After knocking, the door swings open, and a frowning Brock answers the door. "You know you're ruining my street cred, right? If anyone sees me in that, I'm going to be the laughingstock of the whole town."
I laugh and pat him on the back as I walk in the house. "I gave you the option."
Yesterday I told Brock my idea, and even though he wasn't thrilled, he said he would do it.
He holds his hand out. "Give it to me. I might as well get this over with."
I pull the sweater from the bag and hand it to him. He acts like it's a ticking time bomb instead of just a Christmas sweater.
He holds it by his fingertips. "Oh God, this is hideous."
"Your mom's going to love it."
He tugs it over his head and stuffs his arms in the sleeves before pulling it down over his chest. He blows out a breath. “I know she will. That's why I'm doing it."
He looks at my sweater, smirks, and rolls his eyes. "Mom, you coming? Ryker is here."
"I'm coming," she hollers, and soon we hear her feet on the stairs.
As soon as she takes the last step, she sees us, and her mouth drops open. She puts her hands up to her face. “What? How? Oh my!”
I knew she would be happy. The woman loves Christmas, and I thought she would appreciate us dressing for the occasion. But I was not ready for the tears. I guess Brock wasn’t either. “Mom, this was supposed to make you happy.”
“I am happy” she says, wiping her tears.
Brock groans. “I'm going to wait in the car.” He gestures to me and then his mom. “You got this?”
I nod, and as soon as he closes the door, I hold my arms open. Izzy runs into them, pressing her body into mine.
I wrap her up, holding her to me, and I never want to let her go. My hand soothes up and down her back. “You okay?"
She sniffles. “Yeah, I just can't believe you did this."
“l know you love these Christmas sweaters."
She sniffs again. “I do. I just don't know how you do this. In just a little over a week you've seen me—the real me—more than anyone has seen me."
"I love you, Izz. I've always seen you."
She's looking up at me, and she goes to her tiptoes, sliding a hand behind my neck, pulling me to her. "Kiss me, Ry."
I slam my mouth to hers. I've thought about this moment for what seems like forever, and I told myself I would take my time and savor every second of it.
But feeling her body pressed against me and her lips against mine makes me feel as if I'm going to spontaneously combust. I tilt her head, deepening the kiss, sliding our tongues against each other. I moan and pull away. We're both wide-eyed, panting, staring at each other.
"Wow," she says in awe.
I clear my throat. “Yeah. Wow."
I'm trying to get myself together. The last thing I wanna do is walk out of here with a hard-on and have her son see me.
I pick up my bag and pull out another sweater. “I know you have that one on so you don't have to change..."
She claps her hands together excitedly. "You got me one?"
The fact she's so surprised pisses me off a little bit. Does she not know she deserves the world? “Yeah, honey. I got you one. I know how much you love to watchChristmas Vacation,so each of our sweaters has a quote from the movie."
She holds it up. “It's perfect. I'll be right back."
