Without thought, I turned my phone toward him beneath the table. I watched his face as he looked down at David’s craft website.
Then he looked at my face with regret and nodded. “Okay.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but he stood up and excused himself with his phone pressed to his ear. A few moments later, he returned, wearing an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen. I’ve had something important come up that needs my immediate attention.”
I looked at him in confusion, but he was already holding out my coat for me.
I stood up and slipped it on.
The men exchanged looks and then one of them spoke up. “We’d be happy to book another time when you’re available, Axel.”
Axel shook hands with them. “I’ll talk to you soon.”
And then, as quickly as we had arrived, he was ushering me out of the stuffy restaurant.
I didn’t speak as I walked beside him back to the truck. I inhaled the cool night air deeply into my lungs. I felt like I had just dodged detention. Our life was a constant stream of Axel’s emergencies, but sometimes they really did work to my advantage.
I was focusedon my phone when the truck came to a stop.
I looked up and was stunned to see we had pulled into the David’s craft store parking lot.
“What about your important situation?” I asked, confused.
He killed the engine. “Is there anything more important than the fluffy Christmas tree?”
I couldn’t hide my shock. “Are you for real?”
“I’m for real,” he said with a serious expression.
“What are we doing here?”
He looked at the big box store in front of us. “We’re getting crafts for your fluffy tree.”
I wasn’t preparedfor Axel to collide with my secret crafting world. We stood in the seasonal section while I tried to estimate how many foam balls I would need to cover a tree frame that stood two feet tall. Axel interrupted my mental calculations.
He pointed at the wire tree in my cart. “Why that one?”
“I thought the smaller one was a bit too small.”
He thought about my answer. “But I thought this was the fluffy Christmas tree.”
“It’s going to be.”
“I don’t think that will suffice.” He pointed up to the wire tree display. “We needthatframe to build the fluffy tree of Christmas.”
I looked in awe between the wire tree monstrosity and my husband. “Do you know how many fluffy balls that’s going to take?”
He tilted his head. “It’s seven feet tall, so I’m assuming a lot.” He lifted the baby frame out of our cart and then pulled the cart over to the display. “Should I get a second shopping cart for the balls?”
It was possibly the greatest craft moment of my life to be encouraged to aim so high, but someone had to stay practical. “I don’t think I can make enough fluffy balls to cover that tree. It’s too big.”
He ignored my warning as he lifted a large, heavy box into the cart. “I believe in you.”
I started laughing, but who was I to back down from a crafting quest as insane as this one? “This is crazy.”
“I’m going to get a second cart. We’re going to need it for the fluff.”
