Trapped Under the Christmas Tree (Christmas Tree, PA Sweet Romcom #1)

Chapter 9

Jake

I’m actually warm. For a while there, I wasn’t sure I would ever feel warm again.

“What do you mean?” I say, because I can hardly believe that she is using the word cozy. Like she’s enjoying this? I feel like she’s made a huge sacrifice. She’s come out in the freezing rain, literally, and is now lying on stones, beside a fallen pine tree, to warm up a man she barely knows. Even if we’ve grown up in the same town and live here together.

“I... I guess it’s just the warmth and the rain and, I don’t know, this is something I have never done before, for sure.”

“Me either. I suppose if it were you who was trapped, I would have wanted to grab a chainsaw to rescue you right away, but I’m glad you didn’t insist on that.”

“I’ve used a chainsaw before, but I’m always afraid I’m going to hurt someone. So, it’s probably best that we did this your way.”

“I already feel terrible because I knocked the tree down, I would have felt even worse if they would have had to destroy it in order to rescue me.” And that’s the truth.

Still, I know that this is a major inconvenience for her.

“If you weren’t here with me, what would you be doing right now? Searching social media for information on the wreck out on the interstate?”

“Believe it or not, I was getting ready to go to bed.”

“This early?”

“It’s after nine now, but yeah. I guess this time of year, I love to snuggle down in bed and read for an hour or two before I turn out the light and go to sleep. It’s one of the best things about this time of year.”

“I like to read a lot more than I used to. I guess, considering that I’m stuck with the librarian, I have to say good things about reading and books.”

“You don’t. I’m not going to excommunicate you or leave you here on the cold stones alone...”

“Or throw a bucket of cold water on me, since I can’t escape?”

She laughs behind me, and the sound feels good. I want to hear it some more. I have known her, but I haven’t really known her. She’s a lot more than what she seems.

“I could let you think that I would do that, and that might help keep you in line a little bit.”

“Is that what you do with the kids in the library? You think about things that you can do to them to keep them in line?” I’m teasing her. I want to hear her laughter some more.

“I don’t know. Maybe you should show up at the library sometime and find out.”

“Maybe I’ll do that.” I hesitate, and then maybe it’s our cozy position, the idea of privacy, or maybe it’s just because she’s been so good to me, but I say what I’m thinking. “Going to the library just got a whole lot more appealing to me.”

“Oh, it did? Why is that?” she says, laughter in her voice. She doesn’t realize I was serious.

“Because I just realized that the librarian is a whole lot more interesting and funny than what I ever thought she was.”

“Oh.” She’s much more subdued. But her tone doesn’t sound standoffish to me, and so maybe that’s what encourages me to keep talking.

“I don’t know if you heard, but I swore off dating about five years ago.”

“It was a big thing in town. And then, you started getting voted the most eligible bachelor, which was probably the town’s way of encouraging you to get back into the dating pool.”

“It might have been, but the main reason I did it was because I had trouble finding someone who...was steady and dependable and good in a crisis, like when trees fall on top of a person.”

She did laugh at that. I was joking a bit. But... I was also serious.

“Well, I suppose you’re still looking for someone like that,” she finally says.

“I don’t know. I’ve gone to great lengths to try to weed out the bad actors, and I think I might have been successful.” I don’t know what I’m saying. Am I hinting that I’m interested in...dating her?

“Well, success is a good thing, I guess,” she says, although she sounds a little confused.

“I’ve spent five years not dating, but I spent that time watching people. Seeing how they react to things. Truly trying to figure out what I had done wrong, that I had been with so many women who hadn’t wanted to stick.” I thought for sure that I would be married by this time in my life. Had hoped for it. But it wasn’t because of me, it was because of everyone I was with who seemed to decide that they didn’t want to be with me after a rather short time. So short it was almost embarrassing.

“I see. So that’s why you got a little quieter?” she asks.

“You noticed?” I say, surprised.

“I guess I have.”

I thought I was being brave by admitting that I might be interested in more, but it sounds like...she’s saying the same thing. I could be wrong, but it sure seems that way.

My heart starts beating a little faster, and even my toes are warm now.

“I wanted to figure out what I was doing wrong. And I did find a few things in myself that I needed to correct.”

“It’s always good to work on ourselves,” she says. I agree completely, and I like that we both think that way.

“But I also think a part of what I was doing was I was choosing women based on how they looked, based on superficial things. I wasn’t looking beneath the surface at the things that matter.”

“I think a lot of times the things that matter are things that we don’t value as a society.”

“Things like character and integrity, and keeping your word. Being devoted, and not being sidetracked by things that look better.”

“Those are things you have to observe. You can’t have someone just tell you that they’re going to do something. You have to look and see whether their actions back up their words or not.”

“That’s exactly right.” As I say that, I’m thinking back. Tessa has been faithful to her job since she started it, just two years out of high school. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the library getting a new librarian at the time, but she’s been a quiet worker in the town all that time.

Exactly the kind of person that I want. It’s funny that I thought that for the last five years I was doing a good job of observing, but somehow I missed Tessa completely.