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“Maybe I need to help you,” I offered, biting back a grin from all the sinister things I wanted to do to Sierra that I knew she wasn’t ready for. “Do you want me to wrap my belt around your throat to use as a leash and walk you up and down your dorm—”
“No!” she exclaimed, waving her arms back and forth. “I remember. I remember!”
A low chuckle escaped my throat, and she hurried to the sack.
“What’s in the sack?” I asked.
When she tossed it over her shoulder, I arched my brow and grabbed it from her. She wasn’t hauling this all the way back to my car by herself. She thanked me and grabbed her backpack, filled with her overnight belongings.
“It’s just some … things.”
“Things?”
“Presents.” She smirked. “And not presents for you.”
“Woooow,” I drew out playfully.
She giggled. “Don’t worry. I have something better for you.”
Warmth exploded through my chest. God, I love her smile.
Honestly, she didn’t have to get me anything for Christmas. I had been so fucking excited since last class to be able to take her home tonight, have her stay with me all week, wake up next to her day after day …
“We have a dinner reservation at seven,” I said. “We should get going.”
“A dinner reservation?” she asked, scoffing. “How boring.”
“Boring? What would you rather do?”
Another breathtaking grin crossed her face. “Let’s order a pizza, make hot cocoa, and watch Christmas movies tonight! We can go out to dinner any night of the week, but Christmas Eve is only once a year. A new tradition!”
“A tradition, huh?”
A tradition that happened every year? That meant that she expected we’d be together next year, and the year after, and possibly the year after that too. And while I had spent the past thirty years of my life with the Pattons—the husband and wife who had adopted all of us and now passed—I had never had anything stable with anyone but them. Now that they were both gone, my life had turned into an unstable mess once more.
But Sierra was proposing something long-term without even knowing it.
“Earth to Steven,” Sierra said, bouncing on her toes in front of me. “So?”
“Let’s do it.”
Her eyes widened to the size of saucers. “Really?”
“Anything for you, love.”
After throwing her arms around my shoulders, she jumped into my arms and pulled me down into a tight hug, that sparkle in her eye and the excitement in her voice making me smile. Making me … happy.
An emotion that I feared.
Because happiness could be ripped away in a millisecond.
I grabbed her hand and guided her to the door. “Let’s start a tradition.”
38
sierra
“Enough movies,” Steven said after a Christmas movie marathon and tons of pizza. He turned off the living room television, cleared his throat, and walked to the door. “Wait here, love, and undress for me. I have a surprise for you.”
