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“No!” I giggle. “Gimmie.”
He hands me a small shimmering bag that I grab out of his hands and open immediately.
“Wow,” I breathe as my eyes fall on the ornament in my hands. The snowflakes shimmer as I tilt it this way and that. “So pretty.”
“You like it?”
“I love it. I’m going to put it on the tree right now.”
The door snaps closed somewhere in the house, yanking me out of my thoughts just as the guys enter the living room.
“Damn, it’s freezing outside,” Nixon mutters, rubbing his palms together as he and the boys join us in the living room. “Why are we taking these off anyway? They should stay up all year long.”
We spent the early morning preparing the Thanksgiving meal while the guys left to get a Christmas tree. Why did that simple job require all of the guys—well, except Maddox—to go. I’ll never understand. Now the boys were out, putting the lights on the house, while Yasmin and Alyssa were in the kitchen baking cookies, which left Grace, Penny, and me to decorate the tree.
It was weird, having the house filled with so many people and so much laughter after all this time. And it’s not even all of us because Yasmin’s parents were supposed to come in a few hours.
Yasmin pinches him. “They most certainly will not. What will the neighbors say?”
“Our closest neighbors aren’t in seeing distance,” Nixon points out.
“I don’t care. That’s not how it’s done.”
Once again, the doors open, and a few moments later, Prescott is standing in the doorway, his hair disheveled, a few snowflakes clinging to his hair. His eyes find mine across the room almost instantly and hold as he joins me.
“You okay?” he asks softly.
I force out a small smile. “Yeah. I just got lost in the memories.”
If he wants to ask more, he doesn’t get a chance.
“You wanna put this one on the tree?” Penny asks, returning my attention to the ornament in her hand.
I watch it for a second before shaking my head. “Nah, I think we’ll skip it this year.”
“Okay.”
I glance at the tree, and Grace joins me by my side as we both look at our handiwork. “It looks really pretty.”
“Yeah, it does.”
“It’s still missing one thing,” Penny says, holding out a star in her hand. “You wanna do it?”
“Sure.”
I take the star from her hand, looking down at it for a moment, before rising on my tiptoes. But even that’s not enough since I still have a hard time lifting my arms in the air. Just recently, I’ve started PT. Thanks to Nixon and Coach Davies, I didn’t even have to leave campus to do so. Dr. Snow agreed to work with me so I didn’t have to lose time on travel and nag people to drive me to my appointments since I still wasn’t cleared to drive on my own. But even so, I was a far cry from being back at one hundred percent.
Prescott must see me struggling because the next thing I know, his hands are on my waist, and he’s hauling me up. I let out a little shriek in surprise, making my friends laugh.
“Try not to kick down the tree, Smalls,” Nixon teases.
“Well, you could have done this, you know. I’d love to see your expertise.”
“Oh, no,” Nixon shakes his head. “I’ve done my job. I bought the tree, got it here, and put on the lights.”
I stick my tongue at him. “Poor baby.”
“Umm, can you put that star on and then get back to fighting with your brother?” Prescott asks.
