Page 23 of Not In The Christmas Plan
I am in trouble.
“Oh good, you’re up,” Grant says, and it could be my imagination, but I swear today his voice sounds silky as Stevie Wonder. I need to get a hold of myself. “Can you come here? I need your help with something.”
Before I can ask what he’s up to, he disappears back outside. I stare at the door for a few moments, welcoming the building irritation. I’ve got things I’m trying to work on; I’m not at Grant’s beck and call.
Still, I trudge to the shoe rack to put on some tennis shoes and grab my coat.
When I step out to the back yard, the slap of frigid air against my face makes me gasp. You never can tell what kind of weather you’ll get in Central Texas as winter approaches. I can recall a few Christmases Ivy and I spent playing outside, in shorts, because the days were so warm. Even though it’s cold now, I’m not holding my breath that it’ll stay this way come a few weeks.
“Over here,” Grant calls from the shed.
I see him kneeling beside the big green tubs full of decorations.
“What are you doing?” I ask, battling the wind to get to him as it whips my locs to and fro.
Grant looks up, unaffected by the wind though the tip of his nose has a slight red hue from the cold. “Did you realize that every house on this street already has their decorations up? Since this is the only one slackin’, and since it’s on your list, I figured we could knock it out today.”
“Today? I was going to babyproof everything. Besides—” I turn my back against another gust of wind and raise my hood. “I’m not sure if we should be doing anything in this weather.” Not to mention I don’t want him to mess up any of Dad’s old ornaments.
Grant smiles into another box. “Here’s what I was looking for.”
It takes me a few seconds to tear my eyes away from his handsome face made even more attractive by his excitement. When I finally see what he’s holding up, I smile back.
“You found the lights.”
“Yes ma’am.”
He takes the string of lights in both hands and extends them to study the bulbs. Red, yellow, blue, green—the colors of my childhood.
“Wait, are these—” Grant begins.
“Traditional incandescent lights. They were Dad’s favorite. He absolutely refused to use anything else. Listen, one year, Ivy and I accidentally bought LEDs. I kid you not, Dad spent three hours stringing lights only to then turn them on and realize we got the wrong type. You’dthink after all that work that he’d take it as a lesson to not let us shop next time but roll with it, right?” I look up at Grant who’s watching me with an amused grin and shake my head. “Nope. Not my daddy. He took every single strand down. He returned them the next day and started over.”
Grant lets out a low laugh. “That explains why there’s at least twenty unopened boxes of these things in here then.”
“There are not.”
Grant quirks an eyebrow and gestures me to look inside the bin. I lean forward for a peek and giggle. Grant’s right. Dad did stock up on the lights.
Grant laughs with me. “So, about putting them up now?” He holds the lights up.
I sigh, long and dramatic. I guess I can babyproof later. “Fine. Let’s do it.”
His answering grin is bright and genuine, and my stomach is back to doing somersaults. I can see Grant actually likes all this Christmas stuff. And I like that about him.
I’m going to take these lights down and strangle somebody with them. Grant by the looks of things so far.
“Come on, Eve,” Grant drawls behind me. “No one’s gonna care if the lightslook more... artistic. From the curb it all shines the same. Besides, this isn’t a competition with the neighbors.”
I snap my head around and scowl. “Yes, itis.At least it always was to Dad.” I yank the stupid strand straighter and try to force the bulbs to sit in a neat line around the pillar.
They still won’t lay flat how I want, and I’m this close to giving up.
“You know,” Grant says, slowly inching toward me. “I could always do it for you.”
It’s the third time he’s offered since I’ve been working at this. First, I declined because I wanted to be the one to decorate it like Dad. Then I declined out of principle, not wanting to be undone by the lights. Now I see it’s been a losing battle all along.
“Ugh. Fine,” I huff and let the lights fall into Grant’s waiting hands.
