Page 45 of Kiss Me

“Good,” I call out behind him. “Make sure they don’t burn.”

“Yes, mom,” he tosses back.

While he’s in the kitchen, I fix a number of ornaments he’s put on the tree so that it looks more symmetrical.

Stepping back, I assess our tree.

“Perfect,” I mumble before snorting. “What would he do without me?” This poor, defenseless Christmas tree needed my help.

“I guess we’ll never know,” Taehyun says behind me, startling me.

I turn around to tell him he just scared me, but he holds a gingerbread cookie to my mouth.

“Open.”

I do so without hesitating, taking a bite.

“Mmm,” I groan. The cookie isn’t even decorated with icing but it’s fresh out of the oven, still warm and with the perfect amount of spiciness from the ginger and sweetness from the cinnamon and sugar.

“So good,” I say, my mouth still full of my first bite.

I part my lips again to take another bite, but Taehyun stuffs the rest of the cookie into his own mouth.

“Hey.”

“That’s for criticizing my tree decorating skills.”

“I was merely pointing out that you were doing it wrong.” I stick my tongue out at him before trying to head to the kitchen to grab another cookie.

“Wrong way, Ginger,” he says, grabbing my hips to steer me back toward the living room.

“I just want one more cookie before we do the rest of the cabin.”

But Taehyun is adamant as he shakes his head.

“The cookies haven’t even been iced yet. We need to set up the rest of these decorations and then finish the cookies once they’ve had time to cool down.”

I fold my arms across my chest. “You told me you’ve never done this before. You sound almost like a professional.”

He shakes his head. “Just a man who read the instructions beforehand. Now …”

“Ouch.” I jump as he spins me around, smacking my ass.

“Back to decking this place out.”

My annoyance quickly vanishes when he lifts a stream of Christmas lights out of their box and places them around his shoulders to begin dancing in time to Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

I crack up laughing and clapping as he mimics the words of the song while using the lights as a microphone.

“How do you even know the lyrics to this song? I thought you didn’t celebrate Christmas?” I ask at the same time I take the lights and begin unraveling them.

“Not at home but I did most of my schooling and university studies in the States. Friends of mine always had Christmas parties and whatnot. You get to hear the same songs over and over each year. I used to wonder how people never got tired of them.”

He shakes his head as if still trying to figure it out.

“Tired?” My voice is full of surprise. “How could you even think that? These songs are classics.” I finish my comment right as Wham!’s “Last Christmas” begins playing. I gasp so loud that Taehyun jumps.

“This one is sooo good!”

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