Page 31 of The Merriest Christmas

"Athletes are the worst."

I blinked then couldn't hold back a laugh."That's rich coming from you."

"I'm sure your brothers would want me to look after you."

"Finn wasn't out there sleeping on the floor."

"I'd do worse for you."

"Hmph."

I couldn't believe it.Part of me was flattered; part of me was reeling; and part of me wanted to shake him and ask why he'd left like he did all those years ago.

"That Toby guy was flirting with you earlier," he said completely out of the blue.

"He was not," I said.

"Yeah, he was," Seaver said flatly, then his lips twitched."Although, that was before your assassination attempt.Who knew mints could be so dangerous?"

With a sigh, I tilted my head."You're seriously not leaving?"

He shook his head.

"Fine, then can you help me with the decorations?Most of them go on the high branches, and if you're going to stay, you could at least put your freakishly long arms to good use."

"No problem."

Seaver popped off the couch, and we got to work.

"I'll take the lower half of the tree," I said.

"With your t-Rex arms," he replied.

"Not funny."

"I thought it was."

"You would."

"I forgot how much I missed bickering with you."

"Shut up," I said, though I had missed it too.

Seaver was right.With his help, we got the tree finished in no time.There wasn't as much to do there anyway since I'd gotten a lot of it done this morning.I moved over to the couch and table, grabbing a roll of wrapping paper, scissors, and tape on the way.The bag of presents was already next to me, so I took out the first gift.

"These are for the players?" Seaver asked.

I nodded.

"When did you find time to get them presents?"

"My mom asked me to put these under the tree," I said, doing my best not to look at him."And I'm rewrapping a few presents that I originally got for my brothers.I did really good for each of them, so I'm sure they won't mind."

Seaver nodded."That's nice."

"I guess."

"You've always had a good heart."

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