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“No, you haven’t,” Wren said, “and agreeing to marry someone is a big step. He just kind of sprung it on you. Take all the time you need, Trixie. Blade isn’t going anywhere.”
“How can you be so sure of that?” Trixie asked. “I just walked out on him. I can’t expect him to stick around forever waiting for me to get up the nerve to tell him that I love him and will marry him.”
Wren smiled at her, “We’re going to be sisters,” she said. “It’s what we’ve always wanted.” Trixie already considered her best friend to be her sister. They had known each other their whole lives. But was she ready for this next step?
“I haven’t accepted his proposal,” Trixie said.
“Yet,” Wren corrected. “You haven’t accepted my brother’s proposal, yet. But you will. You just admitted that you love him and will marry him—when you’re ready. I won’t push you into something that you’re not ready for. I’m sure that
my brother didn’t mean to scare you off when he proposed in front of me today. He just wanted us all to be together. He didn’t mean to put you on the spot or anything like that. Just give him a chance, Trixie. You two are good together.”
“I know that we are. He’s all I ever wanted. I guess that’s what makes all of this even more confusing. He’s finally giving me everything I ever dreamed of, and I’m acting like a giant baby and throwing a tantrum.” Trixie took a deep breath and let it back out. “I think that I’m ready to go back to the house and tell him how I feel.”
Wren squealed and clapped her hands, jumping up and down in place. Trixie couldn’t help her smile. “I’ll give you a few minutes to get yourself together. I’ll head back to the house, but don’t be too long,” Wren ordered. “I’ll burst if you make me keep this secret for more than just a few minutes.”
“Got it,” Trixie agreed. “I wouldn’t want you to burst. That would be a messy end to Christmas, and we can’t have that.” Wren kissed her cheek and skipped off back in the direction of Yonker’s house.
Trixie decided to head around the block, to give herself time to calm her thumping heart and get herself together, as she promised Wren that she would. As she turned the corner, she could see Yonker’s house, and she couldn’t hide her smile. Wren was right—she and Blade were perfect for each other, and it was time for her to grab onto what she wanted and hold it tightly with both hands—and she wanted Blade.
“Merry Christmas, Trixie,” a man said from behind her, stopping her dead in her tracks. She’d know that voice anywhere. She heard it every night in her nightmares.
“Bruce,” she whispered as she slowly turned around. Trixie hoped that it was just a dream and that she would find him standing behind her, but she wasn’t that lucky. “How did you find me?” she asked.
“Oh, let’s just say I had a little help. That day at the tree lot, I paid the guy who loaded your tree into the truck to put a tracker on it. I’ve known where you are the whole time. I just had to wait for the caveman, who thinks he’s your boyfriend, to leave you alone. And now, here we are.” Trixie worried that she had made a major mistake, letting Wren leave her alone, but Bruce was crazy enough to just take them both.
“I’m not alone,” she lied, “Blade is just behind me.”
Bruce barked out his laugh, taking a step closer to her. “You expect me to buy that? I saw you and Wren talking and I know that you’ve been alone since she went back to her new boyfriend’s house.” She wasn’t about to correct Bruce calling Yonkers Wren’s boyfriend.
“You’re wrong,” she stuttered.
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” he said. “But none of that matters, really. We have a date, and I don’t want to be late.”
“A date,” she squeaked. She knew that if she let Bruce take her away, she might never see Blade again. She wouldn’t be able to tell him that she loved him and wanted to be his wife more than anything. “We don’t have a date,” she shouted. She looked around to see if anyone was out on the street but found no one. No one was going to come to her rescue, and she realized that now. Her only resource was herself and the one thing that she knew about herself, and Bruce probably didn’t, was that she used to be on the high school track team, and she was pretty good.
He took another step toward her, and she worried that she might not be fast enough, but she had to try. “You should know something about me before our date,” she said.
“Oh, what’s that?” Bruce asked, wearing a smug grin.
“Well,” she said, coyly, “I was on the track team in high school.” Before he could register what she was hinting at, Trixie had started to sprint for Yonker’s house, screaming the whole way. Bruce started after her until he saw Blade standing on the front porch. As soon as Blade saw her, he took off running toward them and for the first time since running into Bruce, she felt a sense of victory.
Bruce turned to run the other way and was knocked to the ground by Yonkers who was waiting for him. The two had double-teamed him and there was no way that he’d get away this time. “You can’t hold me,” he shouted. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“You broke the restraining order that Trixie has taken out against you,” Blade growled. “My sister has already called the cops and you’re going to spend the rest of the holiday in jail.”
“They won’t be able to keep me for long,” Bruce taunted. “They’ll let me go with a slap on the wrist.”
“Right, but then, once I show the cops the video footage of you disabling Wren’s security system, they’ll have some questions for you,” Yonkers insisted.
“Plus, I’m sure that we will be able to get someone to listen to Trixie’s story about you stalking her all this time. Your HR department seems interested in her story. The cops have asked her to come down to the station tomorrow to give a statement about you stalking her. I’m betting that your company takes issues like that very seriously,” Blade said.
“You can’t do that,” Bruce shouted at Trixie. “They will never believe a little slut like you.” Blade punched Bruce in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. “I’m going to press charges,” he said, smiling up at Blade. “You’ll be in a cell right next to mine.”
“You poor thing,” Wren said, “you just lost your balance and fell, hitting your head on the ground. You might need to get your head checked out to make sure that you’re all right.”
Yonkers chuckled, “Wren’s right. That was a nasty fall. We all just saw you lose your balance and you definitely hit your face on the sidewalk. It’s going to leave a mark, but I’m sure that they’ll look you over in the prison infirmary.”
Bruce stood and looked Blade over. “You’ll never get away with any of this. I’ll get out and I won’t stop coming for Trixie. She will be mine.” Two police cars pulled up in front of them and after telling the officers about what happened, they watched as Bruce was put into the back of the police car and led away.
