Forever Christmas
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Really. I wanted to chop down my own tree and couldn’t find a place to do it so I was going home and saw all these trees and thought I’d just grab one of these.”
“You thought you’d grab one? Just like that? Oh, I like this one, that’ll do?” he growled.
“Yes, actually. That one there.” She pointed to the one that was stubbornly hanging onto its trunk.
“Well, since you’re grabbing things you like, your car is crap and traffic is slow, so why don’t you just grab one of those too?”
“What are you talking about?” He stalked over to her, standing so close she had to crane her neck back to look at him.
“What do you call it when you take something that’s not yours, Ms. Meyers?”
“It’s – oh my goodness!” Her hands flew to her mouth. “Oh. I didn’t –,” she looked back at the tree and her heart thundered while a lump formed in her throat. Her voice came out as a whisper, “Sam is this illegal?” He closed his eyes in response which was definitely not good.
“Unless you’re hiding a Felling Notice under your coat.”
“A what?”
“You need a permit, Anna. Or at least permission from Old Man Cantry who owns all of this land. You can’t just chop down trees because you think they’re pretty and want one real bad,” he said wearily. Both hands went to his hair and her heart pinched at the tone in his voice that suggested she should have known this before starting. It sucked that he was right.
He walked over to where the tree that she’d started chopping lay pathetically hacked at the bottom of the trunk. She’d been taking a much needed break from chopping; trying to pull some air into her lungs and restore some feeling to her shoulders when he’d scared the life out of her a few moments ago. Now, surveying the scene, knowing what he’d thought, realizing she was committing a crime, she felt beyond foolish. Foolish, tired, hungry, and treeless. Not a great combo. She kicked at the snow while he stared at the tree, waiting for him to tell her how ridiculous and stupid she was, how this was not a thing that a woman went out and did on her own. That she should have talked to a man, to him before doing anything. Tears formed in her eyes and felt like they were turning into tiny drops of ice.
“You really want this thing in your house?” he asked, kicking at it a bit, causing snow to scatter from its bark. She looked up from the path she was making in the snow with her boot.
“I really do.”
“You know it probably has bugs in it?”
“I was going to spray it down and leave it outside for a couple days. I’m not scared of a few bugs.”
“Or anything else apparently,” he muttered. While this seemed to piss him off a bit, the fact that he thought so melted something inside her, giving her the second wind she needed. She picked up the axe. He looked at her, looked at the axe, closed his eyes briefly and tipped his head back, hands on his hips.
“We’re friends, right?” he asked when he finally opened his eyes and looked at her. The question took her off guard, the answer even more.
“Yes. We are absolutely friends,” she replied. He stepped toward her, crowding her in the wide open space. Cars honked and idled in the distance. She could hear both of their breathing and see their breath on the icy air. He looked down at her with an indecipherable look before holding out his hand.
“Then, as your friend, and in thirty seconds, your partner in crime, I’m asking you, imploring actually, to let me finish chopping this before we both freeze our asses off and it’s too dark to find the cars. Or you know, someone catches us.”
She glanced up at the sky. The moon was a sliver against the smoky grey that would, as he said, soon be black. She passed him the axe and bit her lip to keep from laughing at the expression of relief that crossed his features. She held back only because he did not look like he was ready to laugh about all of this just yet.
