The Snuggle is Real (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Ford

“What? No ugly Christmas sweater. I’m disappointed, Ford.”

Charlie and I turned toward Mason, coming up to join us in the parking area of the Milton Falls Christmas Tree Farm, a leash held loosely in his hand as his dog trotted at his side.

“Sorry, man. It’s not happening,” I called, spreading my arms wide to display my plaid jacket.

“Going for the lumberjack vibe, huh? I can dig it.”

Mason grinned, gaze running over my chest and arms. I shifted, cheeks heating.

He was just teasing me, right? He wasn’t…

No. Of course not. Mason had been into that soap star, and that guy was polished and sophisticated. Nothing like a lumberjack. Not that I was really one of those.

“Seemed appropriate to dress like one today,” I said gruffly. “We’re gonna cut down a tree, right?”

His dog barked sharply, seemingly in agreement.

“Can I pet your dog?” Charlie asked, darting forward, hand outstretched.

“Oh, hon, wait for permission.”

“It’s all right,” Mason said just as the dog licked a big stripe right up the side of her face, sending her into giggles. “Peppermint Bark is friendly.”

I snorted. “Peppermint Bark. Really?”

He grinned and shrugged. “It’s the name the shelter gave him.”

“Typical Christmas Falls.”

His eyes met mine, full of amusement. “So I’m learning.”

Charlie and Peppermint Bark indulged in a love fest, and I fidgeted, watching, as Mason took off his stocking cap and smoothed his hair, which gleamed brightly under the winter sun.

Those cute freckles across his cheeks drew my eyes, and his lips?—

What the fuck was I thinking right now?

“Come on, Charlie. There’s plenty of time to play with the dog later. Let’s go find that Christmas tree.”

She straightened, and Peppermint barked, chasing after her. She stumbled a couple of steps back against me, laughing. “He’s gonna get me!”

Judging by the laughing, she wasn’t too worried. And judging by Peppermint’s lolling tongue, he was about as dangerous as a bunny rabbit.

“Heel, Pepper!” Mason called. “Heel!”

Pepper ignored him thoroughly, running circles around his legs and just about taking him out. I grabbed his arm as he wobbled, then slipped my arm around his waist, letting him lean against me as he untangled himself.

“Sorry, he’s not exactly well-trained. He should behave if we get moving.” Mason flashed a smile, pink tinting his cheeks. “I hope it’s okay I brought him? He gets restless at the house for too long, and I already worked all day?—”

“It’s fine, Mason. I’m sorry we’re a hassle when you’re so busy. You could have canceled.”

“I didn’t mean that,” he said quickly. “I wanted to be here, and it’s better that we’re coming in the evening.”

“Why?” Charlie asked from beside us, making me suddenly aware that Mason and I weren’t alone.

And I was still holding him like he was some sort of damsel in distress, even though he’d managed to get untangled from the leash.

I took a big step away from him—and toward Charlie. Then I put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her against my side.

My focus should be on her, not…Mason’s bright hair and cute freckles.

“They’ve got a cool new Light Maze this year,” he said. “It’ll be more impressive after dark.”

“What the heck is a light maze?”

He grinned. “You’ll find out later. Come on, we better get going. The maze will be fun in the dark, but we kind of need to see to cut down a tree.”

He started forward without a second look back, leaving me even more off-balance. Apparently I was the only one weirded out by the way I’d held him.

Which was good. Obviously.

Charlie and I followed along, stopping at the cute little store full of Christmas kitsch, including some more of those wood-carved gnomes that had caught Charlie’s eye. She crooned over them while Mason went to hook us up with a farm worker who could help us go get a tree.

A few minutes later we tromped through rows of evergreens.

“What do you think?” our guide, Kaysen Brooks, said to Charlie. “Any of these look good?”

“Hmm.” Charlie turned in a circle eyeing all the trees. Peppermint snuffled every tree as if he had an important decision to make. I hoped he didn’t pee on one. No one wanted to bring that scent in with their holiday tree.

“We have to keep looking,” she said. “I need a perfect tree.”

We walked a little farther, Kaysen giving us some idle information about the farm’s history.

“It’s named Milton Falls instead of Christmas Falls because this tree farm dates back to when that was the name of our town. Of course, there were just a few rural households back then.”

“Really?” Charlie said.

“Yep. The town was renamed after a Christmas decor factory set up shop here in the forties. After the factory went out of business in the mid-eighties, the town had to find a new way to survive.”

“By becoming a Hallmark lookalike,” I joked.

“Pretty much,” he said with a grin. “Bruce, my oldest brother, grumbles about how Christmas-tastic it gets. But hey, his fiancé is totally into it. It was his idea to put in that new Light Maze, and Bruce is a goner, so he agreed with a smile.”

Mason laughed. “He sounds like a lucky guy.”

“Yeah, he did all right with Felix.” He glanced at us. “Are you two…”

“No,” Mason said quickly. “I’m just here to—” He looked at me, stumbling over his words. “We’re just?—”

“Friends,” Charlie said, with all the simplicity of a child.

“Right, friends,” Mason said with a tight smile.

