AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tell her yes. Problem solved.”
She sent a return text,Tell them to come to the dock with the evil-eye painting at the end.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long, and they’d fall in love with the dogs. They rounded up the pups and got them situated in their carriers after a few starts and stops. Bringing Brulee along on her leash, they walked down to the dock with Mindy and Marco and their belongings. A boat soon appeared, trolling slowly through the water, and then made a sharp right to Maggie’s dock.
The exchange didn’t take more than ten minutes, and it was love at first sight. The new family was eager to get their pets home and out of the carriers. Once they saw them off, the Christmas tree hunt could begin.
“We can find it and tag it today, and then once we get a stand, we’ll go back and cut it down. How does that sound?”
“It’s fine, but I have a ton of stuff up in the attic. I saw it when I first moved in, and my aunt said to use what I want. I’m sure there’s a stand.”
“You even have decorations?”
“Decorations and old-fashioned light bulbs, those gigantic colorful lights.”
“Jeez, those were popular even before our time,” he said, laughing.
“My mother claims before hers, too. If you want to cut down a tree today, I’m ready.”
“We need a saw, and I don’t carry one around in my truck, so let me check the shed.”
Justin disappeared around the back of the cottage. Waiting with Brulee, Maggie looked out over the water. A boat in the distance sped from right to left, probably going to town. In the cooler fall weather, more boats were out on the water, more fishermen taking advantage of the lower humidity.
The longer she lived there, the rhythm of the cove would become more her rhythm. She’d fit her routine to the ebb and flow of the tides, the heat, and the rain. They were in the driest months, and she’d use the time to begin painting the outside of the cottage before hurricane season started in the spring.
She wanted to do it alone, without help from Justin. It was a need within her to stay independent. When she’d mentioned the work that she wanted to do on the cottage, Justin always offered his help, assuming they do the work today. But he was sensitive, and she wanted to avoid hurting him; he might look at her refusal of help as rejection.
It would mean ordering paint from Casson’s and swearing them to secrecy because they would blab all over that she was going to paint the cottage. Sharing information about their neighbors was one of the ways village life rocked. They didn’t mean to gossip; gossiping just came naturally. Justin came around the corner with a huge saw.
“It looks a little rusty, but I think it will work.”
“Justy has a rusty saw,” Maggie singsonged, laughing.
They held hands, letting Brulee lead them through the yard to the trail. They came to a thicket of pine trees, small, almost saplings, less than four feet tall. But they were packed in together, probably a pinecone that had sprouted each seed, and needed to be thinned out. They spread the saplings apart, and a rabbit scurried out, scaring them, and Brulee strained at her leash to go after it.
“Yikes!” they shouted laughing.
“What do you think?” Justin asked, singling out one of the trees.
“It’ll be like a Charlie Brown tree,” Maggie said. “But I don’t want them to go to waste, either.”
“You’re okay with this little one, then?”
“Perfect,” she said, thinking less is more. “It will be less tree to decorate, less to clean up.”
“I could cut this down with a fingernail clipper,” he said, but threaded the big saw between the closely packed trunks of the little trees, and with four or five saws, it fell over.
“Our first tree,” he said, picking it up with one hand.
“Aw, Brulee, too. Her first Christmas tree.”
They walked back to the cottage, aware of eyes watching them when a whinny echoed out from the trees, and Brulee stopped short, her ears on alert until she saw it was just the familiar horses.
Back at the cottage, Maggie got a bucket filled with water, and Justin put the little tree into it on the porch.
“You ready to venture up to the attic?” she asked.
“I’m ready.”
