Page 114 of All I Want For Christmas

She stopped.

He really hadn’t been sure she would.

But fuck…they were going on a holiday trip to North Carolina together?

That hadjusthappened, and he still wasn’t totally clear onhowit had happened.

He supposed it was a combination of things. The idea of her being there with another man, for starters. Theo wasn’t going to lie to himself and say that had nothing to do with it.

It was also the fact that he’d missed her for nine weeks now.Missed her. They’d run into each other over the past two months about the same number of times and in the same ways they would have if they’d never had that night together. She hadn’t beengone. She hadn’t been avoiding him, exactly. They’d beenin the same places, with the same people, in the same ways they’d always been. But yeah, he’d felt like he missed her.

And then there were the words she’d said to him before she’d put her sweet ass in her hoity-toity car and driven away from him.

You say you don’t want people coming down too deep into the trees with you, but I think it’s that you’re afraid of coming out of those trees for too long.

She’d been in his head.

For nine goddamned weeks.

Not her smile. Not her long legs. Not her tight ass. Not the way she felt underneath him or the way she looked when she came.

No,thosewords, had been rattling around in his brain, taunting him.

Yes, those words were part of why he’d said yes to going to North Carolina with her.

He wanted to show her that he would fucking come out of the trees. For her.

And then there was the other guy. And the fact that he’d missed her.

And, okay, the way she felt underneath him and the way she looked when she came.

He strode across Ellie’s parking lot to where she was standing next to her car. He watched her shoulders rise and fall as she took a deep breath before turning to face him.

“Yeah?”

“We should probably talk.”

She nodded. “Probably.”

Okay, well, he hadn’t been sure she would agree. This was a good start.

“I have a confession,” he started.

“I need to apologize,” she said at the same time.

They both stopped, waited for the other, then opened their mouths again.

“I should tell you?—”

“I overreacted.”

Again, they spoke over one another.

Theo held up his hand. “Let me go.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded.

“I have a confession,” he said again. “I wasn’t actually planning to go to North Carolina for Christmas. But when you looked at me and asked, I just…said yes.”

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