Page 7 of His Christmas Promise

This home is yours. I promised you something a long time ago, and this is me finally keeping it.

Alex

I try walking in the house, expecting it to be unlocked like the Jeep was, but it’s locked. That’s when I look at my keys again and notice another key on the keychain. I try it, and it unlocks the door, but an alarm starts beeping, and I realize I need to enter a code. I try my birthday first, but it doesn’t work. It takes me a few seconds, then I try one-two-two-five, and it disengages the alarm. The alarm code is twelve-twenty-five, Christmas.

I close the door and look around the home, setting the flowers on a side table. The house smells like sweet pine and firewood. The walls are painted a soft beige color, and the wood flooring is french grey. A chocolate-colored suede sectional faces a roaring fireplace and in the corner of the room is a tall Christmas tree already decorated, with presents underneath it.

I walk around the house, exploring the place Alex says is now mine. It’s hard to believe this is real, but then I notice my things dispersed around the home. My cookbooks are in the kitchen, as well as my favorite mug. When I walk into the bedroom, the closet is filled with my clothes, and the bathroom has my toiletries. I sit on the huge bed, trying to make sense of everything that’s happened today. How the hell did Alex pull all of this off, and why?

The doorbell chimes making my heart race. Is it Alex?

I rush from the bedroom, down the hall, to the front door. When I pull it open, an older version of the Alex I remember is standing there staring at me. He’s even more gorgeous than the vision I have of him in my head. He’s taller than I remember. Where there was once soft angles are now hard edges. He has a closely shaven beard with his hair just as short, and his piercing blue eyes are shining back at me.

“Alex,” I gasp, wrapping my arms around him, holding him tightly.

It takes him a moment, but a few seconds later, he wraps his arms around me and holds me just as close.

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