Page 115

I finally came up with what I think is the perfect gift for her, and we’ve agreed to exchange gifts on Christmas Eve since Troy has been medically cleared to attend the huge party Victor is throwing at their club, so he and Joanie will be out for the night.

She walks in my front door a little after six, and I’m ready for her. A fire crackles in the fireplace, lights glitter on my Christmas tree, and soft instrumental Christmas tunes play in the background.

It smells delicious in here, too. I ordered in a romantic dinner for the two of us, and it’s currently heating in my oven.

I can’t help but think of how different this Christmas is compared to the ones I celebrated with women in the past. There were expectations and pressure. This feels…fun. It feels calm and peaceful, and rather than be nervous about my girl liking what’s wrapped under the tree for her, I know with us that the real gift is just having this time alone together.

It feels like the start of a new tradition. I can see future Christmas Eves with just her and me, and maybe in the years that follow us down the road, our children as their eyes light with excitement knowing Santa is on his way, and the two of us exchanging presents after they go to bed, the only quiet moment we might get to share in the chaos of the day.

She carries a huge box in her arms, and I narrow my eyes at her when she walks in.

“Need some help with that?” I offer, and she just shakes her head and sets it under the tree. I stand and walk over to her, and I pull her in my arms. “What did you do?”

She just offers a sassy little shrug and a smile, and I laugh.

“It smells fantastic in here. What did you do?” she asks. She tips her chin up for a kiss.

“I turned on my oven and popped it in,” I admit. “We’re having crab cakes and filet with a side of mac and cheese.”

“Fancy,” she says, and I twirl her once before pulling her back in.

“How was your day?”

“Fine. I took Ruby Sue for a hike, and I spent some time with my dad. He told me more about his club,” she admits, and I raise a brow.

“Did he tell you…everything?”

She laughs. “Not in so many words, but after the accusations my mother hurled when she was here last month, he couldn’t exactly deny that he enjoys a particular lifestyle. I told him that was his business, and he told me I was welcome to visit Coax any time as long as I promised to stay on the first floor.”

I wrinkle my nose at the thought. “Do you want to go?”

“It might be interesting to see it, say, during the daytime , but no, not really. How was your day?” She changes the subject rather abruptly, and I don’t think she’s totally okay with knowing these intimate details about her father’s life, but it’s one of those things I think she’ll figure out how to compartmentalize over time.

“It was good. I went for a run, wrapped some gifts, talked to my mom…”

“How is she?”

“Great. She convinced me to come to Chicago for a couple nights next week. I wish you could come.”

She pouts for a beat. “So do I, but I’m glad you get to go.”

A buzzer dings in the kitchen, and I head over to pull the food out. We eat and talk, and this warm feeling of comfort and home washes over me.

I want her here with me all the time. I want her in my bed when we wake together in the morning, and I want her in my kitchen when I serve her dinner, and I want her lying across my couch as we both stare into the crackling flames of the fireplace. I want to make a life with her.

Everything is going so well. My life is damn near perfect right now except for having to hide the love of my life, and it should be the signal that a storm is brewing.

I force the thought away, instead choosing to focus on what’s going well.

We laugh and bake cookies together after dinner while we toast with eggnog mixed with Fireball, which she claims tastes much better than eggnog with the more traditional brandy, and after two or three where the ratio of Fireball to eggnog seems to be getting higher, I’m buzzed enough not to care too much that the drink tastes pretty damn gross no matter what we add to it.

In fact, I want to pour Fireball eggnog on Gabby’s tits and lick it off.

Now there’s a Christmas idea for later. Way to make the holidays merry and…hot.

“More Firenog?” she slurs, and I laugh.

“Are you drunk?”

She shakes her head. “Just enjoying the Christmas spirit.”

“Firenog…not Eggball?”

She makes a face. “Definitely not Eggball.”

Once the cookies are in the oven, Gabby claps with excitement. “Let’s open presents!”

I grin. “Let’s do it. Is this the same gift you gave me last week?” I reach for her to run my fingertips up her torso, but she giggles as she bats my hand away.

“If you’re a good boy, maybe we’ll find time for that later.”

“You can come sit on Santa’s lap,” I say with an exaggerated wink. “Ho ho ho.”

She rolls her eyes as she makes her way over toward the tree, and I can’t help that feeling as it washes over me once again.

God, I love her. It’s so strong, so pure. So unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.

She sits on her knees by the tree and reaches for the big box, and I shake my head.

