Page 23 of Mission: Merry Christmas
“So I hear.” She nodded.I’m falling for him.She knew better than to let this happen. Why was he so hard to resist?
Drew must have sensed her sudden apprehension because he rattled on. “We’ll do a little shopping tomorrow, and you know what, I think it’s time we decorated this place and gave it a holly jolly look. We can make that part of the workout, can’t we?”
“We can do extra laps in the store to get our steps in, and while we’re decorating, you get to do all the ladder climbing and stretching to the high places. Sound fair?”
“I’ve got a ton of decorations and stuff out in the garage. Think you can brave the lizards to help me with it?”
“I’m not making any promises I can’t keep,” she echoed his words. They were more alike than she’d realized.
“I like that in a girl.” He walked away, and this time, if she hadn’t known he’d been injured, she wouldn’t have been able to tell.Miracles do happen.Now the real miracle would be if she got through this assignment without a broken heart.Dear Santa, I think I’m going to need a big dose of Christmas magic to get through this.
ChapterEleven
Withjust three days left before Christmas, Drew’s sister finally got back in town. It was great timing, because Drew and Avery hadn’t figured out how they were going to surprise Nico with him constantly underfoot.
Drew called Brooke to beg for help. “Hey, Sis. I have you on speakerphone. We need your help. I’m running out of excuses to keep Nico out of the house so we can surprise him by decorating my place for Christmas.”
“We?”
“Avery and I.” He waited for her to give him a hard time, but she didn’t. It wasn’t like her to miss an opportunity. “She’s going to help me surprise Nico. That kid is crazy about her.”
“Sounds like you might be, too.”
“Well, I overheard her talking about snow days with him. I think she’s going to love this surprise as much as he does, but I need you to keep him away from my place.”
“No problem. I’ve missed that little guy like crazy. I want to keep him close,” Brooke said. “We have baking to do and presents to wrap, and there’s a ton of stuff going on at the resort this week. You should bring Avery over with you to the resort when you have some free time.”
“We’ll try to do that,” Drew said, but he knew everything he and Avery were working on was going to take all their time. The plan had gotten bigger and bigger, but what was the fun if not going completely over the top?
“I can’t believe you’re finally decorating for the holidays,” Brooke said. “You’ve never done that before.”
“I know. Why is that?”
“I don’t know. I guess I got all the decorating DNA. You just show up for the good time.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound very nice.”
“I’m just teasing. You can’t help it if you’re the fun twin. This is going to be a great Christmas.”
Avery walked into the room. “Hi, Brooke,” Avery called out from the doorway.
“Thank you, Avery! Your sister was right. You can do anything. I thought Drew was a lost cause this time the way he was moping around, but you’ve been like a Christmas angel to our family.”
“Thanks for believing in me, Sis,” Drew said sarcastically. “You’d be bummed too if you’d just ruined everyone’s Christmas plans.”
“It wasn’t your fault, and not nearly as big a deal as you’ve been making it. We’ll have a wonderful time right here. We can ski another time,” Brooke said, and then promised to keep Nico away until Christmas morning.
“Thanks, Sis. We’ve got to get to work.” Drew punched the button to end the call.
He turned to Avery. “We only have a few days to get this done, but I think with the two of us working together we can do it.” He raised his hand for a high-five.
Avery slapped it then linked her fingers up with his. “Here we go. Mission: Merry Christmas.”
“We’ve got this.”
Drew led the way to the garage. Still sealed, the boxes were stacked five high. Ornaments, lights, wreaths. The works.
“You bought all this stuff and never put them up?” She grabbed six boxes of lights.
