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"I don't want him to think..."
"He's not going to think anything," Drew assured her. "Besides, we'll likely be back by dinner. He isn't going to come looking for them before then."
"Are you sure?"
Drew lifted Hope's chin with his finger and dropped a kiss on her lips. "I'm positive." He rubbed her nose with his. "I'm sorry to leave all this on you."
Hope smoothed the front of his jacket with her palms. "Don't worry about that either. We'll have lots of fun, I'm sure."
Leaning forward, Drew kissed her again, a little longer this time. Hope's toes curled inside her boots.
"If it looks like it might take a while, I'll call you."
"Okay."
"Hope! Come see what we've done so far," Alex called from the other room.
Drew pulled the hat on his head. "She's coming," he yelled back. With a wink, he headed out to join his grandfather.
When Hope returned to the living room, Alex and Zach had placed about half the red, gold, blue, and silver ornaments on the branches they could reach, which was about the lower one-third of the tree. So far, they'd done an excellent job spacing out the bulbs to use as much of the tree as possible. But even if they'd clumped everything together in the back of the tree, Hope never would have said a word.
Or moved a thing.
That the boys were enjoying themselves was all that mattered. If they wanted to hang the ornaments upside down while standing on their heads, Hope wasn't about to stop them. Just like she wouldn't dare stop her own child when the time came for him or her to help with decorating their home for the holidays.
The mere thought gave Hope the warm fuzzies.
For the remainder of the afternoon, Alex, Zach, and Hope finished decorating the tree. In addition to the colored balls, they added glass bulbs in many shapes and colors and a variety of other unique ornaments and decorations.”
When there wasn't another spot to even hang a piece of tinsel on the heavy-laden Douglas fir, Hope stood back to admire their work. It was absolutely one of the most beautiful trees she'd ever seen, and she knew it was because of the enjoyment Alex and Zach had gotten from helping.
"Well, what do you think?" Hope asked.
"It's awesome!" Alex exclaimed as he edged closer to Hope's left side.
"I love it!" Zach curled against her right side, holding an angel. "Do you think we should wait and let Uncle Drew put the angel on top?"
Hope smiled at Zach's thoughtfulness. "I think he'd like that."
Alex nodded. "Yeah, me too. Dad always used to put the angel on top of our tree when we lived at home."
His words sliced straight through Hope's heart. What could she possibly say to that without dissolving into a puddle of tears? Since she had no idea how she'd explain why she was bawling her eyes out to the boys, Hope inhaled a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Then, she changed the subject entirely.
"Okay, men. Let's vacuum up these needles and add some water to the tree."
"I'll get the vacuum," Alex volunteered as he ran to the closet by the outside door.
"I'll get the water," Zach followed suit.
Upon their return, Hope showed Zach how to crawl behind the tree and add water to the metal stand. With that task completed, Alex started vacuuming.
"How's that?" Alex asked over the roar.
"Perfect."
"We gotta put this around the bottom," Zach held up a red tree skirt edged in white.
"We sure do."
