Page 23 of Gifted

“Okay.” I retreated from my earlier train of thought. Yeah, I could privately worry about my experience, but I had a feeling, when I considered it, that Noah wouldn’t mind teaching me. “What did you want to talk about?”

He grimaced as he stepped back from our embrace and took my hand again. “I talked to my dad. He called when I was leaving the grocery store. He wanted to know when I was coming to join them, and I told him I was flying direct from London after Christmas.”

My heart pinched at that. “Oh…so we’ll take separate flights?” What if mine left after his. I’d feel a little freaked out, being in a foreign country on my own. But I was an adult. I could figure it out. I’d just thought we’d have more time than that, more time than just two days from now.

He made a small frustrated sound. “No. Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that we’d be going directly there. You’re spending the rest of the holiday with me and my family, baby.” A faint grin curled his lips. “Probably a lot longer than that.”

I liked the sound of that. “They’re skiing in Colorado, right? I’ve never skied, but I’m excited to go. As long as you want me there.”

“I do. They live in Denver.” He held the door open for me when we got to the hotel, and I walked in ahead of him. The gaily lit lobby had a crackling fire in the hearth, and the heat of the space soothed away the cold that had seeped deep to my bones without me even realizing it.

“We should start the fireplace up in the room,” I said.

“Good idea. We can dim the lights, stream some music and have our dinner there. Not a very fancy Christmas Eve—”

“The best one I can ever remember having.” And it was.

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