Page 84 of Just a Taste
‘It’s fine,’ I say. And I mean it too. ‘It’s… it’s nice seeing your relationship with her.’ I think about my own relationship with my siblings. We’ve never had anything even remotely close to the camaraderie I see between Eve and Noelle, and maybe that’s more my fault than I’ve been willing to admit.
Though, not one of them has messaged to say ‘Happy Birthday’ yet, so maybe I’m giving them too much credit.
I shake my head and push out the thought of my family and focus on the beautiful woman beside me. This is about her and making Christmas something special.
‘Here.’ I open my office door and usher her inside. Noelle watches me with vague, curious amusement as I walk over to my desk and pull open the bottom drawer. My foil stars look even worse in the harsh light of day but I pull out a few and sheepishly hand them over to her.
‘What, um… What are these?’ she asks, barely concealing a smile.
‘They’re supposed to be decorations. You know, like stars for a tree.’ I rub the back of my neck, feeling the heat that’s already crawled up there. ‘I wanted to try and bring some of the Christmas magic to you, but arts and crafts isn’t my forte unfortunately.’
Noelle presses a hand against her mouth to smother her laugh. ‘No. No. This is… um… This is really, really, sweet. And so thoughtful and… um…’
‘That’s not the gift,’ I say abruptly. ‘And you can laugh, it’s okay.’ I reach back into the drawer and pull out the stack of Post-it notes. ‘I wanted to show you this.’
I hand her the pile and her eyes widen.
‘Alex… Are these…?’
I nod. ‘These are all the notes you’ve left with the dishes you’ve made me over the last two years.’
‘You’vekeptthese?’ she asks, voice crackling slightly. She flips through the pile and shakes her head in disbelief. ‘I didn’t even think youreadthem; I’ve kind of just been leaving them on autopilot recently. But you…’ She looks up at me, eyes shining. ‘You’ve kept them all?’
I take a step closer to her, gently pluck the pile from her hands, and place it on the table. Then I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her in close. ‘I’ve kept every last one. I meant what I said, Noelle. Your cooking? It’s something special. And I want you to know that I mean that from the bottom of my heart.’ I lean in and press my lips against hers, enjoying the way she immediately melts into my touch and reciprocates. When we finally break apart, I rest my head against hers and murmur, ‘Merry Christmas, Noelle.’
She grins and I swear, I’m never going to get tired of seeing the way it lights up her face. ‘Merry Christmas, Alex.’
EPILOGUENoelle
One Year Later
‘But it’s Christmas!’ Eve whines.
‘It’s Alex’sbirthday,’ I remind her.
I get an overwhelming sense of déjà vu as I watch my twin sister pout at me through the screen. ‘Can’t you do both?’ she asks.
‘Not this year,’ I say. ‘Maybe next year, we’ll see.’
Eve’s pout intensifies, not that it does any good. ‘But Gran is asking—’
‘Gran already knows I’m not coming,’ I cut Eve off halfway through her ridiculous attempt at guilt-tripping me. ‘She’s fine with it.’
‘Urgh.’ Eve scoffs and rolls her eyes. ‘It’s like I’m the only person who cares about tradition these days.’
‘You just don’t want to deal with Mum and Aunt Valerie alone for the second year in a row.’ Though,technically, she only had to deal with them for a few days last year.
‘That too.’
I laugh and toss my phone onto my bed so my hands are free to finish rifling through my suitcase. I’ve packed and unpacked at least ten times over the last few days, and IthinkI’ve got everything I need. ‘Red set or black set?’ I ask, holding up the two lacy pieces of lingerie sets for Eve to see.
She wiggles her brows. ‘How long are you guys going for?’
‘Five days.’
‘Another wiggle of the brows. ‘Both, then. You’ll need them.’
I roll my eyes, but can’t help but agree. I restuff both sets into my suitcase. I’m heading off to a secluded, luxury cabin in the Scottish Highlands with Alex for the next five days. I had a whole year to plan the perfect birthday getaway for a man who hates Christmas, and I think I’ve done pretty well.
