Page 90 of Theirs for the Holidays

All of a sudden it’s like the bubble of my bold feeling from before has been popped, leaving me embarrassed and a little sullen. Maybe Andrew is right that I am boring. All I do is work and then come home. I don’t even have the time to get a tree.

“I think you should do it if it brings you joy though,” Sawyer says. “There should be time for things that make you happy.”

“I guess. It just doesn’t feel worth the effort. I don’t have a family or anything, so it would be just for me. And I can see decorations at the bakery or at my parents’ house if I really want to.”

He gives me a look. “Then you have to go to your parents’ house. Look, if you want to do it, there’s no reason not to. Especially this year.”

“What do you mean?”

“You have three able-bodied men very much at your disposal this holiday season.” He grins and shoots me a wink. “So you should use us.”

There’s no way he doesn’t mean to let that be a double entendre, and I blush immediately. My heart flutters in mychest, and it would be easy to tell him that he doesn’t have to go to the trouble. That he and his brothers are already doing me a big favor, so they shouldn’t have to do this as well.

But instead I smile a little and nod. “Yeah, okay. I guess I could put you to work.”

“Good girl,” he says, and gets us back on the road.

30

VIOLET

The snow is fallingin peaceful little flakes by the time we get back to the house. If it wasn’t for the streets and people’s yards being covered, you wouldn’t even know it was nearly a blizzard just twenty minutes before.

We pull up and I go to unlock the door while Sawyer gets the new coffee machine out of the truck. He brings it in behind me, and goes to put it in the kitchen.

Lennox and Rhett are both at the house, Lennox in the office doing something on his phone while Rhett reads in the living room. There’s a fire going in the fireplace, so the house is warm and toasty, and it feels nice to come home to.

“Family meeting!” Sawyer calls from the kitchen, breaking the quiet.

“Who do you think you are, our dad?” Rhett mutters, but he marks his place in his book and puts it aside anyway. He smiles at me, kissing my cheek as he passes to step into the kitchen.

Lennox comes in a moment later, one eyebrow raised. “You called?”

“I sure did.” Sawyer folds his arms. “We have a project for the day. We’re going to decorate Violet’s house for Christmas.”

I immediately blush as they turn to look at me. “I didn’t realize you meant you wanted to do it today,” I say quickly. It seemed like more of a vague offer for sometime in the future, and I definitely didn’t expect him to be so gung ho about it.

“Why wait?” Sawyer says. “Only so much time before Christmas, right?” He looks at his brothers. “Are you guys in?”

To my surprise, both of them agree immediately.

“Are you sure?” I ask them. “You must have more important things to do today.”

Rhett and Lennox shake their heads. I give them skeptical looks back. Especially Lennox. I know he’s been dealing with his business while he’s been here, using the down time to manage things from his phone or his laptop when he needs to. That kind of thing probably doesn’t let up during the holidays.

Rhett seems like he has more free time, but even so, I imagine there are other things he’d rather do than help decorate my house.

Lennox clearly picks up on the direction of my thoughts because he smiles at me. “It’s Christmas, Heartbreaker. There’s nothing more pressing than decorating today.”

I don’t argue. Instead, I just smile, touched. Now that they’re all on board and I don’t have to feel guilty about monopolizing their time, it’s easy to get excited about it. There are always things I want to do, but I just never have the time or the energy. With them around to help, I can get a real tree and put up lights. All the things I’ve dreamed of doing to make the holiday season feel special.

“What’s the plan then?” Rhett asks.

“We go out and get some stuff. We need decorations, lights, a tree. The whole nine,” Sawyer replies.

His brothers go to get their coats and boots, and we squeeze back into Sawyer’s truck, since he has the most space for stuff.

He puts the radio on a Christmas station, and sings with me all the way into town.