Page 39 of Under The Meh-stletoe

"Right, that makes sense." I nodded.

He glared at me. "Give me a sec to find my words, will you?"

"For sure, go ahead. Take your time."

He squinted at me, but the stare soon devolved into a sheepish gesture. Like he was unsure of himself. I'd only known him for six weeks, yet in all the time we'd spent together, I had never seen him nervous. Now, sitting in his apartment in the dim light of the entrance lamp, he showed me a new side of him.

A grump who felt anxious about telling me something.

A grump who'd invited me to his home, a space he never planned to share with anyone else.

A grump I had developed some new and promising feelings for.

"Oh... Ooohhh..." I straightened tall in my place, the excitement of the dots I'd connected filling me with potential energy. "You changed your mind!"

"What?"

"You're trying to tell me you want to be with me! Talk about a Christmas miracle. You figured out you feel something for me, too!"

"Ale— What—" He shook his head. "Wait. Did you say,too?"

"So frigging adorable for a grump. Ugh!" I shook my fisted hand between us. "The ghost of Christmas present is haunting you and showing you that the true meaning of the season is to let someone into your heart!"

The tiny smile that appeared on his lips seemed to pain him. "Stop."

"But the ghost of Christmas past is showing you that ooOOoOOoooh, it's scaaary to show your feelings..."

"Please. If you only let me put my thoughts together—"

By this point, my words came out breathless as I held back the cackling. "The question is, will the ghost of Christmas future show you a relationship between us? Only if you're brave enough to tell me how you feel!"

Humor broke his resistance and lit up his face. "Oh, shut up."

He jumped me. His lips clashed with mine in the same instant he pushed me back and landed on top of me.

I laughed, interrupting the kiss.

"Unbelievable. Attacking me with Christmas nonsense." He kissed my jaw.

"You were being so adorably nervous!"

"I'm pretty sure that's not what the ghosts did in that story."

I surrounded him with my arms and let him kiss my neck. My eyes closed. "I wouldn't know. I've never read the book or watched any of the movies."

"And I wasn't nervous."

"You were nervous!"

He nibbled on my clavicle. It was one of the moves he'd done on me as we made out, that I had quickly learned made me weak.

"I thought you were going to end things when you knew I changed my mind after only two days." He rested his weight on his elbows and gazed down at me. His eyes softened, the brown of them gentle. "I wasn't sure how to tell you that I want to work to make our relationship last. That as long as you keep on not taking my crankiness too seriously, I'll keep on finding ways to laugh with you."

The weight of him comforted me, heavy like a calming blanket. Yet lightness filled up my chest at his words; gravity itself couldn't hold me down.

His curls fell on his forehead. I ran my fingers through them, pulling his hair back.

"I like laughing with you. I like that I can do that."