here, and Em and Porter hurried to the front of the inn and disappeared. I wasn’t in any rush, so I stood behind Ethan and waited for him to move.
He grabbed onto the bottom branch and began dragging the tree across the driveway. He made a point of sticking to the unpacked snow, which I figured would do less damage to the tree as he pulled it.
I hurried to fall into step with him. Not wanting to discover how he felt about me waiting for him, I kept my gaze downturned to the snow beneath my feet.
“I’ve got this.” His voice was low and masked. I couldn’t tell if he was attempting to steel his emotions, or if he was just platonic toward me.
As much as I wanted to believe it was the former, I couldn’t help but think that, perhaps, I’d misread everything that had happened between us. I’d awoken this morning thinking that we were heading down the path toward friendship—or even more—but I was beginning to think that was a pipe dream.
That there was no way I should have read his actions toward me as anything other than him being nice to a guest.
“I can help,” I said as I hurried to the other side of the tree and grabbed hold of a branch on that side.
Ethan grunted in protest but didn’t say anything. Instead, he kept his focus on the inn as he dragged the tree toward it.
That was a decent sign. He wasn’t so annoyed by me that he was asking me to leave. I could take some solace in that. Just as we reached the porch, I stopped. Effectively stopping him as well. He glanced over at me with his brows furrowed.
“You okay?” he asked.
The was a hint of concern to his voice that only made me angrier. If he cared—like I suspected he did—why did it feel like we were constantly in this dance of one step forward, two steps back?
What was so wrong with me that he couldn’t just admit how he felt—if he felt it. Was it that hard to imagine a future with me? The least he could do was fake it. After all, in every Hallmark movie I’d ever seen, even the villain pretended to like the hero at one point.
“Are you okay?” I asked and then realized how dumb that response was. Way to answer a question…with the exact same question.
Ethan paused and studied me. I could tell he was assessing what to say next, but I wasn’t sure what he was going to say. I kept my gaze focused on him. If he was going to retreat from me, I was going to make sure he knew I was watching him.
“I’m fine,” he finally said after he blew out his breath. “I’m just cold and ready to get this tree into the house.” He nodded toward the door.
I studied him for a few seconds longer before I sighed and nodded. There was no way I believed him, but what else could I do? If I confronted him, I was going to be exposed as the loser I felt I was. And I was tired of feeling so broken all the time. Being a single woman did take its toll on me when I let it. I couldn’t help but feel everyone’s wonderment when they discovered that I was not, nor had ever been, married.
It was as if I were some sort of social leper.
Not wanting to wear my emotions out on my sleeve in sub-zero temperatures, I nodded and started moving again. If he wasn’t going to open up, what was the sense in me trying.
When we got inside, we stomped the snow off our shoes. It took a few of us to lift the tree and bring it inside. We tipped it against the far wall while we removed our jackets, gloves, and hats. And Carol moved around the tree, oohing and aahing at how perfect it was.
“Tyler doesn’t disappoint,” she said as she stood in front of us with her hands on her hips, her cheeks glowing with appreciation. I just gave her a smile and nodded.
“Tyler didn’t pick this,” Ethan said as he pushed his hands through his hair. It had flattened from his hat. “He told us to go to the edge of the property and cut it down ourselves.”
Carol hurried over to him and patted his shoulder. “Oh, you big baby. It’s the things you have to work the hardest for that