Page 54 of When He Saved Me
I sat up and looked at her, eyebrows raised.
“Go on,” she said. I did as she asked, retrieving the slender package and returning to sit beside her.
“I can’t believe you got me something. Should we wait for Jamie to open it?” I asked.
“No, this one’s just between you and me.” Her eyes danced with excitement. “Go ahead and open it.”
I carefully unwrapped it, simultaneously wanting to savor the moment and dying to know what was inside. Removing the paper, I lifted the lid to find a silver ornament picture frame. It held a picture of Jamie and me kissing in front of the tree. It had been taken earlier in the week when I’d dropped by for dinner. While Jamie was doing the dishes, he’d shooed me out of the kitchen, so I’d taken a moment to get a closer look at some of the ornaments on the tree.
Jamie had joined me after finishing the dishes, pulling me into him for a lingering kiss before sharing stories about some of his favorites. It had been a perfect evening in the middle of a hectic work week and holiday preparations when we’d barely had time to see each other. I had no idea his mom had caught us kissing, let alone snapped a picture.
I felt something textured on the back, and when I flipped the ornament over, I saw it had been engraved.
First Christmas
I smiled in wonder at such a simple yet meaningful gift. “First Christmasimplies there will be more of them,” I said.
“Won’t there be?”
My heart flipped, then fluttered, before settling once again in my chest as I realized that I very much wanted there to be. “I hadn’t even thought past this one. You seem so certain. How do you know?”
“I’ve seen the way you look at each other. And I know my son. He isn’t letting you go anytime soon. He loves you.”
I blushed all the way up to my ears. “I love him too. Thank you. This is beautiful.”
“Why don’t you go hang it up?”
I shook my head. “Oh, but this isyourtree. Yours and Jamie’s.”
“And now it’s yours too. You’re stuck with us.” She nodded encouragingly, so I crossed to the tree and found an empty branch to hang it on.
Arms wrapped around me from behind as I carefully placed the ornament on one of the branches, ensuring it was secure and wouldn’t fall off. I hadn’t heard him come in, but I’d recognize the feel of those strong arms anywhere. I leaned into Jamie’s warmth, savoring the feeling of him holding me close.
“Merry Christmas, baby.”
CHAPTER26
FINN
The weeks followingChristmas and New Year’s were some of the happiest of my life. I was still working at The Daily Grind and Ivory, but Jamie’s time was mostly free while he was on winter break, and we spent as much of it as we could together. When I was working, Jamie frequently came in to sit at a table. He said he just wanted to be near me. Sometimes he brought Asher or talked Carmen into meeting him, and sometimes he came by himself, toting along his laptop or a book.
He felt bad for leaving his mom, but she insisted he had his own life to live and couldn’t spend all his time with her. Still, he’d frequently called on Aunt Cathy and her family to help out, insisting he wouldn’t leave her without help, and if they weren’t available, he made sure he could be.
In my free time, I’d found myself over at Jamie’s house more often than not. After falling asleep at his house a couple of times, I’d taken to just spending the night there most nights, only stopping at home to change clothes. Carmen was still staying at my place. The last time I’d been there, I’d noticed the bathroom sink had been completely overtaken by her makeup and hair products, and the pile of clothes on the chair in the bedroom had been all hers. I didn’t care.
Like someone stranded in the desert without any water, I’d been starved for affection my whole life, and now, I couldn’t get enough. I savored every look, every touch, and the sound of every laugh. I worried that maybe I’d be too much now. I’d gone from aloof to stage-five clinger in record time, but Jamie never seemed to mind my neediness. He was so patient with me when I couldn’t make sense of some emotion or feeling, allowing me the space to work through it, yet always nearby, so I knew he wasn’t going anywhere.
If we were in the same room, we were always touching. Holding hands, thighs against each other, an arm wrapped around me, my hand resting on his thigh. It was as if I needed that connection to ground me, to reassure me that this was all real.
We often hung out with Annie, watching TV, doing a puzzle, or playing cards together. She tried to give us space, but Jamie assured her that we wanted her there. And we did. She was the closest thing to a mother I’d ever had, and I wanted to soak up as much of her love as I could. Jamie’s family had become my family. It blew me away how seamlessly this shift had taken place. No one questioned my presence, and they all treated me as if I’d been a part of their unit for years rather than weeks.
Jamie was due to start student teaching the first full week of January, this week, in fact. His excitement was adorable. For Christmas, I’d given him a leather messenger bag which he’d packed with pens and pencils, his laptop, and several notebooks. I was currently sitting on his bed, giving him my opinion on several outfits he was contemplating wearing. His first day wasn’t even with students, but he wanted to make a good impression on the staff despite already knowing quite a few of them through his mom. Though I thought that relationship might be driving this desire to impress. He wanted to be seen as his own person, not just little Jamie, Annie’s kiddo.
I respected the hell out of him for his drive to do well, to make a difference, even as I felt a bit of jealousy at his success. We’d come from the same rich background, though he’d gone to public school and I’d gone to private, yet the outcome of our childhoods had been vastly different. Though I hadn’t wanted the profession my parents had chosen for me, I’d still thought I’d havesomeprofession. Was I really going to be a barista for the rest of my life? I loved the jazz musician aspect of my life, but that felt more like a hobby that happened to make me a little money. It didn’t feel like a career. But then…what? WhatdidI want?
“Finn?”
My eyes snapped up to Jamie’s. “Yeah?”
