a classic Fraser Fir.”
“How can you tell the difference?”
“You’ll learn,” I assured him. “The trick is to step back and look at it from every angle. There’s different criteria to take into account...branch density, then there’s the shape and color. And the scent!” I paused and took a big bunch of branches into my gloved hands, sucking in a big whiff of the glorious scent. “Then you have to check the trunk. It should be a little sticky. The fir’s needles should snap, while the pines should bend. Watch and learn.”
I stopped at a hefty Douglas fir and grabbed one of the branches on the inside, dragging along it with my hand all the way to the tip. “See how some of the needles are falling off? This one’s no good.”
“If you say so.”
“It’s not about what I say...It’s about the perfect tree,” I shot back.
“There’s no such thing as perfect anything.”
“You’re just bitter.”
“No, I’m a realist,” he argued. “And the great thing about that is I’m rarely disappointed, if ever.”
“No wonder you don’t like Christmas,” I told him. “It’s like this wonderful window that opens once a year, when miracles can happen and dreams can come true...If you have the right attitude. If you’re open to accepting it all. Christmas doesn’t do much for you because you have low expectations, so you get what you’re expecting.”
“Oh you think so?” he chuckled. “You seem to think you know a lot about me.”
“Well, you don’t tell me much. So I’m left to my own devices and imagination to fill in the gaps. But you can help me out with that if you don’t like being misjudged.”
“I’m really an open book,” he waved his hands in his pockets, spreading out his coat. “What is it you’d like to know?”
“Hmm. For starters, how does your family celebrate Christmas? I was wondering if maybe that’s why you hate it so much. From what I’ve heard, you’re all very busy successful people. If none of you slow down to enjoy Christmas, it’d explain a lot.”
“See, you’re wrong again,” he pointed his finger in the air. “Christmas is a huge affair in my family. My mother throws this giant gala. It’s one of the most extravagant events this city ever sees throughout the year.”
“Oh?” I tried to imagine a big Christmas ball with fancy dresses and cocktails. It was different than what I was used to, but sounded marvelous all the same. “That’s so fancy.”
“In addition to being a realist, I am a pretty fancy guy,” he grinned.
I wrinkled my brow at him. “You’re also in an oddly good mood tonight, I’m noticing. Not your usual grumpy old self. What’s gotten into you? Maybe all this Christmas conversion therapy I’m doing with you is starting to work after all.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. Maybe I’m just getting more comfortable around you. People are layered, you know. What you first see is not always all there is.”
“That goes for both of us,” I snipped. “I can only imagine what kinds of assumptions you’ve made about me.”
“There has been one rolling around in my mind,” he admitted.
“Well? Let’s hear it.”
He stopped and turned to face me. I was struck by his closeness and the sexy rasp of his voice in the cold. His cologne filled my nostrils, smelling even better than all the cedar and pine in the air.
“Do you think maybe you’re so disappointed in how your behind the scenes look at the window display went...because you had such high expectations? You thought everything behind the show would be just as dazzling as the show itself, but it wasn’t. You saw it all for what it really was. Just a bunch of fancy lights and props. There’s really nothing magical about it.”
I felt a sharp sting in my chest, but I was certain it wasn’t because he was right. He couldn’t be.
“I was disappointed because I thought you would care for it as much as I did. That you understood the value of it in our city.” I stopped myself just before blurting out that he was the disappointment, not the display itself or anything that went into it.
But for some reason, my bottom lip quivered. Maybe it was just from the cold, but all at once I felt like a raw nerve was exposed and it was making me emotional.
“Hey! Look at that beauty!” Chris pointed suddenly.
I turned around to see one of the most magnificent Blue Spruces the farm had ever produced. Sure, it wasn’t