Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
MADDIE
“ Y ou brought me to buy a Christmas tree?” I ask incredulously, looking around.
After Parker picked me up, I assumed we’d go watch a film, or he’d take me to one of his favorite places. What I didn’t expect was for him to bring me to a place called Ben’s Yard, somewhere you can buy any kind of Christmas tree you can think of.
The snow keeps falling, and the temperatures are near freezing as he looks over at me excitedly. His red cheeks from the winter wind and the twinkle in his eye melt me slightly.
He’s practically glowing with smug satisfaction as he replies, “I had a funny feeling you wouldn’t have a tree, and everyone needs one to get in the holiday spirit.”
Goddamn him and his logic.
“I don’t have space for a tree,” I say pointedly, desperately trying to get myself out of it.
“They have all shapes and sizes here, sweetheart. I’m sure we’ll find something to fit,” he teases with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “I feel there should be some kind of dirty joke inserted here.” He flashes me a wide smile, and I feel the corner of my mouth tugging upward.
He’s so adorable when he’s like this.
“Fine,” I pout, hands on my hips. “One small tree.”
Parker does a fist bump in the air and wraps an arm around my shoulder. “Come on, you’ll love it.”
I roll my eyes, but secretly, I’m kind of loving every minute of it. He’s opening my eyes to what Christmas could be like if I just let go and enjoyed it.
Christmas growing up was awful. The people I lived with treated it as a day to flaunt their wealth to anyone in the neighborhood.
They were the type of people to hide who they really were—narcissistic assholes who only cared about themselves.
They would buy presents for each other, and I was left with the scraps that no one wanted.
Add in the same Christmas music that’s put on repeat year after year, and yeah, I became a hater of the holidays.
But with Parker? I feel like my outlook on Christmas is changing ever so slowly, and I think I’m okay with that.
Still doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly become Mrs. Claus, though.
He leads me down a narrow path lit by outside lights, where a few people are dotted around looking for last-minute trees. We walk round and round, his arm slung over my shoulder as we look each one over.
After twenty minutes of looking, I sigh. “It’s useless, Parker, there’s nothing here that’s going to fit in my apartment.”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way, sweetheart. We’ll find one, I’m sure of it.”
I shrug my shoulders and keep walking. The lot is fairly empty now, with most people having already gotten their tree. They're probably tucked up at home reading with a mug of hot chocolate. I’m slightly envious.
Finally, right in the back corner, I see a tree. Tugging Parker along with me, I head over to take a closer look. It’s not the best-looking tree in the world—most of the needles have fallen off, and some of them have turned brown—but it’s perfect to me.
I point at the tree. “That one, please.”
He scratches his head, a confused look on his face. “You sure you don’t want one that’s a bit… nicer?”
“Nope. This one’s perfect,” I declare, smiling. “I always was a sucker for an underdog.”
Parker chuckles and kisses the top of my head. “If that’s the one you want, sweetheart, that’s the one we’ll get.”
He grabs the tree and heaves it up onto his shoulder; the tree can’t be any more than two feet high, but it looks really heavy.
“You okay with that?” I ask.
He raises an eyebrow as he replies, “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Don’t want you throwing your back out over a tree,” I retort, smothering a grin with my hand.
“Ha, ha. I’ll get you back for that later,” he deadpans, shifting the tree higher on his shoulder.
“Looking forward to it,” I reply with a wink.
Carrying the tree into the building, I realize I don’t have tinsel, a star, lights, or… any of it. “Erm, Parker?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“I don’t have anything to go on the tree.”
“Ben?” Parker hollers, glancing around the store.
I jump slightly at his raised voice.
“Yeah, man?” a tall, blond guy who can’t be any more than twenty says as he walks out from behind a door .
Parker nods to the tree. “You got lights and tinsel?”
“Sure do. Any particular color?” Ben asks, walking to a display unit.
“Erm, red and green?” It comes out more of a question because, honestly? I have no idea what colors these things come in. Red and green are the usual ones, right?
Ben comes back a minute later, laden with a variety of things. “This should get you started. First tree?” he asks me.
I nod, the whole situation feeling rather bizarre.
Paying for our items, Parker carries the tree out to the car while I amble behind, my arms loaded to the max with all our other purchases.
