“You have to peel them, cut them, boil them, and then mash them together. That’s a lot of steps, Grace.”
“Peel. Cut. Boil. Mash. Got it.”
“Holly…” he warned, cocking his brow.
“What? I said I got it.” Geez, it’s not like I’m was asking him to help me hide a body. All I want to do is cook some of the food for Christmas.
Ben shook his head. “On second thought, maybe I should do the potatoes and you can butter the rolls.”
“Butter the rolls! That’s worse than the salad. At least with the salad, I get to use a knife.”
“Who said you’d use a knife? I planned on getting you bagged salad that you’d just have to dump in the bowl.”
Holly’s lips thinned as she stared down her husband. “You wouldn’t.”
Ben cocked his head to the side which made Holly throw her hands up. “Nope, you already agreed I can do the potatoes. It’s done and over with. That’s what I’m doing. No take-backs.” She stuck her tongue out at him.
Take that!
Holly: one.
Ben: zero.
“Fine.” Ben quickly turned their cart around shaking his head as he walked out of the aisle and toward the other end of the store, causing Holly to run after him.
“Hey, where are you going?”
Ben walked faster as he headed toward his target. “I’m gonna buy another first aid kit. Maybe two.”
Holly froze as her jaw dropped. “You asshole.”
Chapter Ten
Christmas Eve.
How in the world was it already Christmas Eve? Holly looked around their living room still in awe. Where in the hell had the time gone?
One second it was Thanksgiving and the fire department was there, and then boom, it was Christmas Eve.
Just like that.
Wow.
Holly’s eyes moved to their living room window. It was already dark out and in less than a few hours it would be Christmas day.
Their first Christmas together as a family. Hell yes!
Holly sat back as the memory of the evening washed over her. It ended up being pretty amazing if you asked her. Jimmy and Ben had spent a few hours making cookies for Santa while she watched.
Holly was only allowed to decorate them, though. A small grunt escaped her. The jerks.
But she showed them. Kind of. When some of the cookies were baking, a few had expanded. And it just so happened that one of those expanded cookies was a Corgi.
Of course, Holly took full advantage of it and made that cookie into an overstuffed Waffles. Would you expect anything less from her?
Nope.
Waffles wasn’t a fan, though. When she showed him the cookie, he scoffed before turning his nose up at her and waddled out of the kitchen like she’d offended him.
One point for Holly.
She thought it was hilarious and so did Jimmy. In fact, he loved that cookie so much he wanted Santa to have it.
Waffles still wasn’t pleased, but oh well. Maybe he’d be less of a diva going forward…
Probably not.
Once the cookies were set out for Santa, the whole family sat on the couch as they watched a Christmas movie. When it was over, Holly and Ben had tucked both of their kids into bed and read them a holiday story. Holly laughed at Jimmy tossing the covers over his head the moment the story was done. He’d even faked a few snores in there.
If it’d been up to Jimmy, he would’ve gone to bed sometime in the early afternoon. He kept mentioning how he’d been worried that Santa might pass over their house if he wasn’t asleep yet. He even went on and on to Helen about it as she happily smiled up at her big brother with twinkling eyes, gurgling.
Which was fine by her, that girl loved to sleep.
Holly glanced back out of the window, seeing the holiday decorations outside. It really did look like something right out of a postcard. If Jimmy hadn’t been asleep for the last few hours, she would’ve shown him how beautiful it was.
This really was turning out to be a spectacular Christmas.
As Holly’s eyes drifted to the stacks of wrapped presents under the tree, a huge smile spread across her face. What could she say? She might have gone a little overboard but, hey, it was the holidays after all.
“I didn’t realize we bought this much.” Ben finished wrapping another gift before placing it on a pile to his right.
The soft glow from the lights on the tree illuminated Holly’s face as she smiled at her husband. “It’s okay. They deserve it.”
Ben cocked his brow at her. “You do know we ended up buying John a crap ton of toys, right?”
Holly’s eyes scanned the room looking at everyone’s pile. Damn, there were a lot there for John. She rolled her eyes. She did say it was the holidays after all, and she needed to stick with it. “I guess he deserves it too. Plus, it’s easy to buy for him. You just have to think of him as an eight-year-old boy.”
Ben barked out a laugh as he plopped back onto the couch after moving another present under the tree. “You’re right. And it will keep him and Jimmy both occupied.”
“True.” Holly smiled sweetly at her husband as he reached for another gift to start wrapping.
See, everything was working out just fine. As Holly sat back on the couch, her eyes caught the clock in the room, causing her to swallow hard. It was getting pretty late, and if she didn’t start now it wasn’t going to happen…
Was she really going to do this? Holly took a deep breath. Yeah, she was.
The idea popped into Holly’s head after working a few extra shifts with Mildred. All the old coot could do was go on and on about couples using this time of year for inspiration in the bedroom.
Not that her and Ben needed any inspiration in that department. They’d been playing out the Head Elf thing quite a lot…
But then again, that was the reason why Holly came up with Ben’s Christmas gift. Somewhere along the line, as Mildred encouraged her, Holly decided she would wrap herself up in a huge red ribbon and let Ben unwrap her as his gift.
She even bought one of those huge bows to go with it.
As she watched Ben wrap another gift, she bit her bottom lip knowing the ribbon and bow were in the bottom of her closet just waiting…
She could do this.
Holly even watched a couple of videos on the internet on the best way to wrap herself. You really could find anything online if you searched hard enough.
And from the tutorials Holly watched, it didn’t seem all that complicated. Plus, she really wanted to see Ben’s reaction.
As she sat back on the couch she closed her eyes. She could picture it in her mind. If she did it right, all he’d have to do was pull one end of the ribbon and poof, she’d unravel in front of him.
He’d love it, and so would she.
See, she could totally do this.
Ben finished wrapping another gift and leaned back on the couch with a heavy sigh. “I don’t know if these gifts will ever end.”
“They will.”
“Only if you help.” He cocked his brow at her. “You haven’t wrapped anything in twenty minutes.”
“That’s ‘cause I was thinking.”
The corner of Ben’s lip turned up. “I don’t see any smoke.”
“Jerk.”
“Love you, Grace.” Ben tenderly pulled Holly to him, giving her a kiss.