"This is absolutely ridiculous! We don't have any Christmas food in here. None. What was he thinking?"

"Everything okay in here? Or do you usually have angry conversations with yourself?"

I turned and saw Ayden standing in the doorway. Great. "I'm fine." Okay, I wasn't really fine, but I didn't want to bother him with my problems.

I kept my back to him when he spoke again. "You don't seem fine. Care to share?"

I was staring into our nearly bare cupboard when he asked me that. Don't confide in him. Don't confide in him. Don't confide in him. I kept repeating that to myself over and over again. I've been trying to keep my distance from Ayden over the past couple days.

After we finished doing the Christmas decorations two days ago, I had to admit that the house looked great. It had been so long since I've seen our house lit up. Thankfully Jules left after dinner and I was able to hang out with Nate.

Yesterday Ayden stayed home while Nate and I had some brother/sister time. Which was nice. We went to the movies, got lunch, and caught up about what was going on in my life. Unfortunately, he didn't tell me anything about his life overseas. He never did. Whenever we talked on the phone or wrote letters, he would always give me a smart remark when I asked how he was. I knew there were things he couldn't tell me, but he never told me anything.

"Lanie?" Ayden repeated when I didn't answer.

I closed the cabinet and started pacing around the kitchen. I started looking in the fridge and basically anywhere except at Ayden. "I'm fine. It's just this whole Christmas thing was Nate's idea and he's not here. He's at The Barbie's house." More opening and closing of the fridge, freezer, and the cabinets again. "And we have no food."

I was leaning against the sink with my back still to Ayden. He must have walked up behind me, because I felt his hand gently grab my arms to turn me around. "Look at me," he ordered and I did. "Take a deep breath." I did. "Now, make a list of what we need and you and I can go to the store."

"Now?" I asked like an idiot. Of course he was talking about now.

"Yes now," he chuckled and I felt it all the way to my core. "Sound good?"

I finally met his stare and was surprised. There didn't seem to be any hidden motives in his eyes. Just simple curiosity, humor, and concern. Maybe he really was taking this whole just friends thing to heart. Which was good. It was great, actually. I couldn't allow this to progress any further than it already has. Under no circumstances.

"Yes," I breathed. "Sounds good."

He flashed me a charming smile as he started walking out of the kitchen. "I'm going to get changed and I'll be ready in ten."

I absently nodded when he disappeared into the living room. I was so overwhelmed with everything, I was starting to rethink my agreement for Ayden to come with me to the store. It's been five years since we had a real Christmas and I didn't know if I could handle this. I didn't know if I could handle the old memories coming back to me, or the smell of Christmas dinner filling my parents home. We also have a tree that still needed a few decorations on it and a ton a groceries to buy.

I sat at the kitchen table and grabbed a pad and pen. I started making my list while I waited for Ayden to finish getting ready. Hopefully they had everything we needed at the store. This was all last minute since Nate was supposed to go days ago.

I let out a long breath as I started writing. "Story of my life."

2 Hours Later

"Tell me again why we just can't order pizza?" I asked Ayden while we stood in the meat section of the grocery store. He was looking at different turkeys while I was shivering from the chill of the freezer.

"Goddess, you don't order pizza for Christmas. You need real food."

I took a couple steps to my right to stand next to him. "Pizza is real food. So is anything that we can pop in the microwave."

He stood up and looked at me with a raised brow. "I'm going to pretend like I didn't just hear that." He started listing things off on his fingers. "For a holiday dinner, you need turkey, stuffing, ham--"

"Ew. I don't like ham," I interrupted.

He waved it away. "We can use something else. We need dessert and rolls and green beans."

I looked at him like he grew three heads. "How many people do you think will be there? We aren't feeding the whole neighborhood."

He chuckled as he lifted a turkey from the cooler and put it in the cart. "No, we aren't. But I can control the quantity. I won't make too much." He started pushing the cart towards the dessert section and I fell in step beside him. "Are you a cake person? Or a muffin person?" He asked with a curious expression. "Or maybe pie?"

I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth playfully. "Take a guess. You tell me."