“Well, getting a tree was not at the top of the list of things I thought we would be doing tonight,” I mumble to myself as I plate up our food.
After we got back, Parker unloaded the car while I finished dinner. I’d prepped most of the beef stew before he’d picked me up, so it didn’t take long to make the final adjustments.
At one point, I poked my head out of the kitchen to see what he was up to and found Arty curled on his lap, purring away.
My heart melted at the sight. Arty’s just as grumpy as I am and doesn’t like other people, so the fact that he’s taken to Parker caused my heart to grow another size bigger.
I quickly went back to messing around in the kitchen before I asked him to stay and never leave.
Parker walks into the kitchen, his bulky frame looking large in my small apartment. “Something smells good.” He leans down to kiss me, nestling his head in my neck. “Food smells good, too.”
“You got jokes,” I tease while rolling my eyes.
“You have no idea, sweetheart.”
It doesn’t take us long to eat; apparently, picking out a Christmas tree really works up an appetite.
Once we’re done, Parker insists on clearing up while I sit watching him, a glass of wine in hand.
I tried to protest, but he argued that I cooked, so he should clean.
I get to watch him, his sleeves rolled up and moving around my kitchen looking like a domestic god, so I’d say life is pretty good right about now.
“Where’s Amelia tonight?” I ask, taking a mouthful of my drink to rouse me from my lustful daydreaming.
Parker looks back at me, his eyebrow raised and his hands still in the bowl.
I nod and laugh. “She’s with your mom.”
“Bingo,” he says, smiling. “I did ask her to come tonight, but she said it was a date and didn’t want to be a third wheel.” He shrugs. “I think it was because she wanted to watch KPop Demon Hunters for the hundredth time without me moaning at her to put her dirty clothes in the laundry basket.”
“She’s a good kid,” I murmur. “You’ve done a great job with her.”
“Thank you,” he replies, turning round and wiping his hands on the cloth. “Though I feel like I’m failing her a lot of the time. She spends so much time with my mom and dad—” He cuts himself off, blowing out a breath.
“Amelia adores you, Parker. You’re doing the best you can. Plus, she’s a thirteen-year-old girl; she doesn’t want to be hanging out with her old man.” I wink, hiding my smile behind the rim of my glass.
Parker gasps and flicks water at me.
“Ahhhh,” I scream, shielding my face from his attack.
“I’ll give you old man,” he jokes, coming toward me, a wide smile on his face.
“Truce. I surrender,” I exclaim, standing up and running for the kitchen door. His resounding laughter follows me as I race into the living room.
Parker comes in behind me, hands dry—thankfully—and says, “Right, let’s get this tree up.”
“If we must,” I huff playfully, pursing my lips.
“We must.”
I stand next to the sofa, hands on my hips, asking, “What now?”
“Where do you want it?” he asks, looking around the tiny area.
“I’m going to assume ‘outside’ isn’t going to cut it?” I snark, a fake ass smile on my face.
“Cute, but no,” he says, chuckling.
I glance around. There isn’t much room to work with. The sofa and coffee table take up most of the space, and the TV in the corner can’t be moved. Well, I guess it can. I never use the thing, so I don’t even know why I bought it.
“We could move the TV into the bedroom? Put it in the wardrobe? Then we can have the tree over in that corner?” I ask, unsure as to whether it’ll work.
He looks pensive for a minute, his finger tapping against his lip, “Yeah, I think that could work. You don’t want the TV?”
I shake my head. “I don’t watch it. I always have my nose stuck in a book,” I reply, moving toward the unit to start clearing things away.
Parker begins unplugging the TV, and within half an hour, the space is cleared and the room looks so much bigger.
“Huh, maybe I should just get rid of it? I could get one of those big sofa chair things to read in.” My mind starts whirring with possibilities, and an excited feeling comes over me. I turn to Parker, who’s watching me with a cheesy grin on his face. “What?”
He walks over, taking my hand and tugging me to him. He brushes a hair out of my face before leaning down to place a gentle kiss against my lips. I sink into him, a feeling of safety and warmth flowing through me.
“You’re adorable, you know that?” he asks, drawing back slightly. His breath’s warm against my lips as my brain struggles to keep up.
“Just kiss me, Parker,” I pant, grabbing the back of his head and tangling my fingers in his hair.
“With pleasure,” he growls, capturing my lips in a heated kiss again.