In Luke’s family, decorating the tree was a special occasion that Addie was being allowed to stay up late for, the perfect ending to the very best Thanksgiving I’d ever had. Not that there was a lot of competition for that title…
We stopped outside the door to the house so Luke could text his dad to make sure he had Addie in the living room. As soon as he got a response, I opened the door and followed Luke and the tree inside.
“You’re still here!” Addie said when I entered the living room first.
“I’m still here,” I said, smiling.
The next moment was one I wouldn’t soon forget. As Luke came through the doorway carrying the tree as if it weighed nothing, Addie’s entire face lit up and she sucked in her breath, her mouth gaping open. In her earnest face I saw glimmers of the magic of the holidays. Excitement. Love. Anticipation. Pure joy.
“We’re doing it tonight?” she asked in a hushed voice.
“We’re doing it tonight,” Luke confirmed.
“Miss Magnolia’s staying?” she verified.
“Is that okay with you?” I asked her, hoping for her approval in a way I’d not known was possible.
“Yes!” Addie ran to me and hugged my legs.
My eyes inexplicably teared up as I bent down to hug her and hide the impact her acceptance had on me. I’d had no idea a child could affect me this way. I couldn’t explain it other than…she was Luke’s daughter. That meant everything.
“Are you too tired to do this tonight?” Luke teased his daughter. “We can wait till later.”
“I’m never too tired for Christmas trees!” Addie said, jumping up and down.
“I hope your enthusiasm remains when you’re old enough to work the tree farm with me,” Luke said.
“She’ll be the best worker we’ve had for years,” Luke’s dad said from his recliner.
I walked closer to Mr. Durham. “Are you okay with me joining your family tonight?” I asked him quietly as Addie helped Luke lug in the boxes of ornaments.
The older man chuckled. “Rather have you than my hardheaded son, to be frank.”
“Well, lucky you, you get both of us.” I squeezed his arm affectionately.
“You’re okay, Miss Magnolia,” he said, his eyes sparkling with kindness.
When Luke asked him if he was going to help with the lights though, his father grumbled, “You can handle it without me.”
Between Luke, Addie, and me, we wrapped so many strings of colored lights around the tree that I wasn’t sure how we’d fit on any ornaments.
While we’d been wrangling lights, Mr. Durham had sneaked out to the kitchen and popped popcorn for all of us. We took a few minutes to stuff some in our mouths. It’d been a long time since our huge Thanksgiving dinner.
“You must be famished,” I said to Luke as Addie skipped over to the ornament boxes and started digging through them.
As he chewed, his eyes lit up, and he roved his gaze slowly down my body. “Famished. Yes, I am,” he said in a low promise of a voice.
“Your muscles must ache too,” I said, making sure the other two weren’t paying attention to us.
His brows went up, and he nodded.
I moved even closer and said in his ear, “If you follow me home later, I’ll give you a full-body rubdown.”
Luke kissed me, tasting like salt and man, then raised his head and mouthed, “Hell yes.”
That’s all it took for my body to react, anticipating when we’d be alone in my apartment.
“I found it,” Addie called out.
