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Chapter 11
- HARRIS -
“What’s the story of this one?”I ask, pulling out another ornament from Ava’s box.
Alongside us, tiny colored lights brighten my tree as the smell of pine mixes with the aroma of the leftover pizza sitting on my counter.
Sometime between eating dinner and watchingElf—which, for the record, is as funny today as it was the other dozen or so times I’ve watched it in my life—the evening has rolled into night.
But despite the late hour, Ava is determined to help me hang the last of the ornaments on my tree.Each branch sparkles with light and color, and my Charlie Brown tree now looks like it’s ready for the window display at an old-school department store.
I look at Ava as she glances toward the ornament I hold up.She’s much more at ease tonight, and I make a mental note tonotlet it slip to Mason that he was right, because he will never let me forget it.
Avadidneed something a little more “chill,” just like my friend advised.
Her face brightens for a split second when she sees the tiny house with a hook at the top of it.Then her expression shrouds over slightly like a mist passing over the moon.
“Oh, that one is store-bought,” she answers offhandedly.
“Yeah, but I’m betting it still has a story.They all seem to.”
She comes over to me, takes it from my hand, and then sighs.“We bought that one when we bought the house.You know, so we’d always remember our first Christmas there.”
We—meaning she and her ex-husband, I imagine.I’m suddenly wishing I hadn’t asked.
I set the ornament back down in the box.“When did you move here?”I ask, curiosity getting to me.
She grins slyly.“Right before housing prices in Annapolis exploded.We had just gotten married right after we graduated from college.”
I give an approving nod.“Bet you’re happy you bought it then.”
She gives a little relieved shake of her head.“You have no idea.Even a couple years after that, we never would have been able to afford it.But at the price we got it at, I can even handle it on one paycheck.Barely,” she adds.“But still.”
“I imagine it’s good for Nicholas to stay in the same house.”
She cocks her head, seeming surprised.
“What?”I ask.
“You just have good instincts about kids for someone who’s not a dad.”
I reach in for another ornament.“I lived in the same house growing up.I always liked it—the stability, you know?”
“Must be different now, in the Navy and all.”
I pull a simple red ball from the box, hoping it’s not one that will bring up the memory of her ex-husband again, and hang it on the tree.“Definitely.Every two years, another PCS.It’s exciting and sort of unsettling at the same time.”
“PCS?”
“Permanent Change of Station.”
“Ah.Where would you live if you had a choice?”
After reaching in again, I hand her an ornament and feel the brush of her skin against mine.It seems to awaken something in me every time it happens.Not just a surge of desire, but almost a familiarity that just doesn’t seem appropriate, considering the short time we’ve known each other.
Maybe Mason was right about the danger of dating someone new during Christmas, with all the emotions that come so naturally with this season.
I nearly shudder.If Mason finds out he was right ontwocounts, I’ll never hear the end of it.
