“Fuck off, I’m easy to please.”
Yeah, I had my doubts about that. “Well, what tree did you have last year?” The way Finn’s face clouded over, I immediately wished I’d not asked. “Doesn’t matter.”
“We had a small artificial one. Evan wasn’t keen on decorating the house, said it was a waste of time as we’d be out far too much.”
I had plenty of thoughts on that but kept them to myself. Evan was a selfish wanker if he thought Finn wouldn’t enjoy nights in with a house full of decorations watching a Christmas movie. I’d been there all of seven days and I already knew how much Finn loved being at home. Especially now he had Angus.
And talking of which...
“Do you reckon Angus will attack the tree?”
Finn barked out a laugh. “No. It takes him an age to saunter across the living room carpet. I can’t picture him mustering up enough energy to attackanything.
“Good point.” Angus was a loveable but lazy bastard. Still, cats and baubles... I had a sneaking feeling they might tempt him into a bit of exercise. “Come on.” I clapped my hands, eager to get back home and into the warmth. “Let’s get that tree.”
It turnedout that Finn was a lying liar who lied.
He was not easy to please. In fact, he was pickier than my mum, which was saying something. We must’ve looked at a hundred trees—maybe a slight exaggeration—and yet we were still emptyhanded. They were too tall, too short, not full enough, too full... the list went on.
“Finn,” I said, coming to stand next to him as he stood in front of a stack of trees I was almost certain we’d been through already. “What’s wrong?” We’d seen at least ten trees that I thought were perfect or as near as, dammit, but none of them had taken his fancy.
He pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I know I’m being a right pain in the arse. This was meant to cheer you up, not bore you to death.”
I nudged him with my shoulder. “I’m not bored. I love being outside on a day like this.” I shivered and tried to rub some warmth back into my arms. “But I might freeze to death if we don’t find one soon.”
He sighed, turning to face me. “I just want it to be perfect. Last year was a bit shit, so I wanted to do it right this time.”
I got it, I did.
“Okay.”
He gave me a sceptical look. “Okay?”
“Let’s carry on looking.” I flashed him a grin, wanting to banish all thoughts of his shitty Christmas last year. “Your perfect tree is out here somewhere. We just have to find it.”
I walked past him to start looking, but he grabbed my hand, stopping me.
“Thank you.” It was soft and heartfelt, and my stomach felt like it had a thousand butterflies in it.
I didn’t know what to say, so I smiled, hoping he knew that I was more than happy to do this with him, and tugged him towards the waiting Christmas trees.
It tookus another forty minutes of looking, but we found the perfect tree. One of the first ones I’d picked out, but Finn obviously didn’t remember, and I wasn’t going to be an arsehole and point it out. He was so happy, no way was I doing anything to wipe that smile off his face.
“I’m sorry it took so fucking long.” With his cheeks pink from the cold, huge grin and eyes alight with excitement, he looked anything but sorry.
He looked gorgeous.
“It’s fine.” I ducked my head before I gave myself away and grabbed the bottom of the tree as he got the top and lifted it with a grunt. “I just hope it fits in the car.”
It was a tight squeeze, but we got it in and home with relatively no problem.
Angus was waiting in the window when we carried the tree to the back door. He watched, utterly unimpressed with the latest addition to the house.
“Where do you want it?” I asked, shutting the door behind me so Angus didn’t get out.
“Um...” Finn frowned, obviously not having thought past getting the tree. “Actually, leave it here for the time being. I need to get the stand out of the garage.”
While he went to do that, I kicked my shoes off and went to put the kettle on. My hands were like ice, despite having the heater on full blast in the car.
