“I like freezing,” she insisted.
“Sure you do.” He laughed again. “Okay, what’s next, Ms. Slavedriver Decorator?”
“Run these lights across the roof line.”
“So I’m to risk life and limb next, huh? All right. If that’ll make you happy.” He carried the ladder, set it up and checked for stability, climbed up and reached out his hand. “Well, aren’t you at least going to hand them up to me?”
“You really haven’t done this for a long time, have you?”
“How about never. I wasn’t kidding about my family having heart attacks.”
“Well, then it’s a very good thing I came along to rescue you and your family from your unlit Christmas past.”
A man wandered over from two houses down. He nodded at Lexi; she’d met him when he and his wife had come to her impromptu dinner.
He looked up at Kyle and deadpanned, “So, how’s it going?”
Kyle looked down from the ladder. “Hi, George.”
George shook his head. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Oh, just got bit by the Christmas spirit bug.”
George unboxed a string of lights and handed it up. “How long you suppose this’ll last?”
“I’m not sure,” Kyle answered. “I’ve never had it happen before.”
George shook his head again. “Well, maybe if you take two aspirin and lie down, the feeling will pass.”
“Hey,” Lexi protested. “No undermining here.”
“Ah,” George said. “Our own Alexis Anderson. I am impressed with your powers or persuasion. I heard you had supernatural powers before, and now I’m positive of it. I never thought I’d see the day when my good neighbor here would allow even one Christmas light on his lawn. And now you’ve succeeded where we’ve all failed. How ever did you do it?”
She grinned. “I had to blackmail him.”
“Well, keep it up. It’s nice.” George shook her hand. “See you in church tomorrow?”
Alexis nodded.
Kyle said, “Wouldn’t miss your Sunday School class, George. I get some of my best sleep in there.”
“Ah, it’s a sad thing when a grown man doesn’t know any of the answers and has to seek his solace in sleep.”
As George left, another neighbor meandered over. By the time Kyle climbed down from the ladder, Lexi had met or been re-introduced to at least ten neighbors. She wasn’t surprised at the surprise these people felt at what he was doing, but she was amazed at the spirit of good will they all had for him, even though he’d resisted their decorations for years. He seemed to inspire good will.
Look at what he’d done for her and her kids.
She was sure glad she was just helping him decorate and she didn’t have to worry about his charisma. She was just his decorator and blackmailer. Much simpler that way.
A blonde woman, her body stuffed into pink stretch ski pants and a bright pink form-fitting sweater, wandered over. “Hi, Kyle. Good to see you out and about. Got your latest book done yet?” The woman’s voice was almost a caress. No, it definitely was a caress. Silky, warm, sensual. Lexi rolled her eyes.
He looked down from the ladder. “Still working on it.”
“I don’t suppose you’d give me an early edition?”
Kyle laughed. “Now, Cecile, you know I can’t do that. My publisher would be very displeased with me. And I try never to displease my publisher.”
The woman reached up to place her hand on Kyle’s arm and laughed along with him. A pang of jealousy bit through Lexi. Where had that come from? He wasn’t hers, not in any sense of the word. So where had that strong feeling of possessiveness come from?
She turned back to the job at hand, trying to ignore the woman’s sensual voice behind her, and growing more and more uptight.
That neighbor had every right to be here. After all, Lexi was just a neighbor, too. Even as she tried to convince herself, Lexi knew she was in big trouble.
She moved over to Trista. “Quick. Tell me to chill out.”
“Chill out.” Trista moved a reindeer into place, and said, ice in her voice. “What’s that woman doing here?”
“Well, she’s a neighbor, just like we are. She has every right to be here.”
“She’s making me really mad. She’s trying to get him to date her.”
“Well, I suppose he dates all the time.”
Trista’s eyes flashed. “If he’s going to date anyone, it ought to be you.”
“Me? I’m just a neighbor.”
Steven nodded his head. “Yeah. It ought to be you.”
She hadn’t even known her son was listening.