Chapter 9 Merrick
MERRICK
Between the cold air outside and the warm snuggly bed in here, I’d have loved nothing more than to stay inside and snuggle all day long, every second of this trip.
Chatting, cuddling, watching movies, listening to music, staring out the window, all sounded like the best time to me.
It didn’t matter what we did as long as the two of us were together, shutting out the rest of the world, I’d have been overjoyed.
But unlike me, King needed to keep busy.
And while he was willing to follow my lead, it wasn’t fair to him to ask.
This trip was for both of us. So, while he was in the shower, I called the front desk and asked what activities were in town today.
I could practically hear their eye-roll as they reminded me they had gone over all of this at check-in, but whatever.
I had more important things to do then, and I was listening now.
Today was the day of the town Christmas Tree Festival. I didn’t know what that entailed, but it sounded fun and was close by. When my mate came out, I told him to bundle up. We were going on a date. We’d made an accidental habit of skipping over dates in our past. That was ending today.
It was beautiful up here. The mountains were snow-covered and tree-filled.
I could see why it was a tourist destination, but I was also grateful it wasn’t a big one.
The resort wasn’t completely full, although I had a feeling on the weekend it would be.
At capacity, it would still be a nice quiet getaway.
“Are you going to tell me what our fabulous date entails?” King rested his hand on my knee, and if there had been a plowed shoulder, I would have been tempted to ask him to pull over and ask him to bring his hand up a little higher.
Fine. A lot higher. But there were no safe places to pull over, and the roads were not ideal.
Instead, I let him focus on the road and told him I knew very little about what to expect, but that Christmas trees were involved.
“As long as you're there, it will be perfect,” King said.
“I feel the same.”
The town was tiny, at least by my standards. But every resident seemed to be gathered along Main Street, which was blocked off for the day.
When they told me about the event, I thought maybe it was for a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, or possibly there were Christmas tree lots and caroling, or all the stores had trees and you had to pick your favorite or something along those lines.
But what we encountered was so much more magical than that.
We were greeted with an information table.
At least that was what I’d thought it was when we stepped forward.
The table was filled with random cards shaped like Christmas trees with items on them, and the goal was that every single one of them be purchased locally.
It was a town tradition that went back decades, and it provided gifts to various groups in the county.
Some of it was for children, some for pets, some for adults.
And by the looks of it, some of them were for the library.
I’d seen Angel Trees before, but nothing like this.
The residents all came out to celebrate the season with music, crafts, and cocoa, while supporting local businesses and giving back.
It was like something that had stepped out of a Hallmark movie, minus the high-powered CEO coming back to town to visit family and reconnecting with the local handyman who’d always owned their heart. I loved it.
“Ooh, this is going to be fun.” I glanced at the table, unsure how many I’d be able to afford. “Should we grab randomly or should we pick something specific?”
“I vote random.” He leaned in close to my ear. “And don’t worry about the money. I got it.”
If it had been items we were picking up for ourselves, I’d have argued with him, letting him know that I could pay my share. But this wasn’t about us, it was about the community, and if he was both willing and able to do a lot more than I could, that was great.
We each grabbed a few tags, and then it was our job to wander through downtown and find them all, then drop them off at various points along the way.
Not being from the town or having ever been there before, it was like a huge scavenger hunt set in one of the most festive holiday activities I’d ever been to.
To add to the fun, every store had a different theme.
One was the Grinch. Another was White Christmas.
There was one for Rudolph, and another that was Snoopy, filled with some of the saddest-looking Christmas trees that were somehow the most magnificent at the same time.
Out of all of them, I think my favorite was a little, used bookstore that was filled with aluminum Christmas trees from back in my grandparents’ day.
King and I had a blast finding the items. They were a hodgepodge of random things, from dog toys you could fill with peanut butter, to board books for young children, to an omelet pan and a set of towels.
And then when we were done, we grabbed some more tags and began again.
Christmas had always been about giving, and every year I helped as I could.
With King by my side, we did more than I’d ever be able to do on my own, and it felt amazing.
We finished up just about the time the band was playing in the center of the town square.
The way everybody talked about the band, I had assumed it was either the school band or maybe a community band that played summer concerts in the park.
When we reached the square and they announced their first song, I realized it was a polka band.
So out of place, while at the same time, being perfect.
“We’re going to dance, right?” I looked up at King, half expecting him to laugh, thinking I was kidding.
Instead, he said, “Absolutely.”
And when the music started, we joined young and old, dancing on the village green, which was white with snow. We danced until we couldn’t dance anymore, outlasting many of the people who snuck off to the different hot cocoa stations that were out and about.
“There’s a cookie walk.” King pointed diagonally across the way.
“You know we’re going on the cookie walk.” I had no idea what a cookie walk was, but he had me at cookie.
We were hardly the only ones with the idea.
The place was packed. You started by picking out your tin and then went around a huge maze that could only be outdone by IKEA, and you filled your tin with cookies from all over the world.
There were, of course, the chocolate chip, chocolate krinkles, and peanut butter kisses that you saw everywhere, but there were also beautiful gingerbreads and angel wings and almond cookies, not to mention all the ones I had never seen before and didn’t know the names of.
We left with four full tins, picking two of each of the different varieties so we could both try them all.
“We’re gonna roll home,” I teased.
“No, we’ve been getting our exercise.” He kissed my cheek, my ears burning with the embarrassment of it.
But why should I be embarrassed? He was my mate, and it was safe to say we had not only been exercising plenty, but we’d continue to do so.
“Shall we grab dinner before heading out?” he asked me.
“From what I see, everything’s got a pretty big line.” There weren’t a lot of restaurants, a couple of cafes, a diner, a Mexican place, and some food carts, and all of them had what appeared to be really long waits. “I thought we’d go back to the resort and have cookies for dinner.”
“I should probably be talking you out of that, telling you how you’ll be sorry in the morning, but that sounds like a brilliant idea to me.”
“Then let’s go back and have some dessert,” I said. “Oh, and when we’re done, we can have some cookies.”
“I like how you think, mate. I like how you think.”