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Doing so, Sarah set down the box she carried, glanced around the living room. It looked like Christmas had exploded in the room. Unable to resist adding to the mounting chaos, she opened the box she’d just carried to pull its contents out.

One by one, she removed the precious ornamental snowmen her aunt had collected and removed them from their protective bubble wrap.

“There you are,” she said when Bodie came back into the room with a box. “I was about to send a rescue party after you.”

Stairs, Bodie thought with disgust. He could breeze through most of the physical therapy exercises the doctor had told him to keep doing as he healed. But stairs? With working on the main floor of the house, he hadn’t had a lot of reason to go up and down the stairs. When the need had arisen, he hadn’t had issues, but multiple trips had him gritting his teeth as sharp pain shot through his pinned-together hip.

Maybe he shouldn’t have been so eager to do Sarah’s bidding.

Not if he wanted to keep her from figuring out he wasn’t as tough as she thought he was.

He knew he wasn’t. But he liked the way she looked at him, as if she thought him capable of doing anything. Being with her made him feel as if he could.

Except stairs.

He was finding out the hard way that going up and down stairs repeatedly was torture on his hip and leg. And his teeth may be permanently damaged from the grinding he’d done that last trip down.

“Would you mind if, rather than bring down more boxes right away, we put these decorations out first?” Her eyes were full of pleading. “I’d like to unpack these, and then we can carry the empty boxes back upstairs to keep from having such a cluttered mess.”

Despite his lack of Christmas spirit, he jumped on the offer to decorate if it meant he could give his body a break from the steps.

“Sounds like a great idea.”

Getting Sarah’s claw-foot tub into the bathroom had been a major pain, but with the help of some of Sarah’s church friends that morning, Bodie had gotten it in, and was working on getting it hooked up. The tub made the room a bit tight, but with the right lighting, the finished product was going to look good.

She’d opted to go with the tiled showers in both downstairs suite bathrooms, just a much smaller one in the room with the tub. He’d almost finished Aunt Jean’s en suite and was making great progress in the other.

“Bodie and I carried Aunt Jean’s ornaments down last night.”

Trying not to listen in on Sarah’s phone conversation, Bodie focused on his work. Unfortunately, Sarah had a tendency to talk loudly when she was excited, so not hearing her conversation proved impossible.

“I’m going to go pick out a Christmas tree at Harvey Farms later this morning, but I still have to make arrangements for delivery,” she continued.

Earlier, she had been in the living area going through the remainder of the boxes they’d carried down the night before. Now, he could hear her moving around, cell phone to her ear, as she decorated the room while talking to her friend Maybelle.

“I need a truck.” She laughed. “Maybe I can get Rosie to convince Lou to get it for me.”

From where he worked on the tub, Bodie struggled to turn off years’ worth of paying attention to every detail in his environment and his need to do whatever he could for Sarah.

“Why is Lou short-handed?” She groaned to Maybelle. “Guess I won’t be getting my tree today, after all.”

Her disappointment was so heavy Bodie stared at the ceiling and counted to ten.

He didn’t have to do this. He shouldn’t do this. The absolute last thing he wanted to do was be involved in getting a Christmas tree.

He needed to finish Sarah’s job, get to Texas for a short visit, then make a new life for himself at iSecure. Although his body still had its limits—as going up and down the stairs had made painfully clear—he was getting his strength back.

He had been stiff that morning but had pushed through his physical therapy stretches. After moving around all day, he didn’t feel much worse for the wear.

Thank goodness. He’d worried about the aftereffects of having overdone it. He’d known better and should have come up with some excuse as to why he couldn’t carry down the boxes after his hip had started protesting.

Only that would have left Sarah doing it all by herself. And thinking less of him for not contributing. That didn’t work for him.

He was here to help her. First because of the quilt and now… now, because he wanted to help the bubbly do-gooder who was affecting his life in so many positive ways.

Like making him smile.

“I know there’s plenty of time between now and Christmas, Maybelle, but if I don’t go soon all the good trees will be gone and I’ll have to settle for what’s left. Who wants to settle for a shabby Christmas tree at their business’s grand opening? What kind of start would that be for Hamilton House B & B?”