Nolan jogged out of the trees, waving his arm as he called for Snowball’s attention. She didn’t spare him even the briefest of glances but loped up to the porch and pressed her paws against the window.
Kringle was unimpressed.
Julie laughed.
On impulse, she hurried to the front door and yanked it open. She’d swept the snow off the porch, but in her sock feet, she was reluctant to step outside. Instead, she stuck her head out the door and called, “Nolan?”
Her voice came out with more hesitancy than she’d been expecting.
He heard the soft call anyway and jogged from the side of the house toward the stairs. “Sorry,” he said with a grimace. “I’ll get Snowball out of your way.”
“No, that isn’t what I—” Julie cut herself off as she wondered just what she had been thinking.
She’d been thinking that it would be much better to decorate the tree with someone else. And Nolan, who didn’t have one to decorate, might appreciate it too.
“I’m about to decorate the tree.” Julie bit her lip. “I bought hot chocolate and marshmallows if you want to come inside.” It was the least she could do since he’d been so kind to cut it down and drag it here.
The smile that lit his face was instant. It chased away the cold winter air making goose bumps on her exposed skin.
“I’d love that.”
He sounded as though he meant it.
“Good. Snowball can come inside too. I think Kringle will behave.” At least he had last time.
She left the door open as she retreated to the kitchen to make the hot chocolate. Nolan must have taken the time to brush off Snowball’s fur outside of the house this time, because by the time he joined her—his outerwear left somewhere else—she was almost finished. She dropped miniature marshmallows into both mugs before handing him one.
Their fingers brushed as he took it. His skin was cold, but for some reason, she didn’t want to pull away. She did anyway, tucking her hair behind her ear and leading the way back to the living room.
To her surprise, Kringle had left his sheltered spot in the window. He perched on the arm of Gram’s chair, meeting the dog nose to nose. Snowball sniffed him enthusiastically. Kringle kept his claws in this time, even when the dog reached his side and tried to push her snout underneath, nearly unseating him.
Julie laughed. “Would you look at that—they can get along.”
“Before you know it, they’ll be curled up next to each other in front of the fire.”
Snowball tried her best to sniff beneath Kringle’s tail. He hissed and jumped off the chair, retreating from the room.
With a wry smile, Julie said, “That might be a daydream. Want to start with the lights?”
Nolan followed eagerly as she led him to the bins with the decorations. She’d removed and tested the lights only a couple days ago, and they lay on the floor in a pile.
“The lights all work?” Nolan asked.
“Yep. Just tested them.”
“Okay, I’ll straighten them out, and we can get started.”
“Good idea.” Julie watched as he untangled the loops. “Thanks for bringing the tree, by the way.”
“It’s the least I could do considering how my family acted.” Nolan smiled up at her. “Thank you for inviting me to decorate.”
Julie avoided eye contact, pretending to sort through the ornaments. “It’s nice to have someone to do this with.”
His voice soft, he said, “No, really. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
She looked up from the bin to find him frowning at the tangled string of lights. He worked methodically to straighten the string out. But his expression had a faraway look that told her he wasn’t really paying attention to what he was doing. Snowball sighed and flopped down at his feet, and even that didn’t pull him away from wherever his thoughts had led.
“Your family still doesn’t want decorations?” she asked.
