“You’re probably right,” Theo agreed.

“You know what most people do? They buy a fake tree that lasts for more than a decade. I kinda get it, I guess, especially the pre-lit ones. You put an app on your phone, and you can do all sorts of things with the lights. Colors, patterns, blinking …” she paused. “The Christmas tree farm thing … if it isn’t from a fairytale, it’s at least from a Hallmark holiday movie.”

The two of them reached the landing and Jupiter ran up behind them. Jordan reached out and grabbed the uppermost box from the stack Theo carried.

“Did I just hear you talking about pre-lit trees?”

“I’ve never bought one,” Ashley told him, “but I can see the appeal.”

“Blasphemy,” Jordan said with a shake of his head. “It’s not Christmas if you don’t have to untangle knotted strings of lights. And fake trees. Blech. They smell like plastic.” He took a deep breath in. “Nothing smells as good as a freshly cut pine.”

Ashley laughed. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Where’s it going, blue bird?”

“Right here!” Indigo ran to the front of the room. There was a big plate glass window that looked much like the window on the lower floor. “That way everyone outside can see how pretty it is.”

“Let me do some rearranging,” Jordan said, moving the couch that normally sat in front of the window. When he was finished organizing the furniture, he lifted the big tree, stand and all, and set it down several feet away from the glass. “We’ll need space to put the lights on,” he explained when Indigo tilted her head at him.

“Oh!” she exclaimed with a grin. “That makes sense.”

When the last of the decorations had been brought inside, the four of them sat at the large table usually reserved for Friday morning office meetings and filled their bellies with pizza and garlic knots.

When dinner was done, Jordan began layering the dense, fragrant limbs of the tree with lights, moving around in circles and adding several strings until the whole thing was covered.

“Are there any holes?” he asked, stepping back to survey his work. All of them studied the tree.

“Right there,” Theo said, stepping up to rearrange some of the branches.

“I think it looks pretty good from here,” Ashley offered.

“What do you think, Indie?”

“Good job, Jordan,” she praised him.

“Absolutely,” Theo agreed, wrapping her arm around Jordan’s waist. He pulled her in and gave her a kiss.

“Thanks,” he said, reaching down to put a big hand on top of Indigo’s head. “I’ll push it back and we can do ornaments.”

“I can’t believe all of these.”

Theo turned and saw Ashley looking into one of the many boxes they’d brought in.

“There are a lot of decorations, that’s for sure.”

“Do you remember all of them from year to year?”

“Well,” Theo said, pulling a smaller box out and setting it on the table. “I haven’t actually seen a lot of these things since I was a senior in high school. Glory is ninety-five years old, and some of these things were around before she was born.”

“That’s amazing.” Ashley pulled a large piece of fabric from a box. It was wrapped in plastic, and when she unfolded it, she realized it was a square quilt.

“We can hang that over there if you want,” Theo pointed to the wall on the other side of the room. “My great-grandmother made that. Her name was Josephine Pearl Fletcher before she got married. Glory is named after her.”

“Josephine Gloria Murphy.” Ashley looked over at Jordan.

“I don’t know much about Glory. I certainly didn’t know her name was Josephine. Very pretty.”

“She’s a great lady. Isn’t she, Indigo Blue?”

Indigo grinned and gave Jordan a nod. “Is her angel in there, Antee?”

“Well,” Theo said, unpacking the box. “I haven’t come across it yet, but do you want to be the one to put it on when we find it?”

“Yes!”

“Then, by all means,” Theo laughed. “Do your parents have all of your old family decorations?”

Ashley surprised her by laughing. “What old family decorations?” she asked. There was a bitterness in her tone. “My family really isn’t too much into keepsakes. At least my mom isn’t. We aren’t close. She and Dad got divorced when I was about eight. It’s kind of a miracle they stayed together that long.” She shrugged with one shoulder and hung a spun glass ballerina on the tree. “I guess I should say it’s a miracle Dad put up with her for that long. Faithfulness was never one of Mom’s strong suits. I haven’t actually talked to the woman since the morning of my high school graduation.”

Ashley went back to the box and sifted through it, pulling another ornament from the green tissue paper it was wrapped in.

“That’s been what, about five years ago?”

“You remember everything, don’t you?”

Theo glanced over at Jordan, expecting him to tease her, but he was holding Indigo up so the little girl could hang a bright gold ball on the tree.

“I do remember a lot,” Theo smiled.

“When I woke up that morning, Mom was on the couch, asleep. When I woke her up, she told me she would get ready and meet me at the school. I’m not sure if she was hungover, or if she was still drunk.” She waved the thought away. “Doesn’t matter. She didn’t show. Dad was there, though.”

“Are you and your dad close?”

“Very,” she nodded. “He got remarried when I was twenty-one. His wife is really nice. She doesn’t know me very well, which is probably why she likes me.” She smiled and Theo swatted her with a Christmas stocking she was holding in her hands. “No, really. I was Dad’s best man. I even wore a suit because he thought that was funny. She poured me some champagne and told me how fun it was that I was having my first drink at their reception. Dad winked at me when she said it, ‘cause he knew I’d been drunk more times than he could count on both of his hands, but neither one of us corrected her. She’s always been nice to me. I decided I’d just let her think I wasn’t a reprobate.”

“You’re so hard on yourself.”

“Am I?” Ashley asked. “I don’t know. I think maybe I’m just honest.”

“I think this will just be an ongoing debate.”

“Yeah, probably. You don’t give up very easily.”

“No, I don’t. Not on people who matter to me.”

Ashley grabbed the can of Coke sitting in front of her. She took two large gulps instead of responding.

“Does your dad live here in town?” Theo asked her.