Page 49 of Wishing for Love
“I find that pretty sexy too.”
17
WORKED FOR HER
“It didn’t seem as much until we just stuffed it under the tree,” Phoenix said quietly an hour later.
He’d gone in to check on Elsie and had come back to say she was out cold. Then the two of them loaded the gifts under the tree in the formal living room. They had to walk past the hallway toward Elsie’s room for it.
“How come you didn’t put the tree in the family room?” she asked. “You wouldn’t have had to carry everything as far.”
“Because Elsie mentioned that she liked seeing the lights when we pulled in front of the house. She always liked to see decorations. I forgot Maryn would drive around with her and wish we’d done that.”
“You still can,” she said. “Maybe do it next week. People leave their decorations up for a while.”
“We could,” he said.
“I’ve got some gifts upstairs if you don’t mind me going to get them and adding them now,” she said.
“Do you need help?” he asked.
They’d had more wine while they waited for Elsie to sleep. She had one glass with dinner, then another an hour ago.Phoenix had whiskey. There was still the glass left for Santa. That would all but kill the bottle. She wasn’t sure the last time she had a bottle herself.
“If you want,” she said.
They moved to the back of the house and up the stairs. “You put them under the tree?”
“I did yesterday,” she said. “Not sure why.”
She did but didn’t want to say why. She wanted to feel like this was her little home, but what good were gifts if no one opened them with you? Maybe it was even silly to put a tree up here too.
“There are a lot here,” he said.
“Some are from my family,” she said. “My parents sent some and so did Taylor. Everyone else sent me gift cards. It's sad to say I kind of did that too, or sent toys for my nieces and nephews and knew their parents would wrap them for me. I had them delivered right to the house. Some things I could pay for wrapping, but I know it’s not like it’s wrapped nicely either.”
It was a waste to her to do that when it only went in a cheap bag.
“My parents sent a few things. Most were for Elsie too. They came last week. The rest of what we get are gift cards too,” he said.
“It’s like it’s just exchanging cash at times,” she said. “But I get it. I get gift cards to places I wouldn’t normally buy something from so it is still a treat. And the thought.”
She pointed to the pile to bring downstairs. It was three gifts for Elsie and one for him. She had to get him something and it had been hard to think of what to do, but she finally settled on a nice set of whiskey glasses with his initials engraved in them.
There were just some cheap glasses she’d seen that he used and was surprised by that. Sometimes he drank the whiskey out of a glass from the kitchen.
For a guy that had money, he was pretty basic at times.
Not that there was anything wrong with that. It worked for her.
No one would say she was high maintenance even though her siblings had picked on her about those things in the past.
With his gift in her hand and the other three for Elsie, they walked downstairs and put them under the tree. Elsie had wanted a few things for her Uncle Nix and she’d purchased them for the little girl with her own money. She hoped he wasn’t upset over that, but she felt it was the least she could do.
It barely cost a hundred dollars for the three things and it’s not like he wasn’t giving her so much by living here free, covering the gas in her car, and even her eating most of the food bought for the family.
It was crazy in a way.
“That is a lot of gifts for Elsie,” he said when he saw the four in her hand.