Page 24 of Forever Yours on Christmas Eve
“Thank you,” she whispered, inhaling the light fragrance of theflowers as he paid for them. “You seem to have a thing with giving me three roses.”
“You noticed?” he said, smirking at her.
By the time they stepped outside the florist shop, it was noticeably darker. The streets were starting to empty out, and where there weren’t additional bodies to buffer the cold, the wind whipped through from the nearby coastline.
Sev followed Kelsey down Main Street and around the corner, taking a short stroll over a bridge that gave them a beautiful view of the harbor. Even though it was pitch black outside, they could still see small homes and sailboats lit up, some of which had Christmas trees attached to their masts.
Only in Harbor’s Head.
They continued on down the quiet street to the place where she had parked her car. Having a seat inside, Kelsey deftly brought it to life and zipped them through the back streets of Harbor’s Head, following his instructions to the letter to get them back to his childhood home. It was a relatively modern house, only a couple of decades old, set in a quiet, suburban area. It was perfect to grow up in.
As she wound her car along the streets, dotted sparsely with streetlights, it wasn’t long before she was pulling into their driveway. He couldn’t believe that the date he’d been waiting for was nearly complete.
“Shall I walk you to your door?” she proposed, the mischievous grin on her face rounded out by the nervous quirk of her mouth. She was trying to keep up a brave face, but Sev knew, just like him, she didn’t want their time together to end.
“I’d love it if you would,” he assured her, getting out of her small sedan, and unfolding his larger frame, trying not to grunt as his lame muscles screeched at him. Taking a look at the front of the house, he remembered helping his father string the permanent lights along the roofline. His mother had hung a festive peppermint-themed wreath on the front door, with a three-foot inflatable elfstanding sentry on their wraparound porch. From the large window in the living room, he could see the Christmas tree lit up with white lights, which brought back the nostalgia of many Christmas Eves when he was small, hurrying to bed so that Santa could arrive.
“It’s so pretty,” she said, taking it all in.
“Yeah, it is,” he agreed, stepping up next to her and scooping an arm around her waist. “Did you guys decorate for the holidays?”
“Sometimes?” she said, lifting a shoulder. “My dad’s not much for decorating. One time when I was a kid, I got into this package of tinsel, and we were picking it out of every corner of our house for weeks after the holiday.”
Sev laughed, the idea giving him just as much anxiety as it probably gave her father.
“But nothing quite like this,” she said, her gaze taking it all in. And he knew it wouldn’t do for her to just see it from the outside.
“Would you like to come in?” he asked.
She sighed, turning to face him. “I would, but I promised my dad I’d be home before Christmas.” She laughed. “I didn’t realize that was only a half hour away.”
“Wait, what?” he asked, pulling back his jacket sleeve and having a look at the time. She was wrong.
It was actually twenty minutes to midnight.
And poof, just like that, he felt like a pumpkin.
Or… however that went.
“I know,” she said, shaking her head with a chuckle. “How did five hours?—”
“Pass just like that,” he said, finishing her sentence. He stepped up close to her, resting his hands on her hips. He loved her hips, all round and perfectly shaped for his palms.
Everything about her was perfectly shaped for him.
Which was why, once again, he looked up to the starry-filled sky, wondering why on earth she kept being dropped into his life at all the worst times? And yet…
“I’m so glad we were able to get together again,” he said, sighing alittle bit in defeat, but also trying so hard to seal in this moment so that he could tuck it into his heart and take it with him.
“I’m glad too,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You’ve given me so much tonight.”
“Just a book and some flowers,” he said, making light of it. He knew that wasn’t what she was talking about. Well, he figured that much anyway. He knew it because he felt it too. That lightness in his chest whenever she came near. The fluttering in his stomach. The desire to pull her close and never let go of her.
Like now.
“Don’t forget dinner, too,” she said, mocking him, but then pausing to herself. “Gosh, when you say it out loud like that, I feel really bad. I didn’t give you a single thing tonight.”
Sev tried to keep his smile tamped down as he thought back to his promise from earlier.
