Page 26

Tenzin

“T hat was great,” Coach Atkins told us as we finished our morning skate. “Unfortunately, because of the snow they have, we won’t be playing the Boaters tonight. Their plane can’t leave. They’re rescheduling the game.”

Oh? Well, that was sad, but I wanted them to be safe. Maybe Clark and Gwen wanted to do something tonight after her practice? There were some silly holiday movies I’d always watched with my sister that would be fun to see with them.

Growing up, we didn’t celebrate, other than putting up some lights. My parents even worked on Christmas. There were other holidays they had off instead. But there’d be a nice dinner for everyone at the research station.

When I moved to Nashville to live with my sister, Christmas was a big deal . Everyone celebrated it to some extent, even if it was socially. Which was exactly what Zaya did.

Zaya would decorate our place with lights and greenery. She’d haul me off to get an actual tree, and we’d decorate it, while wearing blinking hats and listening to holiday music. After, we’d drink hot chocolate and watch the silliest holiday movies I’d never watched growing up.

We’d bake cookies, which she’d give out to people. On Christmas Eve we’d have a party with her friends and play silly games. Christmas morning we’d open presents and then go off to have dinner somewhere, sometimes at multiple places–which was why I hadn’t minded being dragged around by Gwen for Gratitude Day.

Clark skated over to me. “Do you want to work out after this, then grab some lunch?”

“Why don’t we visit Gwen first.” I thought she’d mentioned that she didn’t have class this afternoon.

We changed in the locker room, and I checked my email. Yes, AJ’s sister’s farm was now open for Christmas tree cutting. Honestly, I didn’t care whose place the tree went in, but it would be nice to have one and to decorate it with them.

I only had a small box of decorations–the meaningful ones. Back in Portland, I’d also gotten a large, real tree. Usually I went with Cooter and we chopped them down.

Really, I was surprised Clark hadn’t mentioned decorating yet. He seemed like he was from a family that put the tree up the day after Gratitude Day.

We found Gwen in the back-office area of the rink, filing papers.

“Hi, Big Guy. Hi, Clark.” Gwen smiled. Today she wore a soft green dress I’d never seen before, tights, and ankle boots.

“Game’s canceled tonight. Boaters are snowed in,” I told her. She wasn’t on duty tonight, but she’d been planning on coming.

“I don’t have class today–professor’s sick. I should go to study group, but considering there’s no hockey practice, because we’re all tired from the tournament, I don’t feel like going to campus,” she told us as she closed one drawer and opened another.

“Um.” My cheeks burned. Did Gwen like Christmas? I know she was worried about visiting her dads, but hopefully it was more because of them and not because she didn’t like it.

She looked over and grinned. “We can go dancing. I’m not tired, just feeling lazy.”

“Do you want to get a tree?” I blurted. “It doesn’t have to be from the farm. If you’re a fake tree person, we can get one. The tree can be in whoever’s place you want. I just want to decorate a tree and make those cookies from the store with the snowmen on them and drink hot chocolate and watch a movie with you two.”

Her face lit up. “We can get a tree? Now? Really?”

“Gweny, you don’t get a tree?” Clark looked stricken.

“We did, but not until Christmas eve. There’s a tree lot over by UNYC where they’d give away the extra trees on Christmas Eve. All my decorations were destroyed, even the special ones. Not that we had many.”

Wincing, she turned away, wrapping her arms around herself. “But my host mom gave me a couple. I got to spend Saturday night with them and we decorated the tree together.”

I pulled her close. “Of course we can get a tree.”

“That sounds nice. I’d like an actual tree. I was a scout growing up, and we always had a tree lot as a fundraiser,” Clark told us. “Though we will have to Snowball-proof any tree we have in our place. We could always do two. A big silly tree for our place, then one for Tens where we could put anything we might be sad if Snowball broke?”

He looked to me for approval with those puppy eyes that always made my willpower vanish.

“That sounds perfect,” I told them. I’d figured the tree would end up at their place, anyway. I’d planned on putting up some lights, and perhaps a wreath.

“Can we go to the farm and get a tree? Then go to Swoop and get things for it?” Gwen hopped up and down, looking happy.

“Yes, but only if we wear silly hats and listen to music while doing it, and we snuggle on the couch, then watch a movie later,” I teased. And get the tube of special movie-watching snowman cookies to make.

Gwen kissed me, her lips tasting of coffee. “I couldn’t imagine a better night.”

“This. This is the tree.” Gwen dragged me over to a tree that was as tall as Clark. The farm was chilly with snow on the ground. She had on a beanie that looked like a ladybug and a purple coat that her sister might have gotten her, along with a purple scarf, and gloves with Clark’s number on it.

“For our place, yes. It’s perfect,” Clark agreed, putting an arm around her. He had on his Defender League hat, scarf, and gloves, along with his blue puffer coat.

