Page 31 of Fated Midlife Christmas
“That’s too bad. I wouldn’t have minded hearing some more of his Christmas stories, especially on a night like tonight.” Kristy nodded toward the main part of the living room.
Two fresh evergreens had already been put up in their stands, one on either side of the picture window at the front of the house. Maeve and Lucille were carrying boxes out from one of the storage rooms.
“Is it time to decorate?” Sage asked eagerly.
“It sure is!” Maeve set one of the boxes down on the coffee table. “And we’ve got two whole trees, so we’ll really need your help.”
Sage whipped around to investigate, her curly hair flying. “Two trees? Do you have that many ornaments?”
“Sort of,” Tina explained. “One is a traditional Christmas tree, just like what most people put up. The other one is a Yule tree. Do you remember when we talked about that a couple of days ago?”
“Oh, yeah! Okay! That sounds like fun.” She eagerly peered into the first box.
“We’ve got to get the lights on first,” her father told her. Dex set down yet another box and produced a rolled-up string of lights. “It’s too hard to get the ornaments on afterwards. Come help me.”
“Me, too!” Arden volunteered, never far from Sage’s side.
Dex started at the top of one tree, passing the roll of lights to the children and unwinding them as he tucked them into the branches.
“You know what? Once we get them decorated, we should get everyone in front of the trees for a picture,” Erin suggested.
Jace laughed as he kissed her cheek. “I never thought you’d be one to get so into photography.”
“Me, neither, until I became a mom.”
“I’ll get the rest of the boxes, but then I really need to go check on Kendrick,” Maeve said, some of the holiday cheer dropping from her voice. “I thought he might be up by the time we got home.”
“You go ahead,” Jamie offered. “I’ll dig the rest of the decorations out.”
“Thank you, dear.” Maeve headed up the stairs.
“Let me know if you need anything,” Lucille called after her.
Amanda didn’t feel like decorating. She didn’t want to think about the togetherness of family, and she sure as hell didn’t want to listen to any Christmas music. She forced herself to grab one of the other strings of lights and help get it onto one of the trees.
Kristy stepped up to the other side of the tree to help her. “You sure you’re good?”
“Yeah. Why?” Amanda handed her the lights and adjusted the string among the branches, tucking it deep against the trunk. The fragrant smell of pine wrapped around her.
“You look a little pale,” Kristy whispered around the back of the tree. “None of us has been affected the same way the dragons have so far, but you’re making me wonder.”
“No, it’s nothing like that,” Amanda quickly assured her. “Like I said, I’m just tired.”
They wound the lights around the bottom of the tree and plugged them in. They lit up, flickered, and then burned steadily.
“Okay, good. I thought we were going to have to do that all over again,” Kristy joked.
“Time for ornaments!” Lucille announced. “Here, kids. I’ll take them out of the packing paper and hand them to you. We’ll start with the Yule tree.”
Sage looked at her and then at the trees. “Which one is the Yule tree? They look the same to me.”
“We have to pick one,” Lucille explained. “Will you do that for us?”
“Um, that one!” Sage pointed to the tree closest to the door.
Maeve and Kendrick came back down the stairs just then. They were nearly to the bottom when all the lights in the house went out, enveloping everyone in temporary darkness. Sage and Arden shrieked, but it only lasted about a second before everything came back on.
“A lot of people must be putting up their lights,” Sage theorized.
