Chapter Four: Trimming the Christmas Tree
The Martin family living room was chaos. Artificial tree limbs were scattered about. Light strands and tinsel garland were strung over furniture. Boxes of ornaments had been opened and poked through. Dylan had antlers on his head and Kimmy had a halo bobbing above her blonde head. Nikki was testing lights. When the doorbell rang, she let out a groan of frustration.
“I’ll get it!” Kimmy called and dashed for the door.
“Kimmy—“
The door opened for JC but he saw no one. He looked down to see a blonde angel this time. He smiled at the little girl. “Must be the right place. Angels live here.”
“Hi, JC!” Kimmy eyed the armload of presents he carried. “For me?”
“Kimmy, you know the rules…” Nikki stopped scolding her daughter when her eyes collided with JC’s. “I...um…hello.”
“Hi.” He extended the gaily-wrapped presents. “I come bearing gifts.”
Taking them, Nikki murmured, “You shouldn’t have.”
“Invite me in?” he hinted.
Oh! Sorry.” Nikki stepped back. “It’s a disaster area. Three trimming day.” She waved him in then closed the door. “May I take your jacket?”
JC smiled as he slipped off his jacket and handed it to her with his scarf. If she was taking his coat, she was going to let him stay. “Thanks.” He looked around the homey room. There were boxes of Christmas ornaments, strings of colored lights and tree parts all over. The scent of cookies baking filled the air. This was a home – a real home.
“Make yourself comfortable – if you can find a seat.”
“Thanks.”
JC found an empty space on the floor beside Dylan who was trying to untangle a string of lights not very successfully. “Want some help?” he asked the serious little boy.
Dylan glanced at him, relieved. “Sure!”
Carefully, JC found the end and began working the knotted wire free. “You’re mom seems pretty together,” he noted. “How come these are so messed up?”
The boy looked up to see his mother standing with her hands on her hips, daring him to fib. “She had them wrapped up on cardboard so they wouldn’t get tangled. I was trying to help by unwrapping them. She wasn’t ready yet and I set them down and they got messed up,” he said glumly.
JC heard what the boy hadn’t said. Nikki must have ordered her son not to remove the lights. “We’ll get this unraveled real quick, little dude. Will that help?”
Dylan perked up. “Yeah!”
“JC, would you like something to drink?” Nikki offered. “We have soda, milk, water, coffee—“
“We get cocoa when the tree is done!” Kimmy announced brightly as she came to lean against JC and watch him. “You like cocoa?”
“Love it.”
“Mom uses a recipe – not a box.”
That sounded like Nikki, JC thought, homemade. “I’ll have coffee for now, if you have it made.”
“With the day I have ahead of me? I have it made,” Nikki assured him. “You’ll have to come to the kitchen. I don’t have a place to set the tray.” Sweeping a hand about the room, she indicated every available surface seemed covered.
“I see your point. I’ll come as soon as I help Dylan unravel this.”
Nikki reached down a mug for JC’s coffee and set out the cream and sugar. It had been a long time since an attractive eligible male had been in her home…She couldn’t even remember one that hadn’t been brought along as a hook up or some sort. And here was a handsome, successful single man, not only in her home, but interacting willingly with her children. He looked so at ease…
JC wondered what she was thinking. Nikki was staring at the mug, but clearly her mind was somewhere else. Coffee mugs didn’t make you bite your lip or look so serious. Was it him? Did he make her uncomfortable? He hoped not. “Nikki, do you want me to leave?” he asked as he moved towards her.
Caught in her musings, her head snapped up in surprise. “What? Why would I want that?”
“Because you’re frowning.”
“It isn’t you. I have a million things to do.” She waved at the cooling cookies on the table. “I have to finish baking those for the church, get the tree up and all that other invisible stuff that makes Christmas.”
Taking the cup from her hand, he let her fingers brush hers briefly. He poured himself some coffee from the carafe, then leaned a hip against the counter. “How about this? I’ll get the tree up and put on the lights and garland. Then I can help the kids put the ornaments on. You can concentrate on the cookies and the invisible stuff.”
She could sparsely believe his offer of help. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Do you want to help?”
“I like Christmas.”
“Donate to a shelter.”
“Nikki, just let me, okay?”
His mouth lowered within an inch of hers when she whispered, “Okay.”
The kiss never happened.
“Mommy, Dylan said my halo was dumb!” Kimmy whined as burst through the kitchen door.
