The doorbell rang as he was setting down the last box in the living room.
“I’ll get it!” Before he could react, Audrey raced from her room where she was supposed to be finishing a homework assignment before their guests arrived.
He heard her greet Holly and Lydia with enthusiasm. “Thanks so much for coming to help us,” he heard Audrey sayin the entryway. “We’re both pretty clueless when it comes to decorating.”
“Speak for yourself.” Ryan moved into the small foyer to take their coats and hats. “Maybe we’ll discover I have a hidden talent for this kind of thing.”
“I hope so,” Holly said with a smile. “Then you won’t need me. And if we find that talent, I’ll immediately hire you at the store while you’re in town. I can use all the help I can find right now.”
Yeah, working in a florist shop intimidated him far more than spending an entire day at the Christmas wedding of a couple of strangers.
“Hi, Mr. Ryan.” Lydia beamed at him with her entire face and he could swear the whole world seemed to brighten.
He smiled down at her. “Hello, Miss Lydia. You are looking lovely today.”
She twirled to show off a cute Christmas sweater and skirt that she wore over matching leggings. “We going to Grandma’s today to take a shower.”
He frowned in confusion. “Are you?”
Holly gave him a rueful smile but he noticed she didn’t outright contradict her daughter; she only made a slight correction to her claim. “My ex-mother-in-law is hosting a bridal shower for Kristine this afternoon. We’re heading over as soon as we’re done here.”
“Are you sure you have time to help us put up our tree? Sounds like your day is packed.”
“We absolutely have time. We’re looking forward to it, aren’t we?” she asked her daughter.
Lydia clapped her hands with delight. “I love Christmas,” she declared.
When you were living with so much joy, it would be hard not to love the holidays.
“Where do we start?” he asked. “I went through the attic and brought down everything I could find marked Christmas but I haven’t had time to go through the boxes yet.”
“That’s okay. Going through boxes is one of our favorite things, isn’t it, Lyd?”
Her daughter nodded vigorously. “I love presents, too.”
“Who doesn’t?”
Holly smiled at her daughter and something about that gentle expression, overflowing with love, left a soft ache in his chest, an unaccustomed warmth.
When she turned that smile in his direction, he felt as if the sun had come out from behind the clouds during a hard winter storm.
“Let’s see what you have,” she said.
He led the way to the living room, dominated now by the artificial Christmas tree he and Audrey had put up the night before.
“Oh good,” Holly said. “You’ve already set up the tree.”
“That’s all we’ve done. We were afraid to put up any decorations. We didn’t want to ruin it.”
“First rule of Christmas trees, you can’t ruin them. No matter what you do, if you like the results, it’s perfect for you. Christmas trees don’t have to be fancy. The decorations don’t all have to match and they don’t have to have expensive ornaments. You can use whatever you want, as long as it brings you joy.”
The Christmas trees of his childhood had been elegant, with matching ornaments and ribbons, he suddenly remembered. His mother had opted for entirely new tree decorations every time they had to move to a new military base, leaving the old ornaments behind for other families.
Had that been his father’s preference? Or had his mother perhaps been a little more picky about that sort of thing than he remembered?
“How does your mom usually decorate your Christmas tree?” Holly asked Audrey, as if following his train of thought. “Does she use color-coordinated ornaments or does she prefer a hodgepodge of things on the tree?”
Audrey grew thoughtful. “We always had two trees, even before we moved here. We would put the big fake one in the front room and put up a smaller real one in the family room or one of our bedrooms.”
