A Clandestine Corporate Affair(41)
He grinned and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her against him. “In that case, I accept.”
“We’ll have to run to the grocery store after dinner. For a turkey and all the trimmings. I’ve never actually made one, but I’m sure I can find a recipe on the internet.”
“If we can even find a turkey. I imagine the stores will be pretty cleaned out by now.”
“Then we may have to settle for grilled cheese and tomato soup. That’s about all I have right now. My dad always sends me home with so many leftovers, I didn’t stop at the market this week.”
Nathan grinned down at her, smoothed her hair back and kissed her softly. “As long as I’m with you and Max, I really don’t care what we eat.”
That just might be the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to her. Even though it was last-minute, and she hadn’t had time to plan, she wanted to make their first Christmas together a special one.
From the baby monitor she heard Max beginning to wake up. “You want to get him while I look for recipes?”
He gave her one more sweet, bone-melting kiss, then went to get their son.
Ana spent the next hour online, discovering that not only was there a turkey recipe, there were about ten thousand! She chose one for turkey and stuffing that sounded tasty and looked fairly easy to pull off, then she assembled a shopping list of everything she would need, hoping that the stores wouldn’t be as cleaned out as Nathan had predicted. When she was finished they packed Max up and went to the diner for dinner, then stopped at the market on the way home. The small, privately owned organic place she usually went to was out of everything. They tried the larger commercially owned organic store a few miles away, but they too were cleaned out of all the holiday fixings.
They packed Max back up into the car and tried the national grocery chain store next. Though it was packed to the gills with last-minute shoppers, they hit pay dirt in the meat department. Not only did they have turkeys, but they were already thawed, which she had learned online often took days. The only problem was the smallest they had was twenty-six pounds.
“We’re going to be eating turkey for a month,” Nathan said, dropping it in their cart.
Probably, but she didn’t care. She probably wouldn’t have even cared if they never found a turkey. Spending the evening with him and Max, shopping together as a family, was more than she ever could have hoped for.
They hit the produce department next, and she was relieved to find that they carried organic versions of most of the items she needed. They picked up three different varieties of pies in the bakery department, plus the bread they would need for the stuffing. By the time they got in the checkout line—which had to be twenty carts long—their shopping cart was practically overflowing. They stood in line discussing their plans for the next day, and by the time their things were rung up and bagged, it was way past Max’s bedtime. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, and Ana got him into bed while Nathan brought in the groceries and got his overnight bag from the trunk of his car.
He offered to help her put everything away, but she shooed him out of the kitchen and insisted he go watch TV. When he snuck back into the kitchen half an hour later for a beer, he was dressed in flannel pajama bottoms. And nothing else.
Arms folded, she looked him up and down. “Are you trying to lure me out of here?”
He grinned. “Is it working?”
She licked her lips. “If I didn’t have about a million things to do…”
He gave her a quick kiss. “Actually, it was too warm with the fire going. But if you’re not finished in here soon, I may have to take you against your will.”
After he was back to watching TV, Ana put the rest of the groceries away and prepared things for the following morning, thinking how absolutely perfect the evening had been. Almost too perfect, just like the last time.
Everything seemed to be going really well then, too, and out of the blue he’d dumped her. Maybe if she knew for sure why he had done it then, she wouldn’t worry now. Or maybe she should stop being paranoid and be thankful for this second chance.
It was past eleven when she shut off the kitchen light and headed out into the living room. The television was still on, but Nathan was lying on the couch asleep. She grabbed the remote from the coffee table and switched it off. Though they should probably get to bed so she could get up early to start the preparations for dinner, she had this sudden, soul-deep need to be close to him.
She undressed and dropped her clothes in a pile on the floor then climbed on the couch, straddling Nathan’s thighs. He must have really been out cold because he didn’t even budge. She considered gently shaking him awake, but wondered how far she could go, what it would take to wake him in other, more fun ways.