Page 49 of Merry Kissmas

When I look at the table though, Gwen, Tessa, and Tre are all staring at me with goofy smiles.I take those smiles to mean I’m making progress on my quest to win back Brynn.

ChapterNineteen

Brynn

Pierce and I head back to our villa after watchingFour Christmases.

“I quite enjoyed that movie,” he says.

I press in the code for the door and step inside, admiring our tree.I left it plugged in when we left earlier, so the lights on it fill the room with a warm glow.

“Tomorrow we have to be on our game.I’m pretty sure it’s gingerbread house night because my mom will want to display them, then everyone will pick them apart to eat before Christmas.”

“Want to sketch out some ideas?”he asks, walking past me toward the couch.

“You’d want to do that?”

“One thing I’ve figured out about you is how much you love to win, so if us winning the gingerbread house competition makes you happy, I’ll grab my notebook.”

I watch him reach into his bag next to the couch and bring a notebook to his lap.I sit down next to him and turn on the television.“Want to watch a movie while we do it?”

He looks at me, and his gaze falls to my lips.“Please don’t get my hopes up like that.”

“What?”I ask, and his gaze floats back up to meet mine.

“While we do it?”He smirks.

I push his shoulder, and he pretends to lose his balance, laughing.“Dirty mind.”

“Only when it comes to you.”

I’m not sure what to say, so I say nothing.After he told us this morning that he lost his parents so young and went to a boarding school, I had the urge to soothe any leftover pain, but when I hugged him, I got no reciprocation, so I took that as a sign it’s still a sensitive matter.

“Thanks for helping my mom so much in the kitchen,” I say, scrolling through the streaming channel to find a good holiday movie that Pierce might enjoy too.

“I like to cook.Clears my head.”He opens the notebook.His legs are stretched out to rest his feet on the coffee table, his ankles crossed.“What are you thinking?”

I click onSurviving Christmasbecause it’s one of my favorites, but I turn my body to face Pierce.“In the past, it’s not really been about the houses but the stuff around the house.”

“Like a front porch swing?”He glances up from the corner of his eye.

“What?”My head tilts.

Without responding to me, he sketches out a gingerbread house with a front porch that wraps around it and points the tip of his pen to where he thinks we could put the porch swing.“Here?”

“Pierce.”My tone is questioning.Is he doing what I think he’s doing?

He draws it in place.“I think this is a good spot.And a fence around the front of the yard, right?You wanted that too.”He continues to draw a small picket fence with a swinging gate that opens from the sidewalk to a brick path up to the front door.

My heart rate picks up speed.“Pierce.”

He pays me no attention and continues drawing the dream house I described to him our last night in bed together.It was so easy to tell him what I wanted in my life.

“A simple life, right?A marriage like your parents.A house with a front porch swing and fence in the front so you can watch your kids play?Oh wait.”He presses the pen back to the paper.“A dog.”

“Pierce…” My voice is a hoarse whisper now.I can’t believe he remembered everything I told him.

“Is this about right?”he asks, holding it out to me as if he’s an architect.

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