Page 27 of Merry Little Midlife Matchmaker

And even if it wasn’t for Aaron, Lizzie had set me up on a date with another woman. Even today, with the lights glowing on her house, she’d just reminded me that she didn’t need a man in her life. She was busy with kids and work and everything else. Who was I to bulldoze my way into her schedule? Who was I to think she even wanted me the way I wanted her?

“It’s big,” she finally said as she studied the tree I held, and I pulled my thoughts back to the task at hand.

Well. I tried. What actually came out of my mouth was, “I get that a lot.”

Her cheeks grew redder, and Lizzie let out a snort and a giggle as she shook her head. She tried to give me a stern look. “Save it for your date this weekend,” she chided.

But I didn’t want to. I wanted to hear that laugh again and again and again until the scent of evergreen trees reminded me of Lizzie instead of death and drunkenness and broken relationships.

“Here,” Lizzie said. “Let me hold it, and you take a look.”

Dutifully, I waited until she’d grabbed the trunk, and I took a few steps back to admire the choice. It was tall, but its branches were lush and had that perfect conical shape. Lizzie stood there, a hopeful expression on her face, as I walked over to the other side and inspected the back of the tree.

And the back of Lizzie. She glanced over her shoulder and arched her brows.

Dragging my gaze back to the tree, I cleared my throat. “I think that’s the one.”

“Yay!”

“You folks ready?” The man by the trailer ambled up to us and made the easiest sale of his life. He trimmed the bottom ofthe trunk with a few neat swipes of his hand saw, and then I hauled the tree to my truck and placed it in the bed.

Lizzie leaned against the sides of the bed and helped me tie the load down, her smile irrepressible. “Excellent choice. For a rookie, you did good.”

I grinned. “Let’s go get some ornaments.”

We went to Target, and I let Lizzie have her way with my credit card. She asked me about color schemes and decor styles, took one look at my face, and told me she’d handle it. By the time we hauled the gigantic bags full of Christmas paraphernalia to the truck, I’d almost forgotten that I hated the holiday.

As we drove back toward Heart’s Cove, I relaxed into my seat and let out a long breath. That hadn’t been so bad. And I couldn’t wait to see the look on Mikey’s face. I should’ve done this years ago, even if Melody got to spend the actual day with him. Put my son ahead of my pain, as Lizzie had said. I glanced over at her, wondering what pain she was smothering for the sake of her kids.

“I’ll set up the tree stand while you bring it inside,” Lizzie said when I pulled up to my house.

“Done.” I tossed her the keys and went to work on the ropes. A few minutes later, I was dragging a tree through the front door and raining Canaan fir needles all over my stoop and entryway. I hauled it into the living room and found Lizzie kneeling by a tree stand, her jacket stripped off to reveal a tight-fitting top that wrapped around her body and tied at the side.

My mouth watered.

From where I stood, I could see an expanse of chest that I had no business seeing. She waslush. All soft and round and bitable. All thoughts of being loyal to my best friend and giving Lizzie space fled from my mind, because there was a beautiful woman kneeling in my living room like an offering from a carnal god.

Her bra was cream and had a lace trim. I could see the way it shaped her breasts when she bent over and struggled with the tree stand, her movements making all that flesh jiggle and bounce.

I was hard. Harder than I’d been in a long, long time. Hard enough that if she glanced at my crotch, she’d probably be able to tell.

And I didn’t care, because I wanted her.

“Nearly there,” she told me, and I blinked back to myself.

Shifting the tree into the living room, I cleared my throat and averted my gaze.

Lizzie sat back as she looked up, pushing a strand of hair from her forehead. “That thing looks a lot bigger when we’re indoors.” She paused and stuck her finger up at me. “And don’t you dare make a dirty joke about that, mister.”

I was so far beyond dirty jokes, it wasn’t even funny. I managed a smile, then levered the tree to a vertical position, wincing when it scraped against the ceiling.

“Didn’t you say you had ten-foot ceilings?”

I looked up at the tree, its top branch bent against the ceiling. “I might have been wrong about that.”

Lizzie snorted. “Well, that branch is probably long and skinny enough that we can trim it and hide the evidence with the tree topper instead of sawing the base off. Let’s just get it in the stand and deal with it later.”

I nodded, unable to contribute meaningfully to the conversation because a lot of my blood was keeping my erection throbbing behind my zipper. Every time Lizzie moved, I saw a new angle of her that I wanted to touch and lick and caress. When she got closer, the scent of fir mingled with the scent of her, and blood rushed south once more.

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