Page 68 of My Rival for Christmas

“Baby,” I whisper. Something thick clogs my throat as I brush some of the hair off her face. I tilt her head back so she can see my face, but anything I’m about to say gets lost in her wide-eyed stare.

Over the years, I’ve thought about what I would do if I ever got Paige to come home with me, but now that the time is finally here, all those ideas fly out the window. They don’t matter.

Because they’d never compare to this moment with her.

“Thank you,” I tell her softly, my thumb rubbing down her cheek. “This means everything to me. But how about before you burn the cabin down, you letmecook you pancakes?”

“Okay.” She nods. “They can be reindeer-shaped, too. If you want.”

I smile, pressing a kiss to her forehead before letting her go. “What? That’s not too Christmasy for you?”

She scoffs. “Reindeer are actual animals that exist year round, Nathan. I’m not amonster.”

“You’re right. You’re just a really tall elf.”

Paige makes a face at me before sticking her tongue out.

Faster than she can react, I swoop down and suck it into my mouth.

Because I can.

Because sheletsme.

Fuck.She all but melts into me, her body arching to get closer.

My nostrils flare, still unable to wrap my head around this being real. Even with Paige whimpering under me. The way every cell in my body all but burns at her close proximity.

It feels like a sick joke, that I can touch her. Taste her. Be this close to her and have it feel like it’s always belonged, like we’ve always done this.

But it’s not what I want. I don’t want temporary. I don’t want this to just be contained to a cabin. I don’t want an affair we both are going to walk away from.

I want Paige and me—together. Forever.

And the only way I can have that is if we finally talk about what happened two years ago.

Today. I have to tell her today.

Paige, not satisfied with her failed attempt at breakfast, continues on a quest to make this day something to remember for me.

But what she doesn’t understand is that this is already the best Christmas Eve I’ve ever had.

Sorry, Dad. It even tops the year you got me that four-wheeler and Grandma Betty threatened to ground you.

Because it’s with Paige.

Everything is always better when she’s around.

Still, not to be deterred, no matter how many times I tried to tell her she didn’t have to do anything else, Paige waved me off. Pulling upNational Lampoon’s Christmas Vacationon my laptop, she sat through the entire movie without a single bah humbug. In fact, I even heard her trying to suppress more than one laugh as we watched.

When it was over, she dug out my noise-cancelling headphones, telling me I can go around singing my Christmas carols if I wanted to.

Laughing, I slid the headphones off her head until they hung around her neck, using them to pull her into me as I told her I was only kidding about the singing. To say she looked more than a little relieved would be an understatement.

I’d be offended, but I have a really awful singing voice. So she’s forgiven.

We did, however, spend a few hours decorating the Christmas tree finally. I had been saving to do it with my dad like I have every year, but I think it’s even more fun with Paige, who took out each ornament with diligent care. Sometimes asking about the story behind one and laughing at the crumbling schoolcraft ones my dad refuses to get rid of. But it wasn’t until she got to the ornaments that I’ve collected from competitions past that her good mood spiraled into an almost melancholy state.

She tried to play it off, but every so often I’d catch her with a similar expression. Lost in the depth of her head. And I want nothing else but to pull her back to me.

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