“Last chance to make sure you’ve got your raffle tickets, everyone. The drawing’s going to be in fifteen minutes.”
When Marius loped back to me, he held out his hand for his sweater.
“Uh-uh.” I trailed my fingers up those washboard abs and rested my chin on his broad chest. “I like you just like this.”
People dumped money into the Santa-hat bucket I carted around to collect last-minute raffle sales.
“It’s too bad. I was hoping Oakley was going to be here. I wanted to see where she bought that baby bump,” Ida was saying as I counted out her twenty raffle tickets. “She cleaned up real good at those baby showers.”
The band started playing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” as Alice took the giant bin full of raffle tickets up to the stage.
She made a big, dramatic show of pulling out a ticket.
“Number eight two three four. Who has that ticket?”
A few yards away from me, a tall brown-haired man with green eyes raised his hand.
“We won, Marius!” Lexi screamed as Marius’s boss held up the ticket.
“You’re going on a date with your boss?” I snickered, nudging Marius.
Zoe waggled her eyebrows at him. “I’d pay to read that romance novel.”
“Aww, you bought a ticket, Grayson?” I said when he walked toward us.
“Can we convince you to take a cat?” Zoe added.
Grayson smirked and slapped the ticket in my hand.
“Merry Christmas.”
“But it’s my café and my…” I gestured helplessly at my boyfriend.
“I need you to speed up the dating process,” Grayson said matter-of-factly.
“We’re going to have children soon,” Lexi gushed.
“And I’d like for our kids to grow up together, Marius,” Grayson added.
“So get busy, you two!” Lexi broke open one of the sprinkle-filled Elf-Fetti cupcakes over my head, showering me with sprinkles. “This is my favorite cupcake yet! You need to ship these advent calendar cupcakes nationwide!” the short redhead told me.
Marius leaned down to kiss me again. “What do you say? You want to go on a date?” He nuzzled my neck. “You know, I have never actually tasted one of your cupcakes.”
“Seriously, Marius?” His great-aunt swatted at him with the bunched-up sweater. “I thought I taught you better than that. Be careful! If you don’t do oral, she might just murder you!”
EPILOGUE
MARIUS
My daughter gave us a confused look as we finished singing “Happy Birthday to You.”
“Eat some cake,” Emmie coaxed.
Grayson’s daughter toddled over and shoved her friend’s face into the cake.
“That’s not how we treat friends.” Lexi scooped up the little girl.
I held my breath, waiting for Millie to cry, but she just clumsily licked frosting off her fingers.
