Page 97 of Mistletoe Mistake
“It's Christmas,” I reminded him. “Time doesn't matter.”
He chuckled sleepily. “What's the plan for today, then?”
“It's up to you. I've got some food for breakfast and to make a somewhat traditional Christmas lunch. We can eat when we're hungry and maybe go out for a walk later. I've still got your present too, don’t forget.”
Putting his hand on the back of my head, he pulled my mouth to his, giving me a gentle, warm kiss. “You've already given me everything I could want, Gemma.”
His other hand trailed down my body, coming to rest on my stomach, and my heart skipped a beat. I couldn’t be happier that he had embraced the fact that we were having a baby, and the idea that my child would have such a caring, supportive father, so unlike my own father, filled me with joy.
When he told me the night before that Madison wasn't his daughter, I saw the disappointment in his eyes, but that morning, it all seemed to have gone, replaced with his enthusiasm and excitement over our own future.
“So, what do you want to do first?” I asked him when he finally let me breathe again. “Presents or breakfast?”
“Presents, definitely,” he replied, giving me a sexy smirk that made me wonder exactly what kind of present he had got me. “Do we need to put clothes on?”
The question made me laugh. “My present to you doesn't require any clothes, but I don't know what you have in mind.”
He laughed too. “No, mine is clothing-optional as well. I just wondered if you were going to insist on pictures or anything like that.”
That made a lot more sense. “Not this year, but next year might be a different story since it will be our baby's first Christmas.”
Cole's eyes lit up at that thought and he rolled me over onto my back so he could bend down and kiss my stomach. The sweet gesture nearly brought tears to my eyes.
“Let's get presents out of the way before you get carried away,” I teased him, and he looked back up at me, his dark eyes shining.
“You said time doesn't matter today,” he reminded me.
“It doesn't, but I really want to give you your present already.”
With another laugh, Cole admitted defeat and rolled away from me, standing up to grab his suitcase from the floor where he'd dropped it the night before. I had already hidden his gift under the bed the day before, so I only had to reach down to retrieve it from its hiding spot. The package was cylindrical and wrapped in mistletoe-covered paper, and he eyed it curiously as he sat back down on the bed, holding a cube-shaped box in his hands for me.
“Who's going first?” I asked him. As curious as I was about what he’d got for me, my excitement to see his reaction to my gift was stronger.
It came as a relief, then, when he told me he wanted to open mine first. After placing his box down on the bed, he reached for the present in my hands, and his eyebrows raised in surprise as he took it from me. “Oh, it's light. Not wine, then.”
“You thought I was going to give you wine that I didn't pay for?”
He laughed again, his rare boyish enthusiasm on full display. He had hardly stopped smiling since the moment he woke up. It was so unlike him, but wonderful at the same time. “I really don't know what to expect with you, Gemma, and I wouldn't have it any other way.”
Tearing the paper off, he pulled out the cardboard tube that was inside, and shot me another questioning look. “Just open it,” I encouraged him. The anticipation was killing me.
Curiously, he flipped the lid off the top and reached inside, his fingers sliding the rolled up paper out of the container. As he slowly unrolled it, my heart raced even faster. I really hoped he would like it. There were so many things I could have bought him, but he had more money than anyone I had ever met. Anything that he wanted, he could buy for himself, so I had decided to make him something instead, something completely personal for him.
The gift was an architectural drawing of a London street, but not any street that actually existed. Instead, it represented a map of our relationship, showing, from left to right, all the places that Cole and I had visited together on our two-week 'deal'. First, the Lytton hotel where we'd met at the Christmas party. Next to it stood the Mayfair Mews hotel, where we had run into each other again at the opening. Each location had a special meaning for us and a special memory. The Anchor office was there, the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, Dennis Severs' House, St James's Piccadilly church, and the Palladium theatre where we saw the panto. Then there was Wilby Park, my family's house in the country, transplanted into London for the sake of the drawing, followed by the Dorchester hotel where the gingerbread house contest took place, and finally, my father's London home where we had attended the party.
Cole's eyes travelled from place to place, taking in every detail, for what felt like hours even though it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. He didn't say a word, and I waited as patiently as I could, even though I grew more desperate to know what he was thinking with each passing second.
When he finally looked back up at me, I was shocked to see there were tears in his eyes. “Gemma, this is incredible. No one has ever given me such a thoughtful gift.”
My teeth caught against my bottom lip, overwhelmed by his reaction. “You really like it?”
“I love it,” he stated firmly. “And I love you.”
He hadn’t said those words before. He'd asked me to move in with him, he'd been happy I was having his baby, but he had never outright said he loved me.
“I love you too, Cole.”
I didn't have to think about it for a second. As soon as the words were out, I tried to kiss him, but he turned away, moving his arms away from me, still holding onto the drawing as if it were some priceless treasure.
