Page 78 of Stay this Christmas
Oh, sweet merciful Lord. He’d switched his flirting back on full blast, and I could barely stay upright in its wake.
“Ignoring that.”
The sparkle in his eyes proved he knew I hadn’t.
“Don’t feel too sorry for me. A few years ago, I spent Christmas Day surfing in New Zealand. And last year might have been my best yet—hiking the Colorado Trail with Vance Vickers.”
Whipping my head around, I almost tripped over a stump. Vance Vickers was only the biggest action movie star in the country. I didn’t actually go to his movies, preferring shows with more romance and fewer gunshot wounds, but the guy had starred in summer blockbusters for at least twenty years.
Sam bobbed his eyebrows at me. “Who’s sad and pathetic in their underwear now?”
I really needed him to stop sayingunderwear, please and thank you.
“But how did this happen? How do you know Vance Vickers?”
“I don’t actually know Vance Vickers. But Ian had guided him through some trails in preparation for a movie a couple of years ago, and Vance started sending him celebrity clientele for private guides. Last year, he and a few of his friends wanted to spend a few days around Christmas on a hike, so that’s what we did.”
Couldn’t really process the idea of having celebrity clientele in any capacity. Some of my Village patients were pretty well known for their gossip, but that was about it. “Wow. And you walked away from that job?”
Sam shrugged. “Ian was the one they wanted. No movie stars are breaking down my door. I just helped him on the trip because I was the only one of us on the crew without a wife who’d be pissed I wasn’t home Christmas morning.”
“Oh, I definitely would have been pissed.”
Sam’s wide smile made me realize my mistake. My stomach seized up, embarrassment squeezing me tight. If I could somehownotsay stupid things around him, that’d be neat.
“Not that I would have been your wife. I would have been more like a neighbor. But not a next-door neighbor. A concerned acquaintance on the other side of town.”
“A concerned acquaintance?”
“Yup. On the other side of town.” Exactly where I wished I was now.
He shifted closer, his naughty boy grin on full display. “You’re adorable when you’re embarrassed, Harps.”
“Noted.”
The family reached the tree I’d been eyeing before we could get there, so I veered off in a different direction. Twigs snapped beneath our boots as we climbed a small rise. Nothing to see but pines for at least a half-mile. One of them would be right for us.
“You do realize we passed two perfectly good tree lots on the drive out here, right?”
“Pre-cut trees are for emergency situations only. Like cocoa packets and store-bought sugar cookies.”
He chuckled. “No sense doing things halfway.”
“Darn right.”
I paused near a tree that looked about the right height, and circled around it. A little bit shorter than I liked, but it had a good shape. No broken branches or crooked trunk. Needles pure green.
“Is this the one?”
Sam had come closer than I realized as I inspected the tree, his arm brushing mine. Even through layers of flannel and fleece, the touch made my stomach dip.
“It looks pretty good. What do you think?”
He angled his head down, eyebrows furrowed as if seriously assessing the tree. “I like it.”
“You’re just ready to be done with the search.”
“That, too.”
