Page 26 of Daniel
I loved that she was concerned for my safety, but it was going to take some time for Prairie to learn that there are many tricks to dealing with winter.
She’d also have to learn that it was going to take more than a snowfall to keep me away from her.
16
PRAIRIE
Unlike the Kings, and pretty much everyone else in Holly Valley, my family weren’t huge Christmas people. We gave gifts, of course, and had turkey for our Christmas lunch, and Mom and I had baked a couple of pies. But she said she didn’t have the ingredients for our usual batch of chocolate caramel cookies this year.
It was impossible not to notice and be hurt when Dad served me much smaller than usual portions during our holiday dinner. And Mom had faked too much enthusiasm when she had given me a gym membership as a gift.
“All of the artsy girls do yoga,” she had gushed excitedly. “It’s supposed to be good for your creativity or something.”
If they were genuinely concerned for my health, I would have been touched. But this was simply a matter of my butt being bigger than what other people considered “perfect”. It was ridiculous.
I decided to shake it off and not let it ruin my Christmas Day. After cleaning the kitchen, I went upstairs to change. A light blue sweater set off my hair. Since Daniel would only be seeingme from the waist up during our video call, my comfy navy and purple space print leggings would do.
I was just touching on a bit of mascara when I heard a strange hum from outside. For a second I thought maybe the power lines were going down from the storm, but the lights didn’t flicker. The buzzing got louder, then I realized it was an engine.
By the time I got downstairs and had flung open the front door, a snowmobile was parking beside Dad’s truck.
I jumped into my boots to run outside. “What are you doing here?” I exclaimed as Daniel took his helmet off.
“You wouldn’t let me take the roads.”
“But…I assumed you meant a video call. Aren’t you cold? How long did it take you to get here?”
“I know all of the trails through the farms and forests around here. It was barely twenty minutes.”
As he approached, his gaze traveled up and down my frame in a way that thrilled me to pieces. “Let’s get you inside quickly, baby. I don’t want you to catch a chill, and I really don’t want anyone else seeing you in those sexy leggings.”
“My parents are napping downstairs in the family room,” I said quietly as he came inside, slipping off his boots and leaving his helmet and coat in the hall.
I led Daniel to the couch right beside the foyer in the small living room that we rarely used. I didn’t want to take him to my bedroom with my parents home.
I noticed that he had a backpack with him, as he shook a few snowflakes off it. “It’s not really a gift that you can wrap,” he said. “I have to explain it.”
“Oh.” My fingers began nervously twirling my bracelets. “I was thinking of painting you something for your bedroom, but there hasn’t been time.”
“There’s only one gift I want from you Prairie,” he said gently, taking my hands in his. “Are you officially my girlfriend?”
I couldn’t breathe for a second. “Yes.”
“And is this our very first Christmas together, one of many?”
It was far too soon to be making such a declaration, but there’s no way I could do anything but agree with those sexy brown eyes.
“Yes.”
“Good. Because I’ve brought us a project that we can do together.”
He pulled out a sketchbook and flipped halfway through it before handing it over. “I’ve been sketching my dream house, and some of the furniture for it, for years. But that was before I had any idea what kind of life I really wanted. Now that I know it’s a life with you, I thought that we should redo the sketches together.”
Staring down at the beautiful two-story house with a large wraparound front porch, I admired Daniel’s drawing skills. That I realized the magnitude of his words.
He actually wanted to plan a life with me.
“I’d like you to redo the sketches,” he explained. “Keep the parts you like, change the parts you don’t. I figure if we keep passing the project back and forth at every major holiday, at some point we’ll consider it finished, and build it. Right?”
