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“What do you know about Chase?”
For once, it was he who averted his gaze and started wrapping the present, but as if he realized what he’d done and didn’t like the action, he met her gaze head on. “Just what little you’ve told me…and what I overheard you tell Jewel Hendrix.”
“You were listening to my conversation?” Her cheeks heated. That would teach her to have inappropriate conversations with older women who went on and on about glass slippers and Prince Charming.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have, but I did.”
She digested that, trying to recall just what all she and Jewel had said about Chase…and Riley himself. “What else did you overhear?”
“That he dumped you at a hospital Christmas party. Sounds like a jerk.”
“He did and he was.”
“He didn’t deserve you,” Riley said immediately, with such conviction that she had to stare at him in wonder. He believed that. He believed in her. The question was, could she believe in him?
“No, he didn’t.” Warmth lit inside her and spread through her chest. “Funny that it’s taken me two years to realize that.”
Riley paused from wrapping the present to take her hand and kiss her fingers. “Is he why you don’t like Christmas?”
“Partly.”
“And the other part is the lack of Christmas while growing up?”
She wasn’t sure she liked him knowing so much about her, the real her beneath the surface. Riley and Jewel had a lot in common.
“Not in the way you probably mean,” she admitted softly, wishing they could just not have this conversation.
“Which is?”
“It’s not that I expected grand presents or anything, it just would have been nice to have had a little bit of normalcy during my childhood.”
Wow. She couldn’t believe she was saying the words out loud, that she was admitting that her life wasn’t perfect, because to make that admission just begged for someone to want to
dig deeper.
For Riley to dig deeper.
She knew he would. So why hadn’t she shut this conversation down? Instead, if anything, she’d encouraged it.
His hold on her hand tightened then he let go, started working on the present again. “By normalcy, you mean like a Norman Rockwell painting?”
“Not really.” Normalcy, as in a Norman Rockwell painting? As in a mother and a father making a big deal over her, over having a brother or a sister to squabble with over who got to open the first gift. She hadn’t ever really thought of normalcy that way, but perhaps, if she had, that’s exactly how she would have envisioned an ideal childhood Christmas. “Maybe.”
“I should warn you, my family is very non-normal. Christmas with us is more along the lines of a madhouse. The whole bunch are touched in the head.”
She could hear the love in his voice and was honestly more than a little jealous. “Must run in the family.”
“Must do,” he agreed, holding up the wrapped gift for her inspection. “Voilà!”
“Nice.” Every angle was perfectly aligned and taped down. “Do I have to be a heart surgeon to achieve something similar?”
“Nope, just need a little patience and a whole lot of practice. Here.” He cut off a piece of paper and flattened it out on the floor, then placed the box in the middle. “Your turn.”
Trinity wrapped the remainder of her presents with Riley’s help. The packages weren’t as neat as the one he’d done alone, but by the last one she was impressed with the progress she’d made.
“Look!” she exclaimed as she ran the edge of the scissors over the length of ribbon, causing a perfect curl to form. “I did it!”
His eyes were warm, full of praise. “I knew you could.”
