Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
“What about this one?”
Justin turned to look at the Christmas tree Felicity was pointing to. At first, he thought she was joking. But when he looked directly at her face, he noticed the lack of a teasing smile. She was serious?
His gaze returned to the tree. It was tall, but its limbs were on the sparse side. And it appeared to have a crooked trunk. This definitely wasn’t the tree for her.
“How about this one?” He pointed to a lush blue spruce next to him. “It’s a really nice-looking tree.”
Felicity shook her head. “It’s too wide.”
He turned back to the spruce and tried to picture it in her mother’s apartment. Okay. Maybe she had a point.
Then she turned back to him. “But you know where it would look good? Your apartment.”
He shook his head. “Not going to happen.”
“Are you sure? I mean you did say it’s really nice-looking.”
He narrowed his gaze on her. “It’s not fair turning my words around on me.”
She sighed. “Fine.”
He turned away, letting his gaze scan the lot for a tall, slender tree. There certainly weren’t a lot left to choose from. All of the tall ones were wide at the bottom…except for that ridiculous tree that Felicity was still standing next to.
He wasn’t giving up. He wanted her and her mother to have a nice tree for the holiday—even if he didn’t have one of his own. He never had one. It just seemed foolish to put one up for just himself.
And then he saw it. This was the right tree. It was slightly taller than he was, but it wasn’t very wide at the bottom—not like the others.
“Felicity,” he called out to her. “Over here.”
A moment later, Felicity stepped up next to him. He smiled at her. “How about this one?”
Her gaze swept over it from limb to limb, as though searching for a flaw that would give her a legitimate reason to reject it. The longer she was quiet, the more certain he was that he’d found the perfect tree.
“Can I help you?” A teenage boy approached them.
“How much is this tree?” Justin asked.
After the boy told them the rather high price, Felicity asked, “How much is this tree? It’s over here.”
They walked over to the sad tree that Justin would swear was listing to the side even more. No one would want that tree.
“Oh. Um…” The boy looked perplexed. “I’m not sure. Let me ask the owner. I’ll be right back.”
After the boy walked away, Justin asked, “Do you really like the tree that much?”
Felicity shrugged. “Every Christmas tree needs someone to love it.”
He had a feeling there was something more to her picking out the saddest tree in the lot.
When the boy returned and told her that it was half off, Felicity smiled triumphantly.
Even before she said a word, he knew they were taking home the sad-looking tree.
He would never understand women. No wonder he was single.
Twenty minutes later, they had the tree in the apartment. While Felicity dug through the boxes, looking for the tree stand, he went to his apartment to take Sunny outside for another quick walk.
When he returned to the apartment with the puppy, Felicity had the tree stand, which was anchored to a wood base, waiting for him.
Normally, it was a challenge getting a Christmas tree in the stand and making sure it was straight.
But this year’s tree was light-weight, and it didn’t matter what they did, this tree was never going to be straight.
When he explained this to Felicity, she didn’t seem the least bit upset about it. They worked together to get the tree into the stand. Before he tightened the screws, he had her step back to get a good view of the tree. When she did, a smile bloomed on her face.
He tightened the screws into the trunk of the tree, and then he got to his feet. He moved to stand next to her. “Can you explain to me why you love this tree so much?”
“It reminds me of a tree we had when I was little.
Both of my parents were busy working, and they kept putting off putting up the holiday decorations.
By the time we got to the tree lot, all of the nice trees were gone.
I picked out a tree that looked a lot like this one.
My mother was horrified, but my father said the tree had a lot of character.
We took it home, and all three of us worked together to decorate it.
“Afterward, my mother made hot chocolate, and we turned off the overhead lights. The tree all lit up, along with the light from the fireplace, cast a warm glow over the room. It’s one of my favorite Christmas memories.
Nothing special happened. We were all together, and we were happy—truly happy.
You never know how good you have it until the moment passes.
” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. She blinked repeatedly.
He turned and reached out to her. His fingers embraced her upper arms. “It sounds like a really good memory.”
She sniffled as she nodded. “It’s just that sometimes I really miss my father. I didn’t get to tell him goodbye.” A tear streamed down her cheek. “I didn’t get to tell him that I loved him.”
Justin pulled her closer until her cheek rested against his shoulder. “But your father knew how much you love him.”
“I just…I still can’t believe he’s gone. I miss him so much.”
They stood there with their arms wrapped around each other.
It literally had been years since they’d been this close—since they’d trusted each other with their innermost feelings.
This was Felicity’s first Christmas at home without her father.
It wouldn’t be easy. But he would do whatever he could to help her make new memories—happy memories.
When she pulled back, he didn’t immediately release his embrace. He wasn’t ready to let her go. It was like he’d found what he’d been missing all of this time.
As her gaze met his, his heart pounded. It was so loud it echoed in his ears. She was the only one who could make him feel like this.
His gaze dipped to her mouth. Her lips were rosy. He wondered what she would do if he were to lower his head and press his mouth to hers. The thought was so tempting. They were so close.
He wouldn’t know unless he tried. As he stared into her eyes, his heart was pounding so loud it was like he was a nervous teenager again. His head lowered, and his eyes drifted closed—
Crash!
