Except for one tiny detail. Billy still refused to get married. Her whole made-up idea that people would think it was only because she got pregnant was on my last nerve.
“Tomorrow we are going to get the tree, and Jamie wants us to pick up one for them. They’ll be back in another day.”
I nodded. Frank, being Frank, had arranged for Davidson’s to close part of the day for us to take Quinn and get a tree. Now he’d have to organize one being delivered to Jamie’s row house near the hospital where I worked and she used to live… It was an hour from here, but I didn’t mind the commute. Frank did. It would mean two hours he was away from Quinn, who he considered his boss these days. “As long as you didn’t promise to decorate it for them.”
“I almost did, and then I remembered you were off…” Billy winked at me while dealing with a wiggly Quinn.
“She wants to move around, but all her mom wants to do is snuggle her.”
I watched Billy set the bottle down and pull Quinn into her chest, kissing the top of her head before setting her down on the floor. At a little over one-year-old, my daughter jumped right off her butt and stared up at me before bouncing up and down, dancing like a champ. The music switched to Vivaldi. While Quinn bounced up and down to a familiar tune from retroBaby Einsteinshows, I stared at Billy. Christ, she was beautiful.
“I missed you,” I said, moving next to her on the love seat. Plucking her hat off, I ran my palm down her hair, tucking a few errant strands behind her ear.
“You have me all to yourself this week.”
“And you have me,” I reassured her.
“I told them I’d be on set on January third. Shelby and Chip are going to fly out with me, and Shelby has the dates you’re coming out. She plans to take those days off. Kellan’s coming to visit then too, and her family is flying with him.”
“Kellan’s coming to set? And bringing Shelby’s family?”
“Don’t get funny,” Billy said, leaning forward and giving me a closed-mouth kiss. “You can come to set anytime…”
I raised an eyebrow at her. I knew I could come anytime.
“He’s dating Glynda Ross. Kellan, you know, right? She’s in the movie with me. She plays my niece…”
“Well, she’s like twenty-five?”
Billy nodded. “And I’m oldish.”
“Thank God, I don’t want people to talk about me and my old woman.” This earned me a side-eye. “Truce! I know, I got four years on you,” I hurried to add.
Billy gave me a throaty laugh. “He’s also taking golf lessons from Daniel. Kellan is becoming a full-time Angeleno.”
Quinn continued to bounce, staring at the mirrored chandelier above us.
“Tomorrow she’s not going to know where to look first when I get done with this place.”
“The landscaping company is coming in the morning to do the outdoor lights when we go for the tree…”
“But—”
“But nothing else. This is all you, babe.”
“Thank you, Cal.”
“Anything for you, Willa. Anything.” She was about to reply and tell meanythingback, but I knew her stance on marriage, and I wasn’t in the mood. “Glass of wine?” I asked instead.
“Yes.”
Billy could think what she wanted for one more day.
Close to exactly twenty-four hours later, the house sparkled and twinkled. As promised, the landscapers had set up raining icicles made from lights down the front of the house, and Billy had managed to buy the largest fresh tree known to man and decorate it from top to bottom by the time I blinked my eyes. I mostly held Quinn, who apparently was as mesmerized by Christmas as her mother.
“Snap a few pictures in her PJs,” Billy told me while she stood back, evaluating her work. “Wait,” she said, striding forward and adjusting the garland on the mantel.
“The popcorn is perfect,” I said, gathering Billy into my right side, Quinn on my left hip.
