Snippet Saturday – a gift

Choosing a Snippet Saturday scene featuring a gift was pretty easy since I have a Christmas novella, THIS TIME NEXT YEAR, coming up in the Carina Press anthology HOLIDAY KISSES – and Christmas is all about gifts! Enjoy!

*****

Dillon stared at the tongue-in-groove ceiling of Donota Keating's guestroom, wondering if Brenna was sleeping in the room above. Or if her bed was farther down the hallway, as far away from his as her grandmother could manage.

The thought had him smiling, though his wry grin became more of a grimace as he sat up. He had no problem abiding by his hostess's rules, but he didn't like the idea that she'd kept him from Brenna for any reason but propriety.

And something told him grandmother and granddaughter had done a lot of talking at his expense while he'd tended to Ranger after dinner last night.

Really, though, what did he expect? Donota knew almost as much of his history as he'd spilled to Brenna, and he could hardly blame her for wanting her granddaughter to steer clear from damaged goods.

He tugged on his socks and his jeans, buckled his belt and found his boots. After yesterday's huge lunch and equally big dinner, not to mention the cookies he'd grazed on all day, his stomach shouldn't be rumbling, but it was. Rain or shine, breaking dawn meant coffee. And seeing to Ranger's feed.

He slipped on his shirt and, boots in hand, started toward the kitchen. Halfway down the hall, he passed the living room and glanced in, at the tree Brenna and her grandmother had decorated while laughing like schoolgirls, tossing popcorn and cranberries at each other and him, their squeals bringing down the house and breaking loose chunks of the armor he wore.

And that was when he saw her asleep on the floor, not in the room above his at all. She was wrapped in the quilt from the rack behind the sofa. Throw pillows from the pile he'd seen in the rocking chair were scattered around her, cushioning her head, tucked to her chest, trapped between her legs.

She looked warm and cozy and comfortable, and then he realized she wasn't asleep. Instead she was looking at him.

"Good morning," he said, leaving his boots at the room's entrance and crossing to the tree. "You're up early."

"Up late, you mean," she said, pushing to sit, her legs stretched out in front of her.

"You haven't been to sleep?"

She shook her head, scraped a fall of hair from her face. "Gran and I stayed up half the night talking."

"When I came in from tending Ranger, you said you were headed to bed."

She shrugged, smiled softly. "That had been the plan."

Hmm. "What changed it?"

"That," she said, inclining her head, her gaze searching out his gift boxed under the tree.

He hadn't planned to bring it, had stuffed it at the last minute into Ranger's saddlebag. Something told him giving it to her here, at her grandmother's house cloaked in the familiarity of Christmas, would make a bigger impact.

And making an impact was the whole point of the gift. "You want to open it?"

"Can I?"

"Your call," he said, crossing his ankles and folding down to sit facing her. "You're the one who knows the house rules, not me."

"We don't really have house rules," she said with a laugh, reaching for the box and pulling it into her lap. "I don't have anything for you."

"It's not that big of a deal. Besides, you made me cookies."

"And then ate half of them myself."

"Some gifts are better when shared."

She dropped her gaze from his to her lap, her cheeks going pink. "I guess some are."

He thought about having her in his bed, wondered how he'd ever sleep again without her there. They'd be leaving Donota's after the big noon meal in order to get back to his cabin before dark. And with the storm over, he could get her to Raleigh tomorrow. Another week and she'd be looking down on the Atlantic from forty thousand feet.

He didn't want her to go. He had no expectation that she'd stay, no right to ask her, no claim to stake. This gift was all he had. "Are you going to open it?"

She pulled the pinecones from the top, stripped away the tape holding the flaps together. Then gripping two in her fists, she said, "You're making me nervous."

"Do you want me to leave?" He didn't want to, but he would.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "It's Christmas morning. This is where you belong."

For more Saturday Snippets:

Anne Rainey

Mari Carr

McKenna Jeffries

Myla Jackson

Taige Crenshaw

Selena Blake

Vivian Arend

Alison Kent

HelenKay Dimon

Lauren Dane

Lacey Savage

Shiloh Walker