Page 63 of Stealing His Christmas Present

Chapter 23

WAKING UP NEXT TO CLAUDIA, even if we’d only gotten a couple of hours of sleep, was the best Christmas gift I could’ve gotten.

As she opened her eyes, she smiled at me.

But then her eyes went wide.

“What time is it?” she asked, jumping up.

I glanced at the screen of my phone. “Almost 10 am. Why?”

“Oh, my god! We’re going to be late! Come on! Get up!” She jumped up, rushing to the bathroom and grabbing a bathrobe.

“Late for what?” It was Christmas.

What could possibly be happening so early today? We could just go back to bed and never get out.

“Presents!” She gave me a look as if she couldn’t believe I’d asked. “Hurry!”

“Okay. Okay.” I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about, but I put on my pants and grabbed my shirt.

Claudia waved me on. She grabbed my hand and dragged me with her to the Christmas tree. Her whole family was already there.

“Merry Christmas, honey!” Claudia’s mother said.

“Merry Christmas everyone!” Claudia let go of me and raced to the Christmas tree.

An excited smile spread across her lips as she unwrapped her presents with everyone else.

I watched the whole family as they exchanged gifts, hugged one another, and laughed. It had to be nice to do this every year.

“Aww, I love it!” Claudia said to Lorenzo as she lifted up a green sweater with a big reindeer on it.

A few moments later, Claudia grabbed a present from under the tree and raced to me. “This one’s for you.”

My eyebrows shot up. “What?”

She just gave me a small smile.

“Claudia... I didn’t get you—” When had she managed to do it? How?

I hadn’t even thought about trying to get something for her.

“Shh. It was Santa Claus.” She placed her hand over my lips. “Open it.”

Her smile widened as I ripped at the wrapping paper.

A pair of ice skates, gloves, and a scarf.

And something small and pink at the bottom of the box. I picked it up.

It was a rock that had been painted pink and someone had drawn eyes and a smiling mouth on it.

“You like it?” she asked.

“I do. Did you do this?” I held the rock in my palm.

She nodded. “But when I was like five or six. I had to dig through my whole room real quick to find it.”

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