Natalie had no choice but to stick with the opinion, no matter how ridiculous it was. “Nope.”
Mason gave this one a bit of thought, appearing stumped as he scratched along his jawline. “Gee, you might have me there.”
Natalie almost threw her arms in the air in sweet victory—
“Except…”
What?No! There was no exception. The man wasn’t allowed to win when she had her heart set on gloating about the superiority of fake trees, ones that didn’t slowly die on her, and never let her down because she knew what to expect, which wasnothing.
“You might like having a white fir,” Mason replied.
“White fur?” Natalie, confused, exchanged a glance with Mia. “What does white fur have to do with Christmas trees? Are those similar to designer trees owned by rich people, holding 14k gold ornaments?”
He offered a patient smile. “No. White fir. It’s like a Douglas fir or a noble fir. In fact, we’re actually standing in the middle of them because, if I was to pick a tree for you, this is the one I would go with. You seem like a white fir kinda gal to me.”
“Oh.” Natalie didn’t know how else to respond, and she was in danger of melting a little, except she caught Mia bringing a hand to her chest as if she was on the verge of swooning.Stop it. It was a silly tree. Natalie strengthened her resolve.
“They don’t look like anything special,” she said. Although, the white firs did look healthy…and also round and lush and full, if Natalie was pushed into saying something more about them. Okay, fine, they were better-looking than any of the typical Christmas trees she was used to seeing in the pop-up tree stand in the Rite-Aid parking lot. It looked like the type of tree that would be nice to hug, kind of like Mason himself.
He shook his head, coming nearer, too near, until she was sure she’d be engulfed by both a large tree and an equally large man. He reached for a nearby branch beside her face, crushing it in his palm. “Smell.”
She tentatively took a breath, expecting the usual pine scent, before taking a deeper one, letting the sweet, bright notes of something citrus-like fill her lungs. It took her by complete surprise. Her gaze lifted to him. “Is it oranges?”
“Something like that.” A smile lit his face.
“How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Get it to smell like that?” It was intoxicating, wonderful, like being surrounded by a spicy citrus on a sunshiny winter day, one where the sky was the brightest shade of blue and the snow sparkled like jewels. She wanted to crush the whole tree to her chest.
“Do you think we’re out here spritzing our trees with perfume or something?”
“Or something? You are a part of Big Christmas after all.”
“But I must be better than those other Christmas tree lobbyists. I can tell that I’ve won you over to Team Real Christmas Tree with the white fir.”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far.” All this was proving was that Mason had some gumption in him, which had the potential to be trouble for her, considering she might be working within the same vicinity of the guy for several weekends in a row.
“You want one of the other trees then? We can keep looking. I’m perfectly happy spending the day with you ladies as you decide.”
To maintain the pretense that she was considering other types of trees would be a waste of time for everyone. Her heart had already chosen and, once her heart was set, it was pretty much a done deal. “All right, fine. I want a white fir.”
“You just need to pick out which one you want. You guys brought a good vehicle for transporting your tree, right? Otherwise, I don’t mind bringing it to the coffee shop.”
“Mia brought—”
“Actually, no,” Mia said. “Sorry. I forgot to tell you, Natalie. I…can’t bring your tree back.”
“What?” she said. “Why not?”
“Uh, because I…just got the truck washed for Ross and I don’t want to get sap all over it.”
“Mia—”
“Sorry, I should have told you earlier. It totally slipped my mind.” She flashed a dimpled smile at Mason before pointing to the exact spot where her brain was supposed to be located. “You know how it is, when you have a hundred things running around in your mind all the time? It’s easy for things to just slip through. I really hate to put the extra burden on you, but would it be okay for you to deliver it to Pony Expresso yourself? And she doesn’t have a boyfriend, or anyone, to help her carry a big tree in. Both Natalie and I would really appreciate it—and my husband too because then his truck won’t get sappy.”
Natalie glowered at her soon-to-be ex-best friend. Mia’s weird powers of persuasion could be used for good or for evil and she clearly woke up today and chose straight violence.
