Page 24 of Auctioned to the Billionaire

“I can handle this. She’s doing all of the heavy lifting right now,” I tell her.

She laughs, rubbing her swollen belly.

“Literally doing all of the heavy lifting,” she says with a giggle.

“You’re gorgeous,” I promise her as I hit send on the email and then push to my feet.

She holds her hand out to me, and I take it, interlocking our fingers as we sneak past the kids’ rooms and head downstairs.

The house is quiet for once, a rare and fleeting miracle in the Walters household. The kids are asleep, their rooms dimly lit by the glow of nightlights. Letty and I tiptoe down the stairs, her hand warm in mine as we move toward the living room where the chaos of wrapping presents awaits us.

The sight of the living room makes me smile. The Christmas tree stands tall in the corner, its twinkling lights casting a warm glow across the room. Boxes of wrapping paper, bows, and ribbons are scattered on the floor, and a stack of gifts is waiting for the finishing touch.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this now,” Letty whispers, her voice soft with amusement. “Every year, we say we’ll be more organized, and yet here we are—wrapping gifts at midnight two days before Christmas.”

“It’s tradition at this point,” I reply, tugging her toward the couch. “And anyway, it’s the only time we can do this without the kids trying to ‘help.’”

She laughs, settling onto the couch with a groan as she shifts her weight. “True. Max would’ve torn half the paper, Emma would’ve stolen all the ribbons, and Charlie… well, he’d probably eat the tape.”

“Sounds about right.” I sit beside her, grabbing a roll of paper and a box of toys from the pile. “Alright, Mrs. Walters. Let’s see if we can pull this off.”

She grins at the sound of her name. Even after five years, it still feels good to say it.

We fall into a rhythm, cutting paper, folding edges, and securing everything with tape while chatting in hushed tones. Letty hums Christmas carols under her breath, her blonde hairfalling into her eyes as she leans over a particularly tricky package. I reach out to brush the strands back, unable to resist the urge to touch her.

“You’re staring,” she says, glancing at me with a knowing smile.

“Can you blame me?” I reply, my voice low. “You’re stunning.”

Her cheeks flush, and she shakes her head, laughing softly. “You’re incorrigible.”

“And you love it.”

“Unfortunately for me, I do,” she teases, her eyes twinkling.

As we wrap, our conversation drifts to the past—how much has changed in these five short years. Letty is still my assistant, though really, we run the company together. We’re pretty hands-off these days since the kids keep us busy.

We’ve set up a comfortable life here in Wolf Valley. We’re still in the same house, and both of us are homebodies, so we spend most of our time here. Nowadays, we’re usually chasing after the kids and trying to keep them entertained.

We’ve heard from Letty’s brother once. It was right after we got married and he had reached out to her, acting like they were super close. It didn’t take him more than half an hour before he was asking for money and Letty asked him to leave. We haven’t heard from him since, and while I know that upsets Letty sometimes, we both know that we’ve built the family that we want and deserve here with each other.

“Do you remember our first Christmas together?” Letty asks, her tone nostalgic.

I chuckle, nodding. “How could I forget? You made me spend three hours assembling that gingerbread house, and it collapsed twice before we got it to stay up.”

“It wasworthit,” she insists, laughing. “It looked amazing once it was done.”

“It lookedalright,” I tease. “But it was fun. That’s what I remember most—how much fun we had. Just the two of us, laughing and making a mess in the kitchen.”

“Hard to believe it was just the two of us back then,” she says, glancing at the stairs as if she can hear the quiet snores of our three little ones. “Now we’ve got a full house.”

“And another one on the way,” I add, reaching out to rest my hand on her belly.

She covers my hand with hers, her expression softening. “It feels like it’s all happened so fast. Sometimes I still can’t believe this is my life.”

“Me neither,” I admit, my voice rough with emotion. “I spent so many years thinking I had everything I could ever want. Then you walked into my life, and I realized I didn’t even know whateverythingwas.”

Her eyes shimmer, and she leans in to kiss me, her lips warm and soft against mine.

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