I helped him right the tree and screw it in.
"Is it straight?"he asked.
I took a few steps back."A little to the right."
He made the adjustment.
I smiled."That's perfect."
He stood, brushing the needles off his clothes."We can eat while we wait for Clara's delivery."
I grabbed waters from the fridge, and we sat at the small round table, the one I'd inherited from the previous owners.
Ford unwrapped his sub."It must be nice to get deliveries from everywhere around town."
I nodded."It's the perk of living in a small town.But I usually order from our kitchen since we offer room service."
"It's like you live in a penthouse suite," he said before taking a large bite of his meatball sub.
I laughed, unwrapping mine."It's larger than the other rooms, but it desperately needs an update."
"You should let me have my way with it.You deserve to have a beautiful place to come home to."
"Are you going to sell your house when you're done renovating it?"I asked.
His brow furrowed."I intend to renovate each room in the house to my taste.I don't have any plans to resell it."
"You want to stay."It felt like everything inside me stilled at that revelation.
He tipped his head to the side."I wanted to come home."
When we were younger, he was so eager to leave, and my mistake was thinking he'd take me along with him.I couldn't seem to wrap my mind around him being content here.
I was not ready to trust this new version of him.
We finished eating in silence, then cleaned up the wrappers just as the doorbell rang.It was the delivery person with Clara's ornaments.
She'd wrapped them in sturdy boxes that we could use to put them in storage at the end of the season.
We stacked Ford's ornaments by the door so he could take them home when we were done.Then we carried mine over to the tree.
"Good thing Clara thought to add lights," Ford said as he pulled them out of the box.
"Yeah, I didn't even think about that."
Once they were hung nicely on the branches, Ford plugged the cord into the outlet.
"It looks beautiful.I can't believe I didn't want a tree."
"Aren't you glad I suggested it?"
"I'm not sure it was a suggestion, more of a demand, but yes.It's lovely."I smiled at him, my heart beating a little harder than was necessary.There was something about decorating a tree with this man that had me thinking about more Christmases with him.
I couldn't let myself get too far into the future.I wasn't sure he would stick.
He opened the box of ornaments, setting the hooks on the side table.Then he pressed Play on a holiday music playlist.The tree, music, and fire created a nice ambiance.We took our time placing each ornament.
When we had a few ornaments left in the box, Ford asked, "Do you have anything to make hot chocolate in your pantry?"
