She laughed. “All right. That’s where we always started too, although for the last decade, we’ve had a pre-lit tree, and I haven’t had to string lights at all.”
“You haven’t strung lights at Christmas? Isn’t that what Christmas is all about?”
She laughed out loud, because she knew that wasn’t what he truly believed. “I guess I’ve missed the real meaning of the season for at least a decade.”
“I’m glad I can give it back to you. My goodness, the idea of not stringing lights on a tree. That’s insane.”
They shared easy laughter as he removed his gloves, and she did as well. Then, he grabbed the end of the lights and plugged it in. They lit up, and he carefully moved the branches and pushed the plug in next to the trunk, so it wouldn’t be so obvious.
She walked around the other side of the tree so he could hand the lights to her as they came around.
She hadn’t given much thought to the fact that both of them had taken their gloves off, until he handed her the lights and their fingers brushed. It was unexpected, and she was grateful for her hood that kept her face shielded, since her mouth opened in surprise.
She had not been expecting that, and…it felt odd.
She was careful when she handed them back not to allow it to happen again. Not because she didn’t want to, just because…she didn’t even know him. She supposed he could be married, but she rejected that idea immediately. He was a man of principle and character, and if he were married, he wouldn’t have said he wasn’t back when they’d first met.
Not to mention, didn’t he say something about maybe giving it up when he got married and had children?
She couldn’t remember exactly what they had said about that.
She didn’t want those thoughts to intrude anyway and bring down her evening. She’d been having such a great day, despite the shadow that hung over her because of the accusations against Roland.
She had a good mind to ask her partner about it. But so far, she hadn’t mentioned any names, and if the pastor went to the police with his accusations, her Secret Saint partner would know exactly who she was talking about and potentially be able to figure out her identity.
She was less concerned about that than she ever had been, but she still wanted to protect it. It was just better that way for everyone.
“So tell me about your family,” she said casually as she took thelights from him again and carefully arranged them on the branches in front of her.
“Well,” he paused, and she realized what she had said.
“No names. Or identifying information. I wasn’t trying to figure out who you were, I was just…” She paused. She might as well just say the truth. “I know you said you weren’t married, but…I guess I’m just curious about you.”
“There’s no way I would be running around with another woman in the middle of the night if I were married to someone. She would be my partner. In fact, I feel like that’s what you should be looking for in a partner—someone that you love doing things with. They don’t have to be exactly like you, and you don’t have to agree on everything.”
“I agree with that. You definitely want to be with someone who makes you laugh and who has fun with you, but the most important thing is that they’re a Christian.”
“A Christian who lives what they believe and doesn’t just say it.”
“Okay. That’s right. I suppose we use the word Christian loosely a lot of times.”
“Yeah. But anyway, I guess you know, opposites attract, and you and I have found that our different interests and areas of expertise have given us a really great partnership. I feel like that’s what a marriage is. A really great partnership. Where maybe you’re the same, like two college professors—they’re both kind of boring to the rest of the world, where they sit in their library at night with their noses in books or dissertations or whatever, and they’re both completely happy.”
“Or that same college professor could be happily married to a man who isn’t interested in books or learning, but is good with his hands, and does a lot of handwork around the house, while she maybe runs the finances and takes care of the taxes and that type of thing.”
“Yeah. The two college professors would probably be prettyhappy with each other, but they’d have to hire out for a lot of work, because they have the same strengths.”
“And there’s nothing wrong with that, but you can complement each other and have the same strengths, or you can complement each other and have different strengths. It’s probably six of one, half a dozen of the other.”
They had to pause for a moment while Nelly grabbed another string of lights, pulled it out of the package, and plugged it into the end of the other one.
She took a little bit of time to make sure that she had that end tucked in amongst the branches before she started to unwind it again.
“So you don’t have to be exactly the same, but you do have to have some shared interests or shared something.”
“Yeah. Probably a college professor and…who wouldn’t be compatible with a college professor?”
“Someone who is in a motorcycle gang?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t even know. I guess they still could end up together, you know? You expand another person’s world when you’re not exactly like them. And as long as you’re willing to have your world expanded?—”
