She just enjoyed her privacy and freedom.
And…perhaps…it was a way for her to avoid knowing for sure if they were disappointed in her life choices.
Which reminded her, she was going to have to fess up and tell them about the job change, especially if she was moving. The best way to approach it was to tell them she was doing it for the promotion and pay increase. There was no need to tell them a coworker had cheated his way into beating her out of the position she’d been bragging about all during Thanksgiving. Hannah knew she would have to put a spin on it so no one would have ammunition to use against her for not following in the family’s footsteps.
Damn pressure.
“Hannah? You okay?” Gage called out to her and she instantly snapped out of her reverie and jogged to catch up with them.
And almost slipped and fell on a patch of ice. Strong arms reached out to catch her and–quite honestly–took her breath away.
Smiling down at her, Gage murmured, “I’ve got you.”
Yes, he does….
Slowly, he steadied her before letting her go. “Are you sure you’re okay? You looked a little distracted.”
“I’m fine,” she lied. No need to let him in on all her crazy thoughts. “Just thinking about everything we need to do once we get back to your mom’s.” And then, because she needed to make it sound plausible, she explained, “I think it was a little overambitious to do the hot cocoa cookies. There’s a lot of steps that go into them so I might do them myself and let her do the easier ones so that she can feel like she’s making a bigger contribution.”
“You’re a good woman, Hannah,” he said quietly before placing a quick kiss on her cheek. “And thank you for caring so much about my mother. I think you’ve got a fan for life in her.”
And if this were a normal situation and a normal relationship, Hannah would be high-fiving herself for winning over her future mother-in-law. Now, unfortunately, all she could think about was how she had earned this woman’s trust while ultimately lying to her and it wasn’t sitting as easy with her as she had initially imagined it would. She wasn’t supposed to get this attached or feel this much. Her heart wasn’t supposed to get involved.
But it had.
Gage stepped away and began loading all their groceries into the car while chatting with Rebecca and they both looked over and smiled at her, making her heart kick hard in her chest.
With a weary sigh, she walked over to join them while mentally cursing herself again.
Damn heart.
Gage glanced at his watch as he let out a long breath. It had been a few days since the cookie baking extravaganza–delicious, though it was–and tonight was the Christmas party. His sisters and their families had all arrived last night and today they had taken Hannah to lunch with them.
Without him.
Now, as he was waiting for her to finish getting ready, he had to fight the urge to ask her how her day went. They were gone for hours and by the time she came running through the door, she was breathless and frantic because she knew she was running late. So he’d held his curiosity in and figured they’d have plenty of time to talk later.
But he was dying to know just what was said because he knew his sisters tended to overshare just about anything about him, and he wasn’t sure if he needed to be embarrassed or pissed off.
Having sisters was exhausting.
To kill some time, he walked around and wiped down the counters, fluffed the pillows on the sofa, and washed Hannah’s coffee cup from this morning. What he’d learned about her in this last week was that she was like a tiny tornado wherever she went. She touched and used things but never put them away. It was never a lot, but he always knew when she’d been in a room because there was usually something out of place or left out.
But weirdly, he liked it.
Ten minutes later, Hannah walked out of the bedroom in the same red dress she’d worn to her company Christmas party and it was hard not to remember stripping her out of it.
And suddenly the last thing he wanted to do was leave the apartment.
“Hey,” she said softly as she finished putting her earrings in. “Sorry that took so long.”
“Nothing to apologize for. It’s not like we have far to travel, right?” he teased, casually taking a seat at the breakfast bar. “So…ready for the big party?”
Grinning, she nodded. “Absolutely. When we got back from lunch, I walked around with your mom and some of the other ladies to make sure all the decorations looked right and everything was in its place. There was a giant throne delivered for Santa, so brace yourself for pictures tonight. Apparently we all need to get one.”
Gage could only laugh because he had one for almost every year his mother had been living here.
And he never showed them to anyone.
“It’s sort of a tradition,” he told her. “My sisters all love it because they don’t have to do the whole mall Santa thing with their kids because they get pictures at the party.”
She nodded. “That’s pretty much what they were all saying over lunch.” Walking back into the bedroom, she came out a moment later with her purse. “Do I need to bring this, do you think?”
It was a small silver clutch and although he couldn’t imagine it was a necessity, he did grow up with sisters and knew the right questions to ask. “Will you need it for your phone or anything else you want to show to people?”
“Hmm…I’m not sure…” Then she went back to the bedroom and came back empty-handed. “You’ll have your phone, right?” When he nodded, she said, “Good. Then you can take pictures and then just text them to me. I already took a ton of them when we initially decorated, but it will be nice to have some when the party is going on.”
Within minutes, they were waiting for the elevator and Gage knew he needed to ask her a few things before they met up with everyone. “How did lunch go? Did my sisters give you a hard time?”
Laughter was her first reaction. “A hard time? Are you kidding me? They were awesome! Although…” She reached for his wrist and glanced at his watch. “It took you…fifty-seven minutes to ask. Impressive.”
He was fairly certain his eyes were comically large. “Um…what?”
“Yeah, they were all betting that you wouldn’t be able to wait even five minutes before demanding to know what we talked about at lunch or if they shared any embarrassing stories about you. I told them you’d wait until I at least got out of the shower, but look at you, making it almost a full hour! Good for you!” She laughed again before gasping happily. “Oh! That means I win the bet!”
“You bet on this?”
She nodded. “Of course we did!”
After a weary sigh, he asked, “And what are you winning?”
“It’s silly, really. Nothing big.”
“Hannah…”
“We were just having fun, Gage. It’s not a big deal.”
“Then why can’t you just tell me?”
“Ugh…okay, fine,” she huffed. “Twenty bucks.”
All he could do was blink.
“I told you it wasn’t a big deal.”
“You all bet money on me? On this?”