Page 150 of The New Guy
I hang up my towel and pad back into the bedroom from the en suite bath, naked, and carrying only a warm washcloth.
“Thanks,” Gavin murmurs, taking it from me and wiping off his stomach. “Don’t let me fall asleep. I don’t want to miss out on round two.”
I laugh. “Is that because round one lasted about seventeen seconds? When I told you I missed you, I wasn’t joking.” I take the cloth from him and toss it into the empty wire hamper. And when I climb onto the bed, he pulls me close.
“It was mutual, though.” He kisses my neck, because he knows it drives me crazy. “Phone sex just isn’t the same.”
“No kidding.” I lean in and kiss him properly, and we make out like teenagers who just discovered kissing. It sucks to leave him so often.
On the other hand, coming home again is always pretty great.
“Hey,” he says, running a hand down my happy trail. “I have a tricky question for you.”
“Tricky?”
“Well, it’s a question about Christmas.” He frowns. “I got you a present. But now I’m, uh, a little worried that we got each other the same thing. And it’s, uh, hard to return.”
I let out a bark of surprised laughter, because that would be pretty funny. And touching, honestly. But if he’s right, itwouldbe tricky. “Well how do you want to sort this out? Maybe you should give me one clue. Like, how much space does this gift occupy? And if that’s not conclusive, we’ll move on to another clue.”
He chews on his lip. “I kinda don’t want to disclose the size if I don’t have to. It’s too telling.”
Uh-oh. Maybe wedidget each other the same thing. This is probably about to get awkward. But also sweet.
“How about the color?” he suggests. “Is your gift green?”
“Nope,” I say with immense relief. “Definitely not.”
“Awesome.” He falls back against the pillow with a smile. “Okay, this is great. I can stop worrying.”
“Yeah, you totally can.”
We lie there in the dark for a second. And I try to think of something green that Gavin might have gotten me. A green sweater? A green tie?
Nah. If it were something simple like that, he wouldn’t have been stressed about it. I close my eyes and think of green stuff. Trees. Grass. The green felt on a billiard table. Which makes me think of…
My eyes fly open. “Baby. Did you buy me a ping-pong table?” I sit up fast, because the idea is so exciting to me.
Gavin plops a hand over his eyes and sighs. “Fuck. I spilled my secret for nothing.”
I laugh. “Did you really? What a great fucking idea. Almost as great as mine.”
He sits up too. “Wait, really? Is your gift going to take up the whole basement? Do we have a problem here?”
“No way.” I shake my head. “It’s all good. How were you going to hide that, anyway? You think I wouldn’t have gone down into the basement before Christmas?”
“Pfft.” He makes a face. “When’s the last time you did your own laundry?”
“Fair. Sorry.”
He smiles. “Nah, it’s fine. Just don’t go down there. Jordyn wants to surprise you before I whip your ass at the table.”
“Please, bitch.”
We both crack up. And then we lie back down, his head on my shoulder. I run my fingers through his hair. And I think about the gift that’s been burning a hole in my consciousness all week long. It’s either the best idea I’ve ever had, or the worst. Could go either way.
“You okay?” he asks after a time. “I can practically hear your gears grinding over there.”
“Just hoping you like my gift half as much as a ping-pong table.” If he doesn’t, I’ve got bigger problems.
