Page 19 of A Holly Brown Christmas
“Good for you! Wow! This is incredible!” She came to a stop in front of the stack of boxes with the ornaments in them. “These weren’t on the massive tree in the entryway. These were on the other ones.”
“Then what was on the entryway tree? It wasn’t just bare, right?”
“No, it was definitely decorated, but not with anything I’m seeing here. At least not yet.”
“How can you know which ornaments were for which…”
“Photographic memory, remember? We’ll have to go through everything and separate them by room, tree, and whatnot. Unless that’s written on any of the boxes?”
Lucas looked at the ornament boxes next to him and nodded. “Yup! This one says downstairs trees, living room tree, and there are others that say bonus room. That means somewhere down here is an entryway box. Or…there should be.”
“Exactly!” Pausing, Holly did a slow turn, looking at all the shelves filled with boxes. “It would be crazy if all of this was simply for decorating.”
“It is,” he said matter-of-factly. “But not only for Christmas. There are decorations for Easter, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, Halloween…trust me. My mother makes a fuss over any occasion.”
“That’s kind of nice. Mine does too, but just on a much smaller scale, obviously.” Another nervous laugh.
That’s when it hit him. She felt insecure. Lucas knew his family’s wealth intimidated some people, but this was the first time it really stood out to him.
“Personally, I think all of this is very over-the-top,” he told her. “We don’t need a house this size or to make everything such a spectacle with the holidays. When I was looking for a house of my own, I looked at places that were…you know…normal size. I’m one person, so I don’t need a five-thousand square foot house.”
“I love my house,” she said, smiling. “It’s a craftsman with a wrap-around porch. I bought it two years ago and it needed a ton of work, but it’s a labor of love. My dad comes over all the time and we work on projects together.”
That wasn’t what he was expecting. “What kind of projects?”
“Hmm…first, we painted the whole thing—the interior—before I moved in, along with new flooring. The entire place had old, stained carpets and I just couldn’t make myself move in with them there. So we put in some of that luxury vinyl flooring and then I added several area rugs. Since then, we’ve hung wallpaper in a few rooms, installed some pretty tiles in the kitchen for the backsplash, and we even replaced the shower in the primary bathroom! It’s been a great learning experience. Dad makes me do all the work with him. I’m not allowed to stand back and observe. Now I feel like I can tackle any project on my own.”
He was pretty sure his jaw was on the floor. “So…wait…you did it all…?”
“With the help of my dad. And sometimes my mom. Although, she doesn’t enjoy doing the hands-on kind of stuff. Mostly, she would bring over food and make sure we ate to keep up our strength.” Smiling, she turned and began scanning boxes again. “I had so much fun decorating the house my first Christmas. I hung lights outside—but dad did the ones along the roof because I hate heights—and bought all my own ornaments and decorations for the first time. I know I’ll add to them every year, but that first year was the best.” Turning her head, she looked at him. “You’ll probably do the same when you buy your house. Trust me, it’s awesome.”
That wasn’t quite the word he would use, but he knew what she meant.
“Hopefully I’ll find that out for myself one day,” he said lightly. “But for now, let’s finish making some sort of inventory of everything so we can?—”
“Already on it!” Waving her phone at him, she grinned before snapping pictures and then typing. He had to hand it to her; she was efficient. There was no reason for him to suggest anything, because she was always three steps ahead of him. All he could do was stand back and let her tell him what she needed from him.
It left him with a lot of time to just look at her.
Which was nice.
He’d always thought Holly was pretty, but they never had any opportunity to spend any real time together.
Except for the Christmas party.
He never really put it all together, but…she was the reason he enjoyed the party so much. It was the one night out of the entire year that they were just relaxed around each other with no business agenda—just two people celebrating the holidays.
Yeah, she was the definite high point of the season and it was crazy how he hadn’t figured it out sooner.
“Okay!” Holly said, interrupting his thoughts. “I think this is good and a major relief that we found everything. The only decision we need to make is about the tree for the entryway.” Pausing, she tapped her phone and began typing something before she walked over and turned it toward him. “This is the one I was looking at. I know it’s super expensive, but I can go through invoices tomorrow and see if it states anywhere the exact kind of tree your mother rented from Violet in the past. I know we can find ones that are less expensive, but…”
“It’s a business expense,” he said, surprising himself. “The way I see it, you’re saving us some money because you’re doing all the work the event planner did.”
Lucas almost cringed as soon as the words were out of his mouth.
“I’m sorry. I should pay you for all this extra work, right?” Shaking his head, he seriously wanted to kick himself. “I should have thought of that sooner. Just add it all to your time card and I’ll talk to…”
“Me,” she said with her ever-present smile. “You’d have to talk to me since I’m the head of the payroll department. But I really don’t need to be paid for this, Lucas. It’s my pleasure to be doing it. And really, it was kind of my idea, so I’m fine with the whole thing. Consider me a volunteer.”
