“Merry Christmas.” It was certainly one of the happier holidays she’d had.
They lay there for a few more minutes, naked in the colorful glow of lights, but she had just closed her eyes when Josh rolled away. It was probably a good thing. If they fell asleep, her mother would have had quite the shock in the morning.
She heard the rustle of the discarded condom wrapper, and a few seconds later his zipper. When she opened her eyes, Josh was gone. She grabbed the dress and pulled it over her head just to have something on, leaving the undergarments on the floor with Josh’s shirt and socks.
When she went into the kitchen, he was just downing the last of a glass of water and he smiled when he saw her. “We didn’t finish cleaning the kitchen.”
“We saved the chocolate cake.” She scanned the counter and shrugged. “There’s nothing left to put in the fridge and the dirty dishes will keep until morning.”
“I’m going to go around and lock up, then. It’s time for bed.”
She nodded, but hesitated because she wasn’t sure if she should just walk away or what. He solved the dilemma by crossing the kitchen to her. His kiss was sweet, especially since he took both her hands in his.
“That was amazing, Katie. I wish I could take you to bed and do it again.”
But his bed was right across the hall from her mother’s bed, which was awkward. “It was amazing. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Katie grabbed her underwear and went up the stairs, carefully avoiding all the squeaky spots. Being caught in the hallway with her bra and panties in her hand wouldn’t be an easy one to explain.
When she closed her bedroom door behind her, Kate leaned her head back against the wood and heaved a happy sigh of utter contentment. That had been one hell of a Christmas Eve party.
Chapter Ten
Despite the lack of a full night’s sleep, Josh woke up in a very holly, jolly mood. Waking up alone after the most incredible sex of his life wasn’t ideal, but last night had been, in fact, the greatest Christmas Eve party ever thrown.
And, Jesus, when he thought about all the years he’d wasted having sex with women who weren’t Katie, he could weep.
His eyes widened when he looked at the clock, and he threw back the covers. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept until eight o’clock, but it felt pretty good. Or maybe it was the sex. Either way, he was whistling Christmas carols while he took a quick shower and threw on some clothes.
All he needed now was coffee. He went down the stairs and found Rosie and Katie sitting on the couch, both of them cradling coffee cups. There was an awkward moment when he felt like he should say something more than good-morning to Katie and couldn’t with Rose sitting beside her, so he wished them a merry Christmas and kept on going to the coffeemaker.
“Have you guys been up long?” he asked once he was settled in the armchair with some coffee in him and a full cup on the side table.
“I was up at six, as usual,” Rosie said. “But Katie got up just before you did. Sleepyheads on Christmas morning.”
Josh looked at the twinkling tree instead of Katie, because he was afraid if he looked at her, he might laugh. It might appear as if they’d slept in to somebody who didn’t know when they’d gone to bed.
Rose played elf this morning, since she wasn’t still sucking down caffeine in a desperate attempt to wake up. She gave Josh her gift to him and then handed Katie hers, even though she grimaced a little when she had to put her coffee down.
She’d knit Josh a pair of his favorite gloves. They were cut off at the fingertips, but had a flap that folded over. His hands could be warm, but he could also flip back the flap if he was working on something that required some fine motor skills. He got up to kiss her cheek, pausing to admire the zip-up wool sweater she’d made for Katie, and then handed Rosie her gifts from them.
Katie had gotten her a slow cooker, which he wished he’d thought of. She’d been complaining for so long that hers didn’t cook evenly anymore, that he might have started tuning her out. Missed gift opportunity. He, of course, gave her a gift certificate to the yarn store, this year hidden in the bottom of a box holding new slippers.
That left two presents under the tree, and Katie was smiling when she handed him the oddly-shaped one from her. He wanted to pull her down onto his lap and give her a very thorough Christmas-morning kiss, but he had to make do with brushing his fingers along hers as he took his gift.
It was a five-gallon bucket, complete with a sponge, a bottle of car wash, a chamois cloth and a tub of wax.
“You’re too much, Davis,” he said when he’d stopped laughing.
“Look under the sponge.”