We turned on the cake isle and he stopped in front of the different choices. He leaned forward and rested his arms on the cart. "Well, judging by your personality, I say muffins are a no. You're a coffee person, but I can't picture you eating a danish." He ran his gaze over my body. "If I were to guess, you are a cake person. Chocolate on chocolate." When I opened my mouth to say something, he added, "But you also prefer strawberry ice cream. It's a guilty pleasure that you don't like anyone to know."

My mouth dropped open. What the-- How-- "Okay, how the hell did you guess that? You're completely right!"

A smile broke out on his face. "There are two recipes for triple chocolate cake in the kitchen drawer and I also discovered a tub of hidden strawberry ice cream in the freezer when I was looking for ice."

I rolled my eyes and laughed at his confession. "Okay, Ayden Sawyer. Nicely done." As he started picking the ingredients for different desserts, I added, "You know, someone could have considered that stalker-y and creepy."

He laughed as we started walking down the aisle. "I'm staying in your home. I don't think the term stalker applies."

I snorted. "It could. For all I know, you could sneak in my bedroom and look through my stuff," I teased.

He stopped the cart and came to stand in front of me. In a hushed tone he said, "Goddess, if I was going to sneak in your room, you would definitely be aware of it."

My heart skipped a beat at his words. As we held eye contact, I couldn't stop my mind from picturing what he said. Images of the two of us tangled in the sheets of my bed and together in my shower, haunted me. I felt a sharp breath leave my lips as they parted. Ayden seemed to notice, too. His eyes fell to my lips and I was so sure he was going to kiss me.

"Excuse me, I need to get some baking soda."

An elderly woman's voice startled us. We both took a step back and looked over to her. I couldn't seem to form words, but thankfully Ayden did.

"Excuse us, ma'am. We'll get out of your way," Ayden told her politely. We walked around the corner and started walking down the next aisle.

I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. That was close. Too close. I am not supposed to be almost kissing Ayden in the aisles of grocery stores, let alone imagining having sex with him. Really, really good sex.

Ever since Ayden arrived my mind has been permanently in the gutter. A really unclean gutter. I needed to focus on the current situation. Which, at the moment, was my grocery list.

"Slow down there, speedy,' Ayden called from behind me. I stopped at the end of the aisle and made sure to compose my expression before I turned around. "What? Can't keep up? I thought you were special forces."

His eyes widened a little as he put his hand to his chest. "Ouch! You sure know how to hit below the belt, don't you?"

I felt my cheeks heat at his words and I chose to ignore them. I smiled a little when I asked, "What else do we need from here?"

He gave me a sexy half-smirk as he looked over the paper. "Okay, so all we need now is the ingredients for the stuffing, rolls, and stuff for a salad."

I scoffed as we headed towards the produce section. God, this was going to be a lot of food. It was also going to be freaking weird. Christmas was tomorrow and it was just...a lot to take in. Maybe I could still get out of it. Or if anything, I can hang out for awhile then say I don't feel well and go to my room. I cursed myself and shook my head. Grow up, Lanie. Just do it.

"Caesar or regular?" Ayden asked as we stood in front of the lettuce.

I made a face at his question. "Regular. Caesar is gross."

He looked at me like I kicked his dog. "Who doesn't like caesar?"

"I don't," I quipped. "It's fishy."

"Whoa, whoa...please tell me you aren't one of those people." He whispered the statement as if it was a big conspiracy.

"One of what people?" I asked him.

"One of those people who doesn't eat seafood."

I shrugged and he didn't like my answer. He groaned as we started walking to the bread isle to get the roles. "Come on, Goddess. You're killing me."

"What? I don't like the taste of fish," I said simply.

He shook his head as he reached for the rolls. "That's because you haven't had it when it was cooked the right way. One day I'm going to cook it for you and you'll like it."

"Yeah, okay," I answered sarcastically. No chance in hell.

He grabbed something else from the shelf and held it to me with a grin. It was a pink apron that said Kiss The Cook. "Are you really going to wear that when you cook all this food?"

"Nope," he said as he threw it in the cart, "you are."

"Excuse me?" He can't be suggesting what I think he's suggesting...

"You're going to help me cook all this food."

Bingo.