Page 76 of The Christmas Tree Farm

‘It’s for you, actually,’ he said, standing up next to the tree.

‘For me?’

‘Yeah, you didn’t have a tree yet, so I figured…’

‘You cut down a Christmas tree for me?’

‘Yes, I just thought…’

She launched herself at him and he caught her with a surprised laugh. He looked down at her and planted a kiss on her lips.

‘Morning,’ he said with a grin.

‘Good morning.’ She couldn’t stop smiling at him like the big dummy that she was, but he cut her a tree! He did manual labor for her and, God help her, but it was hot. ‘Thank you for my tree.’ And the best part was that he did it just because he wanted to, because this beautiful man did things for the people he cared about and she was one of those people. He didn’t do this to get something from her in return.

Or worse, just because her parents had paid him to do it.

‘You’re welcome.’ He held her a minute longer, just staring at her in the bright morning light, like he didn’t want to look away, like he was memorizing her. She could tell because she was doing it too, memorizing him, soaking him in. ‘We should probably get it inside,’ he said, finally.

‘Okay,’ she said as he put her back down in the snow, but there was one more thing she wanted to do to complete this Christmas-card-perfect morning. She stooped down and grabbed a handful of snow. Bennett was eyeing her skeptically when she straightened.

‘Whatcha doing, Peaches?’

She squeezed the snow attempting to make a ball but the whole thing just kind of exploded in her face.

Ben laughed. ‘Are you trying to make a snowball?’ He stooped down to grab his own handful of snow and Kira thought she may have miscalculated this little plan. He grinned at her before he nailed her in the side.

‘Hey!’ She shrieked and ducked behind a tree. ‘No fair!’

‘No fair? It was self-defense.’ Ben chuckled.

Kira picked up more snow and squeezed it a bit more gently this time until she had a decently packed snowball. Then she popped out from her hiding place and launched her attack. Bennett ducked and the snowball hit the nearest tree. Oh, she had definitely miscalculated. She ran behind the next tree, scooping up snow as she went. Bennett threw three more rapid-fire snowballs into her hiding place. Snow rained down from the branches.

‘You’re supposed to go easy on me!’ she yelled.

‘That’s not how this works,’ he said, laughter clear in his voice. That bastard. She’d show him.

She grabbed more snow and packed it tight. She jumped out from her hiding place and whipped the snowball at Bennett. The ball exploded against the side of his head, snow spraying everywhere. He froze.

‘Oh, shit.’ Kira clamped her mittened hands over her mouth. ‘Oops.’

Bennett stared at her, his eyes narrowed as the snow dripped down his neck.

Uh-oh.

He ran straight for her, and Kira tried to turn and run but she was too slow. He grabbed her around her waist and took them both down into a snowbank.

Kira shrieked, her world suddenly tipped sideways. Bennett loomed over her, panting, his face red from where she’d hit him.

‘No face shots, Peaches,’ he growled, but his eyes were lit up with mischief.

‘I was not informed of the official snowball-fight rules,’ she said, tamping down a giggle, her own breath coming out in short gasps.

‘Well, now you have to face the consequences of your actions.’

Kira’s eyes widened. ‘What are you going to do to me?’

Bennett’s smile grew wicked as he reached up to the tree branch above them.