The hacking immediately stopped as I closed my eyes and waved my arms up and down to make an angel. A second later, there was a soft thud beside me in the snow.
A pair of warm lips pressed down over mine.
My eyes opened, and I pulled in a silent gasp to see Tom leaning over me in the snow.
Okay, so maybe I was a little behind on my sex weekend rules, but wasn’t this...a little romantic?
I tried to wrap my arms around his neck, but he immediately pinned them down and held them above my head. When his eyes opened and locked with mine, he gave me a little smile.
“You don’t want to ruin the angel...”
He got to his feet and lifted me in a single movement, setting me down lightly beside the imprint. As I turned to the fallen tree, I could have sworn I saw him take a quick picture with his phone before slipping it hastily back in his pocket.
“So now what?” I asked a little breathlessly, caught off guard by the kiss.
“Now, we carry it home.”
I looked at it doubtfully. “A whole tree?”
He chuckled. “What did you think was going to happen?”
I put my hands on my hips. “Well I don’t know, but I didn’t think...”
“Come on, you big baby. You can carry the little end.”
It took much longer to get back to the house dragging a tree than it had to hike out into the woods in the first place, but we did it in fine spirits. I only fell down twice, and each time, he immediately tripped himself in a hilarious show of solidarity. We laughed and pulled and teased, until finally, we made it back to the cottage.
Getting it inside the cottage, was another story altogether.
“Could you have picked a bigger tree?” I huffed, pushing with all my might.
“It didn’t look this big in the woods,” he admitted, panting as he tried to body slam it through the door.
“Well, maybe we could just—”
I cut off, choking, as I inhaled what felt like a pound of snow.
“There—I got it!” Tom said triumphantly, oblivious to my plight. “I just tipped it toward you, and I went right in.”
I spat out a mouthful of powder and glared. “That’s so wonderful for you.”
But inside—I had to admit—the tree looked wonderful. While I did a covert check for spiders, Tom disappeared into the hallway. Soft Christmas carols began floating down from speakers mounted into the wall, and a second later, he reappeared with a box of ornaments.
“Let me guess,” I pointed up at the speakers, “another tradition.”
“Miss Harks, I’m going to make a believer out of you yet.”
We delved into the box while feasting on eggnog and a tray of snowman shaped sugar cookies that Tom swore he baked, but I was certain I’d seen on display in the store. The ornaments weren’t exactly what I expected. I’d assumed they’d be sleek, pointed, a uniform color. But these...?
I couldn’t help but laugh as I pulled a hand-crafted snowflake from the mix. It was made of what looked like popsicle sticks and enough glitter to blanket Manhattan. When I held it up in a silent question, Tom took it with a smile.
“Ah yes, my greatest creation. Some would argue it was the Penelt-Concord merger of 2002, but no,” he hung the snowflake carefully on a branch, “it was this.”
My fingers froze inside the box. “You...made these?”
“Me and Mike.” He grinned and held up a rock that had been dipped in green paint. “This was his contribution that year.” With delicate hands, he placed it on the mantle. He turned back around with a smile, but saw that I had frozen, staring at him with a most peculiar look tightening my face. “What is it?” he asked quickly, coming back over with a frown.
I tucked my hair quickly behind my ears. “It’s nothing, it’s just...” I stared up into his eyes. “This weekend isn’t turning out to be what I expected.”
His face softened and grew almost tender as he stared down. Then gently, ever so gently, he twisted a lock of my hair around his finger. “Me neither.”
We bustled around more quickly after that, eating our weight in Oreos and tangling ourselves in Christmas lights as we slowly draped them over the tree. When we were done, Tom hung a huge wreath up on the mantel and then turned off all the lamps. He draped his arm around me as I came to stand beside him. “Alright, are you ready?” I nodded with excitement, and he plugged in the lights.