Boyfriend for Christmas

Chapter 29....

Knox

"Of course we get stuck with the heavy lifting." Aubrey's brother Jackson grunted in front of me as the two of us lifted a huge square of wood up.

"I thought your mom said she only needed a few things done with the booth, not that we had to build it from the ground up."

Once we got the piece of wood up and secured with some nails, we stepped back to look at the work we had done so far.

"That's my mom for you. Makes it seem like an easy task but its not."

As soon as Jackson and I made it to where the festival was being held, Aubrey's mom descended on us telling us where to go and what to do. I lied to Aubrey earlier when I said I could handle her mom...she was worse than any drill sergeant I have had, and trust me I've had my fair share.

Somehow us helping finish her booth turned into us building the entire thing, with a promise we'd help with others afterwards.

"You guys do this every festival?" To which Jackson nodded. "How many are there?"

"There is a Spring one, a Summer one, a Fall one, and then Winter. So basically for every season." Seeing the look on my face he nodded. "Yeah it's a lot. The people around here love their festivals. But they aren't too bad."

Seeing that Aubrey's moms booth was basically done we made our way towards the one next to hers to finish putting it up as well. I hadn't realized I would be working out or I would have worn a short sleeve shirt instead of layers. Despite it being cold outside and snow was even on the ground I found myself sweating underneath my jacket and long sleeve shirt.

When Aubrey described the festival I for some reason thought that it would be inside some huge tent structure, away from the cold and snow. I was only partly right with that as the baking competition was taking place in a tent like structure a little bit aways but mostly everything else was outside.

"I should have said I'd go to the bakery." Jackson muttered.

"Where is your brother anyways? Shouldn't he help?" I questioned as I hammered in some nails on my side of the wood.

"He's gotten out of helping by claiming he has last minute work. Which," Jackson popped his head around the booth. "is a lie. The company isn't doing any work until the new year."

"That's your dads business right?" I heard Lucas talking to his mom about it last night at dinner.

"Yeah. He pretty much took over the company when dad got too sick."

"You didn't want to run it with him?" I found myself asking.

"Nah not really my thing. My dad made us work there over the summers but I was more into Football. Even after I got hurt and couldn't play anymore I decided to do what I wanted. Lucas was running it better than I ever could anyways."

On the drive up here the other day I was hell bent that I wouldn't like Aubrey's family. I had it in my mind that they were going to be horrible people. I'm ashamed to admit that I even planned on being the biggest dick so Olivia and I could leave. I never planned on actually liking her family.

So far this trip hasn't been at all what I thought it would be. When a random girl puts an ad up for a fake boyfriend over Christmas its bound to be a disaster. I had prepared for it. But coming here...wasn't what I expected. Aubrey's family was great. They were a loud bunch but from an outsiders perspective you could tell they loved each other.

It reminded me of what life was like before I joined the military, when we would have dinners where everyone talked over one another and laughed at every little thing. Sure being in the Marines I made friends that became my family but it was never the same.