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“I know…” She smiles breathlessly and reaches her lips for mine again, just as a knock sounds at the door.
Did we even lock it?
I surge off her as she giggles and lifts her voice. “Yes?”
“Mom is back,” a muffled voice says. “And…well…”
Sienna cringes and rolls off the bed. “That can’t be good. We better go see what’s going on.”
ChapterSeven
Sienna
I skidto a stop in the archway to the great room, just in time to see Mom waving a lot of bright red fabric around. Jake bumps into me from behind, his hands dropping to my hips.
It feels like he's laughing, his whole body shaking behind me.
I twist to look at him, and sure enough there's a familiar grin on his face. The one he gives me when we're sharing a chuckle about one of his clients.
“Matching pajamas?” he asks.
I roll my eyes. “A family tradition.”
He shrugs. “I like it.”
I wince. “That's because you haven't seen them in their full, sure-to-be-horrifying glory yet.”
He leans in, his lips brushing against my ear. “I’m going to like them.”
I highly doubt that.
Mom holds up two identical, bright red onesies covered in embroidered Christmas lights.
“This one's for Carina,” she says with the glee of a mother who has been dressing her daughters like twins for twenty-five years. “And this one's for Sienna.”
I die a little as I step forward and take my very adorable, very childish pajamas. “Thanks, Mom.”
“And this is your father’s.” She holds up a larger two-piece set in the same pattern. “Although I don't think it's going to fit you, darling.”
My father grumbles at her.
She smiles sweetly at him. “It’s okay, I bought it in the next size up as well.”
Everyone laughs as my dad’s grumble gets louder. But after holding up both pairs, he agrees that the larger size is more likely to fit him. My mom claps her hands together. “Great! Now Jake can wear—”
“Oh no,” I interject. “That is not necessary. He doesn’t—”
Jake steps around me. “I love them, Mrs. Gibb. What great luck that you happened to get an extra pair.”
My mother swoons. Literally does a dip backward, and my father has to catch her. “It's like it was meant to be.”
I roll my eyes, seeing right through her over the top response. That was planned from beginning to end.
My dad frowns. That's more like it. He should be skeptical of this whole thing.
Jake seems pleased with my mom’s reaction and unperturbed by my dad’s as he turns around. He drags his gaze down my body, all the way to my toes. Then all the way back up again before lifting his PJs in the air. “So do we put these on now, or save them for Christmas Eve? What's the tradition?”
“Movie night tonight,” I say faintly. “We all watchWhite Christmasand people sneak out in turns to do last-minute wrapping.”
