Chapter 1
CHAPTER
ONE
AVERY
I’d met a lot of parents in my first year as a kindergarten teacher at Goose Run Elementary School, but I hadn’t freaked out this much before I’d met them.
Not even on my first day. I’d been up since five scrubbing the baseboards in the hallway and worrying it was too early to start the vacuum cleaner.
Which proved to be correct when Johnny appeared in the doorway of the living room, blinking, his track pants hanging from his hips, and said in a rasping voice, “Avery? Whatcha doin’? ”
“This vacuum cleaner is supposed to be super quiet,” I said, hitting the button to turn it off. “That’s what it said in the reviews!”
Johnny wrinkled his nose and scratched his bare abdomen. If he’d been more awake, I would have thought he was trying to distract me intentionally. As it was, I was pretty sure it was an accident. Effective, though. I could hardly drag my gaze back to his face when he spoke again.
“Come back to bed. It’s still dark.”
“I can’t,” I said. “I still have so much to do.” I gazed at the wooden floorboards, taking in the worn patches. Why hadn’t I sanded them back when my dad had suggested it?
“Come back to bed,” Johnny said again. He shuffled across the room and wrapped me in a hug from behind, his long hair tickling my cheek. “You’re overthinking.”
“I want it to look nice.”
“Your place is very nice, Avery.” He tugged me by the hand back down the hallway to my bedroom, although, if I was honest, it was starting to feel more like our bedroom than just my own. It had done for a while now.
Johnny climbed back into bed, still pulling me with him, and then half sprawled on top of me.
He was warm and heavy, like the world’s best weighted blanket.
If the world’s best weighted blanket snuffled and twitched like a puppy dreaming of catching squirrels.
I waited until he settled and then squirmed out from underneath him.
I wanted to at least get the laundry on before breakfast, and then I’d have the rest of the morning to finish cleaning.
Johnny had said he’d help, but then last night he’d worked a bachelorette party until two in the morning, so I was happy to let him sleep in as long as he needed.
Money was tight with his new job—his apprenticeship was a long-term investment, but it would take a few years to pay off and in the meantime the starting wages weren’t great—and I knew he’d been worrying with Christmas coming up.
So he was taking all the extra stripping work coming his way—and he was surprisingly busy at this time of year.
More people than you’d think liked to add a little extra spice to their Christmas parties.
Just this week he’d been a sexy Santa no less than three times.
The first time he’d come out of the bedroom wearing his costume of tight red leather pants and big black boots, with a long red velvet jacket hanging open to show off his abs, I’d almost swallowed my tongue.
And later when he’d come home, giving me that big grin of his and inviting me to climb into his lap, I’d thought all my Christmases had come at once. I certainly had.
So yeah, Johnny was working hard and I wanted him to sleep as long as he could since Gracie was staying over with her grandparents, but I was also itching to start on the million and one things I had to do to make the house presentable.
The top of the refrigerator needed to be dusted, and—oh god, did I need to clean out the inside of the refrigerator?
Were there week-old leftovers in there that I’d forgotten, along with sad, soggy vegetables?
Make that a million and two things.
I managed to get the laundry done and deep-cleaned the refrigerator, then looked around the house to see what else I needed to take care of.
The Christmas tree sat in front of the living room window and was what I liked to think of as a statement piece—the statement being, “A five-year-old was in charge.” Gracie had been heavily involved in the decorating process—which meant that this was the Year of the Unicorn, with pink accents.
The tree itself was perfect, even though the bulk of the unicorns was exactly at a five-year-old’s level and nowhere else, but the rest of the living room was barely decorated at all.
A hand-me-down crocheted nativity scene that had once graced my grandparents’ fireplace just wasn’t cutting it on its own, was all I was saying, even if Gracie thought it was the best thing ever.
Sidenote: I hoped she loved the beginner crochet kit that was already wrapped and waiting for her under the tree.
I’d been trying not to overspend, but I told myself that part of being an adult was making sure my house was properly decorated for visitors.
So really, I was doing the financially responsible thing by heading to Walmart and stocking up while the decorations were on sale.
Besides, I really wanted to get one of those giant inflatable snowmen. Chase and Cash would go wild for it.
