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Max starts the music from the beginning but doesn’t join in. Instead, he records us on his phone. Owen is all over the place with his moves, a few steps behind because he’s following me. Or at least trying to. Soon I’m off rhythm from laughing. When Max realizes we’re a lost cause, he stops recording and throws up his hands, but he’s smiling.
“That was dreadful,” Max tells us. “But entertaining to watch.”
“Will you send me that video?” I ask him.
“Please don’t sent that to her,” Owen says. “Could you delete it instead?”
“Layla?”
I turn at the sound of my name.
Spencer stands ten feet away on the edge of the clearing. His long wool coat is open, showing his blue suit underneath. He wears his distinctive Berluti Oxford shoes. Everything about him looks out of place in the middle of a wooded area, but none more so than his expression: one of frustration mixed with anger.
The music stops behind me, and the only sound comes from the birds in the trees.
I wipe sweaty palms along the sides of my coat. “Spencer. You’re here.”
“What are you doing with Owen?”
Standing here like an idiot. I take a few steps and throw myself in his arms, mostly because that seems like what a girlfriend should do when her boyfriend shows up as a surprise and catches her having fun with another man.
I pull back and loop my arm through his. “We were learning a dance from a Christmas movie. This is Max.”
Max shoots Owen a look, then me a look, as if he assumed we were a couple. An honest mistake, but one Spencer picks up on. He stiffens beside me.
“Do you want to learn theChristmas Carol Hoedownhoedown?” Max asks him. “It’s easy unless your name starts with an O and ends with wen.” His whole body shakes with suppressed laughter. “Layla, however, is a natural.”
“No, thank you.” Spencer’s tone is dismissive and my chest burns with embarrassment. He speaks to only me as he continues. “I’m waiting for information to get sent from the Salt Lake office and thought I’d spend a few hours with mygirlfriend.”
If this clearing wasn’t saturated with awkwardness before, it is now. Worse than Spencer marking his “territory” is the way he’s treating Max.
“That’s so nice of you to come, Spencer.” He will not cow me and I take a steadying breath before I continue. “You’ll love it here. Max took me and Owen on a tour of the farm. He was telling us how every year the farm donates fifty trees to Sub For Santa. Isn’t that amazing? We can get involved next year by buying trees for them to donate. It sounds fun, don’t you agree? We should talk to Max about it before we leave today.”
Spencer looks from me, to Owen, to Max, then back at me. He studies my face, and I hope he catches that I’m irritated with his behavior.
He must, because he holds out his free hand to Max. “It’s nice to meet you, Max. We’ll be in contact next year to see if we can work something out.”
“That would be great,” Max responds with enthusiasm.
Spencer and I turn to head back to the barn. I stop and look over my shoulder.
“Thanks for the tour, Max,” I say. “If you do set tours up next year, I will write a stellar review. You’re an amazing guide.”
“Thanks, Layla.”
As we walk away, disappointment settles in my chest. I don’t want to leave Max and Owen behind. I’m a horrible girlfriend. I can be better, and I’ll start by asking Spencer about work.
“How is the trial prep going?”
He nods and a tentative smile breaks through his dark mood. “Gerald found a loophole in the investigation of ourclient. We’re back on top. We still have a lot of work to do, but I’m not so frantic.”
“I’m glad.” Not for his client because he probably did whatever he’s been accused of, but for Spencer because he works so hard to win.
Owen and Max’s footsteps sound behind us. To fill the silence, I tell Spencer about the different filming locations on our tour. Besides finding the mushroom, my favorite stop was forStupid Cupid Christmas. Since there isn’t any snow, we “sled” down the hill on ice blocks. No matter how many times Owen and I raced, he always reached the bottom first. Even when I had a head start, his quarterback physique always passed me up.
I ramble on until we reconnect with the rest of our group in the lot of pre-cut trees. They’ve picked four, but still haven’t decided on the last two and Sadie’s small tree for her room. Sadie goes from tree to tree, trying to hug them all and getting a face full of pine needles for her troubles. It doesn’t stop her from loving every single one.
Celebrating Christmas with a child is a different experience than celebrating with only adults. Everything is magical to Sadie, as if she’s never encountered anything so wondrous. With this being only her fourth Christmas, maybe she hasn’t.
