Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“Yeah,” Nate says, “definitely wouldn’t be able to do that if he was a puppy.”
“I’ve never had a puppy,” I admit to him.
“Would you want a puppy?” he asks me and I shrug. “It’s lots of work at the beginning, and not something that should be done if you aren’t home.”
“Yeah.” I go to the door when Whiskey charges over to the door and I open it, the cool air hitting me right away. “Maybe that’s why I never got one. I work long hours and it would be silly to have a puppy and not give it enough attention.” Whiskey runs in and heads straight for his food bowl. I walk toward Nate, who is standing right in front of the coffee machine. My arms wrap around his waist as I kiss his bare back, I close my eyes for a moment. “Are you tired?”
“Not as tired as I should be.” He puts one hand on my hand on his stomach. “Do you want to do presents before or after breakfast?”
“I have to admit something to you. I hate Christmas.”
“I don’t think that’s a secret, baby,” he says softly, his chuckle warming my soul. My stomach flutters from the sound of it.
“I wasn’t finished, Nate.” I let go of him and he turns around, his chest to mine. His hand comes up and he holds my hips, making sure I don’t go anywhere. I put my hands on his chest, my fingers moving back and forth. “What I was going to say is, I hate Christmas, but I love presents.”
He laughs and I can’t help but smile at his laughter. He puts one of his hands on the counter beside him but keeps a hold on me. “So I’m always ready to open presents.”
“But you hate surprises.” I shake my head.
“No one likes surprises, but everyone likes presents.”
“So I could buy you a present but I can’t surprise you?” He smirks.
“Yes,” I agree with him. “If I don’t know about it and it magically appears, I’m okay with it. But if you go on and on about ‘oh, I have a surprise for you,’ then it’s a solid no.”
“Noted,” he says. “So we should do gifts now, then?”
“Yes!” I clap my hands, giddy like a kid in a candy store. “Who is going to go first?” I ask him as he turns to hand me my coffee and then both of us walk toward the Christmas tree.
“As you can see”—I point to the presents under the tree—“I’ve color coded mine.”
“Of course you did.” He sits on the couch. “Because not having them the same color makes it more of a surprise for you.”
I gasp, “I didn’t even think of that.” I put my coffee to the side. “Okay, I’m going to give you one first.” I get up grabbing the medium-size box. “I want you to keep in mind that I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for gifts.”
I walk to him and he opens his legs for me to stand in between them. His hands go to rub up the back of my legs. He looks up at me, his lips in a little smile as I bend my head to kiss him. I hold his cheek with one of my hands while the other grips the box. “Okay.” I push the box at him and he grabs it, opening the Santa Claus wrapping and seeing the white box. I sit next to him, almost bouncing in my seat. He opens the top, and when he pulls out the white mug, he turns it over and laughs. “This is going to be my new mug.” He looks down at the white mug I had made that says Whiskey, Bean, and Baby Cat’s dad, with a picture of them all around the cup. Then in the back it says Best Dog and Cat Dad Ever.
“I might have gotten one for myself also,” I mumble to him, “minus the ‘cat dad’ stuff.”
He looks over at me and it’s a look he’s given me often over the years, but a look I might have locked out of my memory to protect my heart from being more hurt than I was. A look that even now if I wanted to lock it away, I knew I couldn’t. “For you to take back home?”
The minute he says that, my eyes get dry and with each blink it feels like I have sand stuck under my lids, and the lump forms in my throat, knowing in seven days this isn’t going to be my morning anymore. I don’t answer him, instead I just nod my head. He puts the mug to the side and then gets up to grab one of the presents bringing it to me. “I also didn’t have time and I scrambled. It didn’t help that I tried to ask Joshua and he told me to give you a stocking full of coal.”