"That it is, ma'am...and I know how to use it. I think."
Leah turned, laughing at my confession. Hell, I had grown up with hired help and then moved to L.A. I didn't think I'd ever touched a saw in my life.
"This one," Leah said, stopping dead in her tracks.
Before her sat a perfectly shaped tree with dark green bristles and a straight round trunk. The man in the store had educated us on what to look for, and Leah had found one with all the checkmarks.
"How tall do you think it is?" she asked.
I walked up to it, comparing my six feet three inches against it. "Mmm...probably eight feet at the most. You've got ten feet high ceilings, so it will fit nicely."
She stood there, staring up at her perfect tree, not saying a word.
I closed the distance between us and whispered in her ear, "Is this what you want?"
Her breath caught, before her eyes found mine. "Sorry. What?"
"Okay, now, it's just getting too damn easy." I laughed.
She hit me on the shoulder, which only caused me to laugh louder.
"Are you saying I'm easy?" she asked, feigning indignation.
"Well..." I started.
She huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest, which only distracted me.
"I'll show you easy," she warned before taking off into a full run down one of the tree rows.
"Shit!" I cursed. Laughing, I dropped the ax and took off after her.
The trees were tall, and it was essentially like being in a giant green maze. I could see her head bobbing up and down every once in a while when she would turn directions. She might have been lighter, but I was quicker. I took a different turn, planning to cut her off. As she came around a corner, I caught her around the waist, making her squeal, as I lifted her off the ground.
"You have been a very naughty girl, Leah," I said.
She squirmed and giggled in my arms. Letting her body slide down mine, she froze as our eyes found each other. Still panting from our run through the trees, I gripped the back of her head and crushed my mouth to hers. She instinctively wrapped her legs around me as we kissed.
Breaking our kiss, she asked, "So, what is my punishment? Coal in my stocking?"
"No. After we take that tree home tonight, you're going to strip down naked and let me do whatever I want to you under it all night."
Her eyes sparkled. "Yes, sir."
After several wrong turns through the rows of trees, we found our way back to our ax, and I made my first attempt at cutting down a tree. I must have done a decent job because as soon as the sucker fell, Leah jumped me, telling me that was one of the sexiest things she'd ever seen.
As we dived into our second make-out session in the Christmas tree farm, I felt a tiny fleck of coldness hit my nose, chin, and then my forehead. I looked up just as Leah screamed in excitement.
"Oh my God, it's snowing!" Leah exclaimed.
As if her announcement were an invitation, the few flakes turned into a full-fledged winter wonderland, and snow filled the air. I picked her up and twirled her around while she laughed with her arms outstretched in the falling snow.
"Come on, snow goddess, we better get this tree back to the car. This weather is going to make getting back home interesting."
Making Leah drool again, I lifted the tree and lugged it down to the store. The man had some of the employees help us tie it down to the top of my rented SUV, and I went in and paid for it while Leah was distracted. I also picked up a fresh wreath and another dozen doughnuts for the road.
Our trip back to Richmond was uneventful, thankfully. By the time we got back to Leah's, there was an inch or two of snow on the ground, but the roads were still fairly clear. We hauled everything inside and spent the night decorating Leah's tree. We ate apple doughnuts for dinner, listened to cheesy Christmas music, and made the tree as tacky as possible. It blinked with every light bulb color imaginable, and it had some of the ugliest ornaments I'd ever seen. It was perfect.
When we finished, I looked over at a beaming Leah. "I believe someone has a punishment to serve...an early Christmas present, I think?"
"Ah, yes," she agreed.
In front of our tacky Christmas tree, the woman I was falling in love with slowly undressed, and then she let me make love to her all night long.
Chapter Ten
~Leah~
I knew I'd made a mistake in visiting him the minute I entered the house, but being the stupid woman I was, I walked in anyway.
"Dad?" I called out.
The house was messier than usual. Dishes were piled high with food so old that there was mold. I stopped breathing through my mouth as soon as the stench hit me. I knew better than to see him when he got like this, but I needed answers, and I was afraid I'd chicken out if I didn't go through with it then.
There was no answer as I continued through the kitchen. I made my way into the living room where I found him. Surprisingly, he was awake, sitting in the old recliner with a fresh drink in his hand. A half empty bottle of whiskey was in front of him on the floor. There was no coffee table. He'd never bothered replacing the one he'd smashed to pieces the night my mom left. He'd just left the living room with this big gaping hole, like a reminder of the hole we had been left with after she walked out.
"Dad?" I said again.
This time, he finally heard me. Turning his head slightly toward me, it took him a while before any recognition spread across his face. That meant he'd been drinking for some time, and that was my cue to leave...yet I stayed. God, I was dumb. I sat on the battered old sofa next to him, his eyes following my every movement as I picked up empty glass and garbage, but he didn't say a word.
"What do you want, girl? Did you bring me food?" he asked, his words sloshing together like the whiskey he was holding.
He loved whiskey. It was his god, and he worshiped it faithfully. He was the reason I, to this day, could never touch the stuff.
Girl —that was his name for me. He never called me daughter or addressed me by my first name. At this point, I wasn't even sure he would remember what it was. I'd been girl to my father for as long as I could remember.
"No, it's not Thursday. I'll bring you food on Thursday," I reminded him.
Without fail, I always brought him groceries on Thursday. He never remembered though.
"Well then, what the hell do you want?" he asked gruffly.
"I found Mom's grave the other day."
I watched to see his reaction, and there was none —no shock, no anger, no sadness. Nothing.
"Oh," was all he said.
"You knew," I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut, wondering how deep the depth of my parents' deceit had gone.