Page 30 of Merry Little Midlife Matchmaker

“Sure,” I said.

“I’ll grab the kids,” Mom said.

Sean’s head disappeared beneath the pine needles, and I forced another deep breath into my lungs. Of course he was unruffled. His erection had probably been some physiological reaction he had no control over, like a rogue wave on the ocean. Maybe he got erections every time he ended up on top of a woman, which meant it wasn’tme, specifically, that made him get hard. It was just the fact that I was there.

As much as the thought made my throat clench, it made sense. Why would a tall, handsome, muscular man like Sean Hardy want a short, frumpy woman like me?

I wasn’t the kind of woman that turned heads on the street. I hadn’t been that woman in a long, long time. I was a mom. People saw me walking down the street and thought,yeah, she’s got kids. I was the one that people handed the camera to and asked to take photos instead of waving at me to enter the frame.The one who got relegated to babysitting duty, who made sure everything happened without a hitch in the background and didn’t expect to be noticed or thanked for it.

It just didn’t make sense that a hunk like Sean would be attracted to me, so I stopped trying to make sense of it. I just held the trunk and avoided gazing down at the long legs stretched out on the hardwood floors, holding the rough fir trunk until it was secure.

“Ooh,” Mikey said, pulling a box of ornaments out of one of the Target bags. “Whoa! Look at these, Dad. Red with sparkles.”

“They’re pretty,” Sean replied, crawling out from under the tree, but his eyes were on me. I watched his gaze narrow slightly and found myself patting my pockets as if I were looking for something, just to give myself an excuse to look away.

“I’ll play photographer,” I said, and dove for my purse. “I don’t have my camera, but the phone’ll do just fine.”

Zach came skidding into the living room on sock-clad feet, then let out a whoop of excitement. Hazel’s eyes were bright. I smiled at the three kids as they tore through the bags and judged my decorative choices.

“We have to put the lights on first,” Hazel proclaimed, bossy as ever. “That’s how it works.” She pulled out the box of lights and thrust it at Sean.

I fumbled with my phone until I had the camera app open, then used it to distract myself from spinning out about what had just happened. Which was nothing. Nothing had just happened. A rogue wave had hit Sean’s bloodstream, landed in his penis, and then he’d landed on top of me.

Yeah. That made sense. It made more sense than my brother’s best friend actually being attracted to the little sister who’d let herself go after two kids and a divorce.

I snapped pictures while my mom rustled up some drinks and snacks for everyone. Sean untangled the lights and got themworking, then strung them up on the now secure tree. Most of the pictures I took were of Mikey. His face beamed with such pure joy that it was easy to take shots of him. I snapped a great one of him holding up two ornaments to a laughing Sean, the two of them wearing the exact same smile on their faces. That one was a keeper.

When it came time to put the tree topper on, Mikey took the star out of its box with careful fingers, a deep sigh making his chest rise and fall. He glanced up at the tree—which was still bent across the ceiling—then at Sean.

“Let me get some shears,” Sean said, then ruffled his son’s head while he brushed past. His eyes flicked to me, then he ducked out of the living room.

“Your tree looks really good,” Hazel told Mikey. “And it smells nice.”

Mikey puffed up with pride. “Thanks. You did a good job decorating it.”

Hazel nodded as if the compliment was her due. “Thank you. You too.”

I smiled at the kids, then at my mother, who sat on the couch and rested her head on her hand. We waited until Sean came back, got on a step stool, and trimmed the top scraggly branches so there were a few inches of space between the tree and the ceiling.

Mikey lifted the tree topper—a golden star that was already twinkling in the lights of the living room—to hand it to his father.

Sean looked at it, smiled, and got down off the stepladder. “I think you should do the honors, buddy,” he told Mikey.

My heart clenched. It was such a small gesture, but it made Mikey’s whole face light up. And I saw, in that moment, just how much Sean cared about his son. It was like opening a door to a room I hadn’t realized existed. I saw another facet of Sean’spersonality that had previously been invisible. The caring, thoughtful man who knew exactly what his kid needed.

And it wasn’t a surprise, really. He’d brought me stuffing. He’d enlisted my help to get the tree in the first place, which I could tell he’d done for Mikey’s benefit. I knew he was caring, but seeing it written so plainly on his face was something special.

It made my heart grow in my chest, but it also made my eyes drift to my own children, and I felt a pang of sadness. Their father bulldozed his way through everyone else’s preferences to make sure he got what he wanted. As long as Isaac was happy, there was peace. But any inconvenience was treated as a calamity.

I wished my kids had a man like Sean in their lives. Someone who put them first.

Well. Someone other than me.

I got another great picture of Sean lifting Mikey up and Mikey fitting the topper onto the tree. Sean’s face was soft as he watched his son reach for the branch, and Mikey’s eyes were alight with the glow from the twinkling Christmas lights on the tree.

When Mikey was on the ground again, I looked at the picture and smiled. That one was worthy of a frame.

“Okay,” I called out when all the boxes and bags were cleaned up. “It’s time for us to get ready for bed.”

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