Page 74 of The Jinglebell War
I sink down into the cold, fluffy stuff while Barry licks my face and whines like she’s fully aware that she’s miscalculated and done something bad.
“Blue. Shit. Are you okay?”
“I’m drowning in snow and dog fur,” I whimper. My whole body is cold and I can’t get purchase on anything to push myself up and out of the snow. When I try to sit up, Barry pushes me back down.
“Get off her, Barry.”
Suddenly, Barry is gone, and Garrick is pulling me out of the snow. “I was just kidding,” I say, my voice sounding weird, probably because my face is frozen. “I don’t think you would have run to your parents at the first sign of trouble here.”
“You said emergency before,” he says. “First sign of trouble sounds worse.”
But he wraps me up in his warm arms, so he can say whatever he wants. I don’t care.
And as soon as his warmth seeps into me, I start shivering.
“Come on, let’s get you inside.” He picks me up and cradles me in his arms. Any other time, I’d be complaining, but my teeth are chattering too much to speak at the moment.
Plus, he’s really warm and my feet are thrilled to be out of the snow.
“I didn’t think you’d try to throw a snowball back,” he says. “I was just messing around. I thought you’d run for the porch and hide.”
“Don’t. Know. Me.” I manage to say around my shivers.
“I should have known better. You’re right.”
He unlocks his front door and carries me inside. “We need to get you out of these wet clothes.”
I barely have a chance to look around his place as he carries me through it. All I know for sure is that there are Christmas lights and decorations everywhere. I thought Peach’s fiancé Nick had too many Christmas decorations. Garrick is worse.
Garrick sets me on a king size bed in a large bedroom at the back of the small house. He moves to a dresser, pulls out some clothes and sets them on the bed next to me. “Want help getting changed?”
I’m way too cold to be thinking about sex, but it still flashes in my mind for a second.
I banish the thought. That’s how I ended up having to take the morning-after pill earlier today.
I will not think of sex with Garrick. We had our one and done and that’s enough.
“I can handle it,” I say.
He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Sorry about the snowball and my dog. I’ll get the gifts from the truck.”
As soon as he leaves, I pull the wet clothes from my shivering body and quickly dress in the sweatpants, socks, t-shirt, and sweatshirt he left for me. It’s all huge on me, but I don’t care. It’s warm and cozy.
Dressed, I pad out to the living room where Garrick already has all the presents laid out under a tree that takes up most of the room. It’s got white lights and all the ornaments are color coordinated, white and red and green.
“Wow,” I say. “You have some style.”
He smiles at me from where he’s squatting next to the fireplace, setting logs and kindling in place. “Feeling better?”
“Definitely warmer. Thank you.”
“It’s my fault you got cold in the first place.”
He strikes a match and I sink onto the couch next to the fireplace, watching as the kindling blazes up and the flames lick at the larger logs.
“You relax,” he says. “I’ll make you hot chocolate to help you warm up.”
My stomach growls and Garrick laughs. “And I’ll place an order for Thai food.”
