“I brought a stand,” Jensen declares with a grin. “I was just fucking with you guys.”
Zander pushes himself up so he’s sitting on the floor and shoots daggers at Jensen with his eyes.
“Not. Funny.”
Jensen smirks. “It’s a little funny.”
“Can we please just put this thing up?” Owen begs.
“Yeah, yeah, hold on.” Jensen moves to the tote filled with his and Grace’s decorations and digs around until he produces a nice heavy-duty stand.
“Thank God.” I move to pick the tree up as Jensen sets the stand in the corner near the fireplace. Owen helps me and Zander lumbers to his feet. It’s not until we have the tree standing and secure that we see it.
Half the branches are bent or broken, giving the tree a sad, squished sort of appearance.
“Maybe dragging it wasn’t such a good idea after all,” Zander whispers.
We all stand and stare at the half-naked tree for several long moments until Carson says, “Just… turn it.”
“Good idea,” Owen nods. We adjust the tree so that the wonky side is facing the wall, giving the illusion that the tree is full and lush.
We all stand and stare at it, tilting our heads to the side almost in unison.
“It’s… definitely leaning,” Jensen says.
“Just a little,” I murmur, even though it definitely looks like it’s significantly sagging to the right. “Probably because the trunk is just a tiny bit messed up.”
“Cutting down a tree is hard,” Zander nods.
“Why didn’t you guys use a saw?” Owen asks, frowning.
“Because we didn’t think of that,” I admit with a sigh.
“Well, let’s get it decorated so we can get back to dinner,” Jensen says. “Maybe just put heavier ornaments on the left side. It might even it out?”
“Sounds like solid logic to me,” Carson declares.
We move to grab ornaments, but something small and furry suddenly zips by us. Carson shrieks and jumps out of the way as Gizmo leaps up into the tree, tail fluffed and eyes wide and crazy.
“Gizmo!” Zander hurries over and reaches for the cat. “Bad kitty! Get down!”
Gizmo releases a long yowl and swipes at Zander’s hand before wiggling deeper into the branches.
Zander narrows his eyes but mutters, “I’m sure it’ll be fine. He’ll come down… eventually.”
“Will he?” Owen asks. “The tree might just be his, now. Maybe we should just get a new one.”
“Come on,” I grin. “It’s just a cat.”
All the guys turn and stare at me with harrowed looks.
“That’s not just a cat,” Carson whispers. “It’s a demon.”
“You’re not wrong,” Zander nods.
When nobody moves for several moments, I let out a long sigh. “Well, we’re not getting another tree, so if you could all please find your balls, we can get this tree decorated and not surrender it to a tiny kitty.”
The guys reluctantly get to work, stringing up lights along the branches and hanging the ornaments. At one point, as Zander is adjusting some of the branches, Gizmo bursts back out from among the pine needles and freaks him out so badly that the big guy goes tumbling to the floor with a scream.
