Page 43 of Take Me Home for Christmas

A low, soft woof was the answer, as Cooper, sniffing and chuffing, poked his cold, wet nose between us.

Cooper, who’d somehow jumped between us just at the right time. Or rather, the exact wrong time.

Who knew my old dog would become my chaperone?

I made a strangled sound, halfway between a laugh and a groan.

“Hey, Coop.” Brax gave me a shrug and welcomed the dog, petting him the way guys do, a kind of roughhousing rubdown that the dog adored so much, he immediately rolled over on his back between us and begged for more.

And with that, Cooper was won over.

I couldn’t be too upset when watching Brax love my dog was so much fun. I loved how he took the interruption in stride, without a trace of irritation.

And then the stairwell light flicked on.

“Cooper?” My dad’s voice. Then, my dad himself, in a flannel robe and wool-lined slippers.

He took a look at us, and oh lordie, what must he have seen? Us, tangled in the blanket, the dog between us, our disheveled appearance.Disaster.

His brow lifted. He let out a surprised “Oh.” Followed by a pause that spoke volumes. “Hello.” He looked from me to Brax to Cooper, his face politely blank. “I was looking for the dog. He needs to go out one more time. Trouble is, I thought I heard a coyote out there.”

Brax immediately flipped back the comforter and stood. “I’ll take him, sir.”

I’ll take him, sir?I wanted to slide back under the comforter. Brax might as well have said,We were about to get naked in Mom’s sewing room, sir.

But in typical chill-dad form, my dear dad didn’t say a thing. He just smiled and turned toward the stairs.

“Good night, kids,” he called over his shoulder.

“Now what?” I asked as Brax put on his shoes.

He grinned. “They didn’t have coyotes in Philly. At least that I know of. If I happen to run into one, I’m screwed.”

Someone cleared their throat. I turned to find Caleb standing at the bottom of the stairwell. Cooper tore down the stairs to greet him. “Hey, Brax,” Caleb called up as he petted the dog, “I’ll join you, if that’s okay. We can take a little walk—together.”

“Be right there,” Brax called, tying his other shoe. He smiled at me. “Coyotes, big brothers…all good.” Then he kissed me on the lips and left.

Chapter Fourteen

Brax

I woke just as a thin line of reddish-orange light from the rising sun appeared in the frosted-over window. I was freezing, and something hard was stabbing me in the back. I reached a hand back into the crook of the couch and felt something thick and scratchy…aha. Dog chew. Thank you, Cooper.

Cooper had been my roommate, not Mia. Caleb had been extra chatty in that interrogating way of his, and I still had the feeling that he was vetting me, trying to find the cracks in my armor. By the time we got back from walking the dog, it was way past midnight, and Mia had been curled up in bed, fast asleep. So I crashed in the sewing room.

And maybe I also took advantage of the time to think.

I felt a warm, dead weight on my feet—like, my actual feet, nothing in between. “What the—” I sat up and tossed off the comforter. The dog looked up from the well between my legs, where his snout had been happily resting on my ankle. Without a tinge of embarrassment, he wagged his tail and climbed right up, hovering over my face, licking me—basically letting me knowthat he needed to relieve himself again and that I was now the selected friend lucky enough to go with him. At least Caleb wouldn’t be joining me, which he was way too enthusiastic about last night. I took a peek at my weather app. Twenty degrees. This time, I was adding more layers before I ventured out into the frostscape.

I tiptoed into Mia’s room, as stealthy as the Grinch stealing Christmas, and managed to find a thermal undershirt, a flannel shirt, and some pants. And then I caught my breath.

In the dusky gray of the early morning, she was snuggled in the bed, the red plaid flannel sheets tucked under her chin, her hair splayed out on the pillow.

I stopped dead in my tracks. She was asleep, peaceful, her expression serene. Her beauty floored me. I mean, it always did, but even more seeing her like this, unguarded.

Then I had the weirdest out-of-body experience. It was as if it were any early morning, as if I’d just gotten up for a prework jog, and I got stopped in my tracks by the fact that there was someone beautiful in my bed—no, more than that—special—and I could swoop down and kiss her and be with her because…because she was mine.

What would that be like, I wondered, to know that you had someone to wake up to every morning? Whom you could tell your secrets to, who would understand you, who might even love you back if you were willing to take the chance?

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