“Peace never lasts long around here.” Nikki tossed him a regretful smile as she went to referee.
The afternoon went fairly quickly. The tree was up and decorated. JC helped hang garlands and lights about the room. Kimmy insisted on mistletoe over every doorway, which was fine by JC. When the decorated was finished, he supervised the cleanup and taking the boxes to the attic. Meanwhile, Nikki had been in and out while baking cookies, even bringing a plate of the fresh-from-the-oven treats for her hard-working crew. She exclaimed on the lovely tree and sent JC a warm look of appreciation. Too bad she hadn’t been under the mistletoe.
“Cocoa!” Dylan shouted gleefully.
“Guys—“ JC was about to say the cocoa could wait.
“Definitely well-deserved.” Nikki stated as she headed back to the kitchen. She was pulling ingredients from the cabinets when JC joined her.
“Nikki, if you’re too busy…”
She tossed him a conspiratal look over her shoulder. “No, this has a secret purpose.”
“Such as?”
“Tryptophan. It’s either that or the combination of warm milk and sudden inactivity.”
He chuckled. “They fall asleep.”
“Yep. I am horrible,” she announced with a smile. “I get an hour or so peace and they get a nap so they aren’t cranky later.”
“I’d say that was pretty smart, not horrible.”
“A mother learns these things…” She shrugged.
JC went to stand behind her as she stirred the ingredients in a saucepan. She smelled of sugar cookies and home. A guy could get used to that, addicted to it…
Nikki tried her best not to fidget under is close scrutiny. She must look a mess! Flour was smeared on her shirt. Her hair was disheveled. A domestic goddess, she wasn’t! He probably thought—
“Do you know how much I want to kiss you right now?” he murmured in her ear.
She shivered at his warm breath in her ear. “Do you know how much I want you to kiss me right now?” she returned honestly. “But the second you even try, that door will fly open.”
“I know. Why do you think I didn’t balk at the ‘kissy balls’ Kimmy wanted me to hang everywhere?”
“You plan on taking advantage of those ‘kissy balls’?”
“Every chance I get.” He decided to risk it. He leaned in, his mouth pressed briefly against hers. Her lips were velvety soft and deliciously warm. “There is a deposit for later,” he told her.
“I think I’ll like going to the bank for the rest,” she confessed shyly. “Are you staying for dinner?”
“If I’m invited.”
“It’s the least I can do after all you’ve done—“
“It’s not about payback. It’s about wanting to be here with you, with the kids.”
She nodded. “I usually send out for pizza on tree-trimming day.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
While they drank cocoa, the four sat together on the sofa. Dylan sat on one side of JC. JC pulled Nikki down on the other side, wanting to put his arm around her. Kimmy wiggled between them. It was cozy and very intimate. As Nikki had predicted, the children nodded off. Her tender, motherly smile stirred something deep in JC. Something that had only been awakened by her, a need to be loved and wanted as more than JC Chasez or a man. He wanted to be the man she counted on.
Urging her head to his shoulder, he said, “This must be hard on you, trying to do this on your own.”
“What choice do I have?”
“None. Until now. I’ll help you now.”
“This year.”
“We’ll see.”
“You’ve been very nice.” Nice wasn’t the word, but it was the one she felt safest using.
“He smiled. “I’m a nice guy.”
“Yes, you are, JC.” Her eyes drifted shut. This felt so good, so natural, so right.
“Tired, honey?”
“Mmm…” It wasn’t much of an answer but her soft, even breathing was. Nikki was asleep, too.
Dropping his head back on the sofa, JC let himself join in the Sunday afternoon Martin family nap.
Kimmy pried one of JC’s eyes open with her fingers. “He’s dead,” she declared solemnly.
Nikki chuckled. JC certainly slept like it! “I don’t think so sweetie.”
“If I was dead, I wouldn’t be able to do…this!” JC grabbed the little girl and tickled her. She squealed joyously.
Soon Dylan joined in and the trio tumbled to the floor in a tangle of giggling arms and legs.
The doorbell ringing froze them in place.
“Pizza!” Dylan and Kimmy cried in unison.
Jumping up from the floor, JC was quick to make it to the door ahead of Nikki. “I’ll get it,” he told her.
Ready to argue, she said, “JC—“
His mother closed over her briefly. Stunned she lost her words.
“Kissy ball, Mommy!” Kimmy clapped and pointed to the mistletoe hovering in the foyer entry.
JC’s eyes gleamed as he opened the door for the delivery boy.