Next, Tara pulled out a red wagon decorated with little colorful Christmas lights. “For the wagon parade.”
The last ornament was a butterscotch disc wrapped in shiny gold foil. She held it up and let it spin, laughing at the thought that the little candy in her mouth would be what he remembered about sitting together in her car outside the party, when they met for the third time.
“Ready to go?” Luke asked.
The car was thoroughly warmed up, and Tara carefully tucked the ornaments back in the box, holding it tight while they drove away. He’d given her a treasure box, and treasures to go inside it. No one had ever done anything like that for her before. Her eyes felt heavy and the next thing she knew, they’d gone over a bump and were pulling into Luke’s garage.
“Luke?”
“Hmm?” He was humming along to the Christmas song on the radio, but he turned it off when he saw she was awake.
“I had fun today. And yeah, it was fun-ish at certain points, but we knew that going in, didn’t we?”
“Knew what going in?”
“That our worlds were connected in awkward knots. But we don’t have to untie them to be happy. As long as I get to come home to you, I’ll always be happy.” She blushed as she realized that statement was a wee bit presumptuous.
It was his turn for a wolfish grin. He leaned over and pressed the hint of a kiss against her lips before retreating a few inches.
“Am I scaring you?” she whispered.
He slowly shook his head. “Surprising me, but never scaring me.” He got out and went around to get her door. Together they went inside to doze on the couch, wrapped up in each other. Tara checked in with Aunt Sandy, who told her to mind her own business. Tara laughed and put down her phone so she could get back to being wrapped up in Luke’s arms, where she belonged.
