Page 109 of The One for Me
They go back to their conversation, and I follow my brother outside. “I really am an idiot,” I say as the cold air hits us.
“Why?”
“I didn’t think about a tree or making Christmas . . . more. I’ve been so worried about Devney and Austin that it slipped my mind.”
He claps me on the shoulder. “Well, you have like three days, better make them count.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Sean
“What about this one?” I ask, pointing to a nice fat tree in the new row we had to check.
Devney tilts her head, eyeing it, and then shrugs. “I don’t know, it doesn’t feel like our tree.”
“What the hell does our treefeellike?”
“I don’t know, but that isn’t it.”
I swear she’s trying to kill me. Not only have we been out in the freezing cold for an hour, but she also has no idea what kind of tree she likes.
“Dev, it’s a tree.”
Austin laughs from his very comfortable position on the quad. We put the trailer on the back and made him what looks like a bed back there. His leg is secure, and he’s cocooned in blankets.
“Austin, isn’t the tree the most important thing?”
He looks to me and then back at her. “Sure?”
“See?” I yell. “The kid doesn’t care. Does this tree look good?”
He shrugs. “I guess.”
Devney slaps my chest. “See? He doesn’t like it. He’s just trying to be nice. Now, let’s ride out and find the perfect tree.”
“The perfect tree will be the one in our living room.”
She huffs. “This matters.”
“So does me having all my toes!”
Dev rolls her eyes. “Dramatic.”
I’ll give her dramatic. “Sweetheart, it’s two days before Christmas and all the perfect trees were cut down three weeks ago. Now, we have a perfectly adequate tree right here, and since I still have enough feeling in my hands to cut it down, we should take it.”
She walks over to the quad and climbs on. “Not the right one.”
I groan, looking up at the sky. “You’re killing me.”
“You’ll get over it.”
I release a breath, causing the fog to surround me, blocking my face from her view as I resign myself to the fact that I am going to stay out here for however long she wants because that’s what idiots do for the girl they love. They spend hours on a bare tree farm because she needs to make sure Austin has the tree she needs him to have.
Reality is that I’m not going to argue it.
I get on the quad in front of her and swear I can feel her smile behind me. Adorable little wench.
We ride for another ten minutes until she taps my shoulder. I pull over and try to wipe my nose, but it actually hurts. I wonder if snot can freeze. If so, mine has.
