“Bad boy,” Rylee admonishes him as she cuddles him against her chest and carries him out of the dining room. “Very, very bad boy.”
There’s a moment after she disappears where we all just stare at the table, no one quite certain what to do next.
“Fuck, we’re sorry, ladies,” Zander says as Rylee makes it back into the room, without the fuzzball of doom. “We really wanted this to be perfect, but it’s just been a huge mess…”
“Are you kidding?” I exclaim, my lips curling into a wide smile. “This has been amazing!”
“Best Christmas ever!” Grace cries.
“Agreed!” Stacey chuckles.
“This is the kind of nonsense that I thrive on,” Sutton declares.
Carson looks around at the other guys, and their collective relief is obvious.
“Come on,” I say, grabbing Carson’s arm and tugging him back to his chair. “Let’s finish eating. Pretty sure Gizmo left the vegetables alone.”
We all sit back down to continue the meal.
CHAPTER TEN: PLAYING IN THE SNOW
SKYLER
After dinner,the guys usher us back into the living room and around the Christmas tree and the surprises just keep on coming. They have presents for us to open!
Carson hands me a package wrapped in shiny red paper and I feel a rush of giddiness, like a kid on actual Christmas morning.
I rip open the present and let out a gasp of delight.
“A Super NES Classic Edition?” I hold up the box containing the retro-gaming console and beam at Carson. “I love it!”
He grins, looking very pleased with himself. “I know you’ve been really into retro games lately, so I thought I’d give you the excuse to indulge. It didn’t arrive in time for the actual Christmas, so I was going to wait until your birthday, but then we planned this weekend, and you know… perfect timing.”
Setting the box down, I grab the front of his shirt and pull him in for a lingering kiss.
“You are the best,” I murmur.
“Oh, I know.” He pretends to flip his hair.
I roll my eyes, shoving his shoulder. Chuckling, I grab the shopping bag I brought back from town and hand it to him.
“Here. It’s not wrapped, but it’s just a little something to say thank you for the wonderful day.”
He takes the bag and eagerly opens it, letting out a laugh when he sees what’s inside. He pulls out the figurine I got him — a black bear holding a terrified hiker over its head, whose pants have fallen down. It’s just our sense of humor, which nobody gets but us, and I love that fact. I hand him my second gift — a giant rainbow lollipop — and he grins at me.
“You’re my fucking dream girl,” he declares.
When he says things like that, I go all gooey inside and I have to fight not to pounce on him in the middle of the wrapping paper that’s piling up on the living room floor.
Around us, everyone else opens their gifts, and there’s a wide range of items.
Grace opens her present and it’s a hardcover planner that makes her gush. “Oh, my gosh! It has pages for daily, weekly, and monthly! Jensen, I love it.”
Grinning, he kisses her forehead. “I knew you would, my beautiful organizational freak.”
Rylee snatches a small package from Zander’s hand and rips it open as eagerly as a little kid. Her eyes get big and water when she opens a box and pulls out a bright red cat collar with a tag in the shape of devil horns.
“Oh, Kodiak!” she gushes. “It’s so cute! Gizmo will love it!”
