Open Your Heart (Kings Grove #4) - Delancey Stewart Page 0,90

“There is… and I’m behind before I even start.”

“Where’s this lucky tree?”

“Next to the Inn. But it’s gotten a lot bigger this year, and I’m not sure how we’re going to get the lights on it. A ladder isn’t going to cut it anymore.”

“Leave it to me. Where are the decorations?”

“In the attic at the stables next to my office.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’m working over that way today, putting that new deck on the diner with Sam and Chance. Will you be around after about three? I’ll swing by and grab the stuff for the tree?”

“Um, sure?”

“You sure you want help?”

I realized I didn’t sound entirely certain. “Yeah, I mean. I just…are you helping or are you just going to do it?” I didn’t want someone to take over—even him. The winter festival, as silly as it might be to some people, was all I had left of my family’s holiday traditions. Even if I didn’t have the family part anymore, I had this.

Tuck stepped closer and it took everything I had not to give in to the magnetism pulling me toward him. “I was just going to come get all the stuff. Maybe you could come with me after to make sure I throw it onto the right tree? I don’t have the first idea what I’m doing. I just want to help.”

“Yeah. Okay.” No one had ever stepped in and taken charge of something in my life, and I was having a hard time deciding if I wanted this kind of help or if I resented the implication that I needed it. But all of that indecision was buried beneath the waves of attraction I was still battling due to the fact that Tuck’s strong broad chest was just inches from my nose. “I’ll see you at the stables.”

As Tuck leashed his dogs back up and waved a goodbye, I leaned against the railing and thought about everything we’d just said. Why would a guy like Tuck be working on a Saturday? He seemed like the kind of easygoing guy who’d want to head out to the lake with friends or watch football or something. But it occurred to me that maybe Tuck was doing what I tended to do on the weekends—maybe he was staying busy so he didn’t notice just how alone he really was.

Sneak Peek - Christmas in Kings Grove (Chapter 3)

Tuck

Working on a Saturday might not have been most folks' idea of a good time. But I'd gotten used to it—Hollywood didn't keep regular hours either, and when you were shooting on location, you filmed whatever days you were told. Sometimes weeks at a time without a day off. Generally speaking, I'd found I was happier working than I was hanging around with nothing to fill my time, and in the months I'd been in Kings Grove, that was every bit as true. My free time up here tended to be spent with Cam, and that meant spending it with Harper a lot of the time too. And don't get me wrong—I loved Harper. But seeing Cam and her together . . . well, sometimes it was hard.

I was happy for my friend, and God knew he needed the joy she brought him. But you know how your eyes adjust to the darkness, and you don't even realize how bright a light can be until your phone lights up or someone comes in with a flashlight, and then you're suddenly aware just how dark it had been before that happened? I guess that's what my life was like. Not that I'm unhappy—in this case darkness is definitely not a metaphor for any kind of spiritual darkness or anything like that. Honestly, I'm not that deep a guy. It's just that I'm perfectly content in the dark, you know? But when someone—like Harper and Cam—Illustrate for me how much happier I could possibly be . . . well, then it's harder to be accept the darkness.

But the idea of helping Dr. Gish with her winter festival responsibilities was like a tiny glowing bulb beckoning me toward it, and though I knew it might only lead to trouble, I couldn't help but want more. Annie was pretty and sweet, and I could feel goodness radiating from her like a song. I'd avoided her before because I knew myself, and I knew she was exactly the kind of woman I could get wrapped up in—and that would only make it harder when it all came to a