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Faith looked over at the three pieces of luggage against the wall. One was on the ground, open, with only her nightgown and makeup bag missing from it. The nightgown was on her body and her makeup bag was in the bathroom.
“I have to get dressed,” Faith said.
“Put on your robe and come on,” J.J. said. “I’ll wait.”
She’d wait. What robe? She didn’t have a robe. She probably should get one, though, especially if she was going to be living here.
“It’s in the closet,” J.J. said. “Dad keeps it there for guests.”
Holden kept a robe in the closet for his guests? That sounded pretty fancy.
Sure enough, when she opened the door, a burgundy-colored velvety robe was the only thing hanging there, aside from a bunch of empty hangers. She reached out and touched it, feeling the smooth cloth beneath her skin. It wasn’t just some cheap robe he’d bought at a discount department store. No, this was the kind of robe seen in luxury hotels.
“I’ll be right there!” Faith called out, pulling the robe from its hanger.
Her entire body relaxed as the material wrapped itself around her. This was the next best thing to having Holden wrap his big, strong arms around her and pull her into a hug.
J.J. nearly fell into the room when Faith pulled the door open. Apparently, she’d been leaning against it. She looked up at Faith, her big smile lighting up her eyes. Faith couldn’t help but notice she wore a similarly plush pink robe, but hers had the face of some sort of cartoon character covering it in a pattern.
But Faith barely got to look at it before J.J. called out, “Let’s go!” and took off, running as fast as her legs would carry her toward the stairs.
They crossed the little bridge that went over the driveway to the other part of the house. Faith half-expected J.J. to rush through the doorway, letting it slam behind her, but instead, she stopped just outside of it and waited for Faith.
“There are some presents for you too,” J.J. announced as they passed through the door.
“How—”
Faith stopped herself from finishing that question. In J.J.’s eyes, Santa would have brought the gifts, so it wouldn’t be weird to her that there were gifts under the tree for someone who hadn’t even lived in this house—in this town—twenty-four hours ago.
“Good morning.” Holden was seated on the sofa next to the tree, holding a mug of coffee. “I made one for you. Extra creamer, two packs of sugar.”
He gestured toward the end table on the other side of the loveseat where he sat. There were only two cushions, one for each of them.
“You remembered.”
She smiled. There was something comforting about that. They’d both had coffee on the plane as they were approaching Chicago. She wouldn’t have imagined he’d paid attention to how she preferred her coffee, let alone remember it a day later.
“Of course,” he said. “There was no time to waste.”
He looked so content. She walked over to the loveseat and sat before grabbing her coffee mug. She definitely needed some caffeine to deal with her natural reaction to how handsome he was this morning. He wore pajama bottoms and a long-sleeved jersey shirt. The pajama bottoms were dark green with white Christmas trees all over them. On his head sat a baseball cap, but enough of his wavy, sandy blond hair poked out to let her know he was trying to contain his bedhead.
“Everybody opens our presents together, right?” J.J. asked.
“Why don’t you get started on a few?” Holden asked. “That’ll give us a chance to wake up.”
J.J. didn’t argue with that. She settled on the floor in front of the tree, shuffling through the presents to find the one she wanted to open first. They were all wrapped, even the ones from Santa.
“How did you have time to do all this?” she whispered after the initial dose of caffeine had cleared her mind a little. “Did you have help?”
“Nope.” He shook his head. “I wish. I did most of it before I left on my trip. But things were still being delivered yesterday afternoon. I was rushing to wrap them.”
Faith glanced over to make sure the eight-year-old wasn’t listening. She was making so much noise, ripping wrapping paper off a large box, she wouldn’t be able to hear them if she tried. She clearly wasn’t trying.
“Where was J.J. when all that stuff was arriving?” she asked.
“In her room. She can entertain herself for hours.”
J.J. stopped unwrapping just in time to hear that last part. “I’m not entertaining myself, Dad,” she said. “I’m rehearsing.”
