Page 30 of Booked for the Holidays
“I’m going to take a shower. Try not to miss me too much while I’m gone.”
She lets out a sound between a laugh and a scoff but doesn’t answer. She’s too busy glaring at my back as I disappear down the hallway.
SEVEN
JUNIPER
I waitfor Liam to disappear down the hallway before I pop in my ear buds and hit play on my audiobook. It’s how I spend my mornings. Listening to a book while I eat breakfast and plan out the day’s tasks.
With the Books & Bubbly event this coming weekend, I need to get the shelves restocked by the end of the week so the store will be ready. There are at least twenty new boxes of books that need to be put out. Charlotte, my assistant at the store, has been a huge help with keeping everything organized.
I take another bite of croissant, ignoring the warmth that spreads through my chest at the thought of Liam knowing they are my favorite. While I jot down a few notes, I listen to the start of a tension-filled scene between Micheala and her ex’s older brother, Johnathan. Knowing this scene is going to be so good I should annotate it, I jump up to grab the paperback from the living room.
On my way there, I’m licking the chocolate off my lips when I pass my advent calendar and stop in front of it.
I used to make paper chains with the number of links to represent how many days there were until Christmas. I loved the satisfaction of watching the chain shrink each day when Itore the paper to remove a link. The equivalent now is my DIY gingerbread house advent calendar with doors that I’ve put little treats behind for each day of December leading up to Christmas.
Even though I buy the supplies to put in the advent calendar, I have Cassie put them behind each door so they’re still a surprise. Chocolate truffles, my favorite lip balm, trial size beauty products, and cute bookish items like stickers and keychains.
Opening the door each day is the first thing I do after I get ready, but Liam being here had distracted me. I mean when doesn’t that man distract me?
Sleeping last night had been no exception.
Knowing Liam was on the other side of my bedroom wall didn’t help.
Every creak of the floorboards, every muffled shift of blankets, it all kept me wide awake and way too aware that the man who once kissed me like I was something fragile and dangerous was now only one thin wall away.
At one point, I’d rolled over, punched my pillow, and told myself tostop thinking about him.Which of course made me think about him more. Like how broad his shoulders looked in my tiny hallway, or the smug grin he wears when he knows he’s under my skin.
Focus.
I hit pause on my earbud to stop the playback, then reach for the bright pink door numbered eighteen.
Inside is my favorite lip balm, raspberry cloud, in the limited-edition holiday packaging. Again, it’s not a surprise but there’s still a rush of satisfaction to see what is inside each day. I grab the lip balm, but my fingers brush against something else tucked behind it.
Reaching in farther, I pull out a silk hairbow in a soft blush color.
I do love a good hairbow and pink is my favorite color, but I don’t recall buying this one.
It’s dainty. Pretty. I glance down—and would go perfectly with my outfit today.
I’m heading for the bathroom mirror to try it out all while curiosity has me wondering where it came from.
Maybe Cassie snuck it in.
Or my mom?
In the bathroom, a thin veil of steam hangs in the air from Liam’s recent shower. Using the mirror to guide me, I pull half of my hair back and wrap the hairbow around it.
Glancing in the mirror, I turn my head side to side to admire the way the soft pink bow complements my dark red hair. It’s sweet. It’s feminine. It’s?—
“Pretty.”
I nearly jump out of my skin at the sound of Liam’s voice.
When I turn, I find him standing in the doorway, freshly showered, a towel wrapped low on his hips.
My breath catches, and I try not to look, but fail.
