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Knox chuckled. “I’d love to. I can help you cut down a real tree.”
Addy’s eyes widened comically. “Mommy, please?”
The trees on the lot were expensive. I couldn’t imagine what they’d be if we cut down a fresh one. “I don’t want to take up too much of Knox’s time, sweetie.”
“We’re busy this time of the year, but I can make time for you. I wouldn’t want you to suffer without a tree. Why don’t you come before opening on Saturday, and I’ll help you out?”
I waved a hand at him, still uncertain how I’d pay for it. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Let me do this as my treat for you two. I can’t let you put up a fake tree.” He shuddered as if the idea was distasteful to him.
Addy giggled.
He’d put me in a position where I couldn’t say no, and I was curious about what it would be like to have a real tree.
“I’ll bring it by after close on Saturday and help you put it up. Do you have a tree stand?” He looked around as if I kept one in the corner for him to drop by and offer his help.
“I do have one.”
“Will you help us decorate it, too?” Addy asked.
Before I could say no to that suggestion, Knox rushed to say, “I’d love to.”
I bit my lip, not wanting to remind Addy in front of Knox to not invite people to do things without asking me first. We needed to have a conversation when Knox wasn’t standing in front of us, looking too good to be true.
His navy cap read University of Colorado. I pointed to it. “Is that where you went to school?”
Knox took off his hat and ran a hand through his short hair. “That’s right. I worked for an architectural firm before I returned home to help on the farm.”
His face was pinched, and I wondered if there was a story behind his moving back. He hadn’t mentioned his dad, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t around.
I mixed the cocoa into the steamed milk and poured the liquid into three mugs. In the spirit of the holiday, I used the ones from the movie Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
“What would you like in your hot cocoa?” Addy knelt on the bench seat at the table and used a spoon to lift the mini marshmallows into her Rudolph mug.
“The works.”
Knox could easily have told her he’d do it himself, and I appreciated that he allowed Addy to do it. He seemed to be at ease around her. “You seem good with kids.”
Knox glanced up at me as Addy dropped the candy cane shavings into his mug. “I have a niece, Ember, who’s in the same grade as Addy. That’s how I knew you’d be out tonight. I wanted to surprise you.”
I was so surprised by his admission I couldn’t form a response at first.
“I know Ember. She’s in my class and in the play at school,” Addy said as she dropped marshmallows into my Santa mug.
“She told me an Addy was in her class, and I put it together. You have a unique name.”
“So does Ember,” I said.
“She’s the light that keeps our family burning bright.” Knox shrugged. “That’s what my brother, her father Sebastian, always says.”
“I love that.” Her name had meaning, and it was eerily similar to my description of Addy.
“She’s the only kid in the family, and we spoil her.”
I smiled, imagining the brothers who were on my porch smitten by a little girl. “I can imagine.”
“Thanks for the hot chocolate,” Knox said when Addy pushed the Abominable Snow Monster mug in his direction.
