Twenty minutes later, I raced to the steps and was disappointed to see her face was far from festive.
“Hey,” I stopped her from entering the door, “are you still mad over our tiff?”
“No.” She sighed and brushed some pine needles off her coat. “Let’s just say the corner of Carol Street and Radley has a tree now.”
I glared at her. “I told you I had it covered.”
“Mm…” She waited for me to move, but when I didn’t, she crossed her arms, unamused. “What?”
“I did something.”
“Oh, sweet Jesus, what now?”
“First, thank you.” I swatted her arm. “Second, I did some digging and got a bit creative, and well…” I stepped back and let her pass and waited to hear her excitement.
“Why does it smell like cat piss in here?”
“What?”
She started to cough, and her eyes went red. “Was Lloyd here? Did he spray?”
“No. What are you talking about?” I raced in and turned the corner and took a huge whiff. “Oh, my God.” I wanted to barf. “Where is that coming from?”
“Oh, wow, babe,” she whispered through a cough, “that’s just like the one my mother made!”
“This was supposed to be special. Not smell like a week-old litter box. I don’t understand.”
Kim moved over and rubbed the tree branch between her fingers. “You picked a cat-piss spruce, not a Douglas fir.”
“Huh?” I was so confused. A Christmas tree was a Christmas tree.
“This is a white spruce, commonly known as a cat-piss spruce.” Her smirk slipped out, and I wanted to scream, only the idea of letting that smell inside my body again made me internalize my rage.
“This is one of the most thoughtful things you’ve ever done, babe, but it needs to go!”
With defeat and disappointment heavy on my chest, I started to remove the birds as Kim answered her phone.
“Hey, Blake.” She looked at me strangely. “Yeah, Shannan still is. Of course, um, yeah, I can meet you.” She paused. “Okay, I can come now.”
Seriously?
“Blake needs my help. I’ll explain everything later. Wait for me to come home, and I’ll help take this out. For now, just open some windows.”
“Bleach wouldn’t even help this smell, Kim.”
“Hey,” she held my face so I could see her soft expression, “no one has ever done anything as thoughtful as that for me before. I’m incredibly touched, and once we get a new tree up, I can’t wait to admire it. Please don’t take me leaving as anything but wanting to help out a friend. I assure you, it’s not because every time I swallow, I’m tasting cat urine.” She smothered her hearty laugh with a hand.
“Jerk.” I laughed with her and shook off some of my disappointment. I had so wanted it to be absolutely perfect. She gave me a quick kiss and left.
When it came to Spencer or Blake, we’d drop anything we were doing to help them out. After Spencer’s parents died, we watched her like a hawk, and it was only in the past year we’d seen her turn a new leaf and be happy. She was like our adopted child, not that we’d ever say that out loud when her aunt was around. Lisa couldn’t have kids and had latched on to that little girl the moment she met her years ago. I chuckled at the thought of how we were all so protective of that young woman, and now add her sexy detective fiancé to the mix, and it was an interesting cocktail.
“Okay, time to go.” I started the process all over again but in reverse.
Forty-five minutes later, I had the tomcat out the door and onto the deck, where I risked my life to bend it over the railing to let it tumble to the ground.
“You get to stay there,” I hissed and pulled out my phone to Google the correct kind of tree.
As much as I wanted to race off to the tree lot and do this the easy way, I would not. I needed to keep some of my pride. Besides, my freakin’ luck, I’d run into Kim, and all my talk about my family memories of hunting for the perfect tree, smelling the fresh snow, listening to it crunch under my boots, and starting snowball fights would be lost in one moment.
No, I could do this.
I was sure I looked like Maggie from The Simpsons in my wet snowsuit. It was so tight it forced my short t-rex arms out straight, and the stiff fabric from the pants made me walk like I couldn’t bend my knees. Being short sucked.
With an axe over my shoulder, I headed back into the woods, determined to find the perfect tree for my wife.
CHAPTER 3
Spencer
The stunning ten-foot tree stood proudly in the bay window, casting its colors out onto the fresh snowdrifts on the deck. Ornaments from my childhood hung from the branches with their memories of simpler, happier times. I reached out to touch my favorite, an ages-old Santa, minus his arms, but it still had its red twist-tie legs and little pink face. It was the ugliest thing, but it had belonged to my dad, and I wouldn’t dream of not hanging it on the tree. I had placed our old silk tree skirt around the bottom to cover the stand and chuckled at the missing bits of white fur that outlined its edges. Lloyd had attacked and removed chunks of it before I could catch him. I knew I had to keep an eye on that little devil. I planned to pay him back by making him wear a sparkly Christmas collar.
Garland draped the length of the mantel, and woven amongst it were sparkly leaves from a bright red poinsettia that caught the flicker from the candles.
A sleigh lay next to the comforting fire and held a supply of birch wood just waiting to warm the chilly hands of those about to arrive.
My favorite Christmas carol, Have Yourself A Very Merry Christmas, was playing softy from the speakers, and I grinned, thinking how proud my parents would be if they could see me now.
I whirled around and spotted my phone on the table. I tapped on Blake’s name and reached for my hot chocolate and Bailey’s.
“Hey, hun.” He sounded a bit off.
“Hey, I, ah, was wondering if you wanted me to meet you in town, and we could grab something to eat. I’ve been decorating all afternoon and have zero desire to cook.”
“Sorry.” He covered the mic of the phone with something, as it sounded muffled. “I’m running around at the moment and think I might be a bit later tonight than expected.”
A ping of disappointment raced through me. Blake had been working crazy hours lately. I hated that I wanted to spend so much time with him. I wasn’t the needy type; I just wanted him near.