Page 14 of Winter Break Up

“You drank about three quarters of it.” I smile down at the cracked linoleum table.

“I was so nervous to take you out. Part of me drank so much so that I wouldn’t be able to talk and say something stupid.” He laughs and flexes those big hands on the table.

“We’d been friends for years before that.” I shake my head in disbelief. “I’d basically heard you say all the stupid stuff you were going to when you hung out with my brother.”

Mercer shrugs. “Was still nervous as hell.”

The summer before junior year, we’d been dancing around our feelings the entire break. I’d always had a crush on my brother’s best friend, but that summer, it was like something intensified, and we couldn’t contain it anymore. I’d feel Mercer’s eyes on me constantly, and there were a few nights when he’d get me alone, and I thought something might happen.

Only once he talked to my brother about it because he wanted to be noble did he finally ask me out. On a real date, to the diner for a meal. While other kids our age were making out in basements on group hangs with friends, Mercer Russell had wanted to take me on a real date.

I’d been so nervous but also relaxed at the same time, like being on the brink of something more with him was something that had been coming for a long time.

I desperately want to ask him if he was going to kiss me the other day. What that meant, and how it would have impacted us at the places we were in our lives now. But I’m too chicken, and it’s not like opening this discussion up is somehow going to make things better.

“I just ran into Clyde at the grocery store. He issued some sort of threat about the tree-off.” Mercer rolls his eyes, and I notice the subject change.

“Running his big mouth again, huh? He loves to do that.” Clyde had been the exact same way in high school.

“Pretty much. If I have anything to do with it, we’re going to wipe the floor with him.” Mercer’s dimple pops out, and I swear I swoon on the spot.

“All right, out of my seat, super star.” Gen returns, and they swap places. “Can you join us?”

“As much as I’d like to, I have some waffles with my grandpa’s name on them. But I’m sure I’ll see you around, Genny. And Em, see you at work.”

The gorgeous bastard winks as he turns to the counter to grab his takeout bag. I trail his exit, trying not to ogle the way his ass looks in those goddamn gray sweatpants.

That’s when I hear Genny cackling across the booth. “Oh, girl, you have it so bad.”

7

MERCER

“No, this one is too big. You’ll break your back trying to get it in the house.”

A raspy voice hits my ears as I round a row of trees, and in a clearing up ahead stands an elderly couple, clearly arguing over a tree.

“Well, the one you favor is too wide, and we don’t have enough ornaments to decorate it,” the husband tells his wife.

“Steve, we’ve been hosting Christmas for fifty years. We have enough ornaments to fill the Rockefeller tree!” She laughs, and they smile warmly at each other.

The farm has been somewhat dead today, the weekday crowd a thin one this early in December. I’ve spent a lot of my day cutting down pines on the outskirts of the property to drive back to the main area. Some of the customers who come to Palmers just want to pick an already trimmed and cut tree and then be on their way, rather than trekking through the acres to flag one of us down and wait for it to be brought up.

I was driving back here to see if there were any lookers I could bring up front as pre-cut trees, but these two look like they could use some help. Plus, for two people of their age, they’ve wandered awfully far to the back of the property.

“Can I help you two find a tree?” I ask while walking up.

“Young man, do you think this tree looks too tall? I’m thinking my husband will keel over trying to get it inside, and we’re celebrating our fiftieth anniversary this Christmas. I don’t want to miss out on that number.” Her glassy eyes spark with amusement.

“Rita, it’s like you’re trying to jinx us.” Her husband shakes his head, but it’s clear he’s enamored with her.

Surveying the tree, it’s definitely too big for them to handle. But I’m not going to come straight out and say that.

“Hmm, I think this trunk looks crooked regardless, so we should probably find a different one.”

An engine sounds in the row next to us, and I watch as Emily pulls up.

“Everything okay?” she asks, looking back and forth between the couple and me.

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