Page 140 of Christmas Kisses

“No way. We’d have been another two days at least.”

Tyler lifted his chin.

“I would have brought you a drink, too, Tyler,” Kara said. “But I only had two hands. You want to come inside and get one?”

He looked up at his father.

Jim said, “Go ahead, Ty. I’ve just got one more board to put up and we’re done anyway. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Okay.” Tyler took up his crutches and walked beside Kara back into the house.

She felt Jim’s eyes on her all the way inside, then she heard him say to Wade, “Let’s get this last board nailed on, pal. I’ve got things I’d rather be doing.”

A little shiver whispered up her spine, and she wondered what surprises the night would hold.

* * *

Two hours later she held the front door open while Jimmy dragged a huge Douglass fir tree into the living room. Tyler was so excited he was bouncing up and down. He’d looked at just about every tree in the lot before finally settling on this one. This was the special evening Jimmy had planned.

He couldn’t have come up with anything better.

“Okay,” Jimmy said. “Where are we standing this bad boy?”

Kara shrugged. “What do you think, Ty?” Tyler was standing in the center of the room. “How ‘bout right here? In the middle?”

“We can do that,” Kara said. “Unless you think it would be better near the windows. So the lights show from outside. Hmm. I don’t know. Which is better?”

“By the windows!” Tyler said.

“By the windows it is.” Jimmy took the tree stand he’d purchased on the way home and started to fix it to the bottom of the tree, while I moved a chair and end table away from the big window to the left of the front door. And minutes later, he had the tree standing there, straight and majestic.

“It’s the best tree ever,” Kara said, and then realized Jimmy had said it at the same time. He looked her way, smiling in a way that made her heart flutter.

Tyler was sitting on the floor now, digging through one of the boxes of decorations his “Gramma Vi” had sent over. She’d said there were still more in the attic if they needed them. He pulled out a glitter coated reindeer, and held it up by its string. “Which one is it, Dad?”

“Prancer,” Jimmy said. Then he leaned closer and took another look. “Nope, sorry. That’s Dancer. Dancer for sure.”

“Hello Dancer. Wanna hang on our tree?”

“Ah-ah, lights first. Then ornaments,” Jimmy told him. And he began unwrapping the strings of lights they’d picked up in town. Once they were unwound, he said, “Let the decking of the halls begin!”

Kara found a radio station playing holiday music, and joined in the fun. But every now and then, she got a huge lump in her throat and just stood still and watched as Jimmy lifted Tyler up to hang ornaments in the glow of the lights. The smell of pine was so heady, and the tears in her eyes, nothing but joyful.

CHAPTERELEVEN

“You’re so beautiful tonight, in the lights from the Christmas tree,” Jimmy said.

Tyler had fallen asleep admiring the tree, and he’d carried him in to bed. Now they were dancing together in the tree-lit living room to the country Christmas music wafting softly from the radio.

She lifted her head from his shoulder, let her cheek brush his on the way up, then met his eyes. “This is the most beautiful evening, Jimmy. It’s like a dream. It’s almost... it’s hard to believe it could be real.” She threaded her fingers into his hair. “Tell me it’s real, Jimmy.”

“It’s real.” He kissed her lips, then her cheek, snuggling her head down onto his shoulder again. When she brushed her lips over his neck, she felt him shudder.

“I’ve loved you since I was sixteen, Jimmy Corona. Do you realize that?”

He stopped moving, pulled his head back and blinked down into her eyes. For a moment she didn’t think he could find words—and she wondered if she’d said too much, gone too far.

But then he ran a hand through her hair and said, “You’re so special, Kara. So honest and open. No pretense, no games.”

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