect sense, Haley. And to be honest, I thought of doing something like that, but then I decided that all I was worried about was having us in the same place and the time being just right. And how could an awesome day like Christmas not be the ideal time to ask you to spend the rest of your life with me?”

Exhale tilted her face up, propping her chin on his chest so that she could look into his eyes. “Taylor, I know I went on about the ring a lot today, but I just want you to know that I’d marry you even if you got me a ring out of a gumball machine. I don’t want you to tell me how much you spent, because I’m sure it would freak me out, but if you want to bring it back and try and get a less expensive one, I wouldn’t be upset.”

“Haley, I’m not bringing your ring back,” Taylor chuckled, his chest rumbling with his laughter. “That’s the one I picked for you, and that’s the one I want you to have.”

“I just don’t want to get accused of being a gold digger,” Exhale laughed. “When this gets out to the fans, I’ll be swimming in hate mail.”

“Who cares?” Taylor shrugged, brushing his hand through her hair. “A lot of my life might be dedicated to them, but this one is all us.”

Exhale pushed herself up and shared a tender kiss with him, content with his response because of the truth within it. Taylor tried so hard to please the fans through his music and by doing his best to be polite to them even when he didn’t want to be bothered with them. But even as hard as he tried, it seemed like he could never win with them as they always found some source of dissatisfaction in his lifestyle. It comforted her to think that no matter what response they got from the fans or anyone else, Taylor was happy with the decision he had made to ask her to marry him. “I love you,” she whispered before kissing him again.

“I love you too, baby.”

She laid her cheek in the spot where her chin had been, and within minutes, the gentle huffs being emitted from Taylor let her know that he had drifted off to sleep. Lifting her hand to gaze at the ring one more time, Exhale sighed contentedly. Even after all of the arguments they’d had over what their future would hold, and Taylor giving her the impression that an engagement would be a long way away, he had realized that he wanted to marry her and decided that it was the right time for a proposal. She couldn’t help but smile as she thought that maybe for the first time in a long time, they were on the same track.

INDEX | CHAPTER TWENTY ONE