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Hancock and Sway appeared in the distance, making their way toward us.
They arrived, and Sway gave me a cup of hot chocolate that was in her hand and said, “Here. Hannibal told me to grab you one, too.”
I gratefully took it, smiling at her before beaming at Hannibal.
He winked and went back to watching the Kilgore marching band filter past us twirling batons and marching in a line.
I pulled my camera out—an old one that could definitely use an upgrade one day—and took a photo of the tuba player who was almost blue in the face.
His Tuba was decorated with tinsel and ornaments, making for the perfect photo op.
I got lots of those photos.
And later that night, I sent them to their organizations using my new company email.
HP Designs.
It was a little presumptuous, using P for Peters that I hoped I would one day become, but it was way better for me mentally to disassociate myself with the Singh name.
The only way I would heal was to move on.
My eyes were almost closing on their own volition when I finally made my way to bed.
When I got there, it was to see Hannibal in his closet tucking something away on the top shelf.
Before I could ask him about it, he flipped off the light and headed toward me.
His eyes twinkled as he got a look at my outfit.
“Hottest little elf ever?” he teased.
I posed for him, causing him to laugh. “Ready for bed? I turned on the heated blanket.”
He wiggled his eyebrows in that sexy way of his.
I all but dove into the bed, groaning when I wiggled in deep under the comforter and heating blanket.
“Ahhh,” I sighed.
I was asleep before the man watching could join me.
Later that night, as the clock struck midnight, Hannibal pulled me out of his bed with my eyes still fully closed.
I groaned and tried to blink open my eyes, but they just wouldn’t open.
“Don’t wake up,” he ordered, causing me to smirk.
As if I could control that.
My eyes stayed closed, though, as if they agreed with his order.
When I woke up the next morning, my eyes blinked open and I stared at the Christmas tree that was only a foot away from my face.
I reached out and touched one of the ornaments we’d hung up on the tree together.
When Hannibal had learned that I hadn’t ever had a real Christmas tree before—how could you when you were in a traveling circus your whole life?—he’d immediately gone out and bought the stand for one.
Then, together, we’d gone out to a tree farm outside of Kilgore, Texas called Danville Farms. There we’d walked through rows and rows of trees until we’d agreed on a perfect one.
It was ten feet tall, had the perfect amount of spots in it that made it look so unique, yet it was big and beautiful and the most perfect tree I’d ever seen.
I decided that he’d given me the tree that I’d wanted, not because he’d thought it was perfect like I had.
The ornament—a bright red bell—jingled when I touched it, causing the man underneath me to stir.
“Morning,” I said quietly, looking away from the tree to stare at him.
His eyes sparkled—and not because of the lights that were inches away from our face—as he cupped my cheek and said, “Merry Christmas, Hades.”
I felt my heart melt.
“What time do we have to be at your mom’s?” I asked.
He shrugged. “As early as we can be without having to get there in the dark. Dad always says we have to wait until it’s light out to come over.”
“And y’all all go over there that early?” I asked. “Even the ones that have kids?”
He nodded. “Used to, they tried to do their own Christmas at home first. But the grandkids like breakfast more than they like presents. And nothing against all of their wives, because they’re great cooks, but my mom is amazing. She does a big spread, and…where are you going?”
I was pushing myself up and off of him. “You had me at ‘big spread.’”
He laughed and caught me before I could go get dressed. “What part of ‘we have to wait until it’s light out’ did you not understand?”
He rolled me underneath him on the air mattress he’d deposited us on sometime during the night, and grinned directly in my face.
I reached up so I could loop my arms around his neck, then said, “Kiss me, Han.”
He kissed me.
In fact, he did a lot more than that.
We tested the strength of the air mattress, and I was quite impressed in what we found.
It could totally hold up to anything we had to give it and didn’t lose a single bit of air.
It was the most magical experience of my life.
He’d gone to a lot of trouble to give me this memory, and I would cherish it forever.
