After Emma and Luke took off to spend the rest of the day with Martha and Ben, Molly went upstairs to change clothes, then followed Carter over to his house.

They were barely inside the door when he pulled her against him and gave her a body-warming kiss that sizzled away the cold from outside. Even her toes tingled.

“I’ve wanted to do that all day,” he said.

She couldn’t deny the warmth of his kiss, the tender emotion it evoked. “Well. Merry Christmas to you, too.”.

He fixed them drinks, then they settled into the living room. Carter had turned on his Christmas tree lights. It looked good. He wasn’t going to buy one since he said it was just him, but she’d insisted. Even she owned a tiny Christmas tree that she put up in her apartment. It just wasn’t Christmas without one. He’d relented, so then they had to go get decorations. His mother had given him a few of his childhood ornaments as well. Now it sparkled in his front window. Perfect.

“I forgot to ask you how it went at your parents’ this morning?” she asked.

“Good. I got socks,” he said with a grin.

She rolled her eyes.

“And a new socket wrench set, which I needed.”

“Glad to hear that you got guy things.”

She pulled the gift she’d gotten for him out of her purse. “I have something for you.”

His brows rose as he took the gift from her, then looked over at her. “Is it more socks?”

“You have a thing for socks. I can tell.”

“It means doing less laundry.”

She laughed. “No. It’s not socks. Sorry.”

“This is great, Molly. Thank you.”

“You haven’t opened it yet.”

He looked down at the package. “Oh, right. The wrapping is nice.”

“God, Carter, there’s not a gold bar in there. Just open it already.”

He shot her a grin. “Come on, Moll. Where’s your sense of anticipation?”

“And why aren’t you immediately tearing into the package? Clearly you do it all wrong.”

“I like that we’re different in so many ways.”

She shook her head. “That’s great. Now open your present.”

“Okay.” He slit open the wrapping at one end—carefully, too.

It was all coming back to her now, all the holidays and birthdays where she had to bite her tongue and wait patiently for him to open a present. But he finally got through the wrapping to the box, and opened it, then stared at the framed photograph inside.

He lifted it out and laid it in his lap. “Molly. Where did you find this?”

“I was moving some old photo albums at my parents’, and sat down to go through them. One of the albums was mine. I remembered that I took that photo of you.”

Carter stared down at the picture of him leaning against his first car, an ’87 Honda Civic. The photo was taken of him at the auto shop in Hope, when he’d first started working there when he was sixteen. Back when Mo Bennett still owned the place.

A lifetime ago. His first start.

He ran his fingers across the picture. He’d been so young. Skinny, before he’d gathered up some muscle. He looked like a punk, all smirk and attitude, his arms folded across his chest, his ankles crossed as he looked at Molly.

He lifted his gaze to her. “Thank you for this.”

“You’re welcome. I had it blown up and framed. I figured you might want to put it in your office at the shop in Hope.”

“I will. It means a lot to me to have it.” He leaned over and brushed his lips across hers.

“It was either that or socks,” she whispered.

He laughed. “Well, this is much better than socks, and you know what a fan I am of those.”

He laid the photo down, then went to the tree, grabbing a small box from underneath it.

“This is for you.”

“You already gave me a gift.” Her eyes widened at the size.

“This is more . . . personal,” he said, his eyes glittering with amusement.

She looked down at the box, then at him. “I hope these are earrings or something.”

“I guess you’ll have to open the box to see.”

Carter couldn’t wait to see her reaction to the gift.

She unwrapped the package, saw the black velvet jewelry box inside, and lifted her gaze to his.

He saw panic in her eyes. Okay, he’d thought it was funny. Clearly, she didn’t.

He tried smiling at her, to ease the tension. She wasn’t buying it.

“Carter.”

“Just open the box, Molly.”

Her hands were shaking as she lifted the lid on the box.

Inside, on the soft black velvet, was a key.

She exhaled, then looked over at him. “What is this?”

“I figured you were tired of standing outside in the cold, so it’s a key to my house.”

“Oh.”

“You know, so anytime you want to pop over, you can just use the key to get inside.”

She lifted the key. “This is . . . great. Thanks.”

Yeah, he could tell she was underwhelmed. Maybe a little shocked. But he had to take those first steps, go slow, if he was ever going to get anywhere with her.

“You know you already keep some of your things here when you spend the night. And eventually, with your mom getting back on her feet, you’re going to want to think about where you want to stay after—she’s all better.”

She lifted her gaze to his, the key lying like a poisonous snake in the open palm of her hand. “What are you saying?”

All the wrong things, obviously. “That maybe you might want to consider this your secondary home, until you find another place to live.”

She held the key in the open palm of her hand like it was something toxic. “Oh.”

Okay, maybe this hadn’t been a good idea after all.

“Hey, no pressure, ya know? If you don’t want to use it, you don’t have to. And you can hang out at your parents forever. Or not forever. You’re free to do whatever you want, Molly. I just wanted to give you another option.”

He wanted to tell her he loved her, that he wanted her to move in with him, stay with him. But the look of stricken panic on her face stopped him, so he reined in the urge.

She finally closed her fingers over the key. “I appreciate this so much, Carter. Thank you for opening your home to me.”