Page 10 of Christmas with Hope

“That’d be nice. Even if we don’t have a tree… or ornaments… or anything else Christmasy,” I sighed.

“Let’s go chop down a tree.”

“What?” The giggle that escaped me hadn’t been intentional. Colton’s words had just caught me off guard. He made it sound like chopping down a tree was simple.

“What? Didn’t know that I cut down trees on my days off?” he teased.

“No. I seemed to have missed that memo.”

“Well, let’s bundle up and go get you that tree, beautiful.”

Colton was crazy. Absolutely crazy. He was determined to find me the perfect Christmas tree. I’d point out a tree, and he’d shake his head and continue looking at trees.

A gazillion trees later, Colton finally found theperfecttree. It was one of the trees I had pointed out earlier during our venture.

I leaned against a tree and laughed.

“Laughing at my expense, Miss Dawson?” Colton asked, taking another swing with the ax at the tree.

“A smidge.”

He took several more swings at the tree. The tree wasn’t very big. The trunk of it was maybe the size of a two-liter bottle. However, the tree wasn’t going down without a fight.

“We don’t have to have a tree, Colton,” I said just as he slipped and fell hard to the ground, hitting his head.

The ax flew several feet in the opposite direction of Colton and me. Nevertheless, it still scared the hell out of me. I was worried it was going to hit Colton or me.

“Colton!” I screamed, running over to him and dropping to my knees. “Are you okay?”

His eyes were closed. My heart broke at the thought of him being seriously injured.

“Colton,” I said, shaking him gently. “Please. Please, wake up.”

I felt a tear trickle down my cheek.

“Colton, I’m begging you. Wake up,” I sniffled, fighting back a downpour of tears. “Please.”

“I’m okay, beautiful. Don’t cry,” he said, opening his eyes and smiling up at me.

“You scared the hell out of me.”

“I’m sorry.” He sat up slowly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Not your fault,” I waved off his words and sniffled. The tears were on the verge of flowing down my face.

I would have been worried for anyone who fell the way Colton had. But this was different. The emotions I felt when Colton slammed to the ground were intense. He was a stranger, yet, I already cared about him.

“Hope?” Colton asked softly, rubbing my back. “I’m okay. I promise.”

“I know,” I whispered. “I was just scared. I’m glad you’re okay.” I forced a smile and began to stand up.

Colton wrapped his arm around my waist. I looked at him and he smiled.

“Want to make snow angels?” he asked, making me laugh.

“You really are a strange one,” I teased.

“Hopefully you like strange ones,” he winked.

---