Page 30 of Holiday Unscripted
“I can hold it,” Nate says to him and stands beside him as he holds the tree. The saw goes in easily now as I push through the rest, by the end of it my arms feel like they are on fire. The tree starts to fall to the side and I look up at the two men. “I told you I could do it.” I drop the saw on the snow and then get up on my knees. “And you said I couldn’t.”
“No one said that,” Nate refutes, trying not to smirk at me as he looks down at the tree with his hands on his hips.
“What you can do,” the man says to us, “is cut the dead branches on the bottom. It will make putting it in its stand easier once you get home.”
“Stand?” Nate asks. “It doesn’t come with a stand?”
“No, sir”—he shakes his head—“but you can buy one inside.”
“I have to do everything.” I get up on my feet and hand him back his gloves. “Why don’t you clean it up a little bit, and I’ll go and buy the stand.”
He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his wallet. “Here.” He tosses me his wallet and not just his card.
I catch his wallet in my hand as he walks over and bends down to take the saw. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“Pay for the things,” he explains. “The PIN is my birthday.”
“You know you aren’t supposed to tell anyone your PIN,” I remind him.
“You aren’t anyone,” he states, squatting down and sawing off the pieces of wood without breaking a sweat.
“Yeah, you got the easy part,” I tell him and turn with a huff to start to walk back to the cabin.
“Hey,” I say, walking in and seeing my parents there with my aunts and uncle.
“Honey,” my mother says, coming to me, “you have tree needles all over your hair.” I pull the hat off of my head and shake it. “Did you fall into a tree?”
“No.” I snort. “I was cutting down my tree.”
She gasps, “What? There was a guy going around doing it for you.”
“Yes, but I wanted to do it myself”—I dust myself off—“and I did.”
“You were always so independent.” She puts her hand on my cheek. “Never wanted me to do anything for you.” She blinks away tears in her eyes. “So much so, you moved halfway across the world.”
“Well, to be fair, that is where my job is,” I remind her and she shakes her head.
“You can work anywhere and you know it.” The words hit me to the core for the first time.
“I have to pay for the tree,” I segue, my mind twirling around and around. I step up to the cash register and look at the woman. “I need a stand for my tree.”
“They are all on that side.” She points to the wall and I walk over to the side. I’m starting to pick one when I feel Nate beside me.
“What is taking you so long?” he huffs out and I see his jacket is now zipped.
“I was talking to my mother, and now I am deciding what kind of stand I want.”
“Just take any one,” he urges, picking up the first one that is on his side.
“What about decorations?” I ask him, looking around at all of the trees decorated. “Do you have decorations?”
“I do,” he says softly. “I have the ones from Grandma and Grandpa,” he mentions the grandparents he moved in with after his parents were killed in a car accident when he was sixteen. They were coming home from an evening out when they were hit by a drunk driver. They died on impact and the driver died the day after. His grandfather passed away when he was eighteen and then his grandmother a year later. It’s why he’s so close to my family, they practically took him in when his parents died. He sometimes would be over at our house every single day. It would be a rare day when he wasn’t having dinner with us. I think it was then I fell in love with Nate, but that was before he broke my heart.
“Do you have enough?” My voice gets soft, and he just nods his head.
“I have lots of ones from my childhood.” He looks around. “But if you see something else you want. Just get it.”
“No,” I reply, smiling at him, “I think it’ll be perfect.”
