Chapter Forty
TYLER
Once we make it back home, everyone heads upstairs to change into their matching Christmas pajamas. Oh yes, it’s a yearly tradition of ours, too. No Christmas goes without matching pajamas for my family. We’re fucking adorable.
Sunny pauses in the living room as she stares at the fire.
“You okay?” I ask. She still has a bit of a hazy look after what we did earlier, and it makes me smile. I did that.
“You can’t tell the others.” She looks at me.
My brows crease together. “Tell them what?”
“That I broke secret Santa and got you a gift, too. Well, I made the gift.” She pulls a rectangle from behind the couch.
She got me a gift.
“You told me your favorite place is wherever your favorite people are. So I figured, I don’t know. Maybe I could paint your favorite places to hang in one of your favorite places.” She shrugs and hands me the painting, shifting on her feet nervously while she chews her lower lip.
Gently, I take it and examine it, realizing all my favorite places are collaged so perfectly together across the canvas. From Betty's Beans, Martha’s, my home and the harbor, it’s all somehow there, fit perfectly together.
“Sunny,” I breathe. “This is incredible.” I swallow the knot forming in my throat, and it’s this moment I realize the true weight she has on me. Never did I think a fucking painting would choke me up, yet here I am.
She places a finger to her lips with a secretive smile. “Don’t tell the others.” Then, she turns on a heel and ascends the stairs.
When I can no longer see her, my eyes fall back to the painting. My fingers trace over the paint, noticing the finer details she put effort into. From the names Sam and I carved into a brick the day I bought this home, to the chipped paint outside of Martha’s.
I fucking love her.
Once everyone is showered, mugs of hot cocoa are passed around as everyone settles in the couches. In tradition, everyone proudly wears their matching pajamas.
I’m at the end of the couch with Sunny right next to me. When she leans into me, I become completely still, despite my heart fucking pummeling in my chest.
How is it we go from what we did at the beast, where it all came so easy, to this, right here. Where simply leaning into me is something that so easily halts my world?
She gives a once over at the family so comfortably sprawled across the couches. And as she does, her soft smile grows bigger. When she looks up at me, there’s something in her eyes that I can’t read, but know I love.
Because it isn’t so scared, anymore.