Page 15 of Getting Wrapped Up

His childhood had been unconventional in almost every way, but they’d put milk and cookies out for the big guy and they had presents under the tree every year.

“Nothing,” she said. “When I got older, I started trying to do things myself. Stockings and Christmas parties and stuff but…Christmas has kind of fallen apart on me over the last few years.”

Levi found himself pulling her closer and wanting to wrap his other arm around her too.

He wanted to hug her? Just hug her? Phoebe was the only woman he hugged and, in all honesty,shehuggedhim. Kaelyn hugged him, but that was definitely not the same thing. She either grabbed him around one knee or she wrapped her little arms around his neck and squeezed as hard as she could. He and Joe did that bro-hug thing that guys did that was not quite a hug but was more than a handshake.

That would make this woman, the built blonde in the red dress, the first woman he wasn’t related to but wanted to hug…ever.

Interesting.

“Well, this Christmas is going to be amazing,” he told her.

She smiled up at him. “Yeah?”

“Absolutely.”

“You’re into Christmas?”

He definitely was now. “I grew up with trees and stockings and stuff,” he said. “And my parents always threw a big Christmas Eve party.” He didn’t need to tell her that he’d walked in on his dad screwing his secretary on his desk in the den. Twice. Or that his mother typically got drunk and had smashed at least a few Christmas plates, lit the formal dining room’s curtain on fire with some ornate candelabra, twisted an ankle, cut a finger, thrown out her back and ended up in the ER. Those were the only ways to get his father’s attention away from the secretary on his desk.

Which his mom didn’t typically care about really, but it seemed her husband’s infidelities got to her at the holidays.

Maybe deep down everyone wanted to have a nice Christmas.

Levi frowned. There was no way he could have turned out normal. Not that this was a brand new revelation, but sitting in the quaint, albeit overdone Christmas wonderland that was Sapphire Falls’ town square with a woman who smelled like vanilla, Levi wished like hell he knewa littlemore about normal.

“Thank you for agreeing to do this,” she said, softly.

She was looking into his eyes like she had been at the bar and he was hit by the punch of desire he’d felt then too.

What was he agreeing to do again? There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t agree to for this woman, but he couldn’t recall the details at the moment. “The formal?” he asked finally.

She nodded. “I know it seems silly, but I’m starving for a nice, normal, traditional Christmas.”

The wordstarvingmade him think of thingshewas feeling hungry for come to think of it.

“I completely understand,” he managed while he was really wondering what would happen if he grabbed her chin and kissed her again. This time minus the mistletoe and with tongue. And with less than sweet, gentlemanly intentions.

“And, um…” Her gaze flickered away from him for a moment and she seemed hesitant.

“Anything.” He meant it. His tone might have been rougher than it needed to be, but he suddenly wanted to be the one making everything just right for her.

She met his gaze again. “Would you want to spend some time together tomorrow? We could—”

“Yes.”

Again, firmer than needed, but he did like the way her eyes went round and her mouth curled.

“You don’t know what I was going to suggest.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m in.”

Her expression shifted quickly from surprised to amused to sly. “What if I want to tie you up in tinsel and keep you at my mercy until New Year’s?”

Chapter Three

There wasa thud somewhere in the vicinity of Levi’s heart. A thud that rocked through his whole body. Just as quickly as he went from warm to burning up, it was clear that she’d realized what she’d said out loud to a near stranger.

---