Page 12 of Getting Wrapped Up

Kate found herself incredibly touched by that. It wasn’t that people where she was from weren’t charitable, but here it had to be a lot more personal. Likely every single person who lived at the nursing home had family and life-long friends and neighbors here in Sapphire Falls.

“I want an extra-large then,” she said with a smile.

He grinned. “Marshmallows too, I hope?”

“Of course.”

“How about caramel or peppermint syrup?” he asked, reading the menu board.

She shook her head. “I think straight up and simple is the way to go.”

She really wanted peppermint syrup. A lot. That sounded perfect. Peppermint hot cocoa would be very Christmassy. Perfectly Christmassy even. But maybe that was a bad idea. Maybe she was putting too much pressure on all of this being perfect. Maybe she had her expectations too high. She shouldn’t have scripted it all out in her head. She shouldn’t have imagined holding hands and walking through a light flurry under the stars.

She should keep things simple. Straight forward. She should look at Tucker as nothing more than a nice guy who was willing to take a total stranger to the formal.

They moved up in the line.

“Oh yeah, I love this damned town.” Tucker turned to look at her.

Kate felt her eyes widen at the playful and pleased look in his eyes. “What?”

He pointed at the top of the drink station. A sprig of mistletoe hung directly above the window where people were picking up their cups.

“Oh.”

Oh boy.

She’d hoped for a Christmas kiss. She’d hoped for mistletoe. She’d imagined the whole thing.

And now she was panicking.

It could never measure up. She needed to keep this simple too, like the hot cocoa.

No romantic kisses, no romantic dreams and fantasies. A nice guy, a formal, a few dances, maybe some eggnog—notpoured all over his body—and a nice, simple, sweet Christmas in a nice, simple, sweet small town.

“I was thinking—”

She abruptly stopped thinking about anything at all the second he took her by her upper arms, pulled her up onto her tiptoes and touched his lips to hers.

It was…everything. Everything she’d imagined and then some.

Like hot cocoa with peppermint syrup.

She tasted like Christmas cookies.

That was Levi’s first thought.

Not like she’d been eating them, but like shewasa soft, sweet, delicious melt-in-his mouth cookie. And that was pretty whimsical for a guy who was used to women tasting like tequila.

Her lips should have been cold. The crisp air of the afternoon had turned downright icy as darkness fell, but her mouth was anything but. She was hot. And sweet. And he could happily spend the rest of December right here doing this.

Then she clutched the front of his coat, trying to get closer, opened her mouth and sighed.

And he amended the thought to the rest of the winter.

They didn’t use tongues. It was lip to lip only. Open lip to open lip, but that softened the kiss, made it more of an exploration.

The moment he’d seen her on the bar stool, his hands had itched with the need to touch the red dress, and the curves it covered. He’d immediately imagined her long blonde hair spread out on the maroon and navy quilt in the farm’s guest room. And he’d instantly started making a list of thank you gifts he could get for Phoebe and Joe.

---