Raylen watched the cedar tumble to its side and hoped he hadn’t broken any branches. Even if he dreaded meeting Blaze and her carnie family, he wanted everything to be perfect for their visit to Liz’s house.

“Okay, now it’s time to take it home,” he said as he put the chain saw back in the case and looked around. “Liz?” he yelled.

“Up here in the tree house,” she said. “Come on up here. You can see all the way to the truck.”

He made his way up the ladder and inside where she was staring out the small rectangular window.

“Why didn’t you bring me up here to find the tree?” she asked. “I can see hundreds of them from here.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist and snuggled up against her back. “Because your perspective is all off. How big does that one I just cut down look from this angle?”

“About three feet.” She turned quickly and their lips met in a clash of passion. “I’ve wanted to do that the whole time we’ve been in the woods. Your lips are cold but they make my insides feel all bubbling hot.”

“Same here. We should warm up our lips before we go home to work on Christmas stuff,” he said.

A niggling thought about what Aunt Tressa had said about taking things slow played in the back of Liz’s mind. Sure, he’d said they were dating, and he’d called her his girlfriend, but everything about their relationship was a whirlwind.

I don’t want to slow down, she thought.

“This is our first make-out session since we are dating,” he said.

She pulled his face over to hers for another series of kisses. “Can we come out here every day?”

“Why?” he asked.

“You can’t get away from me, and nobody bothers us,” she answered.

“Darlin’, I see heaven in your eyes,” Raylen said. “I see angels with fiddles and…”

“Angels have harps, not fiddles,” she told him.

“Not in your eyes. They have fiddles. That’s what makes the devil red. Because he’s so mad that he can’t have those fiddles,” Raylen teased.

“You see that in my eyes?” She kissed him on the chin.

“Yes, I do,” he answered.

“Whew! You should be a fortune-teller. Do you say that to all the girls?” She frowned.

“No, darlin’. Just the ones who entice me up to a deer blind,” he said.

Liz leaned back and locked gazes with him. “And how many would that be?”

“One so far,” he teased.

She giggled and buried her face in his shoulder. “We should go home, but it’s so peaceful up here.”

He covered his yawn with a hand. “We’ve got more than six hours’ worth of work to do on these trees and the house. Aren’t they coming to Bowie tomorrow?”

“Yes, but not to my house until next Monday. I wasn’t thinkin’ about a tree, but a nice long nap all wrapped up in this bag with you,” she teased.