“What is right?” she asked because she’d been wondering that herself.
“Whatever we want. Like this tree—we’ll get it and then do you have ornaments?”
“I have some. We can stop and get more though. Get some stuff that’s for the two of us,” she said, warming to the idea. But she doubted that Sean was going to want to traipse through Walmart or Target buying decorations.
“Great idea. Should I send my assistant to get them?”
“He’s in California, right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but he’s got contacts everywhere.”
“Well, you don’t have to do that. We can order it on the Target app and then just go pick it up. I want us to choose them together.”
He pulled into the Christmas-tree lot and parked. “Okay. I want that too.”
Sean hadn’t realized how much there was still to know about Paisley. She’d done too good of a job convincing him that she was an open book, when he was beginning to realize he’d had a peek at theReader’s Digestcondensed version. Before they’d entered the Christmas-tree farm, he’d put on a baseball cap and some Wayfarer sunglasses to help make him look not quite so recognizable. So far it was working, and he was glad.
Paisley had looked at what felt like every tree on the lot, but she kept coming back to one that was very full on one side with a few bare patches on the back. She had returned to it time and again. He knew she wanted it, that this imperfect tree appealed to her, but she didn’t want to say she wanted it.
“I like this one,” he said as she harrumphed a sound before turning away again.
“You do? I do too. It’s so gorgeous on this side, but you know as soon as everyone walks around it, they pass it by.”
He’d seen this in her from the beginning. This empathy she had for everyone. It was amazing to him that someone as soft as Paisley could be, was also a total hard-ass when it came to certain situations.
“I think that’s what makes it perfect for us,” he murmured, realizing as the words left his mouth that they were true.
“Why?” she asked.
“There’s no ignoring the ugly parts, is there. I mean, we have good and we have bad—we all do. Somehow we’ve been hoodwinked into thinking we all have be perfect all the time.”
She nodded. “Sorry, did you sayhoodwinked?!”
Paisley snickered and smiled over at him, looking so cute as she teased him that he couldn’t resist pulling her into his arms and kissing her. Even though he usually steered clear of PDAs, he couldn’t help but cup her butt and lift her off her feet, pulling her more fully into his body. He broke the kiss after a moment before things got too heated and he wouldn’t want to stop.
“So?”
She smiled up at him, the grin so wide that he felt her joy as if it was his own. And something inside of him clenched. This wasn’t a sexual-desire thing; this was a heart thing. Which he immediately slammed the door shut on and turned away to hide the happiness and fear that he felt in that instant.
“You’re too cute when you say it,” she said. “Should I go and get one of the attendants to get this tree packed up for us?”
“Yes. I’ll stay here and keep guard so no one else nabs it.”
She shook her head and chuckled as she walked away. Sean watched her go, aware that something was changing in him. He’d never felt a great shift like this before. Sometimes when he unlocked a character for a role he felt something similar, but in his real life...never.
He didn’t know what it meant. Wasn’t too sure he wanted to analyze it and find out. Maybe it would be better to just ignore it.
Yeah, that’s what he was going to do.
The last time he thought he had emotion figured out, he’d lost Paisley and had his romantic evening ruined by the paparazzi.
It wasn’t long until they had the tree strapped to the car and Paisley had the retail shopping app open on her phone. “Are you a star-or angel-on-top-of-the-tree kind of person?”
“Is there a difference? What are you?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. I think star,” she said. “I like that part of the Nativity story where the wise men are following the star.”
“I like it too,” he said. “Let’s get a star.”