Page 50 of Christmas with the Baby Daddy

She shrugged, getting into my truck and not meeting my eye.

When I got in the driver’s seat, she blurted, “I don’t often get free time like this.”

I raised my brows as I drove out of the lot. “So… you don’t want to waste it by spending it with me?”

“No! I mean… no. It’s just that this doesn’t happen often. Spontaneously. There’s always parties to cater. This is the busy time.”

“With the festival happening tonight, I doubt many people wanted to plan a get-together.”

She nodded, wringing her hands in her lap. “Yeah. But Amanda watching George out of the blue, too. That doesn’t happen often.”

“Oh.”

“It’s just that I’m always behind on getting so many things done. I could use this time to wrap presents for George.”

I glanced at her, noticing the rosiness on her cheeks. The cold air likely caused it, but I was taken back to this morning when I made her blush and then moved on to see that flush spreading down her neck. And further.

“I can help.”

She looked me dead in the eye, curious. “You want to help wrap presents?”

“Not particularly. But I want to spend time with you.”

“Not just to…”

“Fuck?” I grinned at her shy smile.

“Yeah.”

I took a risk and grabbed her hand to hold it. She didn’t tug it away, squeezing back as I fitted our fingers into a lock. We rested them on the bench seat, and I felt like things had to be improving if she was welcoming this touch.

“I want to help wrap presents. If that’s what you need to get done, then I’ll be your helper. Teamwork.”

She laughed lightly. “If you’re sure.”

I was sure about one thing and one thing only—being near her and relishing this feeling of beinghome.

When we arrived at her house, I fought back the déjà vu of how I’d done this just last night. Then when we walked up the steps and she unlocked the door, I tried not to recall how this was where she’d kissed me. How I’d carried her inside, making out like I’d die without her mouth on mine.

We hung up our coats, but when I offered to start a fire in the fireplace, she moved on to start finding the gifts she’d stashed away. Once a fire was roaring and warming up the living room, I found her in the basement, struggling to reach into a crawl space where the bounty was hiding. She handed them to me to pile up in my arms to take them upstairs.

Her phone buzzed, and when it fell out of her pocket, I shifted the packages to one hand and caught the device.

“What’s it say?” she asked as she searched in the crawl space.

I smiled, amused that she’d trust me so easily. That anything that came on her phone would be something she wouldn’t mind me reading. No secrets.

“It’s Amanda. She texted that the movie ended early because of technical difficulties.” I waited as another line showed at the top of the locked screen. “She and Jenny took him home, and he just fell asleep on the couch.” Another slight pause followed as one more text came in. “He can just spend the night there.”

Convenient…

“Oh.” Blake stepped back and huffed out a breath. It puffed up the strands of hair that had fallen over her face as she searched. In her hand, she hoisted up a dusty bottle of booze. “Then I guess it’s not so bad that I found this tucked way, way back there.”

I smiled.Maybe a little liquid courage won’t hurt us.

We carried it all upstairs. She set out the wrapping paper, scissors, tape, and pile of gifts on the dining room table while I opened the whiskey and poured us both a shot. “To successful gift wrapping,” I toasted.

She clinked her shot glass to mine. After she explained the premise of wrapping, we both took a gift and tried to position them.

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