Page 11 of A DIY Christmas Miracle
Okay, it’s entirely possible that, in hindsight, my exes hadn’t been a good fit at all… and that I’d been a crap judge of character in college.
Thinking about it, it wasn’t that surprising Cassy was shipping me and Will so much. She at least knew him and knew he was a good guy.
Will briefly glanced at me. “I guess we’ll spend our evening sitting together in front of the fireplace, huh?” That sounded like a great idea, especially the ‘together’ part. He and I, cuddling on the couch, my head in his lap with his hand occasionally running through my hair while we were both reading books or… oh, even better, while he was reading to me. “What kind of books do you read?”
I started coughing.
Oh, damn. I should’ve expected this question, right? I mean, Will was an English teacher and a huge book nerd. It was basically part of his job description.
“Quite a lot,” I answered vaguely, shrugging. That wasn’t even a lie. I was just… evading the question a little. Because I didn’t want to lie. But I was also a little afraid he’d make fun of me for reading romance. Many people did. It sucked, it was wrong, and I’d be crushed if Will turned out to be one of those narrow-minded assholes, and… yeah… I really didn’t want him to be an asshole.
“Yeah, I know you read a lot. But what genres do you read?”
“Fantasy,” I said. There were dozens of fantasy books on my bookshelf in the living room, and I loved a good epic tale. But they weren’t my real treasures. They were stored far away from prying eyes in the safety of my bedroom.
“Mhm, interesting.” A curt reply, followed by a cut nod, and then there was silence.
We’d been in the vehicle for three hours already. Three wonderful and torturous hours. Being that close to Will was wonderful. Finally getting the chance to be alone with him was heady, amazing, and more than I’d achieved in the last two years. It’d always been us and Jack and Cassy, or us and the whole gang. Never just the two of us.
Yet, at the same time, being so close to Will was torture. Feeling his warmth, inhaling his scent, being able to ogle him — discreetly — for hours, overthinking everything I said, coming up with alternatives of what I should’ve said instead.
Every time our conversation halted for even a second, my heart dropped because I’d obviously screwed up again and said something wrong.
I sighed, staring through the windshield.
A light layer of snow covered the road, the car in front of us leaving dark tracks in the wafer-thin layer of sugar icing. Tracks we were following and adding to.
The closer we got to our destination, the more nervous I got. Soon, Will and I would arrive and then it’d just be a matter of time until the snowstorm hit…
“What are you doing?” I asked in confusion as Will took a turn to the right and steered the pickup onto a small road where the snow was already piling up a couple of inches high.
“We’re picking up a Christmas tree,” Will said, nodding his head in the direction ahead of us. “There’s a Christmas tree farm up the road.”
“I see.” I nodded, staring out of the window as snow-covered meadows and a couple of trees flew by while we were driving right into a slowly thickening forest until we reached a parking lot.
“How’s your knee?”
I shrugged, giving my knee a dirty look. “It feels fine, but then again, I haven’t tried putting weight on it yet.”
“Let’s test it. If your knee is fine, we can go find our own tree to cut down. If your knee is still hurting, we’ll just take one of the pre-cut trees.”
Yeah… we went with option two. After I’d immediately slumped sideways while climbing down from the truck because my knee wasn’t happy at all having to hold my body weight, we quickly decided it’d be easier to just buy the tree instead of running across the farm, an axe slung over our shoulders while trying to find the right tree — even though that would’ve been a lot more romantic. A walk in the snow, nudging each other, arguing about suitable trees, bickering like a real couple. Hell, I’d probably even have enjoyed being out in the snow if it was with Will.
Well, unfortunately, I’d ruined it for myself by being too damn nervous and impatient. I had no one else to blame but me because I’d been the one who’d put that stupid shoe rack there in the first place, and now I was the one whose knee looked a little like there was a baseball growing out of it.
“Do you want me to drive you up to the cabin first and do the grocery shopping alone? That way you could elevate your knee and rest.”
“No.” I decidedly shook my head.
“But…” Will cast a meaningful look at my knee. “Are you sure you don’t want to elevate your knee?”
“I’ll do that as soon as we’re done with shopping.”
If I already missed out on a romantic walk through the snow, I at least wanted to get to enjoy us shopping together — even if it was just for groceries.
For fuck’s sake, I just wanted to spend time with him! My knee would be back to normal come tomorrow. For sure… hopefully.
I wasn’t that worried about it yet. To signal to Will this topic was closed, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and updated the weather app.
