Kiss Me (Townsend Legacy)

Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

T ania

“It’s been almost an hour and Liza hasn’t called me,” I say as we enter Taehyun’s cabin. Then I freeze.

“Maybe she’s busy.”

I hear the door close behind me, but I’m too focused on the packages that lie in front of me to even notice his response about Liza.

“What is all of this?” I ask as my eyes roam over the boxes and packages—most unopened—of what look like Christmas decorations.

“What does it look like?” he answers in his typical smartass fashion.

I slap his arm as he moves past me. “Why are there so many decorations here? And why are they just spread out in your living room?”

“Because I told the staff that I’d be the one to put them up.” He comes to stand before me. “Well, I was hoping to have a little help.”

“Me?”

He nods as he unzips my jacket and tosses my useless crutch to the side.

“There’s no one else I’m sharing my cabin with this week,” he tells me as he removes my coat.

I heel-toe off the snow boots I wore to breakfast.

“You said your favorite part of the holidays was decorating your house.”

“One of them,” I correct. “One of my favorite parts of the holidays.” Truthfully, I loved every part of the holidays as a kid.

I’ve missed just about every aspect over the past ten years. Since my mother died, my father barely even acknowledges the holiday, let alone bothers with decorating.

“Right,” Taehyun says. “Well, it looks like we have everything we need to decorate.”

I follow him over to the living room to find stacks of unopened Christmas ornaments, three different types of tinsel, multiple lights and candles, and finally a huge box with a six-foot artificial Christmas tree.

“I can’t believe they delivered all of this,” I say, grinning like a child on Christmas morning.

“That’s not everything.” Taehyun holds up a finger before heading to the kitchen. “We’ve also got all of the ingredients to make gingerbread cookies,” he says, displaying a package of flour and sugar in each hand.

“And …” He pivots to open one of the draws. He makes a sound of satisfaction as he pulls out the cookie cutters.

“These to actually make the damn things. I know you’re a fan of the gingerbread man shape, but I had them bring the house shaped cookie cutters for a little variety.”

My eyes start to water. Before Taehyun’s even able to place the cookie cutters back in the drawer, I make my way over to him and throw my arms around his neck.

He stills for a second, surprised, but then his arms wrap around me, completing this moment. I don’t dare let the tears in my eyes fall, though. I couldn’t possibly cry for a second time in this man’s presence.

“Decorations or cookies first?” he asks once I finally pull back.

“Um …” I peer around while I decide. “We should definitely make the dough for the cookies first and bake them while we decorate.”

He grins and kisses me. It’s so quick and natural that it almost feels habitual. Something like a couple would do.

I brush away the thought and proceed to remove the long-sleeve shirt I’m wearing, leaving me in just the T-shirt. I put the red apron with gingerbread men all over them over my head, and Taehyun ties it up in the back without me even asking.

I do the same for him, and we soon get started preparing the dough for our cookies. I eventually connect my phone to the cabin’s speakers so that my Christmas music playlist plays while we bake.

The music continues on repeat as we move from the kitchen to the living room to begin setting up the decorations.

“I’ve got this covered,” Taehyun says as he begins removing the artificial tree from the box.

“That thing is huge. You can’t do it by yourself.”

He blocks me when I go to reach for one of the tree’s branches. “You have an injured ankle. You should rest it.”

He laughs out loud when I snatch the branch from him and hit him with it.

“Very funny.”

We go back and forth like that as we set up the tree and then proceed to open all of the new packages of ornaments, bobbles, tinsel, and lights.

“Let’s do a silver and red themed Christmas tree?” We have more than enough decorations to adequately deck out our tree.

Taehyun agrees, and we start our process of making this once bare tree sparkle with holiday shine.

“You can’t put the ornaments so close together,” I tell him some time later. This is the third time I’ve had to tell him to spread the decorations out.

He glares at me. “Who the hell knew you were as competitive about Christmas tree decorating as you are about gingerbread houses.”

“I’m not being competitive. It just looks better spread out,” I reply while removing the latest ornament he placed right next to another bobble. “And they’re the same color.”

I point between the ornament in my hand and the one he placed it right next to.

“It should be red, silver, red, silver, so that the colors stand out next to one another.”

He throws up his hands in exasperation. “I’m going to check on the first batch of cookies.”

“Good,” I call out behind him. “Make sure they don’t burn.”

“Yes, mom,” he tosses back.

While he’s in the kitchen, I fix a number of ornaments he’s put on the tree so that it looks more symmetrical.

Stepping back, I assess our tree.

“Perfect,” I mumble before snorting. “What would he do without me?” This poor, defenseless Christmas tree needed my help.

“I guess we’ll never know,” Taehyun says behind me, startling me.

I turn around to tell him he just scared me, but he holds a gingerbread cookie to my mouth.

