“No, baby. Not at all. I just don’t want you tying yourself up in knots trying to get everyone a gift, okay?”
“Must admit, wasn’t easy to think of what to get some of the guys. I mean, what do you buy a guy like Bain?”
“What did you buy him?” he asked curiously.
“Um, a coffee cup that says, Whiskey Wednesday, it’s like Taco Tuesday but for bad asses.”
He stared at her for a moment then burst into laughter. “Okay, yeah, that’s good.”
“Yeah?” She looked visibly relieved.
He cupped her face between his hands. “Baby, like I said. Don’t tie yourself up in knots over any of this. Everyone will love what you got them.”
She gave him a tentative smile.
“How did I never know you were this into Christmas?”
“Maybe because this is the first year I’ve ever really had a Christmas.”
She stiffened as soon as she said the words. “What do you mean?”
She tried to look away and he knew she was going to do her best to avoid the question. But he wasn’t having that. She’d never had a Christmas?
“Abby,” he said firmly. “Explain what you just said.”
She shrugged. “I always offered to do the Christmas Eve shift at the diner to give the other staff who had families time off. Then I would come back to work the Boxing day shift too.”
His eyes narrowed. Her bitch of a boss had a lot to answer for. Those shifts should have been shared fairly. Whoever was on Christmas Eve shouldn’t have been working the day after Christmas too. But then he already knew how much Gloria had used Abby.
“It’s okay, Kent,” she said quickly. “I didn’t have a family to spend it with so it didn’t bother me.”
“What about when your nana was alive?”
Abby bit that delicious lower lip of hers. He used his thumb to gently pry it loose from her teeth. “Abby?”
She sighed. “Nana hated Christmas.”
His body gave an involuntary jolt of surprise. “She hated Christmas?”
“Yeah. Her dad wasn’t a very nice guy. When he got really drunk, he became violent. Thankfully, he didn’t drink that often, but at Christmas time his boss would always give him a bottle of bourbon as a bonus. He’d get drunk and knock around Nana’s mom. Sometimes the kids. So, all she remembered of Christmas was being scared and having to watch as her dad turned violent.”
“Jesus,” he muttered then gathered her close. Christ, now he felt like an absolute ass for feeling even the least bit of impatience over this Christmas stuff.
Seemed from now on, each December he was gonna live in a house filled with tinsel, lights and gifts. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“So, I’ve never had much cause to celebrate Christmas or buy gifts. Mostly, any gifts I bought and stuck under the tree Max would take and hock so. . .”
He leaned back and watched her stare around the room. “I went overboard, didn’t I? I’m so sorry. This place looks like a Christmas shop on stero
ids. I should take some of this down. I—”
She tried to slip off the kitchen counter but he was in her way.
“It’s perfect.”
She stared at him with wide eyes. “No, it’s not. It’s over-the-top.”
“Then it’s perfectly over-the-top.”