Page 27 of Real Tree / Fake Boyfriend

Tyler finally returned to Julien, if only because Hailey had sought out her fiancée, and he reached down to retake Julien’s hand. “Buckle up. It’ll take a while to pick the right one.”

He hadn’t been lying. They looked at probably twenty trees before they found one they liked.

Whenever they found one that looked like it might work, someone had something tosay about it.

“It’s too tall. It won’t look right in the space,” Connie said about one.

“This is way too bare at the bottom. We want an evenly full tree,” Cece had commented about another.

“This isn’t tall enough. It’ll look too small in the great room,” Mr. Ashford observed about another.

Even Tyler had chimed in about one, saying, “It’s lopsided, and there’s not a big branch on top for the angel.”

Julien thought they all looked the same.They all look like fucking trees.But apparently, the family was after something particular.

When Julien started to believe he might die in the middle of a Christmas tree farm, Hailey squealed and ran up to a tree.

“Look at her,” the woman said, childlike glee lit her face up.

According to Mrs. Ashford, it had excellent color. Cece noted that there weren’t any unpleasant gaps in the branches. Brad said it was the perfect height and mentioned that he knew because he measured things to fit in spaces for a living.

Once they all agreed that this was the one, Brad brandished the saw and set about his self-appointed task. “I got this.”

Cece produced a blanket and set it on the ground so Brad could position himself on his knees without getting covered in needles and dirt.

“Dad, you have to move the branch up,” Brad said from where he was positioned on his knees. “I can’t reach the trunk. God, Tyler, can you be useful for once and help your father?”

Julien was struck with the white-hot desire to punch Brad in his artificially white smile. No one could talk to his boyfriend that way. But before he could speak up, Tyler hurried to oblige the order.

“I think you might need to put your back into it more, Sweetie,” Cece said. She held her hand over the speaker of her phone. In the middle of their search, she got another call from a client and had to take it there. She didn’t even bother to move away as she talked to them.

“I am putting my back into it, Babe. It’s this saw. It’s so fucking dull,”Brad bit out.

“Language!” Mrs. Ashford and Hailey exclaimed in identical admonishing tones.

“Can I help?” Julien stepped closer to the men. He didn’t care if it took Brad all night to cut this tree down, but Tyler gave him a desperate and pleading look as the branches nearly enveloped him.

Brad peeked his head out from under the tree. “I got it, big guy,” he said before disappearing under the brush and grunting as the saw’s sounds against the bark started again.

“Honey, can you make this quick? I need you.” Cece stomped her foot.

“Just a minute,Dear,” Brad’s breaths came out in labored puffs.

It wasn’t just a minute. Mr. Ashford and Tyler still held the tree up, the branches well out of Brad’s way, but it didn’t seem like the situation was progressing. Julien and Wally even had to move branches out of the way.

“Don’t hurt the tree,” Hailey whined. “Don’t break the branches.”

The sawing stopped, continued, then stopped again. “It’s got to be this damn saw. Cece, go get me another one,” Brad snapped.

“Darling,” Cece said in a sickly-sweet tone. “I am on the phone with ourclientright now. Just let Julien do it.” She pressed her phone right back to her ear.

Brad climbed out from under the tree. His cheeks were red. His hair stuck up at odd angles, with pine needles dusting the edges of his sweater. He brushed himself off, shoved the saw handle at Julien, and marched over to his wife, who put the call on speaker so they could talk to their clients.

Julien looked at Tyler, who shrugged. “We can just call someone over. You don’t have to do it,” he said softly.

Julien smirked. “You don’t think I can do it?” he asked. Julien had never cut down a tree, but he was confident it couldn’t be as hard as Brad had made it look. It was only a tree.

Tyler’s mouth opened, but before he could reply, Julien knelt and could feel Tyler watch his ass stick out as he bent over. Brad hadn’t even made a dent in the trunk of the tree. At least no one could see how hard Jules rolled his eyeswhen he lay under the branches so he could get the right angle for the teeth of the saw to sink into the trunk.

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