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Whenever she moved past him in the kitchen he could almost taste that Peppermint Pleasure latte. He had a hunch she’d taste even better.
    Somehow they made it out of the kitchen and into the living room without ending up in a clinch. Apparently she’d been bold enough to invite him into her apartment but she wasn’t bold enough to make the first move, at least not yet. That was good, because if she so much as dropped a hint, he’d fold. A guy could only be so noble.
    But she didn’t hint. Instead she walked straight over to her tree and crouched next to the cardboard box sitting beside it. Rosie and Herb had no set schedule for putting up theirs, but his parents had always designated the Friday after Thanksgiving for buying and trimming the tree.
    He’d be on vacation from school and they’d take off work so all three of them could head for the tree lot first thing in the morning for a better selection. Then they waited until after dinner to trim it so they could see if the lights were spaced right. He hadn’t thought about any of that in years.
    She pulled out a strand of lights and looked up at him. “I don’t know if you have a favorite method, but—”
    “I don’t and besides, this is your tree. You get to be in charge.”
    “Then lights go first.” She handed him the strand. “There’s a plug right by the tree. I only have two of these, but that should be enough.”
    “Should be.” He leaned down and plugged in the lights. The multicolored glow brought an unexpected tightening in his throat. Damn, now was not the time to get all mushy.
    He never had when he’d helped with the Thunder Mountain tree. But that had been a noisy, rowdy process filled with teasing and arguments among the guys about light and ornament placement. This intimate evening with just the two of them was a lot closer to his childhood Christmases.
    “Good. They work.” She stood. “If you’ll unplug them for a minute, I’ll be right back. I forgot to start the Christmas music.”
    He almost asked her to forget the music, but that wouldn’t be fair. If she was anything like his folks had been, then she loved decorating a tree while listening to carols. He’d loved it, too. He could do this.
    She left the room. Moments later, an instrumental version of Silent Night started up, and he sighed in relief. That wasn’t the version his parents had played.
    Funny, but he hadn’t thought helping her with this would be any kind of problem after all these years. He held the strand of lights and waited for her to come back, but she was taking a while. Maybe she was checking her teeth for bits of Chinese food.
    When she finally reappeared, she gave him a bright smile. “That’s better. You can’t decorate a tree without carols, right?”
    “Right.” Unless he was mistaken, her smile was a little too bright, almost as if she’d had to force it. And her mascara was slightly smudged, too. “Are you okay?”
    “Yeah.” She blew out a breath. “It’s stupid, really. I’m almost twenty-seven years old and I’ve lived on my own ever since I graduated from college. But even after I moved out and had my own tree, I always went over to my folks’ house to help with theirs. Hearing Silent Night got to me a little bit.”
    “Do you want to skip the music?”
    “No! It’s part of the tradition and I love Christmas carols. I’ll be fine. It’s just that I’ve always been there so I have to get used to being here, instead.”
    “If you’re sure, because I don’t have to have it on.”
    “Well, I do.” She sounded determined. “I can’t imagine decorating a tree without Christmas music.” Taking a deep breath, she gazed at him. “Ready to plug those lights in again?”
    “You bet.” Too bad he couldn’t pull her into his arms for a sympathetic hug, but ironically he didn’t know her well enough for that kind of friendly, nonthreatening embrace. When he took her in his arms for the first time, he didn’t want her to