Chapter 25 Kat #2
Vince parks, and we all pile out, and despite the cold, I can’t help but sigh in relief. An hour in the car with all of them was kind of… intense.
Addy is out and pulling me along the next second.
“Come on, Mommy!” she all but shouts, her smile contagious as she pulls me into the building, and I feel more than see the others follow behind us.
“Mr. Lawson.” The awe in the man's voice when he sees Nathan makes me beam at him. I scoop Addy up into my arms, and she clings to me as we wait for whatever it is that we do next.
“Hello, David.” Nathan offers him a nod, which is pretty friendly for him.
“How many this year? Just the two?” David asks, and I realize this place must be a part of their tradition.
Nathan turns to look at Oli, and he thinks for a second, doing that adorable thing where he pokes his tongue out to wet his lips that I noticed he does when he’s deep in thought.
“Six,” he answers after a second, though he doesn’t sound entirely convinced. He thinks for another moment, and Nathan waits until he nods and repeats his answer with much more conviction.
“Wait, six trees?” Clearly, I’ve missed something.
What the hell are we going to do with six trees?
“Isn’t six a lot, Nathan?” I ask, unable to stop myself because this has to be overkill.
“Nah, don’t be silly, Kitten. I wanted one in every room.” Des slings his arm around my shoulder, stopping me from moving toward Nathan.
“Every room…” My brain can’t even comprehend how many trees that would be. There are places I haven’t even been in the house yet. The smirk on Alex’s lips lets me know he was on board with Des and is fully aware of how ridiculous that idea was.
“So six for us, delivery today if available, and triple our usual donation.”
Something crashes to the ground, and I look toward the counter, where a young girl stands looking at what I assume is the thing that just fell and made so much noise.
“You okay, Jess?” The man, David, I think Nathan called him, asks the girl as she turns bright red, no doubt feeling every eye turn to her.
“Yes,” she squeaks, disappearing behind the counter for a moment before she pops back up. Her eyes dart around the room before they land on Oli, then Des, before she looks at me, and I swear I see the confusion.
“Sorry,” she tucks a long lock of her dark hair behind her ear and smiles at Nathan. “Your regular donation is already so much. Tripling it caught me off guard, is all.”
She’s young, probably early twenties, tops. I tell myself it’s irrational to feel jealous.
Yet here we are, my blood boiling as I watch her shamelessly check them out and blush and…
Maybe she’s just grateful.
“What’s the regular donation?” I ask and watch the smile fall from the girl's face.
“That’s confidential,” she says with more bite than I would have thought possible a moment ago when she seemed quiet and shy.
“We usually give ten thousand dollars to help with donations for trees, gifts, and just helping this place stay open and operational. We’ve been coming here since we were little, and we like to give back,” Oliver explains, and holy hell.
That means this year, Nathan is going to give thirty thousand dollars.
“You’ll watch the way you talk to her, or we’d happily take our business elsewhere, though.” Des’s voice leaves no room for questions, and I see the girl swallow hard before she gives a nod.
“Did you want us to close the farm down?” David asks Nathan as if nothing happened, and I’m not sure if that’s rude or if I’m excited he ignored the girl.
Nathan turns to me, and it takes me a second to realize he’s waiting to see what I want.
“Oh god no, there are other people here looking for trees. Turning them away would be terrible.” The thought makes my stomach hurt, imagining families who drove to get a tree only to be told they can’t.
That’s not part of the holiday magic at all.
“Such a softie,” Vince says, and while he sounds annoyed, the smile on his face tells a different story.
“I’m sorry I have a heart. How terrible of me.” I roll my eyes at him, and he huffs a laugh.
“Sounds terrible.” Vince snaps back without any real heat, and I scoff.
“You guys are adorable,” Des murmurs in my ear, and now it’s my turn to blush.
“Stop this. We have trees to pick out,” I huff and slip out of Des’s arm quickly, moving to follow after Nathan as he follows David out of the building.
We load up on the back of a tractor, and honestly, I’m sure we look ridiculous all dressed up to cut down a tree. Not that I would ever complain about them dressing up, not with how yummy they look like this.
The farm is huge and beautiful. Addy spent the whole ride to the drop-off pointing out some of the best trees, and there are a lot.
“Should we just get the ones Addy pointed out?” I ask as we climb off the back of the tractor wagon.
“Nah, most of those were too short,” Des says, making me look back toward one of the few I can still see.
Short?
It’s at least eight feet tall.
How is that short?
“Okay…” I turn to look at Des, who is currently lying in the snow with Addy, making snow angels. “How tall of a tree do we need then?”
“The general rule is two feet shorter than the height of the room,” David says as he makes his way around the tractor with a chainsaw.
“So for the main room we can do eighteen feet, and the others will mostly be twelve except for two that should probably be eight, maybe ten.” Clearly, Oliver came prepared, which is good because nobody else seemed to have the answer.
Not that I’m surprised, though; Oliver usually is on top of things.
“So that means we can use at least one of Addy’s picks!” Addison jumps to her feet and runs toward me with the biggest smile on her face.
She doesn’t even slow as she reaches me, simply grabbing my hand and yanking me behind her down the path back toward one of the last trees she pointed out.
The others follow at a much more even pace as Addison all but vibrates in place with her excitement.
David gets a nod of approval from Nathan, and that’s all he needs. The chainsaw roars to life, and Addison covers her ears, but her smile seems stuck in place, unable to be swayed.
I’m not sure what I expected, but in just a few minutes, the tree is on the ground, lying in snow as David calls for a few guys to handle it, whatever that might mean.
I don’t really have time to think about it because then we’re off again, moving through the countless rows of trees in search of the perfect trees.
It takes a while, longer than I realized it would, but finally we’re almost done. We only need one more tree, and of course, it’s the biggest one. The tree, the main one for the living room, the one that will house all the presents on Christmas morning.
And they want me to pick it.
No pressure.
Addy, Vince, Nathan, and I walk down yet another row, with Oli, Des, and Alex walking the next one, hoping to cover more ground.
I’m starting to think there isn’t a perfect tree and that we should just pick any of the other dozen eighteen-foot ones we saw in the beginning when we turn the corner and find the one!
This is it.
I’m not sure how I know, but I do. I can see it, standing in the center of the room, gifts piled high around it, lights and bulbs hanging off it, and a star on top.
“Ah, that’s a good one,” Vince says as he moves to stand at my side.
“Beautiful.” I turn toward Nathan as he stops at my other side, with Addison in his arms. She’s looking at the tree with so much awe that if I wasn’t positive before, I sure as hell am now.
Nathan isn’t looking at the tree at all; instead, his gaze is once again fixed on me, just like it was this morning, and despite the cold, my face heats up.
“We found it!” Addy yells loudly, alerting the others, and in just a few minutes, we stand and watch as David cuts down our final tree before we start heading back toward the tractor.
The air is clean and smells of pine and fresh snow, and I find myself glad I don’t have an allergy to it because it might just be my new favorite scent.