Chapter Twenty-Nine

Reid looked at Michael for just a moment, making sure he wasn’t about to change his mind about which tree he wanted and demand they keep looking, and when Melody put her hands on his shoulders and said, “You are going to have the best Christmas tree Santa has ever seen,” Michael beamed, and Reid dropped down to the frozen ground to saw through the thick trunk.

“Is there anything we can do to help?” Melody asked.

“Just make sure it doesn’t fall on you—or me,” he replied. He cut through most of the trunk, leaving just enough to keep it from tumbling over and then crawled out from underneath the branches. “Mikey, you want to finish it off?”

With a proud smile, Michael scurried under the tree, and Reid climbed under next to him, guiding his hand as the saw cut through the last little bit, sending the tree crashing to the ground.

“Timb