Page 43 of The Snuggle is Real
“You’ve been watching too much Charlie Brown,” I said.
“It’s cute! And no one else will choose it, which is just sad, Ford. You said I could pick!”
I held up my hands. “All right, yes, of course you can.”
The tree wasn’t as sad as the tree in the Charlie Brown holiday movie we’d watched a couple of nights ago. It had most of its limbs, at least, and we could probably turn it just right to hide its gaps…
Mason leaned in. “Maybe she would have liked your tree at home, huh? Kids.”
His hot breath tickled my neck as he laughed softly, intimately, right next to my ear.
I suppressed a shiver. “Yeah. Kids. They like the darndest things.”
Kaysen held up a handsaw. “Who wants the honors?”
Mason took a big step back, drawing Charlie with him. “Let the lumberjack take this one.”
I took the saw and waited while Kaysen spread out a tarp on the ground on the downhill side of the tree. I kneeled onthe ground, following his instructions to cut low on the trunk, though I knew well enough. I’d done this a couple of times before.
I sawed while Kaysen grabbed the top of the tree and guided it in the direction we wanted it to fall—right onto the tarp.
Charlie squealed and clapped as it went down.
“Good job, Dad,” Kaysen said with a grin.
He was the second person to call me that in front of Charlie. But this time, she noticed.
“Yeah, good job, Dad!” she echoed.
A lump lodged in my throat. Damn, I hadn’t heard her call me that in three years.
I took an extra minute to remember how to breathe, then slowly climbed to my feet. Mason’s gaze locked on mine, as if he understood the significance of what had just happened.
I turned my head, blotting at one eye with a sleeve.
“Okay, Charlie, you’re carrying the tree now, right?” he said, drawing her attention away from me.
“What?” she squealed indignantly, making me laugh. “I’m too little for that.”
“Oh no. How are we going to get it to the truck?”
“You!” she said, pointing a finger at him. “Ford cut it, so you have to carry it!”
Ford, she said. Not Dad. The first one had probably been a slip.
My heart sank. Ah well. It was nice while it lasted.
“Kaysen can help me carry it. Mason is helping with other things.”
Mason eyed me. “I can’t decide if you’re being nice or calling me weak.”
I grinned. “Can’t it be both?”
“All right.” He grabbed one end of the tarp. “Come on, Kaysen. We obviously have to prove our manhood.”
“Speak for yourself,” Kaysen said, though he grabbed his end of the tree and lifted.
Together, they hauled the tree ahead of us while Charlie and I followed. Kaysen helped us get it in the back of my truck, and then we returned to the farm to pay for the tree in the little store and enjoy some hot cocoa.
