Joey studied their hands where his darker fingers ran through her paler ones. “Yes,” she finally whispered. “I think I would have.”
“I’m going home in about another month,” he said. “Maybe you should come with me.”
She lifted her eyes to his, and this time, Adam didn’t shy away.
“I’m real serious about you,” he said.
A smile touched her lips for a moment, and then flittedaway. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, that’s so.” He pulled his hand back. “Come on, let’s get to my place before it starts storming.”
“I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to stay,” she said, as she peered out the windshield and up into the gray sky.
“Well, I’ve got lots of bedrooms if you get snowed in,” he said.
Joey’s mouth tightened, but she nodded and drove them over to his house. Adam used his home security app to open the garage so she could pull inside, and then he closed it before they got out. They went in together, and Adam hung their coats in the mudroom.
“Let’s do presents,” he said, suddenly feeling like a much younger boy on Christmas morning. She’d brought hers in when she’d picked him up, so she simply followed him into the living room, where he guided her to the couch and then knelt in front of the tree.
“First, I got your bookcase set up,” he said.
“I don’t know how you have time to do everything you do.”
Adam chuckled and reached for the first present he wanted her to open. “Second, I’ve got a bunch of stuff for you to take to your family. I don’t know when you’re going to be seeing them.” He twisted to look at her over his shoulder. “Maybe I should just take them myself.”
“It’s up to you,” she said. “I’ll probably see them tomorrow. It’s cousin movie night, and Harry invited OJ, so I’m going to be stopping by the house to get him.”
He nodded, and then handed her the long, slim package. “These might be lame.”
“Adam,” she said kindly. “You don’t know yourself at all if you think you can buy a lame gift for someone.”
He simply smiled and leaned back against the entertainment center while she unwrapped the box.
“Did you wrap this?” she asked, glancing up.
“Heavens no,” he said. “I had a woman around the corner do it.”
“It’s well done,” she said.
“I’ll be sure to tell her thanks.”
She sucked in a breath in the next moment, and Adam loved her reactions to his gifts.
“Is this what I think it is?” she asked, and she hurried to slide her finger under the flap and open it. “Oh, myheck, it is. It’s that heating strip I wanted.”
“It fits right in your pillowcase,” he said. “In fact, I got you a couple of pillowcases made specially for it.”
“Thank you so much,” Joey said, and she propelled herself forward and off the couch to kneel in front of him. She took his face in her hands and kissed him, and Adam loved the way she touched him.
He handed her the next gift, and she stayed on the floor beside him as she opened it.
“You got a set of these mixing bowls?” She looked at him with pure wonder on her face. “They sold out in under ten minutes.”
He nodded to the card. “Yeah, you got set seventy-six.”
She shook her head and said, “I can’t waitto find out what the one thing is that you can’t do.” She grinned at him and then opened a new pair of gloves, a scarf he’d asked her grandmother to make for him to give to her, and then finally, Adam hesitated on the smallest box.
He didn’t have to give her this, but he sure was thankful that she had never once said he’d spent too much money or spoiled her. Spending money and spoiling people was Adam’s specialty, and he would employ his superpower for Joey any day of the week, any time.
