Page 44 of Infatuated as They Come (Sinful Trilogy #2)

Sawyer

The next morning, I found Holly sliding present after present under the hundred-foot Christmas tree, and I hoped to God they weren’t all for me.

She spotted me and sent me a smile over her shoulder before diving back into a bag to get more gifts out. They were all so neatly wrapped, the red and green paper looking crisp and smooth, all topped off with a gold bow.

“You caught me,” she said.

“I did,” I said. “Those are for your parents?”

“Nope. These are for you and I can’t wait to see you open them.”

Ah, shit. “ All of those are for me?”

“Mhm.”

“Baby, you didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes, I did. It’s Christmas. And Christmas is for spoiling the ones you love.” She took out yet another gift and I was starting to wonder how she had managed to fit so much inside those goddamn bags. “And I love you, so I’m spoiling you.”

“That’s a lot,” I said, watching her get out more presents. “That’s… That’s a whole lot.”

“And you deserve all of them.” Finally, she zipped up the bag. “I’m so excited for tomorrow. Our first Christmas together. I’m so glad we finally get to have some time together, especially since…”

“Since what?”

Her head shook. “Nothing. I’m just excited for tomorrow. For us to be together.”

“I’m excited too,” I said. “Can’t wait to give you your gift.”

She grabbed the gift I got her, the wrapping job not nearly as good as hers. “Ooh, so heavy. I wonder what it is,” she said, giving the box a tiny shake.

“Go easy, princess.” Thankfully I didn’t hear anything break. “What are you doing tonight? Something with your parents?”

“Um, I don’t think so. Why?”

“How about we start that new tradition?”

“Today?” She clasped her hands together.

“Yeah, today. I still owe you dinner, don’t I?”

“You want that to be our new tradition?” She smiled. “We can just do something here. We can eat cookies and drink hot chocolate and watch all the Home Alone movies. The first two, I mean. I don’t acknowledge the other ones.”

Those suggestions all sounded so simple. So low budget . I shook my head at her. “We’ll make it our thing. Every Christmas Eve, you and me will go out to some fancy place and have dinner.”

“It doesn’t have to be fancy .”

But it did . “You pick a place and we’ll go.

” I watched her stand up and move over to me, my hands instantly finding her waist. “I owe you this. It’s been a long time coming.

So we’ll go out and for a little while…” We can pretend your dad thinks I’m good enough for you and that I have a million bucks .

“It’ll be just you and me…” And the outside world won’t be able to get in . “And it’ll be nice.”

She hummed. “Well, okay. If you really want to go out for dinner, we’ll do that. I’m in the mood for pizza.”

“No pizza,” I said, the words coming out too rushed.

“No pizza?”

“No. Pick some place, you know, classy.”

She arched a brow at me. “Why does it have to be classy?”

“Because you’re classy.”

“Why can’t we get pizza? It doesn’t have to be some lavish place. ”

But she didn’t get it and I could feel her dad’s words from last night—and every conversation we’ve ever had—weighing there on my chest, all painful and heavy.

“Pick some place nice, okay? No fast food, no pizza, no places without the waiters who put the napkin on your lap. Let’s go to…

I don’t know… the country club or whatever. ”

She winced a tiny bit. “The country club?”

“You go there all the time, right? It’s your natural environment. We’ll go and have that dinner that I owe you. You can go to the salon and get your hair done and put on a pretty dress and I’ll put on a suit and it’ll be a nice, wonderful, not low budget night out.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What was that last thing? Low budget? Is that why you’re taking me there? You know we don’t have to do this…”

But we did. We did, we did, we did. “I just wanna take you some place nice.”

“I mean, I was hoping we’d do something together. You know, alone. Just us,” she said, fingers fidgeting together. “But if you really want to go there…”

“Great. We’ll do it.”

“Great?”

“Yeah, great. It’s…” Fancy, classy, all that rich people shit. “It’s great. We’ll have dinner there.”

“Alright,” she said. “I guess I’ll go call them up and book the table.”

I watched her walk away, wishing I could just fast forward to tonight.

I could see it in my head: me and her at that table surrounded by people who probably didn’t even want me in the building, but it didn’t matter to Holly.

She’d look beautiful like she always did and her smile would be bright and her eyes would be twinkling and then we could pretend like nothing and no one was getting in the way.

I was getting in the way . I knew I hadn’t been around lately and it had been killing me to spend so much time without her.

My mind had been occupied with making her gift and trying to be sure that every last detail was right.

