Page 7 of Christmas Wish

I looked up at Tucker. He still had his arm wrapped around me. "First of all, why are you so good at pretending to be my boyfriend? Have you done this before?"

He laughed. "I promise I haven't done this before. So what's this game we're playing?"

"It's really silly. We each draw a name out of a hat and then we write something nice about them. Then we all go around and read the notes and try to guess who wrote what."

"I feel like I'm going to be bad at this," said Tucker.

"Yeah, because you don't know anyone."

He shrugged. "Regardless, I think it sounds fun. Shall we?"

"If that's what you really want to do?"

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be." He grabbed my hand again and lead me out of the kitchen.

My family had left a really small spot on the couch for both of us. When we sat down, Tucker put his arm around me and put his other hand on my thigh. He made small circles with his thumb right above the inside of my right knee. He was probably doing it absent mindedly, but it was hard to focus on anything else. I felt my face flushing. I was getting aroused in front of my whole family. This was mortifying.

"This is really good, man," Izzy's fiancé, Ben, said after taking a sip of the wine.

"Thanks," Tucker said.

"How long have you had the winery?" my dad asked him.

"About five years now."

"What made you go in that direction?" my mom asked.

"I wanted to do something where I could be outside. I tried the desk job thing. It wasn't for me. I like getting my hands dirty." He winked at me.

Oh my God. My face must have been bright red. I wasn't even sure why that comment seemed sexual, but it did.

"Did Julia already tell you how it works?" my dad asked, changing the subject. Everyone had probably thought Tucker's comment was sexual.

"Yup, I'm all filled in."

"Okay, so we all just pick a name from the hat," my dad said.

I leaned forward and grabbed a name. Izzy was written on the paper. I was sad that I didn't draw Tucker's name. Not that I wanted to pour my soul out to him in front of my family. I grabbed a pen off the table.

"Did you get me, baby?" Tucker whispered to me.

His warm breath in my ear made my whole body feel alive. And the way he kept calling me baby was unnerving. "I can't tell you that." I put my hand over my paper as I wrote down my nice thought about Izzy: "I'm so excited for you. And I'm so proud of who you've become." I quickly folded it in half and put it back into the hat.

I turned toward Tucker.

"Stop trying to cheat," he said and folded up his paper. He tossed it into the hat and leaned back, dipping his hand behind my back. His fingers traced along the bottom of my sweater.

"Okay, I'll go first," my mom said and grabbed a slip of paper out of the hat. "I have never been so excited about the rest of my life until I decided to spend it with you." My mom flipped over the paper to see who had written it about whom. "Aw," she said and placed her hand on her chest. "It's your guess, dear," she said to my father.

"Was it Izzy about Ben?" he said.

"Nope," was Izzy's reply.

"Then it must have been Ben to Izzy."

"Guilty," Ben said.

"Ben," Izzy said. She leaned over and kissed him.

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