She considered the fact that she’d sent Foster–who expected to marry her when he woke up this morning–home less than two hours ago. This eternal Christmas thing was messing with her sense of time. Foster was just as surprised as he ever was when she told him she knew about the secretary. So how come Jacob wasn’t shocked by the turn of events?
“Do you–?” she asked at the same time he said, “Is it–?”
They stopped and looked at one another. Lauren cocked her head to the side, and Jacob cocked his the other way, and everything clicked into place. They both realized the other one knew about the Christmas repeats at the same time–it was as clear as if a cartoon lightbulb had turned on above their heads.
The only way Jacob would know, though, was if he made a wish too! She grabbed his shoulders. “What did you wish for?”
He opened and closed his mouth without a sound coming out. She shook him. “You did this to us! You froze Christmas. How?!”
“Me?” He found his voice. “You’re the one who wished to spend eternity with her soulmate.”
Her mouth fell open. “How did you know about that?”
He clamped his mouth shut.
She smacked his arm. “Don’t get shy on me now, lover boy.”
His face turned red with the words he fought to hold back. He pulled out his phone. “I know about your wish because I talked to the guy who granted them.” He punched numbers.
“Who are you calling at this moment?” she asked in shock.
“The North Pole,” he replied.
She reared back. “The what now? You can’t be serious.”
He hit the speaker button. “Santa’s workshop, this is Nick.”
Her eyes widened, and she mouthed: no way. If she wasn’t in the middle of a personal Christmas wish gone horribly wrong, she’d totally geek out about this.
“Nick. Lauren knows Christmas is on repeat,” he said. He reached up and brushed her hair over her shoulder. “She’s probably known all along,” he conceded.
Lauren nodded.
His pronouncement was met with silence–except for the beep and boop of machines in the background. “I need to talk to Lux. I’ll get back to you.” The line went dead.
“Thanks, man. You’re so helpful,” Jacob groused as he shoved his phone back in his pocket.
Lauren’s brain was firing on all cylinders–possibly two more than she knew she had. “That was Santa?”
Jacob started pacing. “It was his nephew or stepson or… I’m not really sure. All I know is that he wasn’t supposed to grant both our wishes. Somehow they twisted together, and now we’re stuck on Christmas.”
She grabbed his sleeve to stop him from pacing. His caramel-colored eyes found hers. “How do we stop it?” she asked. He was apparently in the know while she’d been left on her own to navigate the upside-down holiday.
Jacob sighed and pulled a small red velvet box out of his pocket. “I have to ask you to marry me.” He tossed it on the counter next to her and went back to pacing.
“Excuse me?” she recoiled from the box as if it would bite her. Foster did the same thing the last Christmas they spent together.
Jacob scowled. “Don’t act so happy about it.”
Lauren ran her hand through her hair. “I’m not.”
“I thought that was your Christmas wish.” Jacob stopped moving and faced her, his hands on his hips.
She rolled her eyes. Yes, it was every woman’s dream to have her man say he had to propose to her, or else they’d be trapped in Christmas forever. “Let’s just say I didn’t think through the logistics of that wish.” She scrubbed at her scalp. “And for the record–no one ever expects their wishes to come true!”
“Don’t start yelling at me–my wish didn’t include eternity. All I wanted was a second chance with you.” He stomped closer. “I wasn’t greedy enough to include all of time in my wish.”
She folded her arms and glared at him. “I bet you asked for a Ferrari, though, didn’t you?” She held both her hands out to the side. “Where’s the car?”
