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My heart pounded in my chest. I was attracted to him but never thought he’d be in my life. Not in any significant way. In one day, he’d surprised us with a beautifully decorated porch, and now, a tree.
I didn’t know what to make of him or the situation. I just didn’t want either one of us to get hurt. At the end of the day, it was just me and Addy. I needed to protect our hearts at all costs.
Chapter 2
Knox
The entire evening had gone in a different direction than I’d planned. I'd wanted to decorate the porch and be gone before they arrived home.
I wanted to do something nice for Addy, who’d kept me company the day I was tending the flower bed in the neighbor’s yard. I hadn’t meant for her and her mother to come home and find me decorating their porch. I certainly hadn’t planned on introducing her to my brothers.
I shouldn’t have gone inside and accepted the mug of hot cocoa or stayed to work on the puzzle with them. It only complicated everything. I’d noticed Sarah coming and going in the neighborhood, but I wasn’t looking for a relationship, and I figured a single mother was off-limits.
Working on my family’s Christmas tree farm made me see that the holidays were a magical time of year for many people. You need a few things to make it happen: a fresh-cut tree, hot chocolate, and holiday music playing in the background, and I wanted to give Addy that magic in her home.
I didn’t want her to feel like she was different from the other families in the cul-de-sac because she didn’t have lights on her porch or a tree in the front window. Addy told me she lived with her mother, and her father worked far away. I sensed that Sarah didn’t feel comfortable cutting down a tree and wrangling it home on her own.
What started out as a good deed had turned into so much more. I’d unwittingly intertwined my life with theirs. As I turned onto the lane for the farm, I reassured myself that I didn’t have to see them again after I helped them get a tree.
I ignored the voice in my head that said I’d had fun tonight. Spending time with Sarah and Addy didn’t compare to meeting women at bars. There was depth and a mystery to Sarah’s life that made her intriguing.
I tried not to notice the way she filled out those skinny jeans or how her sweater molded to her ample breasts, but it was impossible. I’d been attracted to Sarah since the first time I saw her, even though it was only ever in passing.
I’d paid more attention to her barren front yard flower beds and the overgrown bushes on the side of the house. That kind of neglect usually irritated me, but I guessed that Sarah was overwhelmed with being a single mother and that lawn care wasn’t at the top of her priority list.
I assumed she maintained the lawn and the property by herself. She hadn’t hired my service to maintain the lawn or create flower beds to enhance her yard like almost everyone else in the area had. So, either she couldn’t afford it, didn’t have the time to deal with it, or she truly didn’t notice the lawn.
That last one was hard for me to believe because it was the first thing I noticed about a house. I’d been obsessed with plants since we were little and my father explained the growing process of the Christmas trees on our property, and then later, when I helped in my mother’s garden.
I enjoyed making things beautiful. It had started as a way to earn money in the offseason, but it had grown. When I entered one neighborhood, it was common for other neighbors to request my services, as well.
Hanging lights on porches had started out as a favor to a homeowner who’d asked if I could hang their decorations. I did it for a nominal price, but then word spread. Sebastian warned me I wasn’t charging enough for my services, but I was afraid I’d lose customers if I charged more.
But when Addy asked me to make her house look like the others on the street, I couldn’t say no. The day she talked to me through the fence, she was adorable, talking a mile a minute about the play she was in at school, her soccer team, and her teacher at school.
She clearly loved to socialize, while her mother seemed more reserved. Addy easily worked her way into my heart, the same way Ember had. It felt like we were friends. Maybe now Sarah would say hi to me when she saw me in the neighborhood.
I groaned as I parked the truck in front of my cabin. I shouldn’t want to spend more time with them. No matter how adorable the little girl was, I sensed Sarah wasn’t interested in getting to know me.
I didn’t blame her. She had enough going on in her life if she was a single mother. She didn’t need me complicating things for her.
After high school, I went to college and then got a job at a local architectural company in Colorado. I worked long hours and enjoyed my work, but I was more interested in designing the landscaping than the buildings themselves.
When I got the call that my father had had a heart attack, I came home and never left. Nothing was more important than family. My mother and my brothers needed me. I wouldn’t make the mistake of being selfish again. Sarah and Addy were a distraction I didn’t need.
“I just got off the phone with a woman who said she’s meeting you to cut down a tree this morning,” Mom said as I walked into her kitchen Saturday morning. “She wanted to confirm that it was still okay to arrive before we opened at eight.”
“I don’t have her number. I didn’t even think of that when I scheduled it,” I said.
“What, exactly, did you schedule?” Mom asked, pushing a plate of freshly baked muffins in my direction.
“Sarah lives in the house we decorated the other night. Her daughter, Addy, asked me to decorate her house like the others in the neighborhood. I couldn’t say no.”
Mom nodded. “I heard. That was nice of you.”
“It was supposed to be a surprise, but she came home early. Addy invited me in for hot chocolate. I noticed they didn’t have a tree and asked if they planned on getting one. Sarah said they usually use a fake tree, or they could go to a lot in town.”
Mom huffed out a breath. “You can’t buy a tree from a lot. Who knows when it was cut? It won’t last until Christmas.”
