Chapter Twenty #2
After about an hour, we’ve separated everything into our piles and begin decorating.
“This is way too much stuff,” he grumbles, half smiling as he places another snowman around the fireplace.
“It’s your stuff,” I chuckle, adding another.
“Not all of it. Some of this stuff belonged to my parents,” he says, pointing to the snowmen. “I think some of it belongs to the DuPonces. They probably forgot it was in there.”
My lips pull down to the side. “Whoops.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m sure they have plenty, knowing Callie. The rest belonged to,” he pauses, looking down and picking up a snowglobe with two firefighters inside. A small, sad smile touches his face as he looks at it before surprisingly passing it to me.
“To you and Krystal,” I finish for him.
He nods his head, but he doesn’t look as sad as he once did at the mention of her name.
“Will you tell me about her?” I ask carefully.
His brow twitches down, like he doesn’t understand why I’d want to know.
“A part of me doesn’t get it either,” I admit. “But there’s this whole person who was once a part of you that I know nothing about. How can I know and understand every part of you without knowing anything about her?”
He takes in a deep breath and runs his hand through his hair. “Okay,” he exhales, taking a seat on the couch. Leaving our piles and boxes strewn across the living room floor, I join him, feeling a combination of nervousness and readiness.
“What do you want to know?”
“Everything?” I laugh nervously. “What was she like? Where was she from? How did you meet?”
Levi smirks. “So everything?”
I nod, giving him the space to speak openly.
“Well, we met at our old firehouse. She was a recruit...”
He smiles as he tells me the story and begins opening up more than he ever has before about his life in Oregon.
He doesn’t only tell me about her, but about the rest of the crew that he left behind, and what they were like.
His gaze lifts upward, moving around as if tracking a scene in his mind while he recalls memories of some of the wild calls they all went out on together.
I sit and listen to him, story after story, captivated, and hanging on to every word.
“What did she look like?” I ask after trying to picture it all in my mind, realizing I’ve never seen a picture.
He sighs and pulls out his phone. It doesn’t surprise me that he has pictures of her, but what does is my eagerness to see her. A woman I’ve never met who once held my place in Levi and Ellie’s life. He hands me the phone slowly.
“Wow,” I whisper, taking it from him. “She was beautiful.”
I lift my gaze from the picture to him, and he smiles that sad smile I wish I could fix for him, but understand only time can. He looks down at the picture as if seeing her for the first time.
“Her eyes were as brown as the soil where we planned to stick our roots,” he says softly. “Where we dreamed of settling down and having a family. Her skin was permanently kissed by the sun, and in her curves, where she fit with mine, were the valleys I called home.”
I look over her picture one more time before handing it back. He puts it away and wipes his palms against his jeans.
“You know,” I say, a smile slowly forming. “You’d never guess it by looking at you, but sometimes you say some really poetic shit.”
He barks out a surprised laugh and grabs his chest. “I don’t know if that’s a compliment or an insult.”
“That depends on the quality of love letters you write me from here on out,” I tease, before turning serious again. “She sounds like she was an incredible woman.”
He nods slowly and shrugs, as if there’s no weight behind the words at all.
“She was,” he says, like it’s simply the truth and nothing more, before pulling my hand to his lips and kissing each of my fingers. “I’m not trying to upset you,” he says, his voice gentle, almost careful.
I grin, because I understand why he’d worry, but I know I’m the one who holds his heart now. This is his truth, and he’s trusting me with it.
“I’m not upset. I’m happy you shared that with me,” I tell him honestly. “I could never be jealous of the woman who saved your life. I’m grateful for her.”
His lips part as he exhales, the tightness around his jaw and eyes loosening.
“I’m grateful that she loved you. To be loved like that? It’s a gift. One that she gave with her last breath. You and I met exactly when we were meant to, and it’s thanks to her that I get to love you.”
His eyes shimmer. He clears his throat and pinches the bridge of his nose, fighting back tears before smiling back at me.
“You love me?” he asks, reminding me of how I said the same thing when he told me.
“Trust me,” I drawl dramatically with a chuckle. “I tried even harder not to.”
He laughs and pulls me onto his lap as I squeal.
“You’re hilarious,” he says playfully, pulling my face down and pressing his lips to mine over and over.
He peppers me with kisses, nudging his face into my neck, his nose and beard tickling me, making me giggle as he goes until he stops, pulling back to look at me with a silly grin filled with love.
My pulse races and my stomach flutters under his gaze.
For the first time in my life, I’m filled with a warmth that wraps around me, making me feel happy and whole.
As though he can sense the shift inside me, he tilts his head just a fraction, eyes warming, and I feel the affection radiating from him without a word.
