She was flirting like a teenager, but it was so much fun that she didn’t want to stop. When the lights were finally perfectly strung, she plugged them in to see if they worked.
“Still no electricity,” he said.
“Shit! I knew that. Habits die hard.”
Habits die hard. I hate change. But it happens and I’ll have to deal with all of it when it does.
With the aroma of cedar and pizza combining and a Christmas tree right there in front of her, Sage decided that none of it was going to kill her.
She turned to find him so close that she threw up her hands to land on a chest full of hard muscles. His lips touched hers in a kiss that was a blend of sweet and hot. With a gentle probe his tongue asked permission to enter her mouth. She gave it by opening up and inviting him right inside.
And then the timer on the stove buzzed, telling them that the pizza was ready.
“God hates me,” Creed moaned.
“No, He loves me.” She laughed.
Creed followed her into the kitchen. “How do you figure that?”
“Twice today we’ve been interrupted. I think it’s an omen. It’s not time for the next step, Creed.”
“That commitment word?”
She pulled the pizza from the oven. “No, that Creed word. We need to slow the buggy down and step back to think about what we’re doing.”
“That’s not cardboard pizza. That is the real thing,” he said.
“It’s just a better frozen pizza than those little thin ones. I’ll pour some sweet tea if you’ll slice it up.”
“Why?” he asked as he pulled up the lever and popped ice cubes from an old metal tray.
“Because it’s hot.”
“I make you hot?”
“I don’t think we’re on the same page. I was talking about pizza and needing tea because it is hot.”
“Okay, why slow the buggy down?”
“Because. It’s going too fast.”
* * *
Creed understood, but like she had said earlier, he didn’t have to like it. He wanted the ranch, but he didn’t want there to ever be reason later in life for her to think he’d used her as a pawn to get it.
He set two glasses of iced tea on the table at the same time she put a big round pizza on a hot pad in the middle. He bowed his head and laid his hand on top of hers for grace.
“Amen,” they said in unison when he finished.
“I’m starving.”
“It takes a lot of energy to find a tree and put it up. Think we will survive all this?” he asked.
“What kind of question is that?”
“We managed to get through the blizzard without killing each other. I even decided you weren’t such a bad person after all.”
“Oh, you thought I was at one time?”
“Hey, put yourself in my shoes. Woman sells me the ranch but I have to sign a paper saying you can live on it until you die. Then she tells me that when you get home get ready for a shit storm because you don’t want her to sell and you are going to pitch a fit like what ain’t never seen in these parts. What would you think?”
Sage smiled. “Did she really say it like that?”
“She did and I was so damned glad to hear the news that the roads were closed that I almost danced a jig, woman. Truth is, I was about half-afraid of you. That morning when I found you in the kitchen I was stunned out of my mind. It’s a wonder I could speak.”
“So I wasn’t what you thought I’d be?” she asked.
“I was expecting something way, way different, lady. Your picture doesn’t do you justice. You are one beautiful woman.”
“Thank you for that. But put yourself in my place.”
“Are you going to be really angry when she sells me this ranch?”
Sage thought about the question while she chewed. “Not angry. Sad.”
“That’s what you were thinking about this morning, isn’t it?”
She nodded.
“My momma was hoping I’d hate this place. All of her kids are within a thirty-minute drive but me. I’m the only one who won’t be there for Christmas.”
Sage looked up quickly. “But you can go home for the holidays if you want to. Grand will be back for those days. She and I can do the chores.”
“This is my home. I knew it when I walked up on the porch that first day. Home is where the heart is, not where you hang your hat, and for the first time in my life I want to be here. Going to Ringgold now is going to Momma’s house, not home. And I want to spend my first Christmas on my very own ranch, not at Momma’s house.”
“Okay then, let’s eat and start decorating the tree. I bet we can get it done before time for chores,” she said.
* * *
They looped the tinsel on the tree and then began hanging the ornaments. He removed each one from a bit of tissue paper and handed it to Sage, who told stories as she hung them.
She’d made the reindeer ornament from an old wooden clothespin with the glued-on eyes and red felt nose in kindergarten. The long, skinny glass ones had belonged to Grand’s mother, so she hung them in the middle of the tree to make sure Angel and later Rudolph and his siblings wouldn’t bat them off.
“How do you remember all that?” Creed asked.
“I’ve been reminded every single Christmas that I can remember. I loved hearing the stories behind the ornaments and Grand loved telling them. Grandpa bought a new ornament for her every year. This is the last one he gave her.”
She held up a gingerbread man made of cedar. “He made it himself.”
“He was pretty good with a whittlin’ knife, was he?”
“He was gone before I was born but he must have been because some of the ornaments are made of wood. Grand said that those were the lean years when he couldn’t
