Alright, and maybe I wanted to know more about him, too.
The thing was, I didn’t know where to start. By the time the sign came into view and I was pulling over to park, I still didn’t have anything.
“What are you doing?” he asked. He was practically shaking with excitement, his hand already on the pull for the door.
I let out a long sigh before I said the words that let him know I was giving in.
“I’m getting you a damn tree.”
Seeing him speechless at the idea made my chest feel a little warm.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Danny
“Cider?” the old man asked. I couldn’t tell if he was dressed up as Santa or if that was his everyday look. The beard was real. And so amazing.
“Sure!” I said with a smile. “Thank you!”
He handed us small cups of steaming hot cider. Killjoy grunted as he took his.
“What is it y’all are lookin’ for tonight?” Santa-Not-Santa asked us.
“A tree,” Killjoy answered flatly, and I rolled my eyes.
“Well, that works out since you came to my tree farm.” The old man hooted out a laugh and slapped his knee.
“Something small,” I said.
“But not too small,” Killjoy added. “Needs to be able to hold things. Lights and shit.”
“And maybe one that’s been looked over…” I added. I didn’t want the prettiest tree, I wanted the perfect tree. And perfect to me was one that fit with… us.
Ugh, that sounded weird to say. We weren’t a couple, and I wasn’t trying to turn this into some creepy couple-y thing. Really, I wasn’t. It would be going up in his house, so I wanted it to be his tree too.
“I’ve got just the one,” he said with a wink in my direction. His bushy brow seemed to exaggerate the move.
I downed my cider and tossed my cup. Killjoy handed me his cup, and I shot that one back too.
I was going to get that man in the holiday spirit one way or another. Thoughts of making hot chocolate and curling up in front of the fire floated through my mind. Eh, that was probably a littletoocozy for Killjoy.
We followed the old man back to a shed. Killjoy took the lead once he realized where we were headed. I didn’t mind how he got all protective, but I wondered if he was aware that he’d done it. Inside was the cutest tree. It was the same height as me. The top was sad looking, but baby wasthiccon the bottom. Wide hips and ass. So disproportioned it almost looked like someone had pasted two parts of two different trees together. The trunk was cut a little too short, making it barely sit up off the ground.
It was perfect.
“I’ll throw in a stand for you,” the old man said as if that would be the selling point. I hoped it would, but looking at Killjoy’s furrowed brow, it was so hard to tell how this was going to go. I turned back to the old man before I could pull out my puppy dogs eyes and beg Killjoy for just this one thing.
“We’ll take it,” Killjoy said, and when I turned to face him, I found his gaze on me, an almost soft expression in his eyes.
Somehow, he just knew that I wanted it from looking at my face.
And if that wasn’t romantic and sweet, I didn’t know what the hell was.
I swore I wasn’t going to cry. No one had ever…
Smiling through the moisture building up in my eyes, I whispered, “Thank you.”
“Yeah,” Killjoy grunted as he blinked and turned his attention to Santa-Not-Santa. He handed the man a wad of cash that I thought was more than enough to cover the tree, but I wasn’t about to call him out. Then he tipped the tree on its side and started dragging it across the gravel lot.