He raises his hand slowly, pushing the hair from my face.
He wraps his hand around the back of my head, and as he threads it through my hair, he pulls me back in for a kiss full of passion.
We’re lost in a moment that belongs only to us as everything else melts away.
I can feel his heartbeat through my chest, a mirror of my own as they find a rhythm all their own.
His lips move firmly over mine, pressing, pulling, and tugging, as my body trembles beneath his hands while they roam my body.
A deep groan escapes him as he pulls away, reluctantly, leaving his forehead resting against mine.
“Come on,” he chokes out, lifting me to my feet.
I stumble but quickly regain my footing. I expect him to lead us to the bedroom, but instead, he walks toward the front door.
“Where are you going?” I ask, confused, the heat of every place he was touching me still lighting me up.
“If we don’t leave right now, I’m going to spend the rest of the night making love to you,” he rasps.
“I don’t see the problem with that... at all.” I blink a few times and point to the bedroom.
He laughs, and his shoulders slump forward. He places his hands on his knees and drops his head, shaking it before he looks back up.
“Listen, woman, I’m going to give you comfy, cozy, holiday magic and whatever else your heart desires, but that is not going to happen unless you move that perfect ass out this door, and even then I can’t make any promises.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, my shoulders lifting up and down with laughter. “We have everything we need right here.”
I point to the boxes and piles that we spent the last hour sorting through, but he shakes his head.
“You are all I need, Tris. That’s why I know you deserve for our first holiday together to be everything you’ve ever dreamed of and more.
There’s nothing wrong with these decorations, but they aren’t ours.
We’re going to the store, and we’re going to pick out brand-new ones so that years from now, when we look at them, they’ll be filled with the memories you and I made together. ”
Tears spring to my eyes, and I clear the room in a few strides before jumping into his arms and kissing him. It’s rough and messy and tastes like salt as the tears fall, but when I pull away, we’re both smiling.
“I’m guessing you like that idea?” he laughs.
I nod my head, and he carries me out the door, all the way to the truck.
By the time we get back, we have twice as many decorations as we started with, each one hand-picked by the two of us.
Levi puts the old boxes back in the shed, and together we decorate both sides of the duplex until it screams Christmas.
It’s overdone and absolutely perfect. The lights are colorful, the garland is draped about, there’s reindeer, snowmen, and gingerbread men everywhere we look.
Levi disappears while I hang our stockings and create a Santa’s village on the mantle.
I’m putting the final touches on when he walks back in, holding an ax in one hand and a tree in the other.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” My eyes bulge, and my jaw drops. “You cut down our Christmas tree yourself?”
“Yeah? My bad, did you want to pick it out yourself?”
“What?” I snap my attention back from my ogling. “No, it’s a tree. I don’t care about that. I’m more interested in how absolutely hot this is,” I clarify for him. “Can you just stand there for a second so I can take a picture of you and that ax?”
His brow rises as he looks at me, confused, and I snap the picture.
“Perfect. I’m going to need to convince Rory’s book club to do a lumberjack theme next month.”
“If it makes you show up, I’m sure Rory will be thrilled,” Levi adds.
After we decorate the Christmas tree, we settle onto the couch together to appreciate all our hard work.
I smile, savoring the warmth of this little, perfect moment that I’ve only ever dreamed of.
Three stockings hang over the fireplace, reading Tris, Ellie, and Levi, while the fireplace crackles.
I convinced Levi that we needed hot cocoa to have the full experience, so now we both sip from holiday-themed mugs as Christmas music plays in the background.
“Is this what you were hoping for?” He kisses my head and breathes me in.
“No,” I say, pausing for dramatic effect.
It works because he jerks his head back, frowning at me until he sees my smile.
“It’s even better.” I kiss his lips softly. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, but when you’re done with that hot cocoa, I bought you something to change into,” he says, a crooked smile tugging at his mouth while his jade-green eyes gleam with bad ideas.
He hands me a reindeer headband with little antlers, and at first glance, I’m confused. “I can put these on right here. What do I have to get changed for?” I place them on my head, proving my point.
“Good girl,” he says, his voice low and husky, sending butterflies fluttering in my stomach. “Now you just need to take everything else off.”
I gulp down my hot cocoa before I accidentally choke on it. “Oh,” I croak, understanding dawning on me as a slow burn ignites across my skin.
“I can do that,” I whisper, placing my now-empty mug on the table.
I stand before him with the heat from the fireplace to my back and strip down until nothing but the antlers remain. “Is this what you were hoping for?” I echo his earlier question, something that’s become fun to do with each other.
He stops his perusal of my body to look up at me and chuckles. “Even better,” he says, following right along before his eyes darken with desire. “Now come here.”