I assumed he got tripped up on how to explain his presence. I appreciated the discretion since I didn’t particularly want to announce to the town gossip mill that I couldn’t pay my own way.

But now shit was awkward enough rumors would probably start up that we were secretly dating.

The idea didn’t bother me nearly as much as it should have.

I had no beef with anyone’s sexuality. My sister’s husband had been bisexual and open about it. There was a higher than average number of gay couples in town. To each their own, I always figured.

But I had never had any interest in that direction. Shouldn’t it bother me that someone might think Mason and I were more than friends?

But then there was no fighting the tide of small-town gossip. I’d learned years ago that it was a waste of energy. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get fussed. People would believe what they wanted.

“There!” Charlie exclaimed, running ahead. “That tree is perfect!”

We hurried after her, stumbling to a stop as she pointed to the smallest, most stunted and mangled tree.

“You’ve been watching too much Charlie Brown,” I said.

“It’s cute! And no one else will choose it, which is just sad, Ford. You said I could pick!”

I held up my hands. “All right, yes, of course you can.”

The tree wasn’t as sad as the tree in the Charlie Brown holiday movie we’d watched a couple of nights ago. It had most of its limbs, at least, and we could probably turn it just right to hide its gaps…

Mason leaned in. “Maybe she would have liked your tree at home, huh? Kids.”

His hot breath tickled my neck as he laughed softly, intimately, right next to my ear.

I suppressed a shiver. “Yeah. Kids. They like the darndest things.”

Kaysen held up a handsaw. “Who wants the honors?”

Mason took a big step back, drawing Charlie with him. “Let the lumberjack take this one.”

I took the saw and waited while Kaysen spread out a tarp on the ground on the downhill side of the tree. I kneeled on the ground, following his instructions to cut low on the trunk, though I knew well enough. I’d done this a couple of times before.

I sawed while Kaysen grabbed the top of the tree and guided it in the direction we wanted it to fall—right onto the tarp.

Charlie squealed and clapped as it went down.

“Good job, Dad,” Kaysen said with a grin.

He was the second person to call me that in front of Charlie. But this time, she noticed.

“Yeah, good job, Dad!” she echoed.

A lump lodged in my throat. Damn, I hadn’t heard her call me that in three years.

I took an extra minute to remember how to breathe, then slowly climbed to my feet. Mason’s gaze locked on mine, as if he understood the significance of what had just happened.

I turned my head, blotting at one eye with a sleeve.

“Okay, Charlie, you’re carrying the tree now, right?” he said, drawing her attention away from me.

“What?” she squealed indignantly, making me laugh. “I’m too little for that.”

“Oh no. How are we going to get it to the truck?”

“You!” she said, pointing a finger at him. “Ford cut it, so you have to carry it!”

Ford, she said. Not Dad. The first one had probably been a slip.

My heart sank. Ah well. It was nice while it lasted.

“Kaysen can help me carry it. Mason is helping with other things.”

Mason eyed me. “I can’t decide if you’re being nice or calling me weak.”

I grinned. “Can’t it be both?”

“All right.” He grabbed one end of the tarp. “Come on, Kaysen. We obviously have to prove our manhood.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kaysen said, though he grabbed his end of the tree and lifted.

Together, they hauled the tree ahead of us while Charlie and I followed. Kaysen helped us get it in the back of my truck, and then we returned to the farm to pay for the tree in the little store and enjoy some hot cocoa.

Each time there was an expense, I watched Mason pull out a credit card.

A credit card with his name on it.

I pulled him aside just before we headed out to the mysterious Light Maze.

“You’re using your own credit card? I thought?—”

“It’s a corporate card. I’ll be reimbursed.”

Is that really how this worked? I didn’t know what I expected. A voucher that said free tree on it? That was silly. If the foundation took monetary donations, they’d have funds at their disposal.

Apparently via credit card.

“Seriously, Ford,” Mason said. “You don’t want to know all the paperwork I deal with behind the scenes.”

I chuckled. “Probably not.”

Peppermint Bark yipped just as Charlie called out, “Let’s go! I want to see the lights!”

Mason raised his eyebrows in question, and I nodded. “Thank you again for this. She’s having a blast.”

“And what about you?” he asked as we headed across a field—in the opposite direction of the trees being farmed—to where an elaborate Light Maze had been set up.

“I’m not hating it,” I admitted.

Mason grinned. “Such a tough customer.”

Ahead of us, the Light Maze lit up the sky, and now I knew that it was exactly what it sounded like.

A maze of trees, shrubs, ten-foot-tall candy canes, six-foot-wide plywood greeting cards, and plastic and wood installations in the shape of cones and pillars—all lit up and blinking to the beat of music that played from loudspeakers.

“Wow. Okay. Now, I’m having a good time.”

Mason laughed and bumped my shoulder as Charlie ran ahead, Peppermint straining at his leash to follow.

“Finally, you’re impressed.”

There was no finally about it. As I followed Charlie, Mason, and Peppermint Bark into the maze—striding between two pillars wrapped in green lights—I knew it wasn’t the holiday display that truly impressed me.

But the determined spirit of one do-gooder who’d made me see the light, despite my stubborn pride.