When I had finished up with it at the studio I had left feeling confident that she’d like it—or maybe even love it—but after those words from her dad, doubt had been growing in my mind.

I had to give her something better and bigger than a handmade gift.

“I got us a table,” Holly said as she moved back into the room. “And a salon appointment for one. Are you sure you want to go there? To the club?”

“Like I said, I owe you dinner, and this is the perfect place for us to go.”

Arms wrapping around herself, she gave me a little smile. “Okay. Well, I can’t wait to have dinner with you.”

The rest of the morning was spent in Holly’s backyard—if you could call it that, because the place was huge.

She filled up mugs with hot chocolate and brought out a container with some cookies, the air not feeling as cold as I wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Then we moved over to the theater room, because of course they had one, and watched a couple Christmas movies.

I was loving every second of it. I was loving how I got to have her close, how I got to see her smile and hear her laugh, how it was just us—but there was that split second of that unsettled feeling in my body.

It was all so free, so cheap, so low budget .

The day passed by slowly into the afternoon, and soon I was laying my suit out for tonight.

“Which one says Christmas more?” Holly asked as she stepped into the bedroom, two red dresses in her hands. “This one or this one?”

“Uh…” Honestly, both of them looked the same and I knew she’d look gorgeous in either one, so I wasn’t even sure if it mattered. “You sure they’re different?”

“Yes.” She scoffed, holding up the one in her left hand. “I think I’ll go with this one.”

“Good choice.”

She tilted her head at me, placing her dresses carefully on the bed before sitting next to me. “Are you okay? You’ve been kinda quiet all day.”

“I’m just…” I steeled myself. I didn’t need to worry her with what I was feeling. “I’m fine. What time are you leaving for the salon?”

“In a few minutes. Mom’s gonna drive me down there. I’m gonna get ready there too, so is it okay if I meet you at the club at seven?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. That’s good. That’s perfect.”

There was a little frown on her face. “What’s wrong? ”

“Nothing.”

“You’re acting weird.”

“It’s the time difference.”

“It’s only an hour. If you’re feeling tired, we can just stay home,” she said, resting her head on my shoulder. “We could watch movies all night or something like we did today. It’s been so long since we did anything like that. Wasn’t it nice?”

Honestly, that sounded a hell of a lot nicer than dinner at a country club, but I needed to give her more. Something different and better. “Dinner’s good. A night out, like I owe you.”

“I wish you’d stop with this ‘I owe you’ nonsense. You don’t owe me anything.”

“Dinner’s what we agreed on.”

“Well, I didn’t really agree. It’s your idea.”

“It’ll be what we do every year. A nice dinner out like you deserve.” And if it was at the country club, it wasn’t free. It definitely wouldn’t be low budget either, but that was the whole point. “At some place you’re used to.”

“But you just want to go to the club because it’s classy.”

“Well, it is, right?”

“Well, I guess, but…”

“But?”

“I don’t really like it there,” she mumbled.

“Yes, you do.”

“I do?” She lifted her head off my shoulder. “Wouldn’t you rather do something where it’s just us two? Where we get to spend some alone time together? I miss those days…”

I sighed at her words. I missed that too. Her and us and everything. “I just wanna take you somewhere nice. And shit kept getting in the way in New York, but now we have some free time, don’t we? So… let’s just go out tonight, and then next Christmas we can do it again, and the one after that too…”

“This is about my dad, isn’t it?” she asked. “He said something to you. I know it.”

“He didn’t say anything,” I lied. “It’s got nothing to do with him.”

“Then why are you taking me to some place I hate? Some place I know you wouldn’t even enjoy?”

“Because… This is what happens in your world, right? Country clubs and fancy places and all that. I don’t know why you’re acting like this.”

“Because you won’t listen to me. What did he say to you?”

“Nothing.”

She moved to stand up. “Let me go talk to him.”

“No, don’t talk to him,” I said, gently grabbing her hands. “Can we just do this dinner? Please?”

“I don’t even like that place.”

“Well, it’s better than driving around and looking at Christmas lights, isn’t it?”

Something flashed behind her eyes, and it looked like pain and hurt, and I wanted to punch myself for making her look like that, for making her feel anything that ever dimmed the light in her eyes.

“I like that stuff,” she mumbled. “And I was really looking forward to doing something like that with you.”

My thumbs rubbed across the soft skin on her hands as I pulled her into my lap. “I just want us to do something special.”