to soak in any information. No, his mind was on one thing, or rather one person, and he kept glancing at his watch for when the hour was up because that meant she would be done with her yoga class and would come here to meet him.
Of course, there were other things on his mind. It was like a parasite in his brain, this unknown information between them. Unknown to her anyway. But how long should he wait before telling her? Before he left to go back to England? After the holidays?
His polar bear very much concurred with all of those ideas, so desperate for the bond to form soon. I suppose it’s not a bad idea. He could enjoy the next few weeks with her, unhampered by obligations. They could just be … them. Two people, together, with no cares in the world. Yes, that’s what he should do.
Turning back to his work, he put all those thoughts away. The hour came and went, and he was so focused, he didn’t realize she still wasn’t here. A different emotion—worry—gripped him and turned his stomach sour. What if something had happened to her, like last week at the carnival?
He shut the lid of his laptop and stood, but to his relief, J.D. burst through the door, arm in arm with Dutchy Forrester as they laughed conspiratorially, their free hands holding shopping bags. Cam had met the fox shifter before at HQ as her mate, John Krieger, was also a ranger.
“Where were you?” he asked.
“I sent you a text message. Didn’t you get it?” She tiptoed to kiss him on the cheek. “We decided to do some shopping.”
“Oh? What did you get?”
Dutchy giggled and winked at J.D. “I’m gonna go pick up a coffee and muffin, then I have to meet John for an early dinner at my aunt’s. See you next week, same time?”
“Of course, Dutch.”
“Bye, guys.” Dutchy waved as she sashayed toward the counter.
“Well?” He glanced down at the paper bags in her hand. “Did you get Christmas presents?”
“Kinda,” she said, a twinkle in her eye. Lifting one of the bags up, he saw the familiar logo of Silk, Lace, and Whispers. “Maybe you can get to open an early present tonight.”
He groaned inwardly. J.D. in her usual white cotton underwear—or nothing at all—was more than enough for him, but seeing her in lingerie would probably give him a heart attack.
She placed a hand on her cocked hip. “I’m just going to assume from your silence that you don’t object?”
“You would assume correctly. Now let’s go before I embarrass myself in front of all these people.”
“Spenser, you have such a way with words, you know?”
Scooping up his things, he grabbed her hand and practically dragged her out of the coffee shop as she laughed all the way to the car.
They spent the rest of the day in bed as she modeled some of her new purchases. Of course, she had saved a few, promising him he could unwrap it on Christmas morning. He never thought he’d ever think this in his entire life, but he wished it was December twenty-fifth already.
Saturday afternoon turned to evening, and they ordered pizza for dinner and stayed up watching J.D.’s favorite Christmas movies on the big screen TV in the living room.
“You’ve never seen White Christmas?” she asked as they scrolled through the Movieflix menu of holiday movies.
“No, I haven’t.”
“Really?”
He rolled his eyes in an approximation of how she did it. “Asking me again won’t make me have magically seen it.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, then pressed on the TV remote. “All right, Scrooge, sit back, relax, and enjoy the splendor of Irving Berlin, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, and Danny Kaye.”
Cam had to admit, it was a good movie and the music was excellent, though too sentimental for his tastes. But all he cared about was the fact that J.D. seemed to enjoy every moment of it, though he could guess she’d seen it a hundred times before.
“I was hoping we’d see snow by now,” she said as the credits rolled. “But it looks like the weather reports can’t be trusted.”
“On average, a seven-day forecast can be reliable about eighty percent of the time,” he said. “Go to ten-day, and it’s about half.”
“Or, it’s waiting to come down at the right time.”
“Right time? Weather isn’t sentient.”
“All right, can the nerdy talk, Dr. Spenser, before you turn me on.” He could feel her roll her eyes. “I’m just saying … maybe something