Page 67 of Just One Kiss

They were so close, he could feel her breath on his face, and he wanted to do nothing more than to steal a kiss from her sweet lips, but there was a little boy now edging between them, eager to see what was in the box they'd just taken down.

Hannah shrugged, amusement in her eyes. "I have a little chaperone."

"He has to go to bed sometime."

She flushed at that comment. "Let's just concentrate on decorating the tree. And since you want me to ask for help, why don’t you bring this box into the living room, and I'll bring the smaller one?"

"Done."

When they got back to the living room, Hannah put on Christmas music while he untangled the lights and Brett started pulling things out of the boxes, exclaiming with giddy delight at every new ornament that he unwrapped. And there were a lot of them. Hannah's father had been a very talented craftsman and the ornaments were beautifully carved. Hannah got emotional as she went through the ornaments, too, but she managed to keep it together. He knew she was doing that for Brett. She didn't want to mar his happiness with sadness from the past.

Once he had the lights organized, he wound them around the tree, thinking that he couldn't remember when he'd last decorated a Christmas tree. He didn't think he'd done it since he was in high school, and that was a very long time ago. "Is that enough?" he asked Hannah.

"I think so."

"Well, you can decide after I turn them on."

"Actually," she said, putting up a hand as he reached for the switch. "We can't turn on the lights until we decorate the tree."

"Is that a rule?"

"Yes."

"Okay, you're in charge. What's next?"

"Brett can start putting ornaments on the tree. We might need you for the upper part of the tree. Unless you'd like to be done?"

"No, I want to see this thing through to the end."

He stepped to the side as Brett started putting up decorations. "Those are very cool ornaments. Your dad made most of them, didn't he?"

"Yes. He loved his woodshop. He was extremely talented." She took a carved train out of a box. "This one was for me. I loved trains when I was little. When I was nine, my dad took me on a train trip from Colorado to Pennsylvania to visit my grandparents. I was in heaven. We even got to sleep on the train. I thought it was the most exciting trip I'd ever taken. The next Christmas, he made me this ornament."

She ran her fingers around the edge and then she looked up at him. "He's been gone forever," she continued. "But there are days when I still miss him so much. It feels like it was yesterday that he was here, that he was decorating the tree with us. My mom never did it. She was always baking something while we were decorating. When it was done, we'd turn on the lights and eat whatever delicious cookies she'd made." Her voice trailed away as she let out a breath. "I wasn't really expecting to take this trip down memory lane tonight."

"Why didn't your siblings go with you to Pennsylvania?" he asked, wanting to distract her from the sad part of her memories.

"Tyler was only four. He wouldn't have been able to sit still that long. Kelly was fourteen and into her teenage years. She didn't want to leave her friends to visit the old people, as she used to call my grandparents. But I wanted to go, so my dad took me while my mom stayed home with Kelly and Tyler. It was a great trip."

"It sounds like it. I wish I'd gotten to know your dad better."

"He was a wonderful man and a fantastic father. He always made sure to spend time with each of us. With me, it was ice-skating. He was the one who first taught me how to skate and then drove me to practices and competitions. With Kelly, it was all about horseback riding. That was their thing to do together, and with Tyler it was baseball." She smiled. "Sometimes, I wonder how he had time to work."

"He made time for his family," he said shortly, wishing his father had been half the man Hannah's father had been.

"He did," Hannah agreed. "And he'd always tell me that as the middle child, I was the most special, which was a complete lie, but I appreciated the effort. It wasn't always easy to stand out in a line-up of three kids. Kelly had a big personality and Tyler was the cute baby."

He sat down on the couch, propping his legs up on the coffee table. "I think you always stood out, Hannah."

"Probably not in a good way," she said with a self-deprecating smile.

"Well, that's what made you interesting. You were never entirely predictable. And you always had a lot of ideas, especially when it came to revenge."

She grimaced. "I don't think I want to be reminded."

"Remember your old neighbor, Mr. Fordham? You got mad at him because your ball went over the fence, and he wouldn't give it back. He said he'd told you a dozen times not to kick your ball into his yard."

"He was a grumpy, old man, and I think you were the one to kick the ball over the fence," she retorted.

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