Page 32 of You Make It Feel like Christmas

T HERE WOULD NEVER BE another Christmas as magical as this one.

Maisie was sure of it before she even opened her eyes because she could feel the outline of Nick’s sculpted body against her own.

She could hear his soft breathing and felt the warmth of his skin under her hand, his chest rising and lowering.

Oh yeah, Santa had come through this year.

She’d just started a slow exploration of his wide, muscled chest that was covered with the lightest dusting of dark hair, his fingers had just flexed against her hip when Asher’s voice came through the, thankfully, closed door.

“It’s Christmas!”

Maisie managed to duck under the covers as Nick startled awake and the door flew open, slamming into the little stopper thing as his nephew, blissfully unaware and full of the kind of joy only children could feel this early in the morning—though Maisie’s joy upon waking was definitely a close second—launched himself onto the bed.

Maisie bit her lip, kept her head under the covers as Nick let out a sharp, loud, “Oof.” And a very strained, “Hey, buddy. Merry Christmas.”

The bed shook with Asher’s bounces, his little foot getting Maisie right in the ribs, then the bladder.

“Get up, get up, get up,” Asher chanted.

“Asher.” Ellie’s laughter floated into the room. “Let him get out of bed, honey.”

Silence. Little boy bouncing. Precarious bladder situation.

“Asher, come on, honey, let’s get downstairs. Uncle Nick will be right down.”

From her tone, it was easy for Maisie to figure out Ellie was nowhere near as oblivious to the second body in the bed as her four-year-old son.

“Morning, sis,” Nick said gruffly. “Merry Christmas.”

“More merry for some of us,” Ellie muttered.

Then Asher’s feet were gone, his weight lifted from the bed, and a few seconds later, the door closed.

Maisie stayed hidden, not sure if she wanted to laugh or cry.

The sheets flipped back and then Nick was up on his elbow, looking down at her with a wide grin on his stupidly handsome face.

How could he look that good even in the morning?

She hadn’t dried her hair last night so she probably looked like she’d rubbed balloons all over her head.

Her hand went to it, tried to smooth it out while he stared.

He took her hand, pulled it away from her hair. “Seriously? My nephew busts us first thing and you’re worried about your hair?”

She frowned at him. “Not all of us wake up looking like you.”

His low, grumbly laughter sent little shudders over every inch of her skin. “Thank God. If you looked like me, you would not be waking up in my bed.”

She would have laughed but then his lips were at that spot where her neck met her shoulder and humor slipped away. Just as quick, he pulled back.

“I have to get downstairs.” He pressed his forehead to hers, closed his eyes. “Merry Christmas, Maisie.”

Holding on to him and the moment, her hand now in his hair, she whispered back, “Merry Christmas, Nick.”

He pressed a way-too-quick kiss to her lips and then he was up, tugging on a pair of jogging pants while Maisie did her best not to drool.

He turned, caught her blatantly staring, and winked at her.

Maisie pressed her lips together, then she realized, if Asher was up, her family wouldn’t be far behind and since it was the first Christmas morning they’d spent together in a while, Jacob or Natalie would probably be in her room any second.

“Shit,” she said, jumping out of the bed. Dammit. Her clothes were in her room.

“You good?” Nick asked quietly, one brow arched right before he pulled his T-shirt over his head.

She really wanted to steal that shirt and tug it over her own body, which he was currently staring at hard enough to make her cheeks heat.

“My siblings are probably five minutes behind Asher.” With no other choice, she hurried past him, ignoring his laughter as she rushed through the connecting doors, snagged a pair of undies from her bag, yanked on the first tank top she grabbed, and dove into her bed.

She barely had the covers pulled up when her door pushed open.

“Get up, lazy elf,” Natalie said, coming to the bed.

Her sister plopped down next to her and shook Maisie’s shoulder.

“Adults don’t get up this early,” Maisie said, hoping her voice sounded the right level of sleepy.

“They do when there’s a four-year-old running around yelling about Santa. Come on, get up.”

Natalie lifted herself off the bed and Maisie made a show of sitting up, stretching and faking a yawn.

She got out of the bed, happy with herself for pulling it off in the “nick” of time.

She laughed to herself, reaching out to grab pajama bottoms from her bag.

When she straightened, Natalie had her hands on her hips and was staring at her with a smirk on her twitching lips.

“Might want to fix your tank. It’s inside out. Weird you slept with the bathroom door open since it joins someone else’s room.” Natalie wandered over to said door and peeked in, turning back to face Maisie.

Maisie pointed at her. “Not a word. Get out. I’ll be down in a minute.”

