Page 34 of Levi

“Nope. I wanted to get them for you.”

He leaned over and kissed her. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” She smiled.

“What’s the other present there?” He pointed to a gift still under the tree.

“Oh, that’s for Celine. We exchange gifts the day after Christmas.”

“She a nice person. Okay, open yours.”

She jumped up from the sofa. “Okay.”

He chuckled as she ripped the paper off, then opened the box. She stared at the dollhouse, then looked at him with tears in her eyes.

“Aww, hell, darlin’, don’t cry.”

She got up, sat beside him, hugged him, and sobbed.

“I’m not crying,” she said, making him laugh.

“Okay. Addison said you’d cry, but I didn’t believe her.”

Kinley looked at him. “Addison knew?”

“Who do you think wrapped it? I sure as hell didn’t.”

“Help me get it out of the box, please.”

“There’s another gift in there.”

“Oh.” She got up, looked into the box, thenpulled out the smaller gift. She sat back down beside him, opened it, and stared at the furniture. Then she looked at him and more tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Damn,” he said, shaking his head.

Kinley threw her arms around his neck. “If I didn’t love you before, I sure as hell do now.”

“The day we were in the store and you asked Vanna if she had lay-away, I shook my head so she’d tell you no. I knew then that was what I’d get you for Christmas.”

“I love you,” she said, and kissed his lips.

“I love you too.”

She stared into his eyes and a sly smile lifted her lips.

“I thought you gave me a good present last night,” she said, then laughed when he shook his head.

“That was a good gift exchange last night,” he said, grinning, making her laugh again.

“How do I get this out of the box?” she asked as she sat on the floor by the box.

Levi stood, removed a pocketknife from his jeans, sat beside her, then carefully ran his knife down the seams of the corners, so that it fell apart.

“How’s that?” he asked, then looked at her when she didn’t answer, and saw her trying to hold back tears. “You really wanted that dollhouse, didn’t you?” he whispered.

“Yes. I fell in love with it a long time ago. I can’t remember not wanting it. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome, baby. Hey, how about I fix us some breakfast while you figure out where you want to put it. Then you can put the furniture init.”

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