Page 54 of The Cowboy's Christmas
Chapter Eleven
“We never hada treethisbig,” Sophie said, spreading her arms wide to indicate the width of the fir tree Quinn had just set upright after sawing off lower branches in the mudroom and attaching it into the base.
“Inallof your Christmases?” Deke said in an impressed voice.
“All of them,” Sophie agreed.
“Can we put on balls now?” Jessa asked.
“Do you want lights?” Savannah pulled a coil out of the box, one of the four that Quinn had helped her tote inside from the woodshop.
“I want to put on the balls first.”
“Lights have to go on first, sweetie.”
“Hey,” Deke said, easing himself to his feet with a grimace, “what say we go get the cocoa ready while these two do the boring part. Then we’ll put on the angel and hang some shiny things.”
The girls exchanged looks. “How long is the boring part?”
“Ten minutes,” Quinn said.
“Just long enough for you guys to make the cocoa. After that, we’ll stand back and you two will take over.”
Smiles spread across the twins’ faces at the idea of being in command, and then Jessa took her sister’s hand and tugged her toward the kitchen.
“Ten minutes,” Deke said solemnly to Quinn. “I won’t be able to contain them after that.”
“He’s still hurting,” Savannah said after her uncle followed the girls into the kitchen. “I tried to get him to get another X-ray after the tomato sauce fall, but he refused.”
“No surprise there.”
“Nope,” Savannah said, climbing the stepladder with the lights in her hand. “But pretending something doesn’t exist doesn’t make it go away.”
“That’s true,” Quinn said as Savannah draped the string of lights over the top branches of the tree, then handed the coil off to him. They both had practice in that regard, pretending that they were fine when they weren’t. Issues had to be faced.
They continued draping the lights and connecting strings until they got close to the bottom and ran out.
“So we have a foot or so of unlit tree,” Savannah said after they’d rearranged the lights and only gained a couple of inches.
“Works for me.”
He smiled at her and as she smiled back. Deke yelled from the kitchen, “Ready or not, the cocoa’s coming.”
“Ready,” Savannah called, meeting Quinn’s gaze again. He lifted his hand to lightly trace the side of her face, dropping it as the twins raced into the room. Deke followed, carrying two mugs of cocoa with candy canes bobbing in them.
“It’s so pretty,” Jessa said, stopping in the doorway and almost tripping Deke. He caught his balance without spilling cocoa and gave Savannah an eye roll.
“Scoot on in,” he told his niece, and she looked up as if surprised that he was behind her.
“I’ll get the other cups,” Savannah said, easing past her uncle.
Quinn followed, and as they walked back into the living room, they exchanged amused looks. Deke was helping the girls open the ornament box, their cocoa abandoned where he’d set it down.
“They like it lukewarm, anyway,” Savannah said as she set down Deke’s cup, then took a sip of her own. Her gaze remained on Deke and the girls, and Quinn wished he knew what she was thinking. Was she doing okay, with both Christmas and what was happening between them? Or was she pulling a Deke and pretending things were fine when they weren’t?
“Come help,” Sophie said, waving them into the room.
“Yes, ma’am.” Savannah set her cup on a side table and crouched next to the girls. Sophie handed her a candy cane ornament, then frowned up at Quinn as if wondering why he was not following directions. He smiled and crossed the room, setting his cup beside Savannah’s as Jessa held up a cowboy Santa.
