Hold On

“Twelve-for-a-buck ornaments? Only a couple tubes?” I asked.

“How many you need?” he asked back.

“I don’t know. Are you buying a proper Christmas tree or a Charlie Brown Christmas tree?”

His head jerked back like that question was an affront.

“First Christmas here with you, Ethan, and Grace, I’m not gonna get a shit-ass tree.”

That was nice.

However…

“So what you’re saying is, the good part, the part I like, you want twelve-for-a-buck ornaments, two tubes of them, but you’re gonna get a nice tree and you want me to go whole hog on the lights because you have a dick and lights have a plug and that’s the way of the world.”

Merry was no longer affronted.

His lips were twitching.

“You want three tubes of ornaments? Knock yourself out.”

Thirty-six ornaments on a full Christmas tree.

Not gonna happen.

“I’ll get what I get,” I declared.

Merry’s face again lost its humor. “Serious, Cher, we’ll have your shit here next year and we don’t need decorations for two trees.”

I was back to thinking about Merry’s plans for the upcoming year.

“We’ll have my shit here next year?”

“Yeah.”

I waited for him to say more.

He didn’t say more.

“Did I miss the invitation to move in with you?” I asked.

His humor yet again returned. “No.”

I waited for him to say more.

Again, he didn’t.

“Are you gonna steal my decorations so you have them next year?” I asked.

His amused face got close.

“No, baby. I’m gonna put in two decent bathrooms. Then I’m gonna buy better furniture because my shit sucks. After that, after we’re all good and used to each other and I got a nice home to offer my woman and her boy, a real home, a comfortable home, I’m gonna invite them to move in with me. When they accept, I’m gonna have to accept all her shit. There’s a lot of it and it includes fifteen boxes of Christmas crap. And don’t deny you got fifteen boxes, sweetheart, because Ethan and I lugged every one of those fuckers out of your garage, and when we did, we counted them.”

He said the last quickly because I’d opened my mouth.

He also didn’t stop talking.

“So, to end, we’ll have your shit here next year, so we don’t need expensive stuff for the tree we have this year.”

“The master is pretty big, gorgeous,” I said quietly. “We could put a tree in there next year with our new decorations.”

His expression got more amused. “Jesus, Cherie, no one needs a tree in their bedroom.”

“But I want one.”

“Then get what you want to decorate this year, and next year, we’ll put a tree in our bedroom.”

I stared into his eyes.

That came right out. No hesitation, it came right out. Right out of Garrett Merrick’s mouth.

I told him I wanted a tree in the bedroom; he told me to get what I want.

A girl who didn’t dream sure as hell was smart enough never to want. She took what she could get and that was that.

And just like that, no hesitation, I wanted something silly.

And Merry gave me what I wanted.

“You want us to move in with you.”

My voice was funny—quiet, husky.

His voice was not quiet or husky. It was deep and kind of incredulous, like he couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out yet.

“Of course I do, brown eyes. I bought this house for you.”

My throat suddenly felt tight.

He…

What?

I kept staring as I forced out, “What?”

“More house than I needed at a price higher than I wanted. But you liked it. You like water. Ethan’s got his space. We got ours. We got together space. We got expansion space. So I bought it.”

I kept staring at him, but something happened while I did.

He watched me a beat, saw that something happen, and said, “Fuck, you’re gonna cry again, aren’t you?”

I slapped his shoulder and snapped, “I’ve cried once with you, Merry. Once.”

“Well, this time I don’t have time to get you through it. I gotta get Ethan to school.”