Eachtra

Lighten Up

 The Ender Family Christmas Farm looms in front of us as I park the Jeep at the edge of the gravel parking lot. My nose wrinkles automatically at a family of five in matching reindeer Christmas sweaters emerging from their minivan and rushing towards the main building, painted red with glowing Christmas lights. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" booms from speakers all around the farm's office.

It's nauseating.

"Shall we?" Liam asks with a knowing smile.

I grit my teeth together. I need samples from a few different pine trees available at this particular farm, so I'll have to tolerate the excessive merriness. "Let's get this over with."

The Christmas music is even more deafening without the walls of the Jeep guarding me and my mouth contorts into a grimace. "Can we just go and gather the samples?" I ask, hefting my backpack with the sample materials over my shoulder.

"Oh, come on, Keidy. We have to at least stop at the main office first. Aren't yah hungry?"

My stomach rumbles on cue. We haven't had anything to eat since the shepherd's pie at midnight, so yes, I am hungry. "Fine, I'll eat something."

Liam hums along to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" as we amble into the office through the crowds of people. The structure is an old refurbished barn, now filled with all sorts of Christmas decor and treats. Wreaths cover one wall with other wooden decorations on another. One whole section is dedicated to Christmas-themed treats.

"It smells like heaven in here!" Liam exclaims, and he's not wrong. With the heaters running at full force and the huge crowd of people, the smell of chocolate swells through the room. It's tempting. Almost.

"Let's get something to eat," I say, walking towards the treats. Of course, the place doesn't have any real food, just gingerbread and Christmas cookies and shortbread. I glance at Liam out of the corner of my eye, his eyes shaded by a shock of blonde hair that falls over them. Suddenly, I'm warm from the inside out, and not from the heaters or my insulated coat.

"Shortbread?" he says, offering me a packet of the buttery biscuits. His lips quirk and he raises an eyebrow. "C'mon, Keidy. It's an Irish staple."

I snatch it from his hands. "Fine, but I want a cheeseburger for dinner." I spin around and march for the line, filled with screaming snotty kids and mothers with shadows under their eyes.

"You hafta' lighten up," Liam says. My shoulders stiffen at his words, but he appears totally relaxed and at home in the winter nightmare-land. "I know the holidays aren't your favorite, but can't yah try to enjoy them a little? At least y'aren't spending them alone this year."

No, I'm definitely not alone. I'm with Liam, the freakishly hot Irishman whose only flaw is a love affair with St. Nick. "Sorry," I apologize. It's not Liam's fault that all my memories of Christmas are sullied by uninterested parents and overwhelming loneliness. "I don't want to be miserable, it's just..." I stop and gesture to the crowds and the music and the overwhelming faux jolliness. "I don't like the holidays, even though I do like--" I stop myself before I say you. I can't seriously tell a guy that I just met that I like him. "--pine trees," I finish.

I focus my gaze on the sweaty back of the man in front of me. "Pine trees, eh?"

"Yep. Fascinating plants." I smile a little to show Liam I'm joking and he laughs, that big, open-mouthed belly laugh that draws the attention of a few of the people in line around us. An older woman with cotton ball hair smiles at us like we're a pair of newlyweds and I fight off a blush.

Liam sniffs beside me and then grins. "Hot chocolate."

"What?"

"That's the smell--hot chocolate. A Christmas classic, Keidy. Would you like one?"