Page 58 of An Adventure For Aster

She moved over and sat at her little table while he cooked and when the toast popped she got up to butter it.

“So much for me wanting to cook for you this morning,” he said.

“We make a good team,” she said.

“We do.”

They sat and ate. “My mother is going to have breakfast too, but we are up early and I can’t go without eating.”

“You should have said that,” he said. “I just assumed we were going over to open gifts.”

He felt bad and didn’t want to take anything away from what Patty was doing.

“We will do that too. My mother loves making Christmas breakfast, but it’s six a.m. We won’t get there until around ten. No one is waiting that long to eat. It’s more of a brunch but nothing fancy. Like not fancy brunch food.”

“Do I look like someone that eats fancy brunch foods?” he asked drily.

She giggled and at least got his joke. Guess he wasn’t always so obvious with it like he could be with the guys. They got his personality more.

“No. You look like a guy I very much love being around.”

“Just love being around?” he asked.

He knew she wanted to say more about their relationship. Or maybe it was wishful thinking on his part.

He started to think that maybe she was afraid of putting pressure on him if she said it and she didn’t think he was ready.

He was ready to say it. More than ready to hear it. And since she didn’t always get his little jokes he figured she might not understand that his actions showed what he felt for her either.

It was going to be said today regardless of when she opened her gifts so this would ease his nerves some.

“Maybe more than that,” she said.

“Why aren’t you saying more?” he asked. “Are you afraid I’m not there or don’t want to hear it?”

She stopped eating and looked up at him. “Could be.”

“I didn’t think you were afraid of much,” he said.

“I’m not. Or didn’t think I was. Do you want me to say it?”

He couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. “I do,” he said.

She put her fork down and moved over to sit on his lap. He liked it when she did that. As much as he loved when she wore his shirts and she had another one on now. It almost fell to her knees.

“Then I’ll say it,” she said. “I love you. I think I’ve been falling in love with you for months.”

“We’ve only dated a few months,” he said.

“Maybe I make up my mind fast,” she said, smiling and kissing him on the lips.

“Could be I do too. But as we know, I don’t talk all that much about my feelings.”

“No,” she said, “you don’t. But you’re getting there.”

“I love you too.” He gave her a playful kiss. “Let’s go open gifts,” he said. “Now I can’t wait to give you everything.”

“You didn’t go overboard, did you? I thought we had an agreement.”

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