Your Christmas Love (The Bennett Family 10)

“In ten minutes?”

She laughed. “I’m very efficient. How else do you think I could have put up with you for so long?”

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”

I threw a small snowball at her.

She gasped, grabbing a fistful of snow herself. “It’s the truth.”

Just as she made to throw it at me, I grabbed both her wrists.

“So why do you put up with me?” I teased.

“Because you’re smart and I like working with you. And since you’ve returned, you’ve been far more... okay.”

“I’m okay. I see.”

“Hey. That’s a huge improvement from boss from hell.” She grinned as she spoke.

“I see. And yet you dragged your boss from hell out here. Something tells me you’re looking for any excuse to spend more time with me.”

I let go of her wrists.

“I wanted to keep you busy. If you stayed inside, you’d just worry about tomorrow, get lost in your own headspace.”

She cared about me enough to worry. I’d never been closer to just taking her in my arms and carrying her upstairs. I didn’t want to share her with the world. I just wanted to have this lovely creature all to myself.

She returned her focus to the snowman.

“If I didn’t love San Francisco so much, I’d move somewhere with snow during winter,” she said wistfully. “It doesn’t really feel like Christmas until it snows, you know?”

I laughed. “I’ll take your word for it.”

It took us almost an hour to finish the dwarf-sized snowman, but I had to admit, it looked damn good. Especially once Sienna placed the carrot as the nose and the black olives as eyes. Then she took off her own cap and scarf, placing them on the snowman.

Her eyes were a little misty.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

She shrugged, smiling sadly. “Last time I made such an elaborate snowman, I was a kid. It just brings back a lot of memories with my parents. Good memories.”

She sighed, fumbling with the ends of the scarf.

“You should put those back on. You’ll get a cold,” I said gently. “And if you leave them out here, they’ll get covered in snow.”

She nodded, snapping a quick picture of the snowman before taking her belongings back.

“Let’s head inside,” I said. “The snow is getting thicker.”

She nodded, but her smile was still wistful when we reached the elevator. She was the one in danger of getting lost in her own head now.

I wasn’t going to allow that. Luckily, I already had an excellent plan.

Chapter Sixteen

Sienna

I sent the picture to my siblings. Chloe and Lucas didn’t remember that trip, of course, but Victoria had replied with an “Awwwwww,” which about summed up how I felt about the whole thing.