Twenty-one #3
Bray and Ella both look at me expectantly.
“Of course she said yes,” Zac answers for me before continuing, “Now let go of her fucking hand, Braydon.” Zac pulls me back as Bray drops my hand.
“I can’t believe you said yes to that, Lyssa!” he says before laughing. “I am thrilled to be able to call you my sister though. Lord knows I needed an upgrade on the one they gave me first. Ow!” He rubs his arm where Ella just punched him.
“Thank you, both of you. It means a lot you’re okay with this. I know it’s quick, but, well, I don’t really have an answer for that.”
Zac kisses the side of my head. “Babe, this would be happening whether they liked it or not. It’s just easier on them that they like it.”
Looking over to Bray and Ella, I see them nodding their heads.
Bray stands up off the bed and pulls the blankets off with him. “Now get up. I’ve got presents to open.”
He walks over to the door and bends down to pick up something off the floor, before he walks back, holding out my saving grace, a coffee cup filled with coffee.
“I think I love you right now, Bray. Thank you,” I say as I take the cup and sip at the deliciousness, ignoring Zac’s grunts behind me.
“Get out. We’ll get dressed and meet you out there. Don’t start without me,” he warns Bray.
Standing up, I head into the walk-in wardrobe, only to stop at the entrance, Zac right behind me.
“Oh, my god, Zac. What? When? How?” I shake my head.
I am staring at what Zac calls my side of the huge walk-in, which is now filled to the brim with clothes, everything from dresses, shirts, skirts, pants…
There is even a whole section of shoes. A dozen bags are placed in neatly arranged rows on the top shelf.
“I had a little help, sunshine. But I believe the words you’re looking for are: thank you, Zac.” Kissing my forehead, he says, “Merry Christmas, my beautiful fiancée.”
I melt at hearing him call me his fiancée. I mean, who the hell wouldn’t? “Thank you, Zac, you really didn’t need to do this,” I say as I turn and wrap my hands around his neck.
“You’re welcome, and I know I didn’t need to… I wanted to. I want to give you the world, Alyssa, but I’ll start with a closet.”
What am I meant to say to that? Pulling away from him, I rush to the drawer where I was hiding his present, thanking the stars it’s still there.
Whoever put all these clothes in here had the good grace to leave it.
Picking it up, I’m nervous now. My gift pales in comparison to everything he’s done for me.
“Okay, so, this isn’t much, and it’s not how I wanted it to look, but Merry Christmas.” I hand over the gift box.
“You are a gift—the fact that you said yes is the best thing you could have ever given me, sunshine. I don’t need anything else from you, just you.”
Nodding my head, I motion for him to move on with it and open the box.
The moment he lifts the lid, I know what he sees.
Me, in lingerie, all variations of red lingerie.
I’m nervous as he lifts the first picture and sees that there is another underneath it.
Suddenly, he sits on the floor, cross-legged with the box in front of him, lifting picture after picture out.
He still hasn’t said anything and it’s driving me crazy. Does he hate them that much? “I know they aren’t that good, and I was planning on the pictures being printed into a book, but I ran out of time and had to settle.”
He looks up at me with an undecipherable look in his eyes.
“Sunshine, these look fucking amazing. I’m torn right now between how much I love these pictures and the knowledge that someone had to take them, which means someone was looking at you in this lingerie.
But don’t for a second doubt how goddamn sexy you are. ”
He goes back to the box and continues to pull out the pictures in silence. Sitting in front of him, I wait for him to say something. As he gets to the last picture, he looks up at me.
“Do you have all of this lingerie still?” he questions.
“Umm, yeah. I took these pictures just last week. Of course I have it all.”
He nods his head. “Good, because I counted twenty pictures. That means, for the next twenty nights, I get to have you in each piece of lingerie. In fact, I think we should cancel Christmas and start right now.”
Laughing, I say, “We’re not cancelling Christmas, but I will wear each and every piece one day at a time.”
“Thank you, sunshine. No one has ever given me a gift like this. It’s hands down the best gift I’ve ever received, apart from you.”
Yeah right, like he hasn’t been given better gifts. “Uh-huh. Hopefully, over the course of our lives, I can figure out this gift-giving thing and get as good at it as you are. There’s always tomorrow, right?”
“There will always be a tomorrow for us together, sunshine,” he declares, just like he does every night before we go to sleep.
“Promise?” I ask.
“I promise. There is nothing in this world that could tear me away from you.”
Even as he makes this promise, I have a lingering feeling that some things are out of even his control.