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He laughed low in his throat. “Josie does pay more attention to my dogs and I feel bad for Betty.”
“So that is why Betty stays on your lap during movie night?”
He flushed and she let out a giggle, then stood up and went to her room while Carter took care of his dogs.
Once all the gifts were on her bed, she realized there was a lot. She probably went overboard, but it was so much fun. Josie rarely asked for anything and maybe that was why she bought what she did.
Carter was coming in the back door with the dogs and she went upstairs to check on Josie. The TV was still on but would be off in a few minutes and Josie was out cold.
She went back downstairs to start quietly bringing the gifts out.
“Is she asleep?”
“She is,” she said. “Cookie time first. Hope you’re hungry. We can dump the milk. I’m not much of a fan of drinking it.”
He reached for the glass and drained most of it, then left a bit on the bottom and they each got a cookie off the tray.
“These are good,” he said. “When we got older, my father left Santa a beer and pretzels.”
“What?” she asked, laughing.
“Yeah. He said the man deserved more than sugar and dairy for all his work. We thought it was great. To me, it made Santa seem more like my father.”
“That’s so sweet,” she said. “You looked up to your dad, didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “I guess so. I’ve always been more like him. Or could relate to him more than my brother did.”
The two of them put all the boxes under the tree. “Where are you going?” she asked when he went out the front door.
“To get my gifts,” he said.
She’d known he’d gotten something for Josie but hadn’t thought much of it until now.
He came back carrying six boxes. “That is more than one gift,” she said.
“Two are for you,” he said. “The others are for Josie. I didn’t say it was one.”
“She loves you just as much as I do,” she said, going into his arms when he was done putting them under the tree.
“I love her too,” he said. “And I’ve got one more trip to make out there.”
“You bought more?” she asked.
“Gifts for the dogs. I’ve got them in a box and we’ll keep them out of reach on the fridge. My dogs would figure out what is in them.”
“I still wouldn’t put it past them to get them on the fridge,” she said. She’d kept all the dog’s gifts in her room.
By ten they were both in her room, the house locked up tight and they were climbing into bed.
She’d shut the door in case Josie came down, but Josie hardly ever did. Carter was in his underwear with his jeans by the side of the bed on a chair. She had her tank top and underwear on that she slept in.
“You can watch TV if you want,” he said before she reached for the light by the side of her bed.
“It’s fine,” she said. “I normally do, but I’m tired enough and know Josie will be up soon. Not to mention, maybe I want to do something else to make me sleepy.”
The light went out next to her bed. “Are you sure?” he asked.
“Very sure. We can be quiet.”
