Tara clapped a hand over her mouth. “Get going before she spoils it. This one’s terrible at keeping secrets.”
Ginny tugged her hand away. “Am not!”
“How about you go get some carrots out of the crisper for Rupert and Pepper?” Jace suggested.
The girl huffed. “Fine. Have fun, Miss Reed!”
“I will. Thanks for your help!”
“It helps if you sing!” she called, as she jogged toward the house.
“Sing,” Mary Alice muttered. She read the clue over. “O’ Christmas tree, O’ Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches. Ah. To the tree fields.”
Chad grabbed a tree tag, and they headed out.
“It should be the…” She counted off on her fingers. “Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph—ninth row. But ninth counting from which side?”
“Don’t look at me. I’m not the one who did the hiding.”
“Logically, I guess I’d start counting from the side closest to the house.”
“Seems a reasonable guess.” Chad took her hand again as they walked over to the ninth row and began to search its length.
A few other families and couples were browsing for their perfect tree. She’d wanted to come back out here with Judd, but cell reception was spotty, and with Autumn’s heart condition, he’d never been willing to be out of contact that long.
“What’s wrong?” Chad asked.
Mary Alice shook off the shadow on her mood. “I was just thinking of some of the other reasons I haven’t been back out here since I moved home. It’s not important. They weren’t good reasons.” She worked up a smile for the thoughtful man who’d brought her. “Have you ever cut your own tree?”
“Can’t say I ever had a Paul Bunyan moment, though we do always get a live tree in my family. We’ve got vaulted ceilings in my parents’ house, so Mom always gets the biggest Frasier fir you can imagine off the lot.”
“We should find you one. How tall are your ceilings?”
“Nine or ten feet, I think.”
They circled each tree, searching for clues, even as they evaluated the height and shape. Halfway down the row, nestled in the branches of a beautiful Frasier fir, they found the next clue dangling from the hand of an adorable elf ornament.
“How cute is this!” Mary Alice carefully unhooked it, turning it over in her hands.
“It’s a good tree, too.”
“You should tag it.”
He fastened his tag as she unrolled the next strip parchment and read.
“We are a component of this favored cold-weather brew.
Come to our center and find something for you.
Cold-weather brew. Well, they don’t have cows here, so it has to be spiced apple cider. Middle of the apple orchard.”
Chad made an exaggerated after you gesture. “Lead the way, madam.”
Getting into the spirit of things, Ma
ry Alice grabbed his hand this time. She enjoyed the feel of his fingers curving around hers, the easy swing of their arms as they walked. Despite the low-level hum of awareness she felt around him, it was comfortable.
“Tell me about your family,” she said. “Big? Small? In-between?”