Page 34 of Taylor

She put on her cute Christmas pj’s, and they met in the hallway, heading for the living room. By looking at the glint in his eye, she felt maybe he liked Christmas just as much as she did, excited to see what he thought of his surprise.

Once they were there, they just stood awkwardly, looking at each other. She was waiting for him to look at the TV and see the Playcube with the big red bow on it.

She couldn’t take it anymore.

“I have a surprise for you,” she blurted.

He cocked his head. “You do?”

“Yeah.” She pointed to the TV.

Taylor went over and scoped. “I remember you said that your favorite Christmas was when you got the Playcube and you played Monsters of the Realm. I just thought...”

She walked to the tree to get the other part of his present but stopped because, in the light of the morning, she could see it wasn’t the only present under the tree.

“Is this an original Playcube?”

“Yeah, my brother’s old one was here, so I dug it out. There’s something else for you under the tree.”

He turned to her with a big smile. “You have something under the tree, too.”

Taylor was usually so reserved, so seeing him quite literally like a kid on Christmas morning made her heart so damn happy.

“Come sit down,” he said as he got both presents from under the tree.

“You go first.” She watched contentedly as he unwrapped Monsters of the Realm.

“This is amazing. I can’t wait to pop it in. I haven’t played in years. How did you do this?”

She shrugged. “I just remembered you talking about it, and I woke up in the night and decided to be Santa.”

“You’re the hottest Santa I’ve ever seen,” he said, giving her a kiss.

“Your turn,” he said, pointing to the gift on the coffee table.

“When did you do this?” she asked as she opened the perfect wrapping. As she pulled the silver-and-green paper off, a nice sketch book came into view. Next, she unwrapped the colored pencils. “This is amazing. When did you have time for this?”

“Well... it was supposed to be for my little sister, but I’ll send her something else. I just wanted you to have a present under the tree, and after you said what you got your first Christmas here, I thought it was fitting.”

She flung herself off the couch and onto his lap and hugged him.

He oofed with surprise but then wrapped his arms around her and hugged her right back. His hands ran up and down her back as he gave a soft chuckle. “I’m glad you like it.”

“I really, really do!” she said, giving him a kiss. “I’m sorry. I get a little carried away sometimes.”

“No need to apologize. I like your exuberance,” he said as he booped her nose.

A wave of emotion swept over her. How could he like that about her? She seemed to annoy most people.

“Now,” he said, pulling her out of her head. “Did you say something about cinnamon rolls? I wanna play my game, eat some cinnamon rolls... and then maybe practice what we did last night,” he said, tracing the side of her neck with his nose.

“God bless us, everyone,” she said on a laugh.

He cupped her face and kissed her again.

15

Taylor

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