She got up so fast she almost went headfirst over the coffee table, and then she had to turn back for her phone.
Please come up.
She looked like a festive hot mess ready for bed, but she didn’t care. And she didn’t think he’d care, either. She hit the button to unlock the downstairs door and then waited for what felt like forever as he climbed the old wooden stairs.
He looked almost as bad as she did, although he was wearing real clothes, but just seeing his face lifted her heart and made her feel joy for the first time since she’d left his house.
“Merry Christmas, Zoe,” he said softly as she backed up to let him in. “I won’t keep you long if you have plans. I just wanted to give you this.”
“I don’t have any plans,” she said, gesturing at her pajamas. “I’m glad you’re here.”
He smiled, his dark eyes warm. “I’m glad you’re glad. I was a jerk and I’m sorry.”
“I would have been a jerk, too, if I read a text like that. I’m sorry I hurt you.”
He held out the beautifully wrapped gift he’d carried up with him. “I have more to say, but I want you to open this first.”
When she sat on the couch, he sat next to her and rubbed his palms over his thighs.
She took her time working the pretty red ribbon off the packaging so when it finally slid free of the box, she could drape it around her neck with the bow hanging like a festive pendant. She’d done it since she was a little girl because it made her happy.
Preston waited patiently while she peeled the tape away and unfolded the paper from the flat white box. She was doing it a little bit because she enjoyed making him wait. But also, she could see in his eyes that what was in the box was a big deal to him. He was nervous about it, which made her nervous about it.
When she finally lifted the lid and peeled back the tissue paper, her breath left her in a long, shaky rush.
In a bright red frame was a holiday scene that could have been a Christmas card. A black and white drawing of a typical lake cottage surrounded by shrubs and trees. But what brought tears to her eyes were the bright splashes of color over the pen and ink. Small multicolored blobs strung along the eaves and porch railings of the cottage like Christmas lights. Green flung on the shrubs and trees to give them color, and a wreath on the sketched lamppost. A darker blue in the sky.
Joyous splotches of color on a crisp pen and ink background to make a beautiful and unique portrait of a holiday home.
“Preston.” She tried to say more, but her throat was tight and if she tried harder, she was just going to burst into tears.
“I needed to show you how beautiful we can be together. When you take that pen and ink sketch and then add the bright colors, it’s—”
“Perfect,” she whispered. “It’s perfect.”
“We’re perfect. Together.”
“Did you make this?”
“I did.” He held up his hand when her eyes widened. “I used the computer because I’m even worse at art than I am at golf, but I did make it. It took me a while to take what I saw in my mind and get it on the screen, but that’s what home looks like to me.”
Home.
“I love you.” He swallowed hard. “I feel like I’m just the regular, real me when I’m with you and I don’t feel like I have to...try harder to be what you want. And you are everything I could ever want. You’re more than I ever knew I wanted. You make me laugh and you make me think and feel and I just... I just love you, Zoe.”
“I love you, too. You see me and youlikeme, which is important, too. I’m happy when I’m with you and I want all the strings with you.”
“I’m here for a sexy fling with you,” he said. “But I don’t want the fling to ever stop. You should know that.”
“A forever fling. I like that.”
He stood and put out his hands. After carefully setting the frame on the coffee table, nestled safely in tissue paper, she took his hands and he hauled her to her feet and straight into his arms.
“I can’t even tell you how much I’ve missed you,” he said, smiling as he looked into her eyes. “Even reading a book doesn’t work for me anymore, without you reading your book next to me. Although I probably should have come up with a more exciting example. Like how sad I was eating your cookies alone.”
“You ate all my cookies?” She slapped his shoulder.
“I did. But I felt bad about it.”
