Page 51 of Getting Wrapped Up

He nodded.

Of course he’d gotten his way. She laughed and said, “I’ll have the same.”

They showered, together of course, while they waited for the food and then collapsed on the couch, spent from yet another orgasm.

She was most definitely going to be spoiled when she went home. Orgasms, cookies, a guy who would do anything for her. California might have perfect temperatures and the best wine, but she was thinking Vegas had some attraction for her—and she didn’t mean the neon lights.

But that was crazy. There was no way she was moving to Vegas.

Probably.

That was farther from the ocean, for one thing. For another…she couldn’t come up with a really goodanotherexcept that picking up her life for a guy she’d just met was completely nuts. If any one of her friends were considering the same thing, she would quickly and vehemently talk them out of it.

And besides, Vegas Levi could be a completely different guy from Sapphire Falls Levi. They were both under a little bit of a spell here, no question. The very air in Sapphire Falls seemed to suck a person in and make him or her want to stay, put down roots, have neighborhood potlucks and volunteer for the park-clean-up committee.

Phoebe hadn’t been kidding when she’d said that people came to Sapphire Falls and fell in love—with the town and with their soul mates. Kate knew Phoebe’s friend Adrianne, of the best cookies ever, had come to town from Chicago. Her husband, Mason, who Kate had met twice with Lauren in DC, was from Sapphire Falls but had left for several years. He’d come home for a simple class reunion and…bam, fallen in love. Joe had come to town from DC. He’d already entertained the idea of staying, but it had been about a different woman than Phoebe. That woman, Nadia, had also come to town and fallen in love—which was why Joe had had to chase her to Sapphire Falls and how he’d fallen for Phoebe. And then there was Lauren. Lauren had been so against the idea of settling down in Sapphire Falls, she’d actually hatched a plan to uncover all the reasons shedidn’twant to stay. It had backfired. Big time. She was now married to a local boy, pregnant with her first child and the head of several committees, including the Christmas in the Country tour of homes.

So really, she and Levi were just the most recent people to fall victim to the charm and fun of Sapphire Falls.

But it wasn’t real.

Except it was real for Phoebe and Joe and Lauren and…

She shook her head. No, she couldn’t think that way. PeopleinSapphire Falls, who wanted to live here forever, fell in love and stayed. But she and Levi were both visiting, and once they got outside the city limits, especially if they met up somewhere outside of Sapphire Falls, they’d realize this wasn’t some magical soul-mate meeting. It was a Christmas fling.

Levi got up to answer the door for the guy who’d become a delivery driver for the Come Again. Levi gave him cash to cover the food and the thousand-dollar delivery fee he’d promised.

She laughed softly. Yeah, living in the country was definitely not real for Levi. He couldn’t live somewhere there wasn’t twenty-four-seven food delivery.

They ate and continued chatting about everything and nothing. It was comfortable and nice and even the way he ate his French fries turned her on.

His phone dinged with a text message and he reached for it as he stuffed his last fry into his mouth. He swiped the screen and his face broke into a huge grin. He looked up at her. “I have an early Christmas present for you.”

She had just bitten in to her pickle spear. She chewed and wiped her hands on a napkin, butterflies fluttering in her stomach. He’d gotten her a gift? She’d considered trying to find something for him but hadn’t decided if it was a good idea and certainly hadn’t come up with any great ideas yet.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said. But she was thrilled he had.

“Oh, I kind of did. It’s a present for me too,” he said.

Was it a giant peppermint stick?

Kate couldn’t believe her mind wenttherefirst.

Then she looked at the open candy cane wrapper on the floor between them and she admitted she definitely could believe it.

“Do I have to wait for Christmas?” she asked.Please say no, please say no. She wasn’t good at waiting. At all.

“I can’t keep it to myself until then,” Levi said. “Plus, Mason and Lauren will want to talk to you as soon as possible.”

She felt her smile fade. She was really confused. “Mason and Lauren?” she asked.

He nodded, grinning widely. “They’re going to give you a job.”

His words repeated over and over in her head a few times, but she couldn’t figure out what they really meant. “What?”

“Mason and Lauren own IAS, the company that Joe works for.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that. I’ve talked with them both professionally in DC.”

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