Page 35 of Sleighing You
Chapter 14
Chris
“Shut up,” Avery snapped, her hands flying to her hips.
I held my breath to keep from laughing. Avery descended the staircase in a big, red velvet dress… and I meanbig. It was at least two sizes too large, and she looked like she was swimming in it. On her head, a gray wig and small, fake gold circular spectacles clung to the bridge of her nose.
She picked up a plush reindeer and threw it at my head. “I mean it! Stop laughing! Your mom usually wears this costume!”
I circled around Avery, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. “Well…” She looked like a child playing dress up in her mother’s clothing. No one was going to believe her as Mrs. Claus. “Here.” I lunged for a pillow sitting on the loveseat near the dressing rooms. “Try stuffing this into the dress.”
With a sigh, she shoved the pillow under the dress and groaned, spinning to look in the mirror. “Now I just look pregnant!”
I grabbed another pillow. “Maybe if you stuff this one around your ass, it’ll balance out?”
She fell back dramatically onto the couch. “It’s hopeless. The kids are going to have to settle for a knocked-up Mrs. Claus for today’s story time…andstore-bought cookies.”
I cringed. The Mrs. Claus thing wasn’t my fault, but the cookies definitely were. We were late getting to work this morning because of, well… let’s just say the shower gotreallyinteresting this morning. And Avery didn’t have time to bake a fresh batch of cookies. Ed was going to be pissed.
I grabbed her hand and tugged her to sit upright. “Relax. Story time will be great. And they’re going to love the cookies. Kids don’t know the difference between homemade and store bought.”
“Ed will,” she said, rolling her eyes.
I kissed the tip of her nose. “Let me handle Ed.”
“You know what would help this?” She blinked innocently at me… too innocently. I narrowed my gaze at her. She was up to something.
“What?”
“Ifyoudressed up at Santa, too. Then there would be no question that I was Mrs. Claus.”
I snorted and shook my head. “Oh,hellno. I’m not wearing that costume any more than I have to.”
“Well, you’ll be dressing up tomorrow. What’s one more day for a couple hours?”
I shook my head. “Not happening.” I grinned and folded my arms.
Her face shifted, her lips tilting into an exaggerated frown. “Aw, come on.”
She wasn’t looking at me, but stood abruptly, tugging the wig off her head and stared at the Christmas tree in the center of the room.
I was tempted to reach out and tuck a messy piece of hair behind her ear. I ached to feel her skin beneath my touch again, to brush my lips against hers. God, she was beautiful. She was everything I never thought I’d want… and yet, I did. Desperately. To be fair, I didn’t think I’d want anyone after Helena. I thought I was done with relationships. But Avery had wriggled into my heart.
A cold nose bumped my leg and I smiled, scratching Kringle beneath his chin before bringing my gaze back to Avery.
“You’re staring,” she said simply, still not turning to look at me. Like somehow she had sensed my gaze.
“Am I?”
“Yes. Don’t be weird.”
I laughed. “Howam I being weird?” I was more insulted by the question than I cared to admit. I prided myself on keeping cool in the most intense situations. I’d negotiated multi-million dollar deals and had had lunch with the Duchess of York. I wasnotweird.
“You insisted on buying the coffee and pastries this morning…”
“We were heading to work. It was a write off.” That was probably pushing it a little. Breakfast in the morning before work wasn’t exactly a write off unless we talked business… which we did. For about two minutes.
“Andyou wore the red sweater I picked out for you without grumbling…”