“You first,” I say, and I sit close to her and hand her a small box.

She narrows her eyes at me, and then she rips the paper off the box with all the glee of a small child. She pulls out a jewelry box and opens it, and she looks up at me when she sees what’s inside.

I decide not to mansplain the gift and opt instead to carefully watch her reaction as she pulls out the necklace with two simple charms on it—a silver outline of an ace and a jack of hearts, both glittering with diamonds.

“This is so sweet,” she says softly. “So meaningful since we met at a blackjack table on my twenty-first birthday, and these two cards add up to twenty-one—the number you wear on the field.”

“I wanted to give you something with my number on it, but I didn’t want that to be what tipped off the people we’re trying to keep this from,” I say.

She pulls it out of the box and holds it out to me. She turns around, and I clasp it on her. She turns back toward me and sets her hand over it. “I’ll wear it always.” She leans forward for a quick kiss, and I grab her head and hold it there for a beat, never wanting to let her go. “Now you open one.”

“The big one?”

“Sure,” she says, and she seems nearly giddy.

I tear the paper off the box in a similar way to how she did it, and then I rip open the box.

Inside I find a huge gift basket filled to the brim with Slim Jims. I laugh as I lift it out of the box, and she giggles along with me.

“This is absolutely perfect,” I say. There must be a hundred meat sticks in there, and it should satisfy my anxiety over running low on my favorite snack for at least a month or two. “I love it, and I love you.” I kiss her again, and I’m about to push her onto her back and give her a real gift when she pulls back, panting a little.

“I have another one for you.”

“I have another one for you, too,” I say. I’m panting a little myself as I hand her the next box, and then I gulp down some more Firenog.

She tears this one open, too, and she stares at the random numbers printed in fancy font in the framed black and white photograph. “Thirty-six point eleven sixty-two degrees north, one-fifteen point seventeen forty-five west?” she asks.

“The coordinates for the place where I first fell in love with you.”

She brushes away a tear. “This is incredible, Cooper. The most thoughtful gift anyone has ever given me.”

“Get ready for a lifetime of them.”

She pounces on top of me, and I laugh as I fall back to the ground with her body on top of mine…just where I wanted it. She presses her lips to mine, and the kiss turns pretty intense before she pushes herself up, balancing with her palms flat on my chest.

“You have one more gift to open, and I know we’re sitting right next to a fire and we’re creating some of our own, but do you smell smoke?”

I grab onto her back and sit up, sniffing the air, and she laughs at me.

And that’s when I turn toward the kitchen. “Oh shit! The cookies!”

She leaps off me and we both run toward the oven. We catch them in time before they set off the smoke alarm, but they’re definitely a little…crispier than I prefer my chocolate chippers to be.

She giggles as we inspect the cookies to determine whether there’s anything edible, and then we throw more dough onto another pan and this time, I set a timer rather than relying on thinking we’ll actually watch the clock.

We head back to the tree, and she hands me my final gift, which happens to be in an envelope. I bend it a little to try to guess what’s inside. “Did you get me a…gift card?”

She giggles. “Yes. I bought the man with a ginormous bank account a gift card because I couldn’t think of anything else.” She rolls her eyes with mock exasperation, and I laugh. “Just open it! No guessing!”

I gently slide my finger along the sealed paper and slide out the card inside, and attached to it is a sort of metal photo card.

It’s the first picture we ever took together, a selfie from the room at Caesar’s Palace. We didn’t know the true identity of each other back then. She had no idea I played baseball or that I was moving to Vegas to play for her father. I had no idea that she was the daughter of one of my closest friends.

It was easy back then even though at the time, it felt impossible. We’d just met, and we’d both somehow fallen in love in one weekend. It didn’t matter that we were from different worlds—nearly even from different generations. What mattered was how we felt, and that remains true to this day.

“It’s small enough to slide into your wallet so you can carry us with you wherever you are, and I figure if it’s tucked in there real good, nobody will ever see it,” she says a little nervously.

“I love it,” I whisper, and then I flip it over where I find a personalized note engraved onto the back in Gabby’s handwriting.

To my Captain. I love you always. Forever Your Sunshine

I chuckle at her words. “So we’re settled on Captain Orgasm, then, as my nickname?”

She dissolves into giggles, which then turns into more kissing, which is only interrupted once again by the damn cookies.

But at least this time, we salvage them in time to be able to eat them with another round of Firenog.