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I couldn’t wait to strip out of my suddenly confining jeans into a pair of shorts and feel the warm breeze brush against my bare skin.
No doubt it would be heaven.
Lucas already had the passenger door open on his side, pulling out our luggage and setting it on the driveway.
I hurried over, slipping my carry-on over my shoulder with my purse, not wanting anything to bang into it and damage my camera.
He smiled at me. “You’re more relaxed already.”
“Amazing what being in a tropical paradise will do for a person.” I smiled back and reached for my suitcase, my hand wrapping around the handle. He batted my hand away.
“I’ll take them in.”
“Door to door service. I’m impressed. Do I need to tip extra for that?”
He laughed and started up the walkway to the door. I pulled my phone out of my purse, tilting it towards the house and taking my first set of photos there, then walked up slowly behind him.
“Are you going to film everything?” he asked with a teasing laugh as he looked over his shoulder at me, stopping as he was about to key the code into the door.
I put my phone down slightly. “Not everything, exactly...but I want to capture as much of the trip as possible. Plus I promised Marnie…”
“Okay then, I’ll be your model if I have to. It’s a rough job, but I’ll make the sacrifice.”
I laughed as we stepped inside. “I’m more the landscape type of girl, thanks.”
I stopped, looking around the foyer. The photos he’d shown me weeks ago totally didn’t do the place justice.
The floor plan was pretty much open—I could see the kitchen and a sitting area off to the side from where we stood. More balcony doors off to the back yard, with soft gauzy curtains pushed back to show off the amazing view of the sunlight bouncing off the water, not only in the nearby pool but the ocean out beyond.
I turned. There was another sitting area just ahead of us…and…
I blinked, about to rub my eyes.
I had to be hallucinating.
A Christmas tree?
Correction, an undecorated Christmas tree…but still a tree nonetheless. It was beautiful, gorgeous dark green branches spread out everywhere and at least eight feet tall. I had a feeling it was an artificial one, but I truly didn’t care. A tree was a tree.
“Is that…”
I turned to see Lucas lugging in our bags, setting them a few feet away, not even glancing towards me.
“Lucas?” I pointed to the tree.
He glanced over his shoulder to see what I was pointing at. “Yep, that’s a Christmas tree,” he said nonchalantly.
I almost squealed in excitement. “How?”
He laughed. “Santa’s going to find you, Abs. You can’t hide from the jolly old man no matter how far you go.”
I laughed and set my carry-on down.
For a moment, I wondered again why Lucas had gotten offered this place. Was the client female, by any chance, I found myself wondering. Maybe I’d have to walk around and look for some family photos to alleviate my suspicions.
“He usually has a staff...he asked if we’d want them over the holidays, but I thought we could manage fine on our own,” Lucas explained as he put the last of our bags down in the foyer.
Okay, so it was a ‘he.’
