AllFreeNovel
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“She’s coming!” Lana snapped at me through the door. “Keep your damn pants on!”
“Don’t be grouchy just because you have to share,” I called back.
“I’ll be grouchy whenever I want, for whatever reason I want to be grouchy for.”
“Lana, shut up!” Marley said before finally opening the door.
I smiled as the light from inside the building spilled out, illuminating my beautiful wife.
She looked adorably cozy in a pair of jeans, a puffy sweater, and a pair of tall snow-resistant boots. She wore big socks that poked out of the top of the boots, matching her thick-knit scarf and the beanie on her head.
Her nose and cheeks were already a bit rosy with cold, and I wondered if she’d spent some time outside with Lana or maybe just stood outside for a bit to make sure she’d be comfortable. She wore mittens on her hands—hands that reached out to grasp onto my jacket.
“Aren’t you going to be cold in this?” she asked me. “You’ve barely got anything on.”
“You know I run a few degrees warmer, baby. I’ll be fine. I have a built-in fur coat, after all,” I said.
“Right.”
I brought my hand out from behind my back and revealed the wrapped flowers from the store. She accepted them with an adorable little squeak and beamed up at me. “These are so pretty! You didn’t have to go get me flowers.”
“Eh, you’re worth it,” I said before offering my hand. “You ready to go?”
“Yes!” she said brightly. She turned to look at Lana, who still looked a little sour, and held the flowers to her. “Hey, can you put these in a vase for me?”
“Yeah,” she said, albeit a little begrudgingly. “You guys be safe out there. It’s cold as balls.”
“We will be,” I promised. “Come on, sweetheart.”
I led Marley away, hearing the door close behind us a few seconds after we stepped off the porch. I held her hand and kept her steady as she stepped over the patches of snow and ice. Once our feet were firmly planted in the new snow, I started leading her toward the edge of the forest.
“So, where are we going?” she asked me.
“It’s a surprise,” I said, winking down at her. “You don’t want me to ruin it for you, do you?”
“The surprise better not be snow sex. I don’t think I have it in me.”
I barked a quick laugh and shook my head. “No snow sex for you until you also have a built-in fur coat.”
“Okay, good,” she said. “Because Lana keeps draining all the strength out of my body with her anxiety.”
“That bad, huh?” I said.
“Let’s just say that I’m looking forward to the election being over and done with. And that I’m dreading the fundraiser way more than I’m dreading the injection now.”
I gave a little impressed whistle as we wove through the trees, Marley’s mittened hand in mine. “It really is that bad?” I asked.
“I may be speaking a touch hyperbolically.”
“Good word.”
“Yeah. I’ve been practicing for our next round of Scrabble,” she teased.
“Good thing, too. Your performance last time was abysmal.”
“Oh, you really don’t want sex tonight,” she teased, grinning.
When we finally got through the denser, younger part of the woods and came to a clearing, I let Marley’s hand go and rolled my shoulders. “Alright, sweetheart. I’m going to shift and carry you from here.”
