Zeke
I held Daisy in my arms again and it felt so right, just like it had the first time a few hours ago. I looked her up and down, but something seemed off, especially when I had seen her sprinting across the square in her heels. Instinct took over and I needed to stop and protect her from whatever she was running from, but mostly protect her from herself before she killed herself in those damn heels.
“What’s got you running, Daisy?”
“Oh, thank god it’s you.” She pulled me into the tent of Christmas trees I had just been shopping through. I hadn’t planned on getting a tree, but after Daisy left me in the garage, something came over me and I just felt like I needed to have a little bit of the Christmas spirit in my life again.
“What’s going on, Daisy?” I asked her another question, trying to figure out why she was running. I hated seeing her like this and I needed to know who had made it happen.
“My mother set me up on a date tonight and I saw a way to get out, so I ran and I’m pretty sure he is still standing outside of Delilah’s right now.
I moved away far enough to see Percy Hamilton standing on the steps of Delilah’s looking around and then checking his phone again. I had never been a fan of Percy or his father, but politics aside, I wasn’t going to let him have my woman.
“I think I might be able to help.” I brought my attention back to Daisy, who had a smile plastered on her face.
“Really?” She clapped her hands in front of her and a laugh escaped me. This was what I loved about her, how innocent she was and how much heart she had. You could see the excitement not just in her smile, but the way her eyes lit up.
“Help me pick out a tree.” I pointed toward a row where I had been deciding between two final picks. Both were massive firs, but they would fit perfectly into my log cabin.
I followed her down as she bounced between the trees.
“These two.” I pointed to them. One was completely buffed out and the other was a little thinner on the branches. Both looked good, but it all depended on how I wanted to decorate them. I had all of my parents’ decorations, since they stopped putting them up and started heading to any tropical place they could during the holidays. I didn’t mind because I knew it was something they enjoyed doing together. This year they were in Fiji and by the photos they were sending me each day, I knew it was going to be another successful Christmas.
“You know, you’re lucky we live in Oregon and have access to trees like this all year, because it’s two days before Christmas and a little late to be picking out a tree, don’t you think?” Daisy shot me a wink and went back to examining the trees.
“Well, tell me which one would be better to decorate.”
“What do you have?” She moved between the trees and I took a step toward her where she was sandwiched between the two trees.
“A little bit of everything.” I shrugged. “Some family keepsake ornaments, a box full of just blue and silver, and then another both with red and gold.”
“My parents have blue and gold on their tree, so why don’t we go with red and silver and throw some of those family ornaments on there?”
“I like that.”
“I love this one.” She pointed to the tree that wasn’t as full and I waved over the seller.
“We’ll take this one,” I said to him and looked back at Daisy, who was staring at me. I had said “we’ll” and I wasn’t sorry about it. There was something so domestic in what we were doing that I almost forgot how angry I was with her. When I saw that Christmas spirit come alive in her, something thawed in the heart I thought I had frozen for good.
“Does this mean you’ve forgiven me?”
“Don’t push it, Daisy.” I handed the man my credit card and turned back to her. She was still smiling at me like she didn’t believe me, and the way my heart skipped had me thinking the same thing.
“Do you need it delivered to your place, Zeke?” Martin, the handler, came up to me with my card and started to ready the tree.
“Could you, please? We’ll get to the house a little bit ahead of you, if that’s okay.”
“No problem, Zeke, anything for you.”
Martin took hold of the tree and trucked it out of the tent and I motioned for Daisy to follow me.
“You aren’t taking it yourself?”
“Kind of hard to.” I laughed as I walked ahead of her, straight toward my Harley that was sitting on the curb.
“Holy shit,” Daisy whispered behind and I turned around to see a hand clasped over her mouth and her eyes wide with awe. “Am I supposed to get on that with you?”
“That’s the plan. Unless you want to back out.”
I gave her the ultimatum, letting her choose which path she wanted to take.
Was she going to run again or was she going to try to fight to make this work?
