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Grinning, I ponder aloud. “Didn’t Sully say something about his new lake lot having nice trees?”
55
Barrett was right. The Christmas idea was perfect. I’ve never seen her so excited. This morning, she woke up to find her name on a stocking, filled with her favorite candy. Chicken Salad got one full of treats. I ordered Christmas lights and a variety of ornaments so she could decorate the tree we’re on our way to chop down.
We pull up to the private property midmorning, the fresh snow is sparkling. There’s a construction crew on-site, so we park behind one of the trucks.Shit, I wasn’t prepared for anyone to be here. Jordan looks around.
“What are we doing?” she asks.
“Wait here a sec.”
I hop out of my truck and find the foreman. One awkward conversation, a few hundreds, and eight autographs later, I return to Jordan, who’s now standing outside of the truck, her eyebrows knitted together. She holds up her arms in a what-the-fuck gesture.
My hand feels around the truck bed until it lands on a handsaw. “You always wanted to cut down your own tree. Sothat’s what we’re doing.” I point the saw toward Sully’s future front yard, with those perfectly shaped trees he loves so much, and wave it around. “Any tree you want, Sunshine.”
“Do I even want to know whose house—oh God, please don’t tell me this is Sully’s new lake lot. We’re not stealing a tree, are we?”
I glance around the property and mutter under my breath, “Not the whole tree, just the part that sticks out of the ground?—”
“Cam! That’s his landscaping!”
“Jordan! That’s why it’s funny!” I say, imitating her.
She tries to keep a straight face but loses her battle with laughter.
I cup her rosy cheeks and kiss her. “You have your heists and I have mine.”
She stares at me for a few long seconds, but eventually, her mouth tips up and she shakes her head. I step away so she can survey the property. “Anytree?”
“Yup. Might I be so bold to recommend ones with curbside appeal?”
She purses her lips and tears her eyes away from me as she walks around, and I grin, pleased that she’s going along with my scheme. She circles the nice trees in front, carefully inspecting each one. Something catches her eye across the road, and she hurries across the dead-end street.
I follow her. “The good ones are that way, babe.” I point back to the yard.
“What do you think about this one?” she asks, dusting off snow from some of the pine branches.
“That’sthe one you want?” It’s an ugly fucker. Real ugly. But if this is the tree that makes her happy... Damn, I paid off a bunch of dudes to say the tree from the front wasalready gone when they showed up. But this tree? We’d be doing him a favor by taking it down.
Her boots crunch in the snow as she walks around the hideous spruce. The “tree” looks more like an overgrown shrub with all the bare spots, it’s round where it should be triangle-shaped. I wonder if she’s secretly trying to interfere with my prank, but this is Jordan. She’d probably pick an ugly tree just so its feelings aren’t hurt. I love that she’s as compassionate as she is ruthless.
“Yup. This is the one,” she says, clapping her chopper mittens together. “What should we name it?” I was right, she’s already treating it like it’s a pet.
I raise an eyebrow. “It’s a tree, Jordan.”
“It’s gotta have a name.”
Grinning, I tilt my head to the side. “Chris Smith.”
She chuckles, and I drop down to my shoulder, shuffling under the lowest sappy-as-fuck branch with the handsaw, no doubt ruining my wool coat. “Next year, we’re going to buy a precut tree.”
“Never gonna happen,” she says with confidence.
Squinting, I saw away at the trunk, trying to keep from getting any falling pine needles in my eyes. Can’t believe this is the one we’re walking away with. It doesn’t take long before I slice through, the thing is barely three inches thick. I shove out from under it as the tree topples away from me. When I stand, she brushes off the needles and bits of bark from my coat.
“Thank you,” she says with a big smile.
“Whatever the queen wants, the queen gets.” I sigh.
