the same time. She was no longer empty but filled with Gabe’s love.
“I missed you,” she whispered.
“I missed you so much I baked,” he whispered back, and she laughed through her happy tears. Gabe pulled her in for another hug, then lifted her higher, and then he was walking through her apartment to the sofa. He sat down and arranged her in his lap, arms around his neck, the two of them as close as possible. Her pulse felt fluttery and delicious joy moved through her again and again. “I wanted to ask you something,” he said, a careful note in his tone.
“Anything.” Anna breathed him in, the leather and soap smell of him, and let her head rest against his shoulder. Soon they’d have to get up, but for now, she just wanted this.
“I want you to fly back to Colorado with me and spend Christmas with my family.” He stroked a hand over her hair. “Unless it would make you uncomfortable. If it did, I could spend it here with you if you let me.”
Anna thought her heart might fly out of her chest. Gabe was offering her an enormous sacrifice. There could be no greater sacrifice than offering to miss this holiday with his family. She sat up in his lap and put a hand on his face, studying his eyes. They met hers with humble honesty, and she ran a thumb over the line of his jaw, drinking him in. If he could make this sacrifice with everything going on in the Elkin family—with his grandmother’s health—she could make one too.
“I want to spend Christmas with you,” she said. “And I want to spend it with your family.”
Relief brought color to his cheeks, his eyes wide and echoing the sentiment. “Really?”
“Yes. If you can offer this to me, then I can face your family even after that whole big scene. I love you, Gabe, and I care enough about you to go for it even if they judge me.”
“They won’t judge you,” he said fiercely. “They can judge me all they want, but never you.”
“Oh, they can.” Anna laughed. “I stormed out of the family resort because I got caught in a lie. If that’s not judge-worthy, what is?”
“Anybody can be forgiven for what they do under duress,” Gabe pointed out. “My entire family saw your ex show up in the lobby. Plus, the entire scheme was my idea. You were only along for the ride. They can’t judge you without judging me.”
“Don’t remind me,” she grumbled, but then his hand was around the back of her neck and Gabe pulled her in for a tender kiss. A slow, searching kiss that soothed every part of her that was embarrassed or ashamed. She could do anything for this man, and she would. She’d make a grand apology to his family. She’d spend Christmas with them, knowing what they’d seen. Anything. “When do we leave?”
His other hand tightened on her waist. “The plane is waiting at the airport and the driver’s outside.” A smile lifted the corner of his mouth. “All of your things are still at the resort, so we could walk out the door any minute.”
“There’s just one thing I want to do first.”
“What’s that?”
She stood up and took his hand, pulling him up to stand. “Just a quick visit.”
Confusion furrowed his brow. “To where?”
“To the bedroom.”
21
They emerged from Anna’s bedroom a hot fifteen minutes later, her sheets newly messed up by the most gorgeous man she’d ever met in her life. “There,” she said. “That should tide me over.”
Gabe laughed. “Tide you over until when?”
“Until the family meeting is over,” she said briskly. “That’s first on the agenda, right?”
He put a hand on the small of her back. “We don’t have to do that right away if you don’t want.”
“Oh, no. We do.” Anna moved around her condo, gathering up the necessities. The suitcase would be good to have, so she brought that. She knocked all her bathroom things back into the outside pocket and went out for the cake, putting the box carefully in Gabe’s hands. “I’m already nervous.”
“How can you be nervous after what we just did?” He murmured the words against her temple, then punctuated them with a kiss. “I would have thought that would cure you.”
She turned her head and kissed him, running her tongue along his bottom lip. “It cured me for the moment. That’s why we’ll have this meeting and then go directly back to our suite.”
“Our suite,”