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“Play baseball.”
I know his biting tone isn’t my fault, and even if he’s trying to make me feel bad, I refuse to let him. “No, that was yourjob.”
“I like my job.”
“You like it more than playing D&D? You like it more than gummy bears? You like it more than the perfect cup of coffee and more than a fresh-baked peanut butter blossom and more than watching a rookie take your advice on how to handle the media and more than a big, juicy steak that’s cooked to perfection and more than sex?”
When I saysex, his eyes connect with mine like I’ve finally hit on something, andoh my god, does my vagina notice.
I shiver.
My vagina throbs.
He visibly swallows.
My nipples get tight and a wave of heat washes over my entire chest.
“Get your coat,” he finally says gruffly. “You’re getting a damn tree.”
I don’t point out that it’s past ten o’clock at night and all the tree farms are closed.
Or that I’m wearing onesie snowman pajamas without a bra.
Instead, I shove my laptop aside and leap to my feet. “If you insist.”
TREVOR
I have lost my mind.
All I meant to do was apologize for being a dick, and now, I’m trapped in a car with Meg, who broughtgummy bears, while I cruise all over Copper Valley looking for a Christmas tree farm that’s open until midnight.
“We’re in a damn city,” I mutter as we pass one more closed lot. “How are they going to sell the crappy trees to drunk people leaving the bars if they’re not open?”
Meg shakes the bag of gummy bears in my direction.
I grab a handful and toss them all back.
No idea how she knew I loved them, or why she had a bulk-size bag hidden in her room, but I’m slowly finding my happy place and feeling more like myself. Myoldself.
The self who liked his life and himself and knew he made a difference on his team and for his teammates, and who believed he’d find his place again when his baseball career was over.
The selfIliked to be.
I can feel him in there.
Evenwithall the annoying Christmas lights all over the city.
“I really don’t need a tree,” she says.
The fuck she doesn’t.
I might dislike Christmas for my own reasons, but she loves it and she’s miserable because her family abandoned her this year. Not like I can ever avoid Christmas, and it honestly hurts me more to think of giving someone else a grumpy Christmas than it does to just deal. So she brings in a damn tree. Won’t change my life that much.
It’ll make her happy.
And unfortunately, I know exactly where there are likely to be Christmas trees this time of night.
Wordlessly, I point my car back toward the heart of Copper Valley and the fanciest hotels.
