Page 59 of A Snowy Escape

“I’m hoping it’s decorations.” She melts against him, grinning up at him.

If we can convince her to stick around, we’d be remiss not to have pictures of this. I rip my phone from my pocket, snapping a few candid shots as Law smiles down at her.

“You got it, sweetheart.”

She squeals, and Shadow barks, making her jump.

“Ahh, shut up, mutt. Don’t ruin the vibes.” Bryant chuckles.

“All right,” I say, shoving my phone into my pocket. “Now we drink eggnog, listen to Christmas music, and decorate the tree.”

* * *

Either Bryant made the eggnog a little strong, or I’ve become a lightweight when it comes to drinking. I suppose the third possibility is that Abby’s scent is hitting me hard.

Hell, maybe it’s all three.

Holidays were a big deal growing up, and I’ve always wanted a family of my own to carry on those traditions. With four of us decorating the tree, it goes pretty quickly.

All the decorations are brand-new, but I know we have boxes upon boxes of things that our parents’ pack left in the attic when they moved.

Law must have wanted to start fresh with Abby. I’m not the only one who will be devastated if she leaves.

“One of you will need to do the star,” Abby says, holding it out. “There’s no way I’ll be able to get it up there.”

I step around behind her, planting my hands on her hips. “Oh no, gorgeous. That’s all you.” I lift her and step closer to the tree. Even giving her an extra foot or two of height doesn’t help, so I lift her higher.

“Luka!” She squeals but stays still, likely out of fear I’ll drop her if she wiggles around.

“I’ve got you,” I say, trying not to laugh. “Go ahead and put it up there.”

“You scared the hell out of me,” she mutters, stretching to place the star on top of the tree. “It looks great. Wow. Everything looks different from up here.”

I chuckle, backing up and placing her on her feet. She spins in my hold, planting her hands on my chest.

My head tilts as I stare down at her. I’m not sure what the look on her face means. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you…”

“Thank you.” She stretches up on her tiptoes, planting a quick kiss on the edge of my jaw. “That’s the first time I’ve ever put a star on a Christmas tree.”

“No shit?” I blurt out.

“It’s a good thing I got pictures of it, then,” Bryant says. “Hey, as a matter of fact, I got pictures of your first kiss too.”

Abby spins, resting her back against my chest. My hand falls to rest on her stomach, and she interlinks her fingers with mine.

“Who says that was our first kiss?” she asks, sounding sassy.

I laugh as Lawson glares at me like he’s saying she’d better be joking.

Oh yeah.

Abby is definitely going to keep us on our toes.

Chapter Nineteen

Abby

It’s already strangely gloomy the next morning, even though the storm isn’t set to hit until later today. I’m majorly confused because I fell asleep with Echo lying on the end of the bed, and she definitely migrated to my side during the night. However, when I woke up, she was nowhere to be found.