Page 116 of Mad Love

It’s like a treasure trove of amazingness. Delicious-smelling bath scrub and perfume, cozy socks, individually wrapped truffles, cute earrings that I’m shocked he picked out, and at the bottom I freeze when I feel a long jewelry box that fills the whole foot of the stocking.

I open the box and my mouth parts when I see the white gold pendant on a beautiful chain. In the center isW+S.Above the plus sign is aC,and below the plus sign is a small heart with a diamond in the center.

“I love it so much,” I tell him, my voice trembling. “Thank you.” I lift it out of the box and turn so he’ll put it on me.

“If you like wearing it and we ever need to update it with…I don’t know, new initials or something…I’ll make sure to put in a word with the Claus family.”

“Oh, you will?” I grin, leaning up to kiss him. “I’m not sure why we’d need new initials, but…”

His hands squeeze my backside as he gives me a longer kiss. “One thing at a time, Chapman. It’s all part of my master plan.”

“I see. Very interesting.”

He looks over my shoulder and laughs when he sees Caleb pounding on the box for the tool set with another present.

“I hope that box didn’t have something breakable,” he says.

“It’s those cute little boots we got him,” I whisper.

“Oh, perfect,” he whispers back.

“Are you ready to see what’s in your stocking?” I ask.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

He’s pure mischief as he goes over to his stocking and shakes it like a box. When it doesn’t make a sound, he frowns. “No clue.”

He puts his hand in there and pulls out a huge bar of soap that says Lump of Coal.

“But I’ve been very good,” he insists.

“Yes, you have.” I laugh.

He pulls outThe Book of Terribly Awesome Dad Jokesnext and laughs as he flips through it. “I’m totally going to use these.”

“I have no doubt.”

Socks with Caleb’s face on them are next, and he acts like it’s the greatest thing he’s ever gotten. When he pulls out another pair with us making goofy faces, he laughs so hard.

“This is perfect,” he says.

At the bottom is a tobacco vanilla candle that says Sadie’s Sidepiece. His laugh reverberates off of the high ceilings and makes Caleb and me laugh too.

“You’re the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says when he’s stopped laughing. He pulls me to him and gives me a lingering kiss.

When we move to sit under the tree, there are still mostly presents for Caleb under there, which is funny, because he couldn’t care less about opening them. He’s still happy with his box, and it’s just as well, there are a few books and a singing toyleft to open and a few things in his stocking that he can discover later.

Weston and I take our time opening the gifts. I get a pretty sweater and a sexy nightie that I recognize as Scarlett’s brand. He gets a sweater too, and his last present is his favorite of all. It’s an album of Caleb from the day he was born, until his first birthday earlier this month. We threw a huge party with our family and friends. He got more presents than he’s gotten this Christmas, and the biggest was from Penn—an outrageously large ball pit. The pictures from that day are at the end and the very last picture is one I took as Weston was reading his bedtime story that night.

“I don’t know how I got so lucky,” he says, choked up when he closes the album.

“That’s how I feel too,” I tell him.

He pulls me onto his lap so I’m straddling him and hugs me. We look over at Caleb.

“He finally likes his workbench,” Weston says.

“Yay.”

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