Page 13 of Unwrapping His Gift

I catch a blur behind me and swing around to see Daisy, fully dressed, glancing down at her phone, stepping into her shoes. She sees me looking at her and gives me one of those smiles you give someone when they’ve caught you doing something you didn’t want them to see you doing.

“Oh, hey,” she says, letting her hair fall across her face. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Nah, don’t worry about that,” I reply. “Where you headed?”

“Just work. I’ve got to go in, and I wanted to let you sleep.”

“Don’t be silly, I can drive you.” I start to get up, but she instantly comes over and presses a hand against my chest.

“That’s okay,” she says quickly. “I’ve already got an Uber on the way. It’s almost here. Hey, I had a really nice time last night. Thanks for the latte!”

“Yeah, no problem. So did I.” I lean in for a kiss, but Daisy twists away like she’s friendzoning me. Then she’s rushing out the door like she actually owns the company she works for and she’s late for a meeting.

I try to tell myself that she’s just late and really needs to get to work, but I’m no dummy. There’s something else going on here. Something upset her this morning – something about last night is weighing on her mind, and she isn’t talking to me about it. If I had to bet, I’d say it has something to do with that elf-eared friend of hers who came and yanked her away from the coffee shop that first time I took her out.

I really want to just rush out the door after her, but I’m still naked from last night, and I can hear a car out front pulling up to pick her up. Rushing out there with no clothes on (and in the snow) probably wouldn’t be the best way to go about talking to her right now, especially when she does have to get to work.

But that won’t be the last of this. There’s no way I’m going to just going to let things fall apart between us again. I’m going to figure out what she’s afraid of, and I’m going to fix it.

If she’s worried she can’t trust me, then I’m going to prove to her she can. Because the way I feel when I’m around Daisy is a feeling I can never let go of.

6

DAISY

I’m trembling all over as sitin the back of the Uber on the way to work. And it’s sure not the cold that’s got me shaking either. It’s the anxiety from what I just did back at Craig’s house.

God, what am I even thinking?

I don’t even know right now. Last night was magical. Just thinking about it starts heat waves rushing through my body. I told myself I’d just meet up with him for a drink – I even told Marissa, but then things justhappened.The way his hands felt…the way his lips felt…the way he felt inside me…falling asleep in his arms…

I felt so safe again. I felt a way I haven’t felt since my father died.

But then I woke up this morning, and it was like something had shifted in my mind. It was like a lever had been pulled, or a button had been pressed, or some secret compartment had been opened, and all these suspicious thoughts I had pushed back for that incredible evening just dumped onto me like a bucket of fish guts, and I suddenly felt like I had to just get the hell out of there.

And I know who I have to blame too.

Marissa.

She planted that seed in my mind with that story about her ex. She’s the one who got me thinking about how Craig could be some secret, double-agent-bad-guy and how if I let myself fall for him again, he’s just going to betray my feelings and leave me feeling emotionally deflated like a month-old birthday balloon.

Everything he told me made sense, though...for the most part.

I believed him when he said his snobby parents forbade him from seeing me anymore. When they said they would completely cut him off if he continued dating me. But I guess the fact that he listened to them and never got back in touch with me for the following five years is still kind of bothering me.

I mean, I get it – he was afraid of how that conversation between us would go, but still…to just leave me wondering like that? Not cool.

I want to look past it, though. I really do. Especially after everything that happened last night. It was like a dream or something out of a movie.

“Here you are, miss.” I look up and realize we’ve arrived at my building. I was so lost in my own thoughts that I wasn’t even paying attention to the ride.

“Oh, thanks!” I smile, pushing my door open. “Have a nice day. Hope you don’t get any drunks puking in your car!”

“That makes two of us!” He laughs.

I head up to the office, picking the skin by my fingernails – a nervous habit I’ve had since dad died as I continue to mull everything over that has to do with Craig. I try to focus on something else, but it’s impossible. He’s the only thing on my mind.

It suddenly occurs to me that for the first time since my dad died, I actually enjoyed something Christmasy. The peppermint-mocha-latte that Craig got for me was actually really good, and I didn’t get all annoyed or anti-Christmas about it when he asked me to get it with him. I wasn’t sitting there in the coffee shop looking at the lights, thinking about my dad, wishing I was back home away from it all; I was just focused on Craig. Somehow, he’d managed to take my mind off everything I normally think about when the holidays come around. And that is one incredible feat in itself.