Free Fighting for the Edge by Jennifer Comeaux Page A

all these?” she asked as Chris led her past another batch of vibrant green firs.
    “I’ll know the right one when I see it.”
    They’d reached the back of the lot, which appeared to be the Island of Misfit Trees. Some were turning brown and losing needles, and some seemed to have stopped growing at an early age.
    Chris pointed to a small one straight ahead. “That’s it!”
    Aubrey stared at the sad tree dwarfed by the other ones around it. “That one? It looks like the Charlie Brown tree.”
    “Exactly. That’s what makes it awesome.”
    “I don’t know if it can even hold ornaments. The branches look tragically anemic.”
    “You have to believe in Christmas magic.”
    She wasn’t familiar with Christmas magic. Only Christmas lies and misery.
    “Let’s get this baby home.” Chris signaled to one of the lot’s employees.
    With the misfit tree in the back of his truck, they stopped at the first drugstore they saw and descended upon the aisle of holiday decorations. Aubrey folded her arms and tapped her foot as Chris deliberated between a set of Looney Tunes ornaments and one with Star Wars characters.
    All the shimmering tinsel and trinkets on the shelves were obnoxiously bright, just like the decorations outside her parents’ house would be. Shiny and pretty to mask the unhappiness inside. Her neck grew tense just thinking about spending the holiday there.
    “We should get both of these.” Chris showed her the two boxes of ornaments. “What’s better than Princess Leia hanging out with Yosemite Sam?”
    He was such a goofball. That’s right. Focus on the goofiness and forget the hotness.
    Chris grabbed a pack of silver tinsel and a string of old-school colored lights and tossed them into his basket. She followed him quietly, noticing he indeed had begun to hum “Jingle Bells.” She thought about mentioning her call with Marley but remained silent. No reason to snap Chris out of his cheerful mood. He was liable to get all wistful on her, too.
    When they returned to the apartment, Chris set up the tree between the two skinny windows in the living room. Aunt Debbie had given Aubrey a stack of take-out menus for area restaurants when she’d picked up the apartment keys, so she found one for a Chinese place and called in an order. An hour later, she and Chris sat on the living room carpet, eating from the take-out cartons and wrapping the tree with the tinsel and lights.
    “So, what’s your beef with Christmas?” Chris asked. “Since I’ve known you, you’ve never been much into the holiday spirit.”
    She poked at her vegetable dumplings and avoided eye contact with him. “It’s just too overblown. And the holidays with my family aren’t the most pleasant experience.”
    “You said your parents don’t get along so well?”
    “They’re not June and Ward Cleaver, let’s put it that way. Although they look the part when they’re out in the social scene.”
    “My parents used to be like that. They’d barely talk to each other at home, but then they’d go to all these events my dad had to attend for the hospital board, and they’d look like the perfect Dr. and Mrs. Grayden. When I was in high school, my mom was close to leaving my dad because he was such a workaholic, but they went to a marriage counselor and it actually helped them.”
    “I cannot see my dad talking to a counselor. He’s too tight to pay for something like that anyway.” She opened her bottle of water and took a sip. “They’re just going to keep bickering until they’re old and gray and can’t hear each other anymore.”
    Chris bent his leg and rested his elbow on his knee. His eyebrows drew together as he chewed slowly. “If you had the option of not spending Christmas with your family, would you take it?”
    “How would I have that option?”
    “It would require bending the truth a little… telling them you have to practice on Christmas day and you’d rather stay in Boston and not drive to Orleans just for