“Stop! I can’t breathe!” I said through my laughter. “Stop it, Big Dicky!”
He tickled me harder. And right when I was about to protest again he captured my laughter with a kiss. A kiss like the one we’d shared outside. Like he was starving for me. It wasthe weirdest sensation, kissing and laughing. Like somehow my joy extended into him and his transferred to me. I couldn’t remember ever feeling this happy. Or this desperate for someone’s touch.
Fuck.How could I go from laughing so hard one minute to being so completely aroused the next? I wrapped my legs around his waist as he deepened the kiss.
“God, Brooklyn.” He put his forehead against mine. “If it wasn’t snowing so hard. And it wasn’t Christmas. I’d be out there buying a huge box of condoms.”
It made me laugh. Thinking about the huge box of condoms my uncle had bought me when he thought I was being promiscuous made me laugh even harder. I hadn’t been. At the time I hadn’t needed them at all. But thinking about my uncle gifting me the box made me remember something really important. “Oh my God. I have something for you.”
“Wait you have a condom?”
“No. I wish. But I have a present for you.” I’d left it outside on the front step this whole time. In the middle of a huge snowstorm. There was no way it wasn’t completely ruined.Crap.
Miller didn’t move to let me up.
“Big Dicky, I need to get up.”
He sighed. “Seriously, don’t call me that, kid.”
It was the perfect time to strike a deal with him. I’d stop calling him Big Dicky or Richard. And he’d stop calling me kid. But honestly? I kind of liked when he called me kid. It was weird, I know, but it reminded me of when my uncle called me kiddo. And I knew it was just something Miller said because he was looking out for me. Because he loved me. And I’d be sad if he never called me that again. “Okay. You look a lot more like a Miller. No matter how big your dick is.”
He laughed and climbed off of me. “You’re free.”
“Come with me.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. I figured the box would be in disarray. Frozen. Or melted. Or…something not quite right. I wanted him to see it before I picked it up and it fell apart.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
I grabbed the doorknob and opened the door.
A big gust of wind came into the house, scattering snowflakes everywhere. He pulled me into his chest so I wouldn’t get wet again. There was a foot of snow on his front porch. And the present was nowhere in sight.Shit.
“It’s a freaking blizzard out there,” Miller said and went to close the door.
“Wait. Your present is somewhere under all that snow.”
He looked down at me. “Where?”
“I don’t know,” I said with a laugh. “But I have to find it. I spent pretty much all my money on it and since we’re not using our enormous savings account…I don’t want to waste anything.”
“You’re not going to use the money either?”
“Not if you don’t want to.” I crouched down in front of the door and started moving snow around, searching aimlessly for the box.
“Let me get us some gloves at least,” Miller said. He disappeared from behind me.
Please be okay.I moved more snow out of the way. I didn’t want to pop back into Miller’s life again empty handed. And not give him a present two Christmases in a row. I know he said all he needed was me. But…I wanted him to know how much I appreciated him. And I’d spent a lot of time thinking about this gift.
“Here,” Miller said and handed me a pair of gloves.
He knelt down next to me and started searching in the snow too. “Was it to the left or the right…”
I laughed and pulled on the gloves. “I don’t remember. I was panicking because you didn’t answer the door.”
“Why were you panicking?”
“I thought you were…” my voice trailed off.
He stopped searching and looked over at me. “You thought I was what? Taking a dump or something?”
