Page 20 of Snowed in at Santa's Lodge
“It’s the best Christmas Eve present I’ve ever received.” He pulled me in for a kiss. “I love you, mate. I’m so happy that we’re going to be a family.”
I was too.
Chapter Fifteen
Ragnar
It had been a long time since I was excited about Christmas morning, and a really long time since I was as excited as I was about this Christmas morning. Aspen was here with me, and this was our very first Christmas together. The first of many.
We’d talked about what we wanted this Christmas together to look like. We weren’t going to be having guests, so making a huge turkey or ham dinner seemed a waste. And without any children of our own or guests coming, having anything too formal felt overboard.
In the end, we decided to have a lazy Christmas-movie-marathon-type day. It was perfect for my mate facing the exhaustion portion of his pregnancy and honestly, what was better than a cheesy holiday movie? I couldn’t think of a thing.
I’d worked hard trying to figure out the perfect gift for him, but nothing would outshine the gift he gave me yesterday. When we figured out that he was expecting our first child, that was everything.
Getting surprises ready when you were spending nearly every second of the day together was a challenge. I wound up sneaking out of the bedroom around three in the morning to set everything up.
When Aspen had been dealing with the mechanic, I’d stopped at the general store and picked up some supplies and little gifts. I’d love to have bought him a new car, one that didn’t need the laundry list of things his apparently was going to need, but this would have to do. At least for now.
I sat in the hallway wrapping little odds and ends I’d picked up and putting them in a stocking. Growing up, stockings were my favorite. I loved getting individually wrapped pencils andHershey’s Kisses and socks. Goodness, I even loved getting candy canes and toothbrushes. If I had to unwrap it, it was the best thing ever.
In our house, my mom did the stockings, and Santa brought the big gift. Santa was going to have a hard time bringing a bigger gift than I was already getting this year. Nothing was going to top that. Not this year, not any year.
I got the stocking ready. I set it out in front of the hearth, not sure that it would stay on the hook on the mantel, then wrapped the present I made for him and left it in the same spot before sneaking back into bed. He instantly snuggled in close, and I fell asleep quickly.
I woke to the sound of him being sick in the bathroom. Not the way to start Christmas morning, but at least he wasn’t sick sick. He was morning-sickness sick. And from everything I knew about pregnancy, that was an excellent sign.
How messed up was that when puking became a good sign?
I stood in the doorway. “Can I help you?”
He held up his hand, and I wasn’t sure if that meant stop or come, so I just stayed where I was. A few seconds later, he pushed up onto his heels.
“I think that was it.” He turned to face me. “Go away. This is gross.”
“There’s nothing gross about pregnancy.” Although I soon learned there was a whole lot gross about pregnancy.
“Out.”
“Yes, sir.”
I brought Frosty out for his morning needs and then snuck in to clean up a little and get some fresh Christmas jams on.
We had matching pairs. I didn’t know if we would’ve done that by choice or not, but we didn’t have one. The general store had buffalo-plaid pajamas. That was it. But as I came out andsaw my mate wearing his, I was glad for it. We were Christmas-card worthy.
He beamed. “I’m starved. Let’s go eat.”
We had French toast, a quick and easy, warm, festive kind of breakfast. Festive because I added extra nutmeg and used eggnog instead of milk.
I was worried my mate wouldn’t be able to eat, but it was like he’d never been sick at all, and he even had a second helping.
“Are we doing a fire and watching Christmas movies still?” he asked.
That had been his wish, so, of course, that was exactly what we were doing. I’d made most of the cookies yesterday while he was sleeping, but the rest seemed to have done him well. He still had bags under his eyes but more energy today than yesterday.
“Absolutely. Should we do presents first?” I couldn’t wait to see him open mine.
“Presents, plural?” His eyes went wide.
