Page 53 of The One

“I find that sweet,” she said. “It’s taken me years of buying all that stuff. I didn’t do it in one trip.”

“I figured. This tree has the lights on it, so one less thing I needed. We just need to decorate it and then it will look more festive,” he said.

They’d carried all the bags in and put them in the front room. Then he went to let George out of his crate and to the backyard to do his business.

When he came back, Gillian had everything out of the bags and laid out and George came barreling in and knocked her over on the floor, then was crawling and jumping on her.

She was laughing and rolling away and George was following her, so he picked his dog up. “Bad boy.”

“He’s fine. Just gave me another bath for the day,” she said, wiping her hand across her face. “Kind of gross.”

“It’s his form of love,” he said.

“He is aggressive with it,” she said. “But it’s nice to be loved.”

He offered his hand down and pulled her up, yanking her into his chest. “It sure is,” he said softly. It was all he was going to do.

He wasn’t sure if he was in love with Gillian yet since he’d never been in love before. Or didn’t think he was. But what he felt for her was strong and like nothing he’d ever thought he’d feel.

He held her for a minute and then George started to jump on their legs. “It’s early yet for dinner,” she said. “Do you want to try to get your tree up and see if George will let us do this?”

He let her go and she moved out of his arms. “Sure. We can do that. Then I’ll feed George before I feed you. Any place in particular you want to go? I haven’t been anywhere since I’ve been back, now that I think of it.”

“You only did takeout,” she said, poking him in the belly.

“That is all I did when I lived in California most of the time too,” he said, using a knife to open the box the tree was in. He started to pull it out. “This doesn’t look all that impressive for the cost.”

She laughed. “I think you need to fluff it up or something.”

He found the paper inside showing him how to put it together and do exactly as Gillian suggested.

It’d only taken about thirty minutes before the tree looked much fuller and he had it plugged in with the lights on.

“Much better,” he said.

She’d had the ornaments out and together they placed them around the tree.

“It looks great, don’t you think?”

“My first tree on my own,” he said.

She frowned. “I’m sorry, but that is sad.”

“That’s me,” he said. “A sad bachelor. But I’m not that person anymore, am I?”

“No, you’re not,” she said, giving him a loud kiss, then slapping his ass. “And I think it’s time we feed your puppy, then get some food ourselves. I’m starving and I want the nutrients to give me energy for when we come back here.”

“Now that sounds like a plan,” he said.

They cleaned up his front room, fed George, put him in the crate and then left to get some dinner.

“Gillian?”

They’d been seated for a few minutes with their drinks ordered when someone called her name. It was a man. An older man.

“Mark,” she said. “Are you here alone?”

“No,” Mark said. “My wife is gabbing with someone in the back. I saw you and figured I’d come say hi.”