Page 48 of Welcome Home for Christmas
“The Seaside Christmas flotilla,” he said. “All of the boats in Seaside are going to be dressed up in their best and I thought it might be romantic to go see.”
She lowered her eyebrows. “I thought you were anti Christmas.”
“That was until I met you. You and Christmas are growing on me.”
“Aww.” Allison gestured for him to come inside. “Just give me a few minutes so I can change clothes. I kind of thought we would be staying in.” And she hadn’t considered that Troy would try to be romantic. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
“Sure thing.” He walked over and took a seat on her couch. His large-framed body overtook half of it.
She looked longingly at the space beside him, wishing she could curl up in his arms. “I’ll be right back.” She hurried to her bedroom and pulled on a silky gold blouse and a pair of jeans. She ran a comb through her hair, powdered her nose, and nodded at her reflection in the mirror.
“I’m ready,” she told Troy as she stepped back into the living room. She grabbed her purse and coat and followed him out the front door.
“I didn’t think romance was part of the deal,” she said, sitting beside him in the truck.
“We really didn’t detail what the deal would look like. But when I heard about the flotilla, I thought it sounded like something you would love.”
She smiled at him. “It’s nice that you thought of me.” She’d expected when they made their arrangement that his main thought would have been about having sex with her. What guy didn’t have sex on the brain at all times? And theirs was such a limited time. They had tonight, tomorrow night, and then it would be Christmas Eve. “I love the Christmas flotillas here,” she said.
“And you weren’t planning on going this year?” he asked.
She shook her head. “For some reason it just didn’t occur to me. I’m glad you thought of it, though,” she said. “I would have been disappointed had I missed it.”
“Well, the next couple days is all about satisfying you. That’s the whole arrangement.”
Warm tingles ran through her. She liked the sound of that.
