“Me, too,” Karrie and Parker say as Cooper and Matthew say, “Finally.” Under their breath.
“Oh, look,” Allison says as she looks at her phone. “Okay, people, my guy is home early.” She picks up her glass of champagne, downing whatever was left. “It’s been fun, but—”
“You can’t hide him for that long, Aly,” Matthew says.
“Leave her alone.” Karrie slaps his arm. “She’ll introduce you when she’s ready,” she says as Matthew grunts out.
I walk out, going to the door as Denise and Allison say goodbye to everyone. I see our limo guy and put my hand up to him as I walk over and get in. The car door opens and both girls get in, closing the door after them, and laughing.
“This was so much fun,” Denise says, coming on the bench I’m sitting on as we switch places and Allison scoots closer to me, shivering.
“It’s getting cold.”
I take my jacket off and put it around her shoulders as she lays her head on my shoulder and that is the last thing she sees. Her eyes fall closed and when it’s our turn to get off I’m carrying her all the way upstairs to bed. She stirs when I take her shoes off and a bit while I peel the dress from her body. I crawl in next to her and her body turns into mine as she places her head on my chest, throwing her leg and arm around me. I fall asleep to her soft snores.
“What do you mean you’re leaving?” she yells the next day as we sit at the island in my kitchen. Her in my shirt from last night and me in boxers. Both of us with wet hair since we took a long shower. I’ve never gone this long without having sex with someone that’s done pretty much every possible thing that I could think of. I know she’s ready, but I don’t want to just fuck her. I’m one hundred percent not fucking doing it in a hotel room, that’s for fucking sure. At least not her first time.
“Well, I usually take off Christmas morning,” I say as I place the eggs in her plate. “We aren’t back on the ice till the twenty-eight.”
“I’m with my parents on Christmas morning,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s traditional.”
I shrug my shoulders. “Well, it’s tradition that I have Christmas Eve with Denise and then early Christmas morning I load up and take off. It’s a five-hour drive.”
“So are you saying that you aren’t going to be home till the twenty-eight?”
“I usually come back the night before the game. So I’ll be back around the twenty-seventh.”
“It’s our first Christmas together,” she says out in a whisper. “You don’t even have a tree.” She points to the living room.
“Allison, if you want a tree we can get a tree,” I tell her as I put my own eggs on my plate. “Whatever you want, angel.”
“Well, are we going to exchange gifts?” she asks and I nod as I take a couple bites. “When?”
“We can do it on the twenty-fourth before you go to your parents,” I say and all of a sudden, I’m not sure I’m hungry anymore. I look over at her as she picks her eggs in her plate. “We can go shopping today if you want.”
“Okay,” she says, not looking up as she eats a bite. “We leave tomorrow, so I can order all the decorations online for when we come back in three days.”
As soon as we finish, we go out looking for a tree, which is a big mistake. Where I want a small one, Allison is the bigger the better and full. It takes two guys to strap it to my truck and it takes us an hour to drag that fucker upstairs. The amount of pine needles is like we have two trees.
“Isn’t it perfect?” she says as Stanley jumps on the couch looking at it with a glare. “Where is your computer?” she asks as she sits on the couch. “I’m going shopping.” She totally does because when we get back from Boston there are over fifty boxes waiting in my living room.
I pick up my phone, taking a picture of all the boxes, and send it to her.
She sends me a text with a thumbs-up. I undo my bag, throwing my clothes in the washer when a knock on the door echoes. Opening it, I see it’s Allison.
“I couldn’t wait,” she says with glee as she walks in. “Oh my gosh.” She puts her bag down on the counter. I walk over to the drawer in the kitchen, taking out the spare key. “Look,” she says as she takes out an ornament of Beauty and the Beast. “It’s so pretty, but first, lights.”
“Here.” I hand her the key to the door, my hand holding it out. “What’s the matter?”