Chapter 8

8

With a belly full of Beef Bourguignon and a glass of red wine in her hand, Cath stood back and eyed the placement of the wide green Christmas tree now anchored in the corner of her living room. Aside from the Christmas tree stand she normally put out, she also pulled out her tool kit and anchored it to the wall with a tether just in case. She looked over to where Kris was seated on the floor. “Does this look stable to you, what do you think?”

“I think I need help.” She turned to see Kris managed to fully wrap himself in the Christmas lights she had given him to untangle. “One arm, red wine and twinkle lights don’t mix apparently.”

“I highly disagree.” Cath tried to smother a giggle with her hand as she looked down at him. He had strings of lights wound around his legs, uninjured arm, shoulders and across his chest loosely. His free hand was folding three different stands apart to test and see if they worked and tangling all of them hopelessly. Cath had to admit, she was slightly impressed. When she packed these lights away previously, they had been neatly corded and clipped together by color. He managed to make a thorough mess of it in less than ten minutes. “How did you manage to do this to yourself in the brief time my back was turned?”

“I have no clue, maybe getting the dude with one good hand to do this was a bad idea,” Kris said in a dismayed tone, trying to pull his arm free. “Or maybe I'm just no good at this stuff.”

“At decorating for Christmas?” Cath squatted down beside him and tried to assess the situation, sorting through the strands to untangle them. “That’s not possible sweetie.”

“I rarely ever got to do this as a kid,” he admitted sheepishly. “And as an adult if I've ever thrown Christmas parties at my place, I've paid decorators to bling out trees for me.”

“You can pay people to do that for you?” Cath couldn’t hide the surprise in her voice.

“I live in Hollywood; you can pay people to do anything for the right amount of money,” he reminded her sarcastically.

Cath began to try and pull the strands apart, giving up after she realized she was only making it worse. After a moment she sat back on her haunches and studied the disaster. “Well, I think there’s only one way to fix this.”

“What? Kitchen shears?” He made a disgusted face, trying to shake his leg free and made a cutting motion with his free hand.

Cath shook her head, and took up the cords in her hands, feeling along until she found the various plug-in prongs and then before he could move, she leaned past him and quickly plugged them in. The lights wound around him lit up like a marquee as he gave her a deadpan look. The dam she normally kept anchored in place over her emotions broke, and her body shook with suppressed laughter. “There, now you're lit up like the Hollywood star you are.”

“Very funny,” he growled. Cath quickly whipped out her phone and began taking candid pictures while he made faces at her and tried to detangle himself to get the device out of her hand. She easily dodged him, stepping up on the couch and moving behind him agilely, then jumping back down.

“I’m definitely keeping these until I need leverage for something.” She informed him, popping down beside him and holding the phone out of his reach playfully. She could see a flash of vanity in his eyes, he was dying to see what the photos looked like, and she knew it. She could torture him or....

“They look fine,” She turned the phone towards him and let him scan the photos. “See?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” he grumbled, kissing her temple. “Maybe I should wrap you in lights and see how you like it.”

“Play your cards right and I might let you.” She leaned in close to his ear and nipped the lobe gently. “Maybe the lights and nothing else.”

Kris began patting the floor around him in an exaggerated fashion, even lifting the couch cushion behind him to peer under it.

“What are you doing?” Cath asked, perplexed.

“Looking for my phone, that’s going to be one hell of a photo.” He chuckled as she rolled her eyes and back up on her feet.

“Come on, let’s get these untangled. They need to go on first before any of the other decorations.”

Between the two of them, they got the lights straightened out and on the tree fairly easily. As they did, Cath kept a careful eye on Kris, watching the pleased look on his face as they worked together to layer the lights on. She dragged the box of baubles closer and began to pass them to him so he could string them on. On purpose she left him to decorate the front of the tree while she worked on the back contentedly.

Occasionally he would hold up an ornament and question where she got it:

“What about this one?”

“A Christmas market in London five years ago. I was at a NATO summit working security for the American Ambassador with Danny.”

