A Fairytale Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

themselves. And, though she knew Drew would probably groan at her suggestion, she decided to go with it anyway.
    She caught his gaze. “Okay. If it were me running out that door right now, feeling like one parent didn’t want me and the other was about to turn me into a slave, I’d probably wish for a few minutes alone so my dad didn’t see me crying.”
    Drew sat.
    “Then I might feel totally different about the whole slave labor thing if my dad came out and did some of the work.”
    He mouth dropped open. “You want me to help run the Christmas tree farm?”
    “Maybe at least do some of the prep work to get it ready for customers?”
    “I have a conglomerate to run and I’m in the middle of buying a new company.”
    “So?”
    He gaped at her. “So?”
    “So what’s more important? Your company or your son?”

CHAPTER FOUR
    D REW shrugged into his coat and headed out the door. Gwen had insisted he take Brody’s sandwich with him, so he had it in a little plastic bag and felt like a kid on his way to his first day of school.
    He found Brody leaning against the SUV. “Here.”
    He looked at the sandwich, then looked at his dad. “I’m not hungry.”
    Max Peabody appeared around the other side of the SUV. With his snow-white hair and beard, and rosy-red cheeks, he looked a bit like Santa Claus in jeans.
    “You better eat that sandwich, boy! Harvesting Christmas trees will work up a powerful appetite.”
    Drew nearly groaned in anticipation of the myriad smart remarks Brody would make. But instead, Brody snatched the little baggie from Drew’s hand and took out the sandwich.
    “Okay. I’m glad that’s settled.” Max looked around with pleasure at the trees around them. “Like I said on the phone, we can open Saturday after next, but we’ll need time to get the place ready. There are tons of old tree branches and debris in the rows between the trees.” He winked at Drew. “Don’t want a lawsuit because someone trips over a branch.”
    He glanced around again. “Then we’ll need a few days to cut some trees for people who don’t want to go out in thefield. Which actually works out pretty well, because while we’re harvesting I can teach you guys how to cut trees so that you can go out with the customers who want to choose their own.” He pointed at a rundown outbuilding. “There’s a little stand stored in there. We used it as a checkout table where my wife Sunny used to take the money from customers.” He sent his gaze back to Drew. “But if you’re trying to impress somebody, we’re probably going to have to spruce up these old outbuildings. It’s too cold and wet to paint them, but it wouldn’t hurt to replace the missing boards.”
    Brody glanced fearfully at Drew. Drew tried his damnedest to smile. He saw himself putting in eight-hour days on the farm and then eight hours in the office at night. And all of this was Gwen’s fault.
    The second he thought of her his blood heated. She held her ground with him like no one else in his world had ever even tried. And she was cute about it. Her nose wrinkled. Her eyes sparked with fire. He couldn’t even imagine what kind of liberties she’d take with him if he wasn’t her boss and she spoke freely.
    His heart-rate spiked and the temperature of his blood rose another degree or two. He didn’t know whether to laugh or groan. Thinking about her might be a way to keep from freezing to death while lugging trees in this frozen tundra of a farm. But thinking about her all afternoon while he tromped around might make it a little harder to be a good, objective boss when he came back inside to work at night.
    Because they would be working together at night.
    That would be her punishment for coming up with this hare-brained scheme. Opening the Christmas tree farm might have been his idea, but his sharing the labor had been hers. So she would suffer right along with him.
     
    Gwen watched out the kitchen window as Max waved his hands around in the