God I love this woman.She could easily try to lowball me to save the team some money, but that’s not her style. No, she’ll go straight to finance or even to Tucker Hartmann to ensure I get paid what I am worth.
“So,” Aidan says, “about this relationship...is there anything we need to do? Like do we need to talk to HR or make some sort of official announcement, before we start telling people?”
AJ’s eyes slide to me like she’s making sure I’m on the same page, while also trying to figure out how the hell thealways singleAidan Renaud got to this point without her noticing. I give her a small nod.
“I don’t think so. I’ll check with Sarah in HR just to make sure. But I’m pretty sure there’s no reason it would be a problem.”
“Good,” he says. “Let us know.”
“You seem . . . in a hurry,” McCabe observes.
“You saw what I was like for the two weeks without her, right?” Aidan responds before turning back toward me. “Now that I’ve got my girl back, I’m never letting her go.”
“Never, huh?” I say with a chuckle as he leans in and presses a kiss to my forehead.
“Never.”
“Oh my god, you two are sickening,” AJ says with a laugh.
“Right, because you two aren’t all ooey gooey when you’re not at work,” I remind her.
“She’s got you there, Sunshine,” McCabe says, rising and then picking Abby up so he can walk over and press a kiss to the top of AJ’s head. “You two want to stay for dinner? We’re ordering out.”
I glance at Aidan, but he says, “Thanks for the invite, but we have plans.”
“We do?” I ask.
“Yeah, we have to move some more of your stuff into my place,” he says, as if this is something we’ve talked about before. But, given that I haven’t spent a single night at my own place since we got back together, not even while he was away on his road trip, I’m not surprised.
Yes, this is moving fast. But it feels like we’re playing catch-up for the months of telling ourselves this couldn’t be more than friends with benefits, even while it obviously felt like so much more. “And, I think I promised you we could get a Christmas tree once I was back?”
“That’s true, you did say that,” I say, as we stand to say our goodbyes.
Some time, I’d love to join McCabe and AJ for dinner. But right now, I feel the same way I sense that Aidan does: I just want more time together before his next road trip.
Ilook around Aidan’s home in utter shock. I lift my arm, gesturing toward the huge, fully lit and decorated Christmas tree centered on the front windows. “Is that...”
He just chuckles. “One of the trees you sent me a picture of? Yeah.”
“That was just to see if you were okay with how I wanted to decorate, not so you’d have it all done for us while we wereout.” Everything, from the tree to the realistic garland draped over and hanging down the side of the mantle, to the stockings, the candle holders, and wooden holiday decorations on the sideboard that runs along the stairs, is straight out of the photos I sent him.
“Are you disappointed that you don’t get to shop for everything and put all the decorations up?” he asks quietly.
“No, it’s gorgeous. I guess I’m just confused. Didn’t we just go pick out a Christmas tree?”
He’d found this adorable city tree lot, with lights strung between brick buildings on either side. We snapped some photos together while we walked around the lot, and found a tree that was neither as beautiful nor as perfect as the one currently standing in the living room, but we’d picked it out together.
“You said you wanted one for the bedroom too, didn’t you?”
My breath hitches. I made a one-off comment a week ago that I’d always wanted a Christmas tree in my bedroom. “That’s what that one is for?”
“Yeah. And there should be lights and ornaments waiting in the bedroom, but I didn’t have the decorator get as many ornaments because I figured you’d want to pick some out too. And I thought maybe we could pick a special one out each year?” His voice waivers slightly as he says it, and I look up at him. “It’s something my family always did growing up.”
I stand on my toes so I can press a kiss to his lips. “Where are those ornaments now?”
“In a storage box in my garage.”
“If you want, we could use them on our tree?” I phrase it like a question because I don't want him to feel like he has to, if he’s not comfortable with it.