“And this one?”

“A gift from my second year roommate at the academy.”

“Okay, now this one?”

“A family antique from my dad’s side, it hung on our tree every year when I was a kid. I stole it when I moved out, pray my mother never figured that out and just keeps thinking it got broken.”

Kris held up a truly ugly ornament, a bright purple peacock with gold, orange and Lime green feathers. “What fresh hell did this come from?”

Cath laughed and took the gaudy purple bauble from him, turning it over in her hand. “That was from Danny last year, I told him if he could find the ugliest ornament he had ever seen, it would get a permanent spot on my tree. This is what he came back to me with.”

She stepped closer, sliding into his arms and growing dead serious as she looked up at him. “What you did for him today, helping us get that tractor, was very sweet Kris. Thank you.”

“I try, I guess.” Kris had the good graces to try and look humble. “I mean I was happy to be able to help.”

“You don’t understand, he’s been having a really rough time lately, more nightmares, panic attacks during the day, he won’t leave the farm unless it’s for therapy.” Cath's voice was worried, Danny was family, and watching him struggle, after all he had been through, broke her heart into pieces. “These restoration projects do wonders for him, I can get him to talk to me while we work. Vera said he sleeps better, they keep his mind and his hands occupied until he starts to feel better.”

“He seemed okay at the hospital.” Kris gently began rubbing circles on her back. “I mean, I was pretty drugged up but he seemed...stable.”

“That was the exception, not the rule.” Cath said with a sigh, pulling a bauble out of the box and sliding it onto a free branch. “He struggles every day; we just want to make it easier for him to feel better.”

“Then count me in, any way I can keep on helping.” Kris peered into the box and then back to her. “That was the last ornament.”

“Almost.” Cath took a flat box out of the bottom corner and opened it, taking out a large silver star. “Here, put this on the top.”

Kris reached over her head, fitting the star to the top of the tree, and then stepped back. Cath reached down and plugged the lights in and then pulled him back further still so they could look at the fully decorated tree.

“It’s beautiful.” Cath settled against Kris, leaning her head gently on his shoulder.

“Yeah, I guess all you need now is snow for a classic white Christmas.” Kris said, kissing the top of her head.

“I wouldn’t know.” Cath admitted. “I’ve never had a real white Christmas before.”

“Really?” Kris looked at her in surprise. “I never would have guessed that, with all the places you’ve been posted.”

“Austin rarely gets snow, and all my postings have been in warm climates. Texas, Louisiana, Nevada and then here. It’s not a big deal, you don’t miss what you’ve never had, Kris.” She gave him a sidelong glance, seeing something flit across his face briefly, a look in his eyes that was there and then gone . “Hey, when you were a kid, did you ever get the chance to lay on the floor under the tree and look up at the lights?”

“No.” Kris looked at her confused. “Why?”

“Because it’s the best way to see them.” Cath grabbed pillows and a blanket off the couch. “Come here.”

She helped him get down, then settled beside him on the blanket, leaning her head on his shoulder, peering up at the colored lights through the tree branches, feeling her heart pound in her chest as she tucked herself close to him. She thought back to earlier in the day, getting ready to leave the car, she had been so close to telling him she loved him aloud. She wanted to so badly, but her voice locked up, disappeared as usual when she needed it the most. Now, laying with him like a kid, it was the perfect moment and yet, she knew if she tried to say “I love you” the same thing would happen again.

Racking her mind, Cath tried to think of something, anything she could do to show him how she felt, to make the words come out easier. Then as she was brooding, an idea suddenly popped into her head, and she mentally kicked herself for not thinking of it sooner.

She smiled into Kris's shoulder and chuckled softly. “Totally perfect.”

“What is?” Kris said, stroking her hair lazily.

Cath quickly tried to cover her thoughts. “The tree, it’s perfect.”

“And here I thought you meant us,” he joked, picking up one of her hands and intertwining their fingers together lazily.

“Well, that just goes without saying...”