Page 64 of Fairy Tale Marriage

“Where do you want it, boss man?” Mojo asked.

“By the window.” Shayne had haunted that spot for the past week. “Is the tree stand ready?”

“I’ve got it.” Jumbo got down on his hands and knees. “Bring ’er on over. That’s right. Stand her on up. No, no! More to the left. Forward. Now toward the back.”

Chaz gritted his teeth. “Jumbo, if you don’t get the trunk into the stand in the next three seconds, I’m gonna stick you in that thing and hang ornaments from your ears!”

“There he goes with those ears again,” Mojo said. “Somehow, Jumbo, Idon't think it's your ears he's gonna decorate.”

Penny hooted. “You got that right.”

“What part of be quiet don’t you three understand?” Chaz demanded, heaving the tree into position.

“Still can’t believe you’re sober enough to put up a tree, boss. What happened to your date with Jack Daniels?”

“JD and I have had a parting of the ways.”

Penny grimaced. “I knew marriage would ruin you.”

Chaz just grinned. “And you were right.”

He stood back and eyed the tree. Not bad, if he did say so himself. Not too crooked. Maybe if he lopped off a few branches nobody would notice the slight starboardlist.

He nodded toward his men. “Thanks for your help. I’ll take it from here.”

“You don’t want us to help put silly little doodads on it?” Penny grumbled.

It didn’t take any thought at all. Chaz shook his head decisively. “Nope. That’s my job.” Actually, it was more than that. “It’s my pleasure.”

Shayneawoke early the next morning and rolled over, knowing before she even looked she wouldn’t find her husband besideher.

Quietly, she left the bed and pulled on a robe. She needed to talk to him before anyone else in the household stirred. It was Christmas morning and she had to find a way to make him understand the importance of the day to a small child, something she’d obviously failed to do sofar.

She slipped through the silent house, heading straight for Chaz's office. The door stood ajar and she gave it a little push. Hovering there, she could only stand and stare. Her husband lay sprawled on the floor, sound asleep. At the sound of her gasp, he pried open an eye, wincing at the bright sunlight filtering into the room. He muttered something beneath his breath, something she tactfully pretended not tohear.

“Oh, Chaz,” she murmured. “What have you done to yourself?”

“’Mornin’, sweetheart. Merry Christmas.”

She blinked, not quite certain she’d heard him right. “You know what day it is?”

“Of course I know.” His eyes were red-rimmed, but alert, his smile as devastating as ever. If he’d indulged last night, it had been with something other than a bottle of bourbon. “Don’t you?”

“Well, yes, but—” She walked further into the office and then she saw it. Ahuge tree filled one entire end of the room. She stared at it in disbelief. “That... that looks like a Christmas tree.”

Chaz folded his arms behind his head, still sprawled on the floor. “Naw. That can’t be. Idon’t do Christmas, remember?”

She took a step closer and fingered one of the needled branches. “It feels like a Christmas tree,” she said unevenly. “It even smells like one.”

His brow wrinkled into a frown. “Well, I’ll be. Now isn’t that the strangest thing.”

She released the branch and it swayed ever so slightly. An excited chorus of silver-toned bells filled the air, ringing out a happy greeting. They were the bells from her mask, she realized, tears flooding her eyes. He’d strung them, one by one, on thetree.

“It—” Her voice broke and she swallowed hard, trying again. “It even sounds like a Christmas tree.”

“Well, heck. Then it must be one. Don't know how the silly thing found its way in. Guess I'll have to drag it on out of here before anyone sees it.”

The tears that had become such a natural part of her day overflowed her eyes. “You even decorated it.”

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