Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 67492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“Sorry, Santa,” Oliver says. “I’m the only one who gets to hold my girl.”
Santa gives us a belly jiggling “Ho, Ho, Ho,” and when I smile for the camera, it has nothing to do with the fact that my grumpy man friend is getting his picture with Santa for me for the second time this season, but it’s his words that light my smile and keep it on my face.
After grabbing our bags, we head over to get our picture. “Two, please,” Oliver tells her. The elf prints us two copies and places them in cardboard Christmas-themed frames as Oliver hands over the cash. He passes me one of the copies and kisses the corner of my mouth. “Merry Christmas, Blake.”
My heart does this weird pitter-patter, almost as if it’s skipping inside my chest. I thought he was this grumpy man who was holding all his hurt inside and that it would take extreme effort to get him to even consider celebrating anything Christmas. Now, here he is, being all sweet and handing me Christmas gifts. I’m sure he thinks it’s just a picture, but I know better. It’s a picture of me with a man that I’m falling dangerously fast for. That wasn’t part of the plan, but he’s making it impossible not to fall for him. My heart will cherish this picture when he decides this is over.
“Thank you, Ollie.” I place the picture inside one of my bags for safekeeping.
“Where to?” he asks. He has no idea how he just flipped my world upside down.
“Um, I want to get Isla a new case for her Kindle. Hers is all gross—her words, not mine.”
“Where do we go for that?”
“Actually, I think I’ll order it online.”
“She reads a lot.”
“I do too. You just don’t see that side of me.” That’s probably because when we’re together outside of work, either other people are around or our lips are locked. Sure, my reading time has taken a little bit of a hit, but you’re not going to catch me complaining about that, not when the alternative is Oliver and his kisses.
“I’ve never seen you with an e-reader.”
“Yeah, mine died a few months ago, and I’ve just never replaced it. I have the app on my phone, so I’ve been using that. It’s just as convenient.”
“So, where else are we headed?” he asks.
“I’m going to order her case online, and I think I’ll get her a gift card, too, for books. I don’t usually like to give gift cards, but as a book lover, I know that’s going to be one of her favorite gifts.”
“So, we’re done shopping?” he asks hopefully.
“Almost. I have one more stop to make. Do you mind taking me to a Target or Walmart?”
“You know I will.” He grabs a few more of my bags out of my hands, even though I’m perfectly capable of carrying them myself, and we make our way to the car. The drive is short and filled with comfortable silence. Neither one of us feels the need to talk. We just enjoy being with each other. That’s a first for me. Usually, I can’t stop talking, but right now, I’m just glad I’m here with the man who I never in my life imagined I’d be falling for.
“Thank you for today. I had a lot of fun,” I tell Oliver as we pull into his garage.
“It wasn’t terrible.” He winks. “Do you want to load all this into your car now or later?”
“Now. I’ll need to get home and start wrapping.”
“What? No. Nope, that was not the deal, Blakely Kincaid.”
“Did we have a deal?” I ask.
“You know we did. Cuddling on the couch and kisses, that was the plan.”
“Well, maybe I can come back after I get all these wrapped? I don’t want to put it off so I can mark it off my to-do list.” It’s taking a lot of effort to keep a straight face. I kinda feel bad for manipulating him into wrapping presents with me, but he’s making it so damn easy.
“Can’t you do that here? You got everything you needed at our Target stop, right? Do it here. You said all day.” He glances at the clock on the dash of his SUV that’s still on because we have not opened the doors yet. “This is not all day.”
“It’s four in the afternoon. I think that classifies as all day.”
“Nope. You’re wrapping them here.” He gets out of the SUV, opens the back, and starts hauling bags into the house.
I sigh heavily when he returns to the garage for another trip. “If you can’t beat them, join them,” I muse.
“There’s my girl.” He drops a kiss to my temple and takes in another load. He has no idea he just made my heart stutter.
I’m grinning like a fool and humming “Santa Baby” with the last of our packages. “I got everything, but I didn’t shut the garage door. I wasn’t sure which button it was.”