Page 20 of All I Want For Christmas

“Right,” he said.

“And what’s a snowman bathtub?” she asked. That had been someone else’s idea and she was curious.

He gave her a wide grin. “The bathtubs are the cups and the water is hot chocolate,” he said. “But then the snowmen get in. They play with the little peppermint bits and chocolate sprinkles like bath toys. And they wear Hershey kisses for shower caps!” He was getting excited and Lindsey rubbed his arm steadily, trying to keep him from getting too worked up. “The snowmen think it’s going to be fun, and relaxing, and warm, and then they melt!” He grinned. “Aidan thought that was funny.”

Lindsey laughed softly. “Ah.” Lindsey assumed they’d used marshmallows to make the snowmen. “That does sound funny.”

“He kept saying that snowmen should know that they will melt,” Liam said.

“I guess they probably should,” Lindsey agreed with a smile. “How did you keep the shower caps on their heads?” she asked. She was always looking for new, fun ideas for her first graders to do.

“Frosting,” he said. Then he yawned again.

“Frosting,” she repeated. She probably should have figured that.

“And pretzels for arms,” he said. He gave a long, slow blink.

Lindsey brushed her hand over his forehead again and said softly, “Time to sleep, honey. You can tell me more in the morning.”

“We’re going to the diner?” he asked, his eyes sliding shut.

“Yep. We’ll drop the car off and then walk down there.”

“Can I get pancakes?”

He wasn’t going to want pancakes once he saw his surprise, but for now she said, “You can have whatever you want.”

He gave a big, contented sigh. “Okay.”

“Okay.” She leaned over and kissed his head, then turned the lamp off and made sure the nightlight was on. Liam was asleep by the time she stepped into the hallway and pulled the door shut.

She paused outside of their door and took a deep breath. It was hard being a single mom sometimes, but she wouldn’t trade being a mom for anything.

But tonight she wasn’t a single parent. Her other half was here and he was waiting just down the hall. She felt her stomach flip, feeling like she had back when they’d first met. That never went away. Whenever she thought of him, or heard his voice, or saw him after months apart, her stomach flipped and she felt like she was falling in love again.

Sometimes she thought maybe being apart for long periods kept them madly in love. They hardly argued. Matt always told her she made the calls around the house and in the boys’ day-to-day lives. It just made sense. He trusted and respected her to make the right decisions. When she wasn’t sure of something or they had to make a big purchase—new car, adding more to the boys’ college fund, a new water heater—they discussed it and decided together. But they hardly ever argued. And they didn’t take each other for granted. And he wasn’t around enough to drive her crazy with any weird habits or quirks.

So, yeah, maybe being apart made them fall in love again and again.

Or maybe she just told herself that because it made her feel better about being apart.

She shook her head as she headed for the bedroom. It didn’t matter if that flip in her stomach was only there because he spent so much time away. It was there and she liked it.

Lindsey let herself into their bedroom, shrugging out of her sweater. She’d pulled the cardigan on over her dress when she’d first come in the door. The old house was a little drafty and yes,this was Louisiana, but it still got chilly—at least for them—at night in December. It was only in the upper forties right now. But she had the perfect way to keep warm tonight.

She picked up her pace on the way down the hall, but it only took her ten seconds after stepping inside her bedroom to realize that she was going to have to settle for snuggling.

Matt was dead asleep on the bed.

She smiled as she watched him. He was on his stomach, limbs stretched out everywhere, taking up far more than half of the bed. He was on top of the duvet, one foot hanging off the edge of the mattress, and his head was only half on the pillow. Almost as if he’d thought to lie down for just a second and had accidentally fallen asleep.

The trip home from Kabul was a nineteen hour flight. She didn’t know where exactly he’d started the trip or if there had been stops along the way. But no matter what, it was a long trip. She was sure he was exhausted.

And she was going to let him sleep. But she was definitely going to snuggle up against him. And there was a ninety-eight percent chance that she was going to wake him up for morning sex.

Chapter

Six

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