I was grabbing my keys when Johnny emerged from the bedroom again.
He was dressed this time, although he still looked adorably sleep-rumpled as he blinked at me and nodded at the keys.
“Let me guess. You’ve decided we need more snacks or some sort of special Christmas cheese or more tinsel.
” I glanced over at the Christmas tree and his mouth quirked up.
“Do we really need more decorations, babe?”
“I want it to look welcoming,” I said. “Cozy. Family friendly.”
Johnny looked like he was trying his hardest not to laugh. “It’s plenty friendly, because you’re here and you’re friendly and welcoming. Who gives a shit if we have, I dunno, enough garlands?”
I gasped. “Yes! Garlands would look amazing! And they’ll hide that weird stain on the ceiling!”
He did laugh then. “Seriously?” He crossed the room in three long steps and pulled me close to his chest, and I went willingly. He leaned his forehead against mine and said, “I promise that nobody except you is judging your decor, or the mark on your ceiling, or the state of your floors.”
Which didn’t help ease the tight knot of nerves in my stomach like he’d probably intended it to. Because if you took all that away, what was there left to judge?
Oh, right. Me.
And while I wasn’t usually down on myself—I was doing great, actually! I had a job I loved, a cute house, good friends, and an amazing boyfriend—there was a pit of anxiety in my stomach that was growing bigger by the minute, because today? Today mattered.
Because he was getting good at reading me now, Johnny pressed a kiss to my forehead and said, “I get it. Want me to come with you and carry your bags?”
I smiled up at him, and the knot in my belly loosened a little. “There won’t be that many bags. I’m just grabbing a few things.”
The soft snort he let out told me we both knew I was lying.
Johnny released me. “Come on. Walmart waits for no man.”
The Walmart in South Hill was my home away from home.
That was mostly because I bought all the craft supplies for my kindergarten class there, but also because now that I had a house of my own, I liked to look at housewares.
Like, a lot. I could browse bathmats for an embarrassingly long time, trying to decide between sea foam green or misty blue.
And it wasn’t as though I didn’t already have a bathmat in my house, plus a spare one for when the first one was in the laundry, but I just liked to look.
I was the youngest of seven kids, and anyone from a big family could tell you that by the time you got to kid seven, every choice around the house had already been made.
Bathmat browsing would always be a little bit thrilling to me.
We took my car instead of Johnny’s truck because the heating was better in mine—another thing that was causing him some stress when it came to money, because, like he said, as soon as he paid one bill, something else just up and broke.
The heating in his truck was bound to be next.
It was another reason why he was tucking away all the sexy Santa money he could.
I managed to snag a parking space, and Johnny slipped his gloved hand into mine as we crossed the parking lot, like he was afraid I might get lost in the crowd, but I knew for a fact that he just really liked holding hands.
And it turned out that once he’d come out by kissing me in the parking lot of Goose Run Elementary in front of God and everyone, Johnny didn’t give a single fuck what anyone in town thought about him dating a man—and honestly? I kind of loved that for him.
He flashed me a smile. “Are we going straight for decorations or do you need other stuff as well?”
“Decorations,” I said firmly, before adding, “and maybe towels.”
“We have plenty of towels, babe,” Johnny said. A thrill ran through me, the same one that always did when he said we so casually.
“We’ll see,” I said. I was totally getting more towels.
We lucked out, finding an empty cart near the front doors.
I steered and Johnny rested a hand on the small of my back while we navigated the aisles.
Walmart was just as crowded and noisy as you’d expect it to be two weeks before Christmas, but I kind of loved the chaos.
More than one little kid from my class waved frantically at me and called out, “Hello, Mr. Smith!” and I waved back and said hi, but I didn’t stop.
I was on a mission to make my house a winter wonderland, and that wasn’t going to happen if I got caught up talking to any moms. Especially Tyrell’s mom.
She was one of my favorite parents, but she could talk under wet concrete when the mood struck her, and I was way too busy today for that.
Johnny and I made our way to the Christmas section, which looked like a war zone. I had a pang of sympathy for whoever had to clean it up, then started loading up on tinsel and pine garlands and fairy lights.