“Open.”

I do so without hesitating, taking a bite.

“Mmm,” I groan. The cookie isn’t even decorated with icing but it’s fresh out of the oven, still warm and with the perfect amount of spiciness from the ginger and sweetness from the cinnamon and sugar.

“So good,” I say, my mouth still full of my first bite.

I part my lips again to take another bite, but Taehyun stuffs the rest of the cookie into his own mouth.

“Hey.”

“That’s for criticizing my tree decorating skills.”

“I was merely pointing out that you were doing it wrong.” I stick my tongue out at him before trying to head to the kitchen to grab another cookie.

“Wrong way, Ginger,” he says, grabbing my hips to steer me back toward the living room.

“I just want one more cookie before we do the rest of the cabin.”

But Taehyun is adamant as he shakes his head.

“The cookies haven’t even been iced yet. We need to set up the rest of these decorations and then finish the cookies once they’ve had time to cool down.”

I fold my arms across my chest. “You told me you’ve never done this before. You sound almost like a professional.”

He shakes his head. “Just a man who read the instructions beforehand. Now …”

“Ouch.” I jump as he spins me around, smacking my ass.

“Back to decking this place out.”

My annoyance quickly vanishes when he lifts a stream of Christmas lights out of their box and places them around his shoulders to begin dancing in time to Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

I crack up laughing and clapping as he mimics the words of the song while using the lights as a microphone.

“How do you even know the lyrics to this song? I thought you didn’t celebrate Christmas?” I ask at the same time I take the lights and begin unraveling them.

“Not at home but I did most of my schooling and university studies in the States. Friends of mine always had Christmas parties and whatnot. You get to hear the same songs over and over each year. I used to wonder how people never got tired of them.”

He shakes his head as if still trying to figure it out.

“Tired?” My voice is full of surprise. “How could you even think that? These songs are classics.” I finish my comment right as Wham!’s “Last Christmas” begins playing. I gasp so loud that Taehyun jumps.

“This one is sooo good!”

Taehyun watches me with astonishment and mock horror as I begin singing the lyrics at the top of my lungs.

Though he tries to appear annoyed, I don’t miss the sparkle of laughter in his eyes when I dance around him, still unraveling the lights.

“Here,” I say once the song is over, handing him part of the lights. “These lights aren’t going to hang themselves.”

We not only place lights around the tree, but then stream them along the banister of the second floor. Next, we move on to hanging up the tinsel over the fireplace and some candles.

“Oh, perfect, they brought stockings for each of us.” Another one of my gasps startles Taehyun. “They even printed our names on them.”

I show off the glitter lettering that reads ‘Tania’ in one hand and the other that reads ‘Taehyun’.

“They thought of everything. Wait …” I trail off as I give Taehyun a strange look. “How did they know to add my name to a stocking? I’m not listed on your reservation as a guest here.”

“That’s because I told them to add your name. And to make sure they spelled both of ours correctly.”

He takes the stockings from my hands and holds them up as if displaying his own handiwork.

“You have no idea how many times I’ve had my name spelled wrong for shit like this.”

I laugh and nod. “Honestly, I can probably guess. My name is only five letters and it’s spelled pretty much exactly how it sounds, but the number of times I’ve gotten ‘Tonya,’ ‘Tammy,’ or even ‘Teresa’ on a few occasions is insane.”

“Teresa doesn’t even sound like your name.”

“That’s what I said. I can only imagine how painful it is in your case.”

He nods before wrapping an arm around my waist, pulling me into his body.

“I used to go by Tae to make it easier for pronunciation, like Hyung.”

I jut my head back. “Hyung?”

He blinks. “Oh, Dae.”

“Why do you call him hyung?”

“In Korea, men call our older brothers, relatives, or friends hyung as a term of respect.”

“Ahh.”

“Anyway, I decided to use my full name once I realized names like Schwarzenegger and Gyllenhaal could be pronounced correctly by the masses, then so could mine.”

“Good for you,” I say, feeling genuine pride. “Names are important.”

He gives me a long, simmering look that I feel down to my core, before I clear my throat.

“Anyway, I made damn sure they spelled it right this time.” He nods to the stockings that are now in my hands.

“One of the million parts of this holiday you said was your favorite was seeing a stocking with your name on it hanging over the fireplace. And waking up on Christmas morning to open up the goodies in your stocking first.”

I told him that two nights ago while we stayed up late into the night talking. I spilled all of my secret favorites about this time of the year. Memories that I haven’t shared with anyone in many years poured out of me.

Some of which even I had forgotten about until I started talking.

“I used to think there was some magic in this holiday as a kid,” I say, looking down at the stockings in my hands. I peer up and see Taehyun’s intense gaze on me.

“I’m starting to believe that again.”