Chapter 14
The tree lay in the snow, its branches a vivid green against the fresh whiteness.
“Wow,” Penny said, impressed. “That was fast.”
Daniel returned the saw to the cart. “If you can keep the cart steady while I get the tree….”
She took hold of the cart handle and watched as he dragged the tree across the snow and hefted it onto the cart. Despite the tree’s size and weight, he handled it with ease.
“For someone who’s never been to a tree farm before, you did that well.”
He shrugged. “I’ve been getting practice at stuff like this.”
“And by ‘stuff like this,’ you mean…?”
“For the past year,” he said as he positioned the tree in the center of the cart, “I’ve been volunteering for a nonprofit that repairs and restores housing in and around New York.”
Ah — so that explained why his hands were callused. “You fix houses?”
“And apartments. The places we work on are usually in bad shape, so we do prepping, priming, painting, plastering, and carpentry.”
“What made you want to do that?”
“I was looking for something to do after….” He glanced at Eva and her phone, then continued. “I started doing it as research for a novel.”
“But now?”
He took a deep breath. “I do it because I enjoy it. Being part of a team, working together for a worthy cause, feels good.”
“Which means there’s hope yet for you joining Team Christmas.”
He smiled. “The way I see it, I get more from it than I give.”
“You offer your time and labor.”
“And in return, I get the satisfaction of making a difference — plus learning a lot of repair and reno skills.”
“You didn’t do any of that growing up?”
He shook his head. “We rented. Fixing stuff was the super’s job.”
Penny’s pulse quickened. For the first time, he’d mentioned his family. “Tell me about the ‘we.’”
“‘We’ was Mom, Dad, and me. At least until I was twelve.”
“You were an only child?”
He nodded.
“What happened when you were twelve?”
“My parents split up. Mom and I stayed in the Bronx and Dad moved to Brooklyn.”
Penny paused, trying to gauge his willingness to continue sharing. “Is it okay if I ask why they split up?”
Daniel glanced again at Eva — and with a start, Penny realized that not only was he very aware that he was being filmed, he most likely had zero interest in talking about his parents’ divorce on camera.
“Wait,” Penny said, embarrassed that she hadn’t figured that out sooner. “I’m sorry. Given the circumstances, asking that kind of question isn’t really —”
“No, no, it’s fine,” he said. “I don’t mind you knowing. In fact, I want you to know.”
“But this isn’t the time or place to —”
“Penny, I’ll edit it out,” Eva announced.
Penny blinked. “You will?”
“I’m not here as a reporter. I’m being paid by Mr. Bedford’s publisher to shoot video. What gets shown is up to him.”
“Of course,” Penny said, relieved.
“You guys have good flow,” Eva said. “Keep going.”
Daniel turned to Penny with a grin, his dark eyes alive with feeling. “Hear that? We got flow.”
Penny laughed. “Okay, fine. I’ll stop worrying.”
“Good.”
“If you’re open to sharing more….”
He nodded. “Sure. About my parents. They didn’t get divorced because of anything terrible.
They just weren’t a good fit. They were young when they got married — too young.
Money was tight, which caused a lot of stress.
They argued a lot. I think they stayed together as long as they did because of me. ”
“Is that something you understood back then, when you were going through it?”
“No, not at all. For a while there, I felt guilty. I thought the breakup was my fault.”
“Oh, gosh.”
“Their split wasn’t my fault — I know that now — but back then, it weighed on me.”
“That must have been tough.”
He nodded. “I coped by escaping into books.”
“Ah,” she said, nodding. “Books. ”
“All kinds of books. As long as the author had a good voice, I locked in.”
“As W. Somerset Maugham said: ‘To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.’”
Daniel smiled. “Penny Quinn: Quote Machine.”
Penny laughed. “Hardly. Like I said, my mom’s the quote queen. But once in a while, I can remember one.”
Daniel reached for the cart’s handle. “Should we start heading down?”
“Let’s.”
Taking care not to dislodge the tree, he turned the cart around on the path.
“Need me to do anything?” she asked.
“If you can keep an eye on the tree and let me know if it looks like it might slide off.”
“Sure, will do.”
The descent down the hill felt steeper, but Daniel seemed to have the cart under control.
“Where are your parents now?” she asked.
“Dad’s still in Brooklyn. A few years after the divorce, he met and married a woman named Alison — she’s great, by the way — and they had a daughter, my half-sister Cora.”
“You have a sister?”
“She’s a college sophomore in New York. Her campus is near my apartment. I see her pretty much every week.”
“What does Cora think about your Christmas essay?”
He sighed. “She pushed me to come up here.”
“Ah.”
“Basically, she said I’m wrong and need to get over my Christmas crusade. ‘Be a lover, not a fighter,’ she told me.”
“So she’s good at quotes, too.”
He laughed.
“And your mom?” Penny asked.
“Mom stayed single for a long time after the divorce. When I started college, she moved to Manhattan to be closer to her job and to me. A few years ago, she met a widower named Harry — a good guy, I like him — and last year they got married and moved to California.”
“All the way across the country?”
“To a small town near Monterey on the Central Coast.”
“How often do you see her?”
“Not as often as I’d like. I visited a few months ago.”
For a moment, she was tempted to tell him about her parents’ upcoming move to Oaxaca. But before she could, he said, “Holly told me your parents live in town.”
“They do. They’ve been here for … gosh, forty-two years.”
“So this is where you grew up.”
“Born right here in Heartsprings Valley, six years after my parents moved here. My two brothers — they’re twins — followed two years later.”
They’d reached the bottom of the hill. Daniel let go of the cart and stretched his arms and shoulders. “Oof, stretching feels good. The cart handles well, but the weight sneaks up on you.”
“I’m glad it was you and not me guiding that thing down the hill.”
“It’s a workout, for sure.”
Stretch completed, Daniel wheeled the cart into the barn and, with Abner’s guidance, set the tree in the shaking machine. After the shaker jolted off the snow and ice, he moved the tree to the jet-engine machine and got it tightly wrapped in twine.
“You want the works?” Abner said.
Daniel frowned. “The works?”
Penny jumped in. “Yes, Abner. We’ll need everything.”
As Abner walked toward the back of the barn, Daniel murmured, “What’s he getting?”
“A tree kit — floor mat, tree stand, and rope.”
“Full service. Quite an operation.”
“He’s been doing it for as long as I can remember.”
Abner returned with a cardboard box.
“How much do we owe you?” Daniel asked.
Abner shook his head. “That fellow from New York already paid.”
“Got it.”
“You need help getting the tree tied on your car?”
“I could probably figure it out, but just in case….”
Abner nodded.
With surprising ease, Daniel picked up the tree and hoisted it onto his shoulder.
“Good job,” Abner said approvingly, then followed Daniel out of the barn.
Penny and Eva watched the two men tie the tree to the roof of Daniel’s car.
“I bet you’re glad they’re doing this and not you,” Eva whispered.
“You have no idea,” Penny whispered back.
With the tree tied, Daniel turned to Abner and extended his hand. “Thanks for your help today, Abner.”
Abner returned the shake. “Good meeting you, young man. Enjoy the tree.”
“Thanks for everything, Abner,” Penny said. “Merry Christmas!”