Page 22 of A Collier First Christmas
They cut the bindings from around the tree to free the limbs.
“No!” I cried.
My heart sank as I saw only half the needles were on it. There were bare spots everywhere. It was the ugliest tree I’d ever seen. Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree looked like it belonged in Rockefeller Square compared to this hideous tree.
I wanted to curl up and cry. Why couldn’t anything just go the way I wanted it to?
Sydney snickered. She tried to cover it, but that only made her snort until laughter bubbled from her. It was like it was contagious too as others started to laugh. I turned and looked back at the tree.
“It’s awful,” I said as I started laughing too.
“What do we do now?” Milly asked. “The tree lighting is in two days. All the flyers have gone out and the town page has been updated. Everyone’s coming.”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “Can you guys just load that thing back onto my car? I can’t leave it here.”
“Sure thing, Lily,” one of them said as the men got back to work replacing it as it had arrived.
“I guess you get what you pay for,” Syd said. There were tears in her eyes and it wasn’t because she was sad.
I rolled my eyes and put my hands on my hips ready to tell her what we were going to do next. One of the men tripped on the curb and fell backwards. The tree dislodged from his hands and came flying right at me.
I felt the stab of the branches as I stumbled backwards in shock. My head hit the ground hard and everything around me started spinning out of control.
Thomas
Chapter 12
Luke and I were just finishing up when my phone rang. I glanced down and smiled when I saw it was James.
“Are we good?” I asked Luke.
“Yeah, take it.”
“Hey man, what’s up?”
“Thomas, we, um, have a situation downtown. It’s Lily.”
I groaned. What was she up to this time?
“It’s bad, Thomas. You need to come right away. And I don’t know how to tell you this, but the baby’s not with her. I’ve looked everywhere. She’s not here.”
“Relax James. Cammie’s safe. She’s with me.”
“Oh thank God. Wait, since when did Lily start letting you watch the baby?”
“I’ll explain it later, but is my mate okay?”
“I don’t know. The doctor’s on his way. The guys are trying to get the tree off of her now.”
“The tree? Off Lily?”
“Yes!”
“Is everything okay?” Luke asked.
“I don’t know.”
“James, where are you exactly?”
