Dreaming of His Snowed In Kiss - Jessie Gussman Page 0,55
sad though. All those little babies upstairs, no parents.”
They stared at each other for a minute, her smile not quite as bright as it had been, of course. The whole thing was sad.
It didn’t keep him from wanting to kiss her though. Still, along with the urge to put his arms around her, came an idea. One so crazy and outlandish, and to be frank, before last night, one he would never have given the light of day to.
“What?” she asked, tilting her head. “What are you thinking?”
He needed some time to think about it. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it, and he didn’t want her to get on the bandwagon before he was ready; it would hurt her if he didn’t go along with it.
“I’m thinking the same thing I thought last night. I’d rather kiss you than do anything else.”
“But I have no idea why you’re standing there looking at me.”
He was slow to answer, just because her words hit him hard just the right way.
“I’m thinking, if I don’t take you in hand, you might end up being kinda bossy.”
He slid his arms around her waist and pulled her toward him, wrapping his other hand around the nape of her neck and holding it while she turned her head up, a smug grin settled on her face.
“Take me in hand? Really? What is this, like 1980?”
He snorted out a laugh. “1980 isn’t that long ago.”
“Maybe to an old dog like yourself. To a young chick like me, 1980 is ancient, back when men were Neanderthals and took their women ‘in hand.’” She mimicked his voice as she quoted his words and gave him a challenging look.
“I think, when a woman talks like that, what she really means to say is, ‘West, I want you to kiss me.’” He ran a thumb over her cheekbone. “You need to learn to say what you mean.”
“West, kiss me.”
THE HOUSE SPARKLED. The Christmas tree sat in the corner, decorated with the lights that Poppy had found in his basement along with bulbs, strings of popcorn she and the kids had made, paper circles, and she’d even baked some kind of thing that kind of looked like cookies that she and the kids had decorated with paint last night.
They’d been full of energy after their long afternoon naps.
It wasn’t the most beautiful tree in the world.
Far from it. But it looked like a tree that had lots of love on it.
He almost snorted at himself. Being around Poppy had completely changed even the way he thought.
It changed him.
“You’ve got that look on your face again,” she said.
A crash came from the living room, and both of them stared at each other, waiting.
A scream. But not a life-or-death scream.
“Sounds like Garrett ran his truck into the wall.”
“Sounds like Garrett made out better than the wall did,” Poppy said with a raised brow.
“I guess we’ll fix that. Tomorrow.”
She lifted both brows, and when he didn’t respond, she said again, “That look? Explain.”
He’d been teasing her, and his teeth showed. “I don’t want you to get a big head, but I was thinking about how you’ve changed me. Or, I should say, how I’ve changed because of being around you.”
“Changes?” She lowered her head a little, and he read that look easily.
“Good changes. All of them. It’s a true blessing when you can see that the person that you’re with has influenced you to make changes that have made you a better person.”
“Then that’s a good thing.”
“Yeah.”
“And here I thought you were excited about Santa Claus coming.”
“Shhh! You don’t want the kids to hear that. That’s supposed to be a surprise.”
“Well, it probably really will be a surprise. Usually Crew and Burgundy do it, but Penny texted me and said at first that there wasn’t going to be a Santa Claus, and then she texted later that they’d found substitutes.”
“Really? Who?”
Poppy shrugged. “I’m not sure.”
Gabriella stretched, and they both looked down at her.
Her little mouth opened in a big yawn. Her eyes scrunched up, then her mouth closed and the corners of her lips turned up, and they both hooted at the same time.
“Oh my goodness! She smiled!” Poppy said.
“That’s because she heard my voice.”
“No, that scares her.”
“Like it scares you.”
“That’s right. Scares me right into your arms.”
He put an arm around her and tucked her into his side, looking out the window in time to see his parents’ car coming across the bridge.
“Here comes Minnie. I’ll get the kids.”
He dropped a kiss