Page 84 of Until You Found Me

“I wonder if I like tequila,” she muses. “We’ll have to find out one day.”

He folds away the table at the eating area and flips up a cushion to make it into a bench big enough for two. Tilts his head toward the tree on their kitchen counter, still lopsided but far more festive. “What do ya think?”

She settles in at his side, curling her legs up on the bench and resting her head on his shoulder. “It’s perfect, but I bet this isn’t how you thought you’d be spending Christmas this year. With a stranger in your house.”

It’s a light statement despite the weight of it. The flippancy in her voice, carried by the alcohol, makes it sound like a joke and she lets it happen.

He takes another sip from his wine-filled coffee mug. “Thought I’d spend it alone. This is way better and you’re not a stranger anymore. Do you feel like one?”

“No. No. I dunno why I said that. My head is doing backflips today. That man at the lot shook me up.”

“Fuck that asshole. Shoulda bent his nose in the wrong direction and see if he had anything to say then.”

Laughing is an inappropriate reaction to violence, but she’s not sure what being tipsy is supposed to feel like and right now everything is funny. She is pleasantly warm with a slight tingle that runs every so often across the back of her shoulders, tucked in the hazy glow ofhappiness.

She is happy and she shouldn’t be. Not really.

She got called a stupid bitch by a stranger. Logan is still sick, and the rest of her life is still in shambles. Wine lets her escape momentarily and embrace a false happiness that seems normal. Instead of everything that’s gone wrong, she can only see all the little moments that have gone right. How lucky she is to be here with Logan, the magical twinkling of their tree, and the cozy way she’s curled against the man she loves. Sitting still, however, is not a talent she possesses when she’s one glass in.

“Let’s make dinner.” She hops up with a slight wobble and he steadies her at the waist. “But first we need some mood music.”

Oh yeah, she is absolutely a lightweight.

He groans when she flips on the small radio he keeps on the counter and lands the dial on Christmas music.

“Not a Mariah Carey fan?” She mouths the words to All I Want For Christmas Is You.

“Well, I’m kinda liking it now.”

“That’s the spirit! Come on, what should we make? Salmon? Brownies?”

“Both.”

Logan does most of the cooking while she mixes the batter. That warmth in her blood spreads further south once she’s deep into a second glass of wine. Logan’s allure has always been undeniable, but tonight she feels a fresh and forbidden pull towards him.

Tessa is easily distracted from her work at the sight of his biceps flexing with the swift flip of fillets on the sheet pan. She licks her lips, remembering him earlier today, a coiled missile ready to explode in the face of anyone who might doher harm. Right or wrong, there’s a thrill at knowing that power is in her corner.

“You’re getting more of that batter on you than in the pan,” he says, never looking up from his work seasoning the fish. “I’m not surprised anymore, though.”

She huffs. “I am not.”

Food deposited into the oven, he turns to grab her pan too and slide it in above the main course, washing his hands at the sink before taking hold of her arm. He brings it up to lick his tongue across her wrist and capture a dollop of brownie batter.

“Oh, that,” she breathes, holding his heated stare with a burning one of her own.

“Here too.” He dips his head against her neck, the warmth of his lips sucking at her eager pulse point. “How’d you even do that?”

“I was distracted.”

“By what?”

It’s an innocent question. Fishing for compliments isn’t in Logan’s skill set, which makes her even more eager to offer them. She cups his neck in her palms, gradually dragging them down and over the wide breadth of his shoulders. “You.”

The blush is instant and predictable and it tickles her to prompt it.

“I’m serious,” he replies.

“So am I.” She catches his eyes with her own, her next statement serious. “You’re beautiful and you should know that.”

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