The Christmas Wish by Katy Regnery Read Free Book Online

cowl-neck angora sweater she’d bought along with the decorations. She closed her eyes and smiled in relief, then forced herself not to run to the front door.
    Lucas stood on her front doorstep holding a wrapped gift in one hand and a poinsettia in the other. He offered her a tentative smile, as though he wasn’t sure what to expect. She almost sighed aloud, she was so glad to see him, so glad that their quarrel was behind them.
    “Merry Christmas, Lucas,” she said.
    “You got a tree,” he realized, peeking around her. “Can I come in and see it?”
    “Yes! Yes, please, come in!” She stepped aside to make room for him in the small front hallway. She was nervous. Goodness gracious, she was so nervous.
    He handed her the plant. “It’s for your mom. I didn’t know if she—”
    “She’s at church,” said Tess, taking it from him. “She sings in the choir at eight, nine-thirty and midnight on Christmas Eve.”
    “That’s a lot of church. None for you?” he asked, grinning as he unwound his scarf from his neck and handed her his jacket.
    “I went at four…when the little ones go,” she added, hanging up his coat, trying not to ogle him in those new-looking jeans and a pressed white dress shirt. “Make yourself at home.”
    She closed the closet and turned toward the living room. He was standing next to the Christmas tree, clutching a wrapped present under one arm with red paper and a big gold bow.
    “I love it,” he whispered, staring at the ornaments, reaching out gingerly here and there to touch them.
    “That’s good,” she said softly, approaching him and finally stopping beside him. “Because it’s yours. It’s all for you.”
    “Tess.” He turned slowly, his face pained, his eyes searching.
    She swallowed before continuing. It would be hard for her to say words she’d never said before. But she had to say them. She had to be sure he knew how she felt about him. “For Christmas I wanted to give you…Christmas. Lucas, you’ve said a lot of beautiful things to me, but it’s hard for me. I want to believe you so much. That you could want me. That you could possibly…”
    Her voice broke and she swallowed again, rubbing her hands together, forcing herself not to look away from him. “Want me. But I’m going to trust you. I’m going to try. And I just wanted to say…for however long you stay, for as long as you’re here in Gardiner, I just want to be with you. J-just you, and, I mean, I just wondered if…if you’d let me. I love you?”
    He winced, holding her eyes. His voice was breathy, strangled. “ Let you?”
    Tess nodded, taking a step toward him. He placed the present he was holding on the coffee table behind her and pulled her against him, leaning his head into her neck. She could feel his jaw clench and unclench.
    “‘Let you!’” he breathed again. “As though you need my permission to love me back when I love you so much it hurts. I’ve watched you pack up a little extra food for someone down on his luck, ooh and ahh over some drawing a little kid colored for you. I’ve seen your patience when people are mean to you, the way you still have a kind word the next time they come by for a meal. I think I’m jealous of that old mutt you feed out back behind the loading dock now and then, the way you speak to him all sweet and scratch behind his ears like he’s still worth something.” She felt his breath, hot and soft on the skin of her neck as he inhaled and sighed. “For so long I’ve barely wasted a wish hoping for something good, even though I want it. So when I found it—when I found you, Tess—how could I keep myself from loving you?”
    He drew back, looking into her eyes, smiling at her like she was the rarest, most precious thing in the world. Then he tilted his head and dropped his lips to hers, sweeping his tongue inside her mouth and making her knees go weak as he held her tightly against his body. When he finally leaned back, his eyes were