Surprisingly, Chris had driven up from Baltimore twice and spent time with her and her family. She was getting a little frustrated though. Aside from a few chaste kisses they hadn’t been able to be alone together. Her brothers had been overly cautious and extra protective these days, especially when it came to men. They knew her track record wasn’t a good one and hated to see her repeat it. But the way Chris acted, like he wanted to ease himself out of her life, they probably didn’t need to worry.
It was time for a serious conversation but she was almost afraid to have it. Was he only coming by to make sure she was okay after all that had happened? Those white knight tendencies ran strong in him. Soon she’d have to ask so she didn’t keep getting her hopes up.
Sliding her feet into boots, she ran out, sloshing through the snow to meet him at his SUV. He was coming from the back and carried a large stack of presents.
“Who are all those for?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Your family,” he answered then handed her a few of them before he dug in the back for more.
“Hey, wait,” she scowled at him. “Don’t I even get a hello? Or a Merry Christmas?”
Straightening, he turned to slide his hand in her hair. He pressed his lips to hers causing her eyes to close and the tingling to start again. She hoped that never got old, the way her body reacted to his touch. He nipped at her bottom lip then kissed her nose and scolded, “Now get in the house before you freeze to death. You don’t have a coat on.”
She stuck her tongue out at him and turned on her heel as he grabbed another stack of gifts. Heading into the house she unloaded the presents into her brother’s arms. Chris took off his coat and Meg moved to the closet to hang it up, slipping off her boots as well. Moving up behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Merry Christmas, sweetie,” he breathed in her ear causing shivers to run down her spine.
She turned in his embrace sliding her arms around his shoulders. “Merry Christmas,muffin.”
After taking a peek around, he pressed his lips to hers. She ran her fingers through his thick locks holding him tight as she kissed him back. Was he playing with her or was he serious?
“Do you think anyone would notice if we snuck inside this closet for a few minutes?” she flirted, attempting to back up and do what she’d suggested.
He kissed her again. “What I’d like to do with you would take more than a few minutes,” he whispered in her ear. “And a closet is hardly the ideal place for it, though it could be interesting.”
Meg rolled her eyes noticing both Ty and Kevin had entered the kitchen looking their way, arms crossed over their broad chests. All of her brothers took after their dad in their large physique and build. Chris was no slouch when it came to muscles either. She remembered running her hands over them during their time undercover and wished she could do so again. No such luck. Not right now anyway. She reluctantly moved away and pulled him toward the living room.
About an hour later her mother shooed everyone out of the kitchen so she could actually get something done and people scattered. Chris grabbed Meg’s hand pulling her toward the coat closet, instructing her to get geared up.
“What are we doing?”
His smile was smug. “We got a foot of snow yesterday. What do you think we need to do? We’re going to build a snowman.”
Her eyebrow rose cynically. “You want to build a snowman. You, the big, strong, macho FBI agent wants to build a snowman?”
He lowered his face close to hers. “Yeah, I do. You got a problem with that?”
When she laughed, he grabbed his coat, hat, and gloves heading outside. She made quick work of getting her gear on, then followed behind. Chris had already started rolling the big ball for the bottom. He pointed to another part of the yard and ordered, “Start rolling the middle and we can add them together.”
She shook her head but did as instructed and soon they had three balls stacked on top of each other. Chris took some things from her mom to add to the snowman. A scarf was wrapped around his neck and he’d found some rocks for a mouth. He sent her off to look for a few long sticks to make arms and when she came back there was a carrot sticking out of the top sphere.
“So, this snowman was just thinking he should help you find a job.” Chris stroked his chin as he looked at the white figure.
“He was, huh?” She grinned. “I need all the help I can get. There aren’t many teaching jobs available in the middle of the school year. What does he plan on doing to help me?”
He looked thoughtfully again as if the snowman was actually speaking to him. “He says you should look down in Maryland, maybe outside of Baltimore.”
Meg’s heart raced at his suggestion, wondering exactly what he was implying.
“Why should I do that?” she asked softly taking a step closer to the man she loved, hoping he had similar feelings for her.
A mischievous glint gleamed in his eye and he cocked his head in the direction of the snowy man. “You should ask him. He seems like an intelligent guy. Just look at that strong nose and proud chin.”
“What are you talking about?” she scoffed. “He doesn’t have a chin and his nose is a skinny little carrot that has a wart on it.”
Looking closer at what she thought was a bump on the carrot, her gaze flew to the mischievous eyes next to her. The carrot didn’t have a bump, it had aringdangling from it. A ring with a huge diamond attached.
Chris reached for the ring pulling her closer. “I kind of got used to having you around and found that I liked it. I’ve been miserable without you, Meg. I was hoping I could convince you to marry me, be my wife.”