She closed the bathroom door on her sister’s laughter and even though she was low-key embarrassed, she did a five-second happy dance right there in the middle of their wet and discarded clothes.

Merry Christmas, Maisie.

A SHER TORE INTO THE next present, sending paper flying over his head. His adorable little-boy mouth dropped open and he looked up at Nick.

“There’s a hockey player LEGO guy!” Asher put the huge box of LEGOs aside and rushed to his uncle, wrapping his arms around him and burying his face in his neck.

When he pulled back, he put both of his hands, so small, against Nick’s face and stared down at him. “Thanks, Uncle Nick. Can we build it?”

“Of course, bud. Let’s finish with the presents though, okay?”

Maisie did her best not to stare at him but it wasn’t easy. He was so good with Asher. With his sister. While he had a gruff, somewhat abrupt outer layer, she’d seen so many different sides of him now. She liked them all.

Nick lifted Asher off his lap, whispered something in his ear, and the little boy ran to the tree, pulled out a little box that was neatly wrapped. He hurried over to Ellie. Apparently, Asher only had one speed on Christmas morning.

“This is from me, Mommy, but Uncle Nick used his money.”

The adults muffled their laughter while Ellie looked over her son’s head at her brother.

“You’re so sweet, Nicky,” she said to him.

“Don’t tell anyone,” Nick joked, his gaze coming to Maisie.

She smiled at him, happiness curling up inside of her because she knew all about his sweet side.

“Open it,” Asher said, pushing it up between them.

Ellie unwrapped the prettily wrapped present and revealed a dark gray box underneath. She lifted the top off it and her face went soft and sweet.

Maisie glanced at Nick, then back at Ellie as she lifted a thin gold bracelet out of the box.

Asher pointed at the little charm hanging from it. “It says ‘number one mom.’ That’s you.”

Clearly fighting tears, Ellie pulled Asher into a hard hug. “I love it, honey.”

“Uncle Nick, you were right. She’s crying.”

This time, no one held back their laughter. The rest of the morning passed surprisingly quickly and then they were all clearing up the living room, moving around Asher, who’d crashed right on the floor, his arms wrapped around the huge stuffed Spider-Man that Colt and Jake had given him.

“You all spoiled him,” Ellie said, looking around the room, crumpled paper clutched to her chest. Her voice was strained with unshed tears.

“You going to cry again?” Nick asked.

Colton threw a ball of paper at him. “Don’t be an ass.”

“But he’s so good at it,” Ellie said.

“I’ve missed this,” Maisie’s dad said, pulling everyone’s attention to where he sat in one of the armchairs.

“We don’t get to do this enough,” Maisie’s mom added. She looked at Nat. “And next year, you’ll have a little one for us to spoil.”

A pang of longing hit Maisie right in the chest. She covered it by avoiding everyone’s gaze, tidying up while the conversation drifted to visits and kids and working around hectic schedules.

When the others drifted into the kitchen, putting together snacks for a cozy lunch in front of another movie, Maisie went upstairs to pack her things.

She wasn’t supposed to leave until the next morning but a large piece of her wanted to go now.

Or at least tonight. It couldn’t have been a more perfect day and she didn’t know how she’d wake up and say goodbye to Nick, to Asher and Ellie.

Or her own family. A soft knock interrupted her packing and she was both relieved and sad to see it was her mom and not Nick.

“Oh, honey,” her mom said, walking over to where Maisie tucked things haphazardly. “You need to have a separate bag for your dirty clothes. You can’t just pile it all together.”

“I’m just going to wash it all anyway, Mom. It doesn’t matter.”

Her mom lifted her hands and backed up. “Fine. It’s your stuff.”

It was her stuff. Her life, her choices. “I think I’m going to head out tonight.”

“Why?”

Tossing a sweater into the case, she looked at her mom.

“It’ll be so chaotic in the morning. Today was perfect.

I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I just want to close the door on a wonderful Christmas and wake up in my own bed.

” She’d prefer to wake next to Nick, but she didn’t want to pressure him or pop this wonderful bubble of time they’d shared. Coward. She could admit it. To herself.

“Sit down a second, Maisie,” her mom said softly.

Maisie sat on the edge of the bed. Her mom sat beside her, took her hand. “I know I’m hard on you, sweetie. I hope I didn’t take away from your enjoyment of the holidays because of it.”

Maisie’s heart surged behind her rib cage. Her mom offering an almost apology for finding her youngest daughter lacking? She stopped herself from checking her mom’s forehead to see if she was warm.

“Thanks, Mom.”