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Within his embrace, while I look around at my mom and my dad and my sisters and the way Luke’s gift touched them, my heart wants to climb out of my chest and burrow inside his.
A few more tears slide down my cheeks, and I reach up to turn Luke’s face toward mine, gently pressing my lips to his.
“Thank you. So much,” I whisper against his mouth, and his lips quirk up into a smile against my skin.
“This was okay?” he asks, leaning back to meet my eyes again. “It was a good gift?”
“More than good,” I whisper back. “This means everything to me.”
You are everything to me.Luke“I’ll be honest,” I begin and sit down on the bed while Ava finishes brushing her teeth in the bathroom. “Christmas Day with your family is wonderful, but it’s also exhausting.”
She peeks around the door, the toothbrush clutched in her hand and the bristles still moving over her teeth, and giggles. “Tired?” she asks around a mouthful of toothpaste.
“Tired is an understatement.” I laugh and run a hand through my hair. “Tomorrow, we’re sleeping in. Hell, I might even skip my workout.”
“Skip your workout? What?” Ava pushes a wide-eyed, albeit dramatic, shocked look to her face. “That’s blasphemous,” she adds through a giggle and moves back into the bathroom to finish her bedtime routine.
The faucet switches on, and I glance out the window to spot snow still descending from the sky. A true white Christmas in Vermont. With Ava and her holiday-crazy family. Frankly, I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun.
Today’s events didn’t disappoint.
Between the big breakfast buffet and opening presents and drinking insane amounts of hot chocolate and her great-aunts bickering over who makes the best cookies and Ava giggling her ass off over their bickering—while eating their cookies, mind you—and watching her dad buzz around in his Santa suit, saying “Ho ho ho!” every chance he could get, this is, hands down, the best Christmas I’ve had in a very long time.
When I woke up this morning, I was nervous over the painting I had made into prints. I just wasn’t sure how Ava would react. Lately, she’s been so private and hesitant about her art. But when I spotted that painting in her makeshift studio a few weeks ago, I felt like it would be a travesty if her family never saw it.
I simply knew they would love it, and more than that, that they’d see what I see—Ava is incredibly talented.
So much so, that my other gift proves that fact.
Although, I’ve yet to find the right moment to give it to her.
With Ava still in the bathroom, I head over to my suitcase and pull out the white envelope wrapped with a red bow. Her name scrawled across the top in my penmanship, this present signifies so many things.
That I believe in her.
That she should believe in herself.
Inside this envelope sits what could be the start of something big. But, damn, in order to get to this point, I had to show other people her art without her knowing about it.
Her family is one thing, but strangers? In the art world? I’m not normally the type of guy to second-guess anything, but it’s hard not to second-guess this.
Fuck. I want to give it to her. I’m dying to give it to her.
Yet, I have no idea what her reaction will be.
When it sounds like Ava is just about done in the bathroom, I make an impulsive decision and slide the envelope under her bed, sitting back down on the mattress.
Coward, my mind taunts me, but I shake it off and distract myself by watching her walk out of the bathroom.
Her face is scrubbed clean of makeup, her skin clear and natural. Her long blond hair flows down her back, and her ocean-blue eyes shine when they meet mine.
Goddamn, she’s beautiful.
“So…I have something for you…”
“What do you mean?” I ask, and Ava turns around to pull something out of her suitcase. Holding whatever it is behind her back, she walks over to the bed and sits down beside me.
“Here,” she says, setting down a small gift wrapped with a giant red bow.
“You got me something?” I stare down at the present in my hands.
“Well…don’t get too excited,” she answers, and I look up to meet her uncertain gaze. “I had no idea what to get you and—”
“It’s from you, Ace,” I cut her off with a grin. “So, whatever it is, I’m sure it’s perfect.” My fingers tear into the wrapping paper, and it doesn’t take long before the gift is bare, and the lid is off the top of the small box.
Inside sits a rectangular-shaped metal key chain with a leather strap.
The words To the Moon and Mars and back are engraved into the metal in a very familiar scrawl. And sitting right beside the words is the outline of a tiny astronaut. Hell, when I look closer, the little guy even has the words NASA and Luke inscribed in his uniform.
