Page 93

Epilogue

Jimmy – Let There be Socks

Icould hardly maintainmy façade of calm. I’d pretended cool all through making coffee and breakfast. I’d prepared a feast: chilaquiles with homemade salsa verde. Not exactly Christmassy, but delicious. Melena and I both inhaled our breakfast after a night spent exploring each other’s bodies. We’d more than worked up an appetite.

“That was amazing,” Melena said as she pushed back from the table. She looked cute, long dark hair down around her shoulders and still mussed from our night together. She’d thrown on a fuzzy robe over the T-shirt she’d mostly slept in.

“Do you want to get dressed before we open presents?”

She nodded and hopped in the shower while I cleaned up our dishes. She was just stepping out in her towel when I entered our room. I traced a drop of water as it ran from her hairline, down her neck, and disappeared into towel-covered cleavage. I wanted to be that waterdrop. Tracing it with my tongue sounded like a Merry Christmas to me.

“Eyes up here, buddy.”

“What? I was enjoying the view.”

“I’ll give you a better one.” She unwrapped the towel and dropped it to the floor, and I grinned.

“Merry Christmas tome.”

Unwrapping other gifts was delayed indefinitely.

***

With a final groanI turned to glance at the clock. Shit. We needed to get going if we wanted to be dressed by the time Andi, Chase, and Tamra arrived. I kissed Melena’s shoulder. “Let’s get ready. I want you to open your present before the others arrive.”

Melena cracked one eye open and smiled. “I could be convinced to leave my nest for treasure.”

We slipped into clothes and Melena attacked her hair with a brush, trying to smooth the long strands. Before long we were presentable. I made us both tea and we settled on our couch in front of our little tree. Now that I could touch Melena, it was impossible to stop. I pushed a lock of hair behind her shoulder and enjoyed the warmth in her eyes that was all for me. Andi was going to roast my balls for being such a sap. Hopefully, Melena would be more forgiving. I cleared my throat. “I uh, hope you like it.”

It wasn’t like the future of our relationship depended on her response to what was in my package. Heh.Package.Maybe it was good I hadn’t said that aloud.

I moved to the hall closet and reached up to the top shelf where I’d stashed my gift. I pulled it down and turned to her with a smile. Like a genie, she’d conjured her own gift while my back was turned.

I handed her the small, wrapped box. The midnight blue paper flecked with silver and tied with a fluffy silver bow looked so delicate in her hands. “I wish I could take credit for the wrapping; they helped me at the store. I couldn’t risk you finding this before I wrapped it.”

The temptation to keep babbling beckoned, but I held the words back, instead watching her face as she pulled the ends of the bow and ripped the paper away to reveal the white box inside. She pried the top off with her fingernails to expose my gift. Her face remained serious, and my heart tanked. She hated it. Of course, she did. It’s the kind of thing a woman wants to pick out herself. I’d fucked up, thinking Chase was a reasonable substitute. She stared at it a moment longer before looking up at me, her expression impassive.

“I think you should open yours now.”

I gulped. She hated it. She hadn’t said thank you or anything. She probably hadn’t even noticed the confetti at the bottom. Was she going to pretend it didn’t exist? I’d served my heart up in a white box, and she was going to give me socks. I knew it. I’d overshot the first married gift mark by a mile, and I was getting socks. They’d probably be novelty socks. Life was cruel like that.

The package she handed me was the right size for socks. I glanced back at Melena to see the box I’d given her lying dormant in her lap. Not. Good. Instead, I focused on the package in front of me.

She’d wrapped it in bright red paper with snowflakes. The snowflake tag had my name on it. I guess it could be worse. She could be giving me socks she’d bought for someone else. I peeled open the paper to find a blue velvet drawstring bag. So, not footwear. I must be doing something right. I loosened the strings and tipped the contents out in my hand. Oh. I looked up at Melena and smiled. It took over my face until my cheeks hurt.

“Would you like to do the honors, Mrs. Nemitz?” I held out my right hand, the gold band nestled in my palm, while I offered my left, fingers spread.

“Only if you’ll do mine, Mr. Torres.”

She reached out trembling fingers, pinching the gold band, and maneuvering it onto my ring finger. I flexed my hand, enjoying the way the band hugged my finger.

I reached my right hand into the box in her lap, plucking her ring from it. The stones sparkled and gleamed like the promise of something new. I reached for her left hand, holding it in mine for a moment as I looked at it. Melena had long, delicate fingers made strong by her work. She tried to tug them from my grasp, but I held firm.