Waving him off, she turned and sat down in the nearest chair. “For starters, no one made her do anything. She dove right in and was loving it. And we didn’t make her work the whole time. We did have lunch, remember?”
It was hard to get the right words out because he couldn’t believe how blasé she was being about this entire thing. “I’m going to get Hannah and bring her upstairs so she can eat dinner. I made…”
“Oh, no…”
“What?”
“You cooked?”
After a long sigh, he nodded.
“You really shouldn’t have. We had pizza.”
“What?!”
Nodding, she reached out and squeezed his hand. “Carla and Ivy’s husbands went out and picked up about a dozen pizzas to surprise us since we were working so hard.” Then she pointed to the demonstration kitchen. “I’ll bet there’s some left! There were a few with pepperoni, one with sausage, one with eggplant, one of those white pizzas with no sauce…I’m sure there’s something left. You should go have some!”
“Mom! I made us dinner! Didn’t anyone think to call me and perhaps mention that you had dinner down here?”
The look on her face told him she hadn’t.
“I’m sorry, Gage. I really am. There was just so much going on and…” Her shoulders sagged. “I really am sorry.”
Raking a hand through his hair, he let out a long breath and glanced around. “If it’s alright with you, I’d really like to spend some time with Hannah. Did she eat?”
“Um…”
“Never mind,” he murmured before walking away and heading to the theater room. It was really only a room with a big screen television and several rows of the recliners you found in real movie theaters. When he came to it, he stopped just outside of the doorway and…eavesdropped.
“You’re just so good at this sort of thing,” Candis was saying. “I swear I have so many of the things we used today and they never look as good in my place. It looks festive enough, but all of this is just…it’s perfect, Hannah.”
“Thanks,” he heard her respond and pictured she was blushing at the compliment. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had the opportunity to do something like this. Most of the projects I work on are for commercial buildings and they are looking for the bare minimum. It was so much fun to get to be creative and playful with everything.”
“Do you work for yourself or are you with a design firm?”
“A firm.” And Gage heard the hint of disappointment in her voice. “Anyway, I was happy to help.”
“Any chance you could come up to my place and maybe…”
That was his cue to intervene.
Smiling, he stepped into the room. “There you are!” he said, walking over and kissing her. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“Hey, you,” she said softly, smiling up at him. She had on a Santa hat and there was glitter on her cheek, and she looked utterly adorable. “Where’ve you been all day?”
“Making you a fabulous dinner. But if you’ve already had pizza…”
Her eyes lit up. “I had a slice, but you know I always love whatever you make.” She kissed him again before turning to Candis. “I hope you don’t mind, but…”
“Oh, stop! You did way more than enough today. You two go and enjoy your night,” Candis told them. “And thanks again!”
Gage took Hannah’s hand and led her out of the room and down the hall but away from the lobby.
“Wait…aren’t the elevators that way?”
“We’re not taking the elevator,” he told her, leading her to a stairwell. Once the door was closed behind them, he gently pressed her up against the wall and kissed her properly. She melted against him as her arms reached up and wound around his shoulders. When he finally broke the kiss, he rested his forehead against hers. “That’s better. I missed you today.”
“Mmm…I missed you too.” Her voice was a little sleepy and he knew he needed to get her upstairs, but also hated the thought of going through the lobby and risking anyone else stopping her to ask her anything.
“Think you can make it up one flight of stairs?”
“Um…one? I thought your mom was on the third floor.”
“She is, but we’ll just go up one flight and grab the elevator there so no one will see us.” With a dramatic wink, he gently tugged her toward the stairs.
“I love the way you think!”
On the second floor, they got on the elevator and he hit the button for the sixth floor.
“Gage, you just hit…”
“I know,” he said vaguely and could tell she wanted to ask him a dozen questions. But once they got out on the sixth floor, he led them to the end of the hall and pulled out his key card before explaining. “We’re not staying with my mother. This is a guest suite that I managed to snag for us. And after everything you did for this place today, they were more than willing to let us use it.”
They stepped inside and he heard her soft gasp. “Oh my goodness! This is amazing!”
It was actually similar in size to a basic hotel suite, but there was a nice sitting area, a small kitchen with granite counters, a bathroom, and a bedroom with a king bed. Gage didn’t think it was anything spectacular, but apparently Hannah did. “I knew you weren’t comfortable staying at my mom’s, so…”
Turning, she threw herself into his arms. “This is wonderful. Thank you!”
And because she was so close and felt so good, Gage leaned in and kissed her again.
And again.
And again.
Then he remembered…dinner. Reluctantly he pulled back and waited for them to both catch their breath. Swallowing hard, he told her, “So I made some cream of potato soup with bacon and cheddar. Nothing fancy but…”
“You made homemade soup while we were downstairs? How did you whip it up so fast?”
That made him chuckle as he led her over to the island and pulled out a chair for her. “I don’t know about fast. You were down there for around six hours and this recipe only took an hour. So it really wasn’t a big deal. Plus, I got some work done.”
“I wish you had stayed downstairs. We could have used the extra muscle,” she told him with a wink.
“I learned a long time ago not to get involved in the holiday decorating. Some of those women are vicious! One year, someone threw a box of tinsel at me because I picked up an ornament that had fallen off the tree up and put it back in the wrong spot. Trust me, I haven’t touched a single holiday item in this place since.”
“Wow…that’s totally…” She paused and giggled. “Not at all surprising!”
Making her a bowl of soup, he asked what she meant.
“I saw a lot of shady behavior today, Gage. Now I totally understand why your mother is feeling so competitive. I watched a lot of these women challenge each other over crazy stuff! Like, who can twine the lights and stars better, whose centerpiece has more glitter, who wrapped more presents…oh, and who had better paper angels on those presents! It was crazy!”
“Yeah, it’s the norm, but I hate how Mom gets so caught up in it. You’d think she’d see how ridiculous it is.”