Snowfall on Haven Point(37)
“What is it?” he asked, not bothering to hide his avid interest. She fought a smile at this further evidence of his sweet tooth.
“Wait and see. Maybe you can identify it by the scents once it starts cooking.”
“You won’t even give me a hint? That’s just cruel, to tease like that.”
“Anticipation makes everything better. Haven’t you learned that lesson yet?”
“Or sometimes just makes a guy ache with hunger.”
Her heart rate kicked up a notch at his low words. They were talking about dessert, weren’t they? She hadn’t flirted with a man in a long time and felt completely out of her depth.
She could only think it was a good thing she was heading to the kitchen, where she could think about sticking her head in the refrigerator for a minute.
* * *
ANTICIPATION MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER. Haven’t you learned that lesson yet?
Marshall gave an inward groan at the question. It could make things better—or it could make him miserable. Right now, he was anticipating kissing Andrea Montgomery, but it didn’t make him feel at all better, simply because he knew it wasn’t likely to ever happen.
He glanced up from his thoughts in time to see her children stealthily trying to move the stepladder to another area without attracting his attention.
“Are you guys supposed to be using that?” he asked.
Both children gave him guilty looks.
“No,” Will finally admitted.
“But we have to hang some of the ornaments higher or your tree will look funny,” Chloe protested. “I thought I could lift Will up and he could hang them, but he’s too heavy.”
“Maybe I can lift you up,” Will suggested to his older sister.
“Nobody needs to lift anybody,” Marsh said, reaching for his crutches. “I’m pretty tall and can probably reach the top.”
“You have a broked leg, though,” Will reminded him, as if Marshall could forget for a second.
“Yeah, but my arms are fine.”
He maneuvered out of the chair, cursing the blasted crutches, then swung over to the tree. “What do you need me to do?”
“You can only help us with the top branches, and then maybe you could go out while we finish.”
Go out where? He wasn’t exactly up for a ten-mile hike here. “Sure. Hand me an ornament. Where do you want it?”
“Right up by the top,” Chloe said. She handed him one of her paper snowflakes, lacy and so delicate he was afraid he would rip it, then pointed at a spot on the tree.
Holding the snowflake in one hand, he maneuvered closer on the crutches, then reached to the top branches to hang it where she indicated.
“How’s that?”
“Good. Now this one.”
She handed him what looked like an ornament out of Wyn’s collection next, a glittery white kneeling reindeer that Chloe proclaimed adorable.
For the next few minutes, the children alternated between having him hang paper snowflakes and pulling new treasures out of Wyn’s ornament collection for him.
Marshall did his best to comply with their wishes. If he were asked a week ago to make a list of activities he might have expected to be doing at any point in his immediate future, decorating a Christmas tree with a couple of cute red-haired kids never would have made the cut. Much to his surprise, he found it quite enjoyable, though.
In between decorating the tree, the children talked to him about their schools, a funny trick their dog could do, a Christmas song Will had learned in preschool.
It wasn’t a bad way to spend an evening—and almost enough to make a guy forget all about the throbbing pain in his leg.
“Are you ready for another one?” Chloe asked him.
He considered it a great honor that she didn’t seem terrified of him anymore, though she was a bossy little thing once she lost her nervousness.
He shifted position on the stupid crutches. “Sure. Lay it on me.”
She handed him another snowflake to go with the veritable blizzard he had already hung on the tree. “We’re running out of room here, kid.”
She narrowed her gaze and studied the tree, then pointed to a spot just to his left and up a bit. “Right there. I think it can fit there.”
He complied with her wishes.
“Okay, Will and me can reach all the rest,” she said. “You go out now.”
“Why can’t I just sit back down and close my eyes?”
“This will be the second-best tree in Haven Point, after ours,” Will declared. “You wait and see.”
“And you can’t see it until it’s done. We want it to be a surprise,” Chloe said.
Marshall wanted to ask how the tree could possibly be any sort of surprise when he had personally hung at least a third of the ornaments. He didn’t have the heart to spoil their fun—and he was undeniably touched that these generous children wanted to bring a little brightness into his life. What was the harm in playing along with them?