It was the perfect fluffy green tree.

“We’ll have to fit everything in my pickup,” I warned. Though it should be fine. Honestly, I’d expected her to choose one that would be too tall for the living room.

“It’ll fit, trust me.” Gwen looked at me and grinned, then took a sip of her hot apple cider.

We’d already found a smaller one for my place.

“Oh no, the tree’s tagged.” Gwen sighed heavily as she looked at the yellow tag with some other family’s name on it.

If I had known that was a thing, I’d have chosen and tagged our tree the last time we were here.

“We’ll keep looking,” Clark assured,

“There’s lots of trees, Precious.” I pulled her to me and kissed the top of her beanie.

It was lightly snowing, but it only added to the festive feeling, along with all the lights strung up. The farm was crowded, mostly with children on a school field trip to make wreaths. We made ours first, then had donuts and visited the mini cows.

“Oh, Mercy says she tagged a tree for me when she was here with her sister? That was nice of her. Let’s go find it.” Gwen looked up from the phone.

She tugged on my hand and we went looking for it, wandering through the trees as the snow fell.

Perfection.

A tiny girl stared at me and I waved at her. I think she was one of AJ’s nieces.

She pulled on Gwen’s dress. “You’re Mercy’s friend, right?”

“Hi, Petunia.” Gwen bent down. “I am. We’re trying to find the tree Mercy saved for me. Do you know where it is?”

The little girl with dark hair and big blue eyes smiled. “I helped her choose it.”

We followed her to a cordoned off area. There was a large, beautiful tree, taller than me, but short enough we could still have a topper. It was green, fluffy, and had a big yellow tag on it that said Gwennifer.

Gwen jumped up and down. “It’s perfect. Petunia, you picked the best tree.”

“I love it.” I put my arm around Gwen. Such a beautiful tree.

“Me, too.” Clark joined us.

“Hi, this is the reserved area, can I help you?” A bearded man came over to us.

Gwen grinned at him. “That’s my tree. Mercy and Petunia picked it.”

Petunia beamed. “It’s not as big as Uncle AJ’s, but Mercy said your living room is smaller.”

“It’s the best,” Clark told her as they fist-bumped.

“Yes, you did an excellent job,” I agreed.

The man, whose tag said Lew, nodded. “I thought you three looked familiar. Do you want me to cut it?”

“I can do it,” I told him.

Clark and I cut down the tree, while Gwen and Petunia danced and giggled. Soon... soon I’d have a Squiggles. Maybe next Christmas we could all go to Portland together and stay at Cooter’s. Then we could go up and visit Gwen’s family, too. Hopefully, whatever team she was on next year got enough time off to make that possible. Sometimes teams only had two days.

“Let me help you.” Lew assisted Clark and me, getting the tree in the truck and tucked it in next to my tree.

“I think your car needs a wreath,” Gwen teased. “Growing up, I used to help my Gramps decorate his antique truck for the local holiday parade.”

“We have ones for our doors. But,” I leaned in. “If you see car antlers at Swoop, I’d consent to putting those on my truck. What else do we need here?” I asked Gwen as we went toward the big tent where you paid, holding her gloved hand.

“Oooh, look at all the ornaments.” Gwen tugged me over to the trees they had displaying ornaments for sale. She held up a fish. “It’s you.”

I laughed. “You can get whatever you want.”

“What if we each get three? Like I get one for me, but then I pick out two that represent you? Then you both do the same?” She bit her lower lip.

Clark picked her up, and she squealed. “I love it. Oh, I have the best tree topper, too.”

I’m sure he did. “I like the idea a lot.”

Pick out ornaments for the tree that represented us? What a hardship.

Gwen went to browse all the ornaments. I grabbed a basket and looked around. I’d look deeper than the hockey ones. Oooh, I’d get the boots with the hat for myself. A bale of hay for Clark. For Gwen…

Hmmm.

Oh, I should get some ornaments for the babies. Yes. I found three hand painted ‘Baby’s First’ ones with the year and added them to the basket, along with some cute ones that were clearly the mini cows, to mail to my sister’s kids with their package.

A tree of food ornaments caught my eye. Did they have a muffin? Oh, a lasagna would work. No, there it was, a blueberry muffin with a coffee cup. Perfect.

“Ready?” I found Gwen looking at the stockings. We still needed to go to Swoop, and I wanted time to decorate the tree and watch the movie before she needed to go to bed.

“We need stockings. They have pretty needlepoint ones. What do you think?” She held up one with a snowman fishing, one with a girl ice skating, and one with penguins dancing.

“Perfect.” I gave her a kiss.

“I think Snowball needs this.” She held up a red cat sweater.

“Yes.” Clark came over and gave her a kiss.

I wasn’t sure what Snowball would think. “Sounds good to me.”

Anything to make them happy.