Not again. His eyes sprang open. Felicity had already jumped out of his arms. The moment that had barely begun was already over. Disappointment flooded his body.
He glanced over to see that Sunny had knocked one of the decoration boxes from the coffee table. She was pawing at the lid, which was partially off.
The next thing he knew, Sunny had one of the ornaments in her mouth. When they yelled at her, Sunny took off running toward the dining room table. He went one way. Felicity went the other way.
“I’ve got her.” Justin bent over to catch Sunny, but she was so fast his fingertips only grazed the fur of her back.
“Thought you had her.” Felicity rolled her eyes.
“I thought so. She’s too fast.”
They followed her to Felicity’s bedroom. Then she raced past them. He was worried about the ornament in her mouth. He didn’t know what he’d do if she ruined it.
It wasn’t until Sunny reached the living room that she jumped up on the couch. As she was about to stretch out and crunch down on the ornament, Justin snatched it from her grasp. Sunny sat up and frowned at him.
He ignored the dog’s disgruntled whining. He was more concerned about the ornament. It looked like it was part of a star, but where was the rest of it?
He’d had an eye on Sunny the whole time, and she didn’t have a chance to eat it. So, then where was it?
His gaze moved to the box on the floor. Felicity picked it up before he could reach it. He could tell by the droop of her lips, and the ever so soft sigh that it wasn’t good.
“Maybe we can fix them,” he said without seeing the extent of the damage. He looked at Sunny. “You’re in trouble.”
Felicity shook her head. “It isn’t her fault. It looks like moisture got to them, and they crumbled.”
She held up the box. He peered inside and saw the star-shaped ornaments in various degrees of brokenness. When his gaze lifted to meet Felicity’s, he could see how much this realization pained her.
“We made these salt dough ornaments with my grandmother. I was so little that I needed a stool to see the top of the table. My grandmother let me sprinkle the flour. I’m not sure how much actually made it on the table and how much landed on the floor.
” A wistful smile passed over her beautiful face.
“Sounds like it was a good memory.”
Felicity nodded. “It was a great Christmas. My grandmother didn’t have money, but she made the holidays special for the whole family with her baking, and she always had carols playing until the New Year. She said Christmas was for singing out in joy.”
His gaze narrowed. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you sing.”
“Really?” When he nodded, she said, “I guess you just weren’t around at the right times.”
As her gaze returned to the box of ruined ornaments, he asked, “What will you do with them?”
“There’s no point in keeping them. I just don’t know how I’m going to tell my mother.”
“I don’t know anything about them, so keep that in mind when I say this, but would it be possible to make more?”
Immediately, Felicity shook her head. Then she stopped. Her brows drew together as she stared into space, as though lost in her thoughts.
He wanted to ask what she was thinking, but instead, he quietly waited for her to speak. Was it possible she liked the idea?
“You actually have a good idea.” Her words made him smile, but then she said, “But I don’t know if I can make the ornaments and finish getting things ready for the play.”
“Is there something I can do to help?” The words were out of his mouth before he realized what he was saying. He knew absolutely nothing about making Christmas ornaments.
But before he could think of a way to gently walk back his words, there was a twinkle in her eyes. In a blink, it was gone. “That’s so sweet of you, but I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
He was driven to say or do whatever it took to put the twinkle back in her eyes. “You didn’t. I offered. What do we need to do?”
“I don’t know. Let me look it up.”
And so, they took a seat on the floor and leaned back against the couch. They both used their phones to research making ornaments. They soon discovered that baking soda dough is much stronger than salt dough.
She held up her phone so he could see the picture of a baking soda dough ornament. “The mix for the ornaments isn’t hard. It’s baking soda, corn starch, and water.”
“That’s it?” He couldn’t believe that’s all it took to make those delicate ornaments.
She nodded. “That’s it. The problem is that my grandmother had a special rolling pin for making the ornaments. It was embossed with an ivy pattern. I don’t know where I’d find one like it at the last minute.”
He couldn’t picture it in his mind. “What exactly is it?”
She reached into the box and picked up a piece of the ornament that was still semi-intact. She held it in her palm. “See the pattern?” When he nodded, she said, “I would need a rolling pin with a similar pattern.”
He’d seen something like that before. “Let me check on something.”
“Check on what?”
“Just give me a chance.” When her eyes lit up, he said, “Don’t get excited. I’m not promising anything.”
A smile settled on her face. “Thank you.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“But you did. You cared.” Tears rushed to her eyes. “It’s been a while since someone did something for me without expecting anything in return.”
He felt sorry for her. “You’ve obviously been hanging out with the wrong people.”
“My last boyfriend dumped me because I was too focused on myself. He said he needed someone that supported him.”
Justin felt bad for her. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
She shrugged. “He probably had a point. I was so focused on my career that all of the other relationships in my life suffered. These days the only people I spend time with are co-workers.”
He nodded as though he understood, but he didn’t. What kind of people did she work with? How could they not see the goodness and warmth in Felicity?
To him, she was like the sun. Her kindness was the gravity drawing him closer to her. Her smile was the warmth that filled him. He hoped that she’d never lose her genuineness.