The One Night Stand Before Christmas - Jana Aston Page 0,23

to shelve my impatience.

“Why are you obsessing over this all of a sudden?” Holly asks, dumping a spot of cream into a freshly poured cup of coffee. She twirls her spoon through and taps it against the side of the cup, then raises her gaze to mine, waiting on an answer.

“I don’t even know.” I slump back in the booth, crossing my arms over my chest. Because I agree with her, it hasn’t been an issue at all, up until the last week. “I think it’s the holidays, you know? I think the holidays have made me engagement-horny.”

“Do you need a Countdown-to-Dickmas calendar? I’d be happy to make you one,” Holly offers, all wide-eyed and innocent.

“No, I get plenty of Dickmas, thank you very much,” I toss back at her. We’re sisters, giving each other grief is our jobs.

“Ugh, you guys. The baby can hear you.” Ginger wrinkles her nose at the two of us disapprovingly while Holly and I groan in unison.

“This place is hopping,” I comment with a glance around Gingersnaps. They managed to get the old auto shop renovated into a restaurant and bakery in just under nine months, and had their dual grand opening two months ago.

“It is.” Ginger beams. All her dreams have come to fruition. She found her dream man and opened her dream bakery. And now she’s got a bun in the oven. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. We’ve made so many bun-in-the-oven jokes Ginger has banned us from saying any more out loud.

“Doing so well,” Ginger continues. “And the Food Network hasn’t even started airing our show yet. That’ll bring in a load of tourists during the summer and winter seasons in Reindeer Falls.”

In addition to making them the new hosts of The Great Gingerbread Bake-Off, the Food Network also filmed an eight-episode series of Ginger and Keller renovating their auto shop into a bake shop, which I’m sure will do well for them because Ginger and Keller have a ton of chemistry on camera. And off.

Speaking of… Keller appears at our table to check on Ginger. He’s working today—they both are, actually, but Ginger took off early in order to have lunch with Holly and me. He kisses her before he leaves the table because they’re that couple. Kissy kissy. When they leave here they’re probably gonna hold hands and make snow angels together or something equally adorable. Holly reaches past them to grab an extra napkin from the end of the table and gives me a little eye roll with a head nod towards the newlyweds.

“How’s your Grinch?” I ask Holly.

“Deliciously Grinchy,” she responds, a wide grin covering her face. “I honestly cannot believe I ever thought his grumpy office persona was off-putting. Now I find it very sexy.”

“I’m sure you do, you little freak.”

“Whatever. I’m not the one who kissed Santa Claus.”

“Yeah, yeah, that will never get old for you, will it?”

Okay, so I’ll never ever admit this to either of my sisters, but Teddy and I might have had a slightly kinky reenactment of our first night together. Except I was the one in the Santa suit and the Santa suit consisted mostly of strategically placed ribbons, a belt and some furry white cuffs around my wrists.

I’m a really good girlfriend.

Total wife material.

Never mind. I’m not dwelling on that. I’m not.

I part ways with my sisters outside of Gingersnap’s with quick hugs and a chorus of “see you tomorrows.” Our parents are hosting Christmas dinner tomorrow. Tonight I’m celebrating Christmas Eve with Teddy’s family at his grandmother’s house. She’s already made me a stocking with my name on it. I haven’t seen it yet, but she told me about it. You know those really cool needlepoint stockings that grandmas make by hand? One of those. Teddy’s stocking is a teddy bear on account of it being made for him when he was born. Mine has a reindeer on it, because Mrs Carrington said I brought Teddy’s heart back to Reindeer Falls.

Gah, it’s so sappy I can hardly stand it.

By which I mean I love it. I’ve always secretly hoped I’d marry into a family that had a really cool stocking tradition. And honestly, I’m already a part of the family. Teddy and I have dinner with his family at least once a month. Mrs Carrington insisted I start calling her Gram over six months ago. Plus, I have that homemade stocking, which is very nearly as legally binding as an actual marriage certificate. Everyone knows those stockings are