“You want some? Can’t have you chapping on my watch.”

Eyeing her, Bodie shook his head. “No shiny lips for me. Thanks anyway.”

She dropped the tube into her bag. “Ready?”

“As I’m going to be.”

Laughing, she climbed out of the truck, Harry jumping out with her, and motioned for Bodie to get a move on. “Come on. Someone may be buying my tree.”

“Wouldn’t that make it their tree?” He grabbed Harry’s leash and got out of the truck. He zipped up his jacket as he walked around to her side of the truck and hooked the leash to Harry’s collar.

“Bite your tongue,” she ordered, grabbing his hand and leading him and Harry toward a gated area where there were a variety of cut and live balled Christmas trees.

As with everything to do with Christmas and Sarah, there was nothing quick or easy about tree shopping with her.

They wandered around the farm as she inspected tree after tree. They all looked good to him. A tree was a tree was a tree, right?

Sarah had other ideas. None passed her inspection. She moved on from one tree to the next, taking them further and further away from the barn where most of the other visitors seemed to be enjoying the mini-shop/restaurant with a deli-style menu. There had only been a handful of tables with chairs, but they’d all been full when they’d peeped into the room to fill out a form and had been given a tag to put on the tree they wanted.

Sarah had been on a mission ever since. And it wasn’t going well.

“None of these are going to work.” Her forehead furrowed beneath the edge of her toboggan. “We’re going to have to go out in the field and find the right tree.”

Not surprised since she’d barely paused at any of the trees readily available, he asked, “Is there something I should be looking for to help you find the right Christmas tree?”

“We’ll know it when we see it.”

She meant she’d know it. They all looked the same to him. Still, she was right in that he was grateful to stretch his legs outdoors with Harry on a leash at his side.

“There,” she breathed, pointing to his right. Her tone was full of awed wonder, as if she’d just spotted something spectacular.

Bodie looked, but just saw more trees.

She ran up to one, made her way around it, then clasped her gloved hands together as she turned to look at him. “Isn’t it perfect?”

No, but Sarah was close.

The excitement on her pretty face was more enchanting than any tree could ever be.

Her long brown hair was tucked beneath her hat and the matching red scarf was wrapped around her neck and tucked beneath her thick white coat. Her eyes glowed as warmly as the hot cocoa she sometimes served him before he left for his hotel room each night. Her nose had turned pink from the cold December air and so had her cheeks.