“In whatever capacity you need,” Austin adds, placing a hand on her back.
“Your mom and this tentacle man don’t scare us,” Oliver jokes as he wraps his arms around Hayes and Erin. She snorts, shaking her head.
Rudy says nothing but gets in on the group hug action, and I just stare at my girl being cradled by my teammates like she’s the most precious thing to all of them.
When they leave, Erin steps into me, and I hold her for a while, relishing in the comfort she provides.
“What’s your policy on opening gifts before Christmas?” I ask.
“One or two won’t hurt,” she says when she looks up at me.
“It’ll take me about twenty minutes to set up.”
We head upstairs to the bedroom, and she hops in the shower while I get to work.
Twenty minutes later, I’m done.
Erin’s voice sounds from behind the bathroom door. “Is it safe to come out?”
I walk over to the door and open it. Steam plumes out in waves, and shampoo fills my nostrils. Her hair is pulled up into a messy bun on top of her head, her rogue fringe slightly sticking to either side of her face. She’s wearing her green satin pajamas decorated with reindeer.
“Gonna need you to close your eyes for a quick minute,” I say as I hold out my hand. She puts her dainty palm in mine and follows my directions. I pull her forward and position her right in front of me and her gift. “Open your eyes, Bookworm.”
Her eyes flutter open, and a gasp rips through her as her hands go straight to her mouth. I watch, my stomach doing a little flip as pride swells. The noticeable scent of the books mingles with the faint cinnamon from the candle in the window.
“I know people don’t usually wait until Christmas Eve to put trees up, but I figured you wouldn’t mind so much.”
She walks closer to it and picks up one of the books from the top layer of the book tree I crafted. She steps back and takes it all in—the tree-themed paper and multicolored circles on top that I asked Roman to help me paint to make it look like baubles.
“I Googled some images and made a rough estimate as to how many books it would take to make the tree and got the books that had the most interesting titles. The fairy lights aren’t perfect, but the idea is you read layer by layer,” I say with my hand on the back of my neck.
“There must be over a hundred books here,” she whispers.
“One hundred and seventy, to be exact.”
“You wrapped and painted one hundred and seventy books from my TBR list to make me a book tree?” she asks, eyes wide and voice trembling. Seeing her this way brings a new kind of happiness in my life. I almost want to beat my chest with my fist because of how she lights up.
“Yeah.” I grin. “Before you have a breakdown about the cost of the books, just remember I make millions, and technically, these books are part of the allowance you have from the fifty thousand dollars I donate to Happily Ever Booked.”
Her lips twitch. “This is…” She sighs. “Magical. I love it so much.”
I love you.
“Thank you, Eighty-Seven.”
“You’re welcome, baby.”
She glances at the book in her hand and then looks back up at me. I give her the go-ahead and she tears the paper open, her eyes wild with excitement at the mystery of what’s underneath.
“Do I have to wait until tomorrow to give you your Christmas wish?” she asks.
I smirk as my mind drifts back to our date.
My Christmas wish is to have you in my arms, with your head in a book, while wearing a ridiculous oversized sweater that Rudy picked out.
“Make my wish come true, Bookworm,” I sing, holding out my hand. I may not be able to carry a tune the way Mariah does, but no one can hold my girl as well as me.
She reads one hundred and fifty pages before her eyes close and her head falls, her breath tingling my skin. I soak in the rise and fall of her body against mine, every worry from the day melting into this one perfect moment.
