Tic-Tac-Mistletoe - N.R. Walker Page 0,44
help me, his pillow-pressed hair and morning scruff might have been the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. “You decided to shovel snow for Chutney?”
“She needed to pee. I put her shoes and coat on. I swear it’s minus twenty degrees out there.”
Ren stared at me for a long second, smiling all cute-like. “Thank you. You warming up yet?”
I nodded. “A bit.”
“You uh, probably shouldn’t have shovelled snow in your PJs,” he said, amused. “If you want to take them off, I’ll put them through the dryer and they’ll be dry before we leave.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Ask every man you meet to strip out of his PJ pants?”
“Not usually, no.”
“Good.” I sipped my coffee. “Though I should shower and not just strip here because I’m not wearing anything underneath these.”
His eyes went wide, dark and bright. “Good to know.”
I didn’t dare look down to his pyjama pants, because . . . well, because I didn’t trust myself, that’s why. I’m only human, okay? One sight of any possible half-morning-wood and any hope of taking things slow would end right here. If this was going to become some flirty game of innuendo to ratchet up sexual tension before we finally caved in, I most certainly wasn’t going to complain.
He grinned and sipped his coffee as if he could see my dilemma in my eyes. “Merry Christmas Eve, by the way.”
“Yes! Merry Christmas Eve to you too!” There was no point in trying to hide how excited I was. “I see Liv today!”
His smile was warm and genuine. “Why don’t you go and get showered and I’ll make us breakfast.” He went to the kitchen. “What time did you say she could expect us?”
“No time in particular. I told her I’d text her when we were leaving.”
“How about we eat, pack up, and we can hit the road.”
“You want to leave that early?”
He held his coffee cup but leaned against the kitchen counter and crossed his legs at his ankles. “Hamish, the way you smiled just now when you mentioned your sister tells me all I need to know. How long did you say it’s been since you’ve seen her?”
“Four years.”
“Then yes, we should leave early. Hurry up and shower. How do you have your eggs?”
“Um, in a Cadbury’s chocolate Easter egg basket, if I’m being totally honest.”
Ren chuckled as he pulled out a frying pan. “Scrambled on toast, it is.”
“Perfect.”
I had a super quick shower and changed into my black jeans and a grey sweater. I repacked my bags and took my damp PJ pants back out. “These aren’t too wet, actually,” I said. “They’ll dry in front of the fire in plenty of time.”
Ren was putting a plate on the table and he stopped and stared at me. I was immediately self-conscious, wondering if I’d overstepped. “Is that okay if I hang them over a chair or something? If you’d rather I didn’t dry my personal—”
“Oh, sure that’s fine,” he said, readjusting the plate on the table. “It’s just . . .”
“It’s just what?”
“You look great,” he answered. “Very . . . handsome.”
“Oh, thanks. So do you.”
He looked down at himself, then at me as if I’d gone completely mad. “I’m wearing old sweatpants for pyjama pants and a long sleeve shirt that’s so worn there are holes around the neck.”
“And you wear them very well, I might add,” I said, matter of factly. “People pay a fortune for clothes all worn and comfortable.”
“I think I paid ten bucks about ten years ago. Can’t say I care much for fancy clothes.”
I smiled as I went to help him take things to the table. “Do me a favour and never change. The world needs more genuine, less pretence.”
He carried two fresh coffees over and set them down beside the plates. I pulled out his chair this time, like he’d done for me, and he gave me a shy smile as thanks. After a few moments of eating, he asked, “So, what do you think you’ll do when you first see your sister?”
“I will cry. There will be tears, so please be prepared for that. Possibly also squealing and jumping, but mostly crying.”
Ren laughed. “I shall consider myself prepared.”
“And then there will probably be lots of talking, mostly about people you don’t know, so I’ll apologise in advance for that.”
“And she has a husband?”
“Yep, his name is Josh. Super nice guy. I haven’t met him in person yet, but we’ve talked on video chat a bunch of times. They got married in