Page 65 of All I Want is You this Christmas Final

Jared set his spatula down and took her hands in his. “A.B. we’re fine. Honestly, I had it coming.”

“You did?”

“A little bit. You were pretty heated about me running scared the last few days.” He took her hands and slid them up over his shoulders. “I believe there were even a few curse words.”

“Oh yeah. I remember you apologizing.”

“I did.”

“And then kissing me against the wall.”

Jared brushed her mouth with his. “That too.”

Tingles scattered across her lips. “Did we decide what all this kissing meant?”

“Not officially but I meant what I said about it being hard to do casual with you. That said, being with you for a short time is better than never being with you at all.”

Anna Beth’s hands cupped the back of his head. “Maybe we just take it one day at a time? Just be happy in the moment?”

“I’ll give it my best.” Jared kissed her forehead briefly before pulling back to flip his well-done pancakes. “Well, shit. Go ahead and eat yours. I’ll save these for Rip.”

Anna Beth buttered her pancakes and pulled the syrup from the cupboard.

“I already warmed some up in the microwave,” he said.

“You thought of everything.” Anna Beth cut up her pancakes and leaned back against the counter. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah?”

“Were you jealous last night?”

Jared arched his brow. “You were mad at me, wearing a flaming red dress and dancing around the bar singing Santa Baby with every guy in there drooling…nah, I wasn’t bothered at all.”

Anna Beth came up behind him and curled her arms around his waist. “Not even a little bit?”

“Maybe a very, very small amount.”

“Hmmmm.” She kissed his back and let him go, taking another bite of her pancakes. “Well, if you keep feeding me like this, I may forgive you anything.”

“I’ll remember that.” He put the burnt pancakes on another plate and poured more batter onto the griddle. “What do you want to do today?”

“You don’t have to work tonight?”

“Nope. I have two more days off.”

“I was going to bake cookies to donate to the Christmas festival tomorrow.”

Jared gave her a skeptical look. “Do you know how to bake?”

“I’ve dabbled.” Anna Beth caught sight of Mittens in the doorway, watching Rip with her tail twitching. His ears perked up when he saw her and his tail thumped against the tile floor. “I don’t think Mittens is enamored of Rip.”

“She’ll get used to him.” He flipped his pancakes and a few moments later, loaded them onto a plate. “After breakfast, let’s turn the Christmas music back on and get to work on those cookies.”

“Sounds fun. I also need to watch twenty-three more Christmas movies before the twenty-fifth. Maybe we could watch one between batches.”

He kissed her mouth, tasting like syrup and butter. She licked her lips.

“Whatever you want to do,” he said.