Page 87 of The Santa Rules
I set down my mug and pull her into my arms. “You look beautiful, and I can’t take my eyes off of you.” She shoots me a “yeah, right” look, and I hook my fingers under her chin, tilting her face to mine. “You are the embodiment of Christmas morning.” I lean close to her ear. “Yawning cause you’ve been up all night wrapping gifts, disheveled, and in my T-shirt looking like you’re mine, flushed because of how hard I fucked you last night, and totally and utterly beautiful. This is a sight I want to wake up to every day.”
She pulls back and searches my eyes like she’s worried I’m kidding. “You can’t say things like that to me. I’ll never leave,” she says as she leans in to kiss me, and I pull back and hold her face. “Okay, I was kidding. Kind of.”
“What if I wasn’t?”
“Wait, what are you saying?”
“I know this probably seems fast, but I feel like I’ve known you for years, not two months. But I don’t want to spend any more time apart. This week has been perfect, and I want to wake up to you every morning. You don’t have to say anything, and we can figure out logistics later but?—”
“Yes! I want to wake up to your grumpy face every morning too.”
I pull her in for a kiss, keeping it short and sweet, but my heart feels so full of love for this little family we’ve made.
We eat breakfast quickly, just bacon and eggs, and Avery scarfs hers down, ready to break through the wrapping wall.
“Go brush your teeth.”
Avery whines but reluctantly ascends the stairs as I join Bella and Isaac at the table after washing the frying pan.
“You know you’re going to have to do that every year, right?” Bella says to Isaac.
“I know. But did you see her face?”
Bella smiles as she sips her coffee. “It’s a pain in the ass to put up, isn’t it?”
He laughs. “It is. But it was my favorite part of Christmas morning. Thank you for making it special for me.”
“It wasn’t me, it was Santa,” she says just as Avery runs back in the room ready to boss us all around.
Her run through the paper wall was epic. Bella was able to sneak into the room and capture the whole thing in slow motion, and the look on my little girl’s face when she saw the tree and stockings is one that will be imprinted on my soul forever.
Now, she’s handing everyone their stocking, but the three of us watch her empty and open hers before we touch our own. Each squeal lights up my heart. She was excited last year, but it was nothing like this, and I worried that I wasn’t capable of bringing this kind of magic back into her life.
“Hardy! Did you buy stocking stuffers right under my nose without me knowing?” Bella says, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“I did.”
Her nose crinkles in the adorable way it does when she’s trying not to cry, and I scoot closer to her on the couch, pulling her into me so I can kiss the side of her head as she continues opening her stocking.
“Blind bags! Did you get these when we went to Denver? Seriously, this is some next-level stuff. I am so impressed. How did you do it without me knowing?”
“Let’s just say that kiss was a great distraction. And if Amber hadn’t walked up, I would’ve grabbed a few more.”
“What’s so special about those anyway?” Isaac says, plopping onto the other side of the couch as he crams a cinnamon roll in his mouth. I swear this kid is always eating, but I guess I was too at that age.
“It’s the gift you get to open twice!” she squeals, tearing open the back and marveling over the contents.
“Daddy, look! There are new ornaments on the tree!” Avery says, pointing to a new princess ornament covered in entirely too much glitter for my liking.
I walk over to examine it, and sure enough, I don’t recognize it. When I look over at Bella, she winks. It’s amazing the way she and Isaac have seamlessly folded into our lives, combining their traditions with our own.
Avery is playing a game that Isaac coded from scratch just for her on an iPad he said his dad gave him that he didn’t need anymore. The gesture is so touching and thoughtful.
The room is a mess, there’s wrapping paper and ribbon everywhere, but there’s one more present tucked into the corner of the room, and I drag it over to Bella.
“Hardy, this is huge!” Bella squeals.
“That’s what she said,” Isaac says, and then slaps a hand over his mouth. I look over, but Avery is too engrossed in her sparkly princess palace to notice. “Sorry, force of habit. Mom makes it way too easy.”
