Page 38 of Forever Yours on Christmas Eve
“You’re welcome,” she said, surprised by his gratitude. It was so easy to make this woman happy. “It isn’t much, but it’s yours for the night.”
“Better than a lot of places I’ve slept.” Given some of the stories her dad and his buddies told her, he had no doubts she knew he was speaking the truth.
“I can’t believe you came all this way,” she said, reaching up to run the tips of her fingers through the hair hanging over his forehead.
“Haven’t you learned yet?” he asked, sliding his thumb across her cheekbone and down along her jawline. She stretched ashe did it, clearly loving the touch. “There isn’t anywhere I wouldn’t go for you.”
“I believe you,” she said, staring back up at him. “I got you something.”
“Are we exchanging now?” he asked. “I thought your family liked to do that first thing Christmas morning?” During dinner, they’d discussed their particular family traditions. Kelsey and her dad liked opening presents first thing Christmas morning while waiting for a pan of cinnamon rolls to come out of the oven. Marta liked to open everything on Christmas Eve and take the next day to travel.
Sev was already figuring out how to convince Kelsey to come back with him for New Year’s, knowing full well his family would be getting her gifts, anticipating a second Christmas when they arrived.
“We do, but I wanted to give this to you privately,” she said, walking toward the Christmas tree and pulling a wrapped package from below the boughs. At the same time, Sev pulled open his bag, reaching in for the gift he’d brought for her.
Coming back over to where he stood, he watched her take a deep breath, pressing the gift to her chest as if she were trying to gather her courage. But as her eyes drifted to the small rectangle in his hands, her eyebrows lifted in surprise.
“You got me something?”
“I did,” he confirmed, handing it to her. He knew it was perfect when he first saw it months ago. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart.”
Laying her present down on the couch, she took the package from him, crinkling her nose in excitement. “You didn’t have to get me anything,” she said as she eagerly tore into it.
When the paper was gone, he watched her face as she took in the framed picture, her jaw dropping at the sneaky shot his sister had taken, unbeknownst to them.
“Sev!” she said, her jaw dropping as she looked up at him. In all the time they’d known one another, they’d never taken a picture together. They always had too much fun to remember to pull out their phones. “Where did you get this?”
“Emma snapped it last year.” He had actually been floored when his baby sister texted him with it. It was from last Christmas Eve when he and Kelsey had just left Art & Soul. They’d been standing on the sidewalk, talking with wonderful smiles on their faces. Kelsey had been holding her new sketchbook tight to her chest as the snow had gently started to fall.
“I love this so much,” she said, the sentiment of it nearly taking her breath away. Her eyes got glassy, and she began fanning her face, trying to laugh at the emotions that were playing out there. “Thank you.”
Of course, she didn’t realize that’s one of the reasons he loved her so much. She always wore her heart on her sleeve.
“You’re welcome,” he said, reaching for her and pulling her close, dropping a sweet kiss on her lips before wrapping her up in a bear hug. She hugged him back as tightly as she could with one hand still firmly around the picture.
“I guess now’s the time to give you this.” She reached for the present, holding it out for him to take. Instantly, Sev’s face lit up in delight at the gift. While she had given him plenty of kisses, this was the first actual physical gift she’d ever given him.
Still, he remembered her hesitation from earlier and wondered, “Should I sit down for this?”
Once again, that nervousness was back in Kelsey’s face. “Um, we can?”
Studying this once confident woman, he decided to heed her words and carefully sat down on the couch-come-bed. Patting the spot next to him, Kelsey perched next to him, audibly taking in a deep breath and letting it out.
Putting an arm around her, he leaned in and touched his lips softly to hers once more. She kissed him back, touching her fingertips against his jawline where his day-old stubble had once again made an appearance. When she tipped her nails and lightly dragged them away, like she always did, he knew that whatever was in this package, her feelings hadn’tchanged.
Turning his attention to the gift in his hands, Sev carefully pulled the tape from the paper, tearing it slightly as he pulled out the sketchbook with the stickers on it she’d decorated last Christmas Eve.
“Uh…” he began, trying to figure out why she was giving him back the gift he’d given her.
“Open it,” she encouraged him with a hopeful glance, silently assuring him that there was more to it. Cracking open the cover, he turned to the first page. To his surprise, it was a pencil drawing of the two of them sitting together at the Second Call.
“I drew it from memory, so it’s not entirely accurate,” she said, leaning in and pressing her side to his arm. Though he couldn’t take his eyes off the page. The detail was extraordinary. It was, obviously, the night that they met, complete with a stool set between them. She was wearing the lovely wedding gown she’d shown up in, while he was sitting next to her in his jeans, sweater, and a beer in his hand. She even managed to get the group of men in the back of the bar who’d been playing cards.
“Kels…” His eyes roved over the page, taking in everything. She got the high-top tables against the far wall, the windows, and the decorative frames around them that told the story of the building’s age. “You did this?”
She nodded. “In my free time. Drawing helps me to destress, so I started doing a lot of it shortly after I started my program.”
“This is incredible,” he said, marveling at the picture. “That’s you and me,” he said of the two people in the center, their faces studying the television screen behind the bar. “You even got the fight we were watching.”
