Ryan turned and glared at him. “Just do what I ask David, or I’ll find someone else who will.”

Chapter 28 - Holidays

“It’s so good to be home,” Ryan sighed, dropping his duffel bag and suitcase on the floor. He flopped backward onto our bed and smiled.

“Mmm,” he moaned, shoving his nose into his pillow. I crawled on all fours to join him, glowing in the fact that he felt my apartment was his home too. It was certainly a home with him in it.

“I know we just got off of two planes, but what are we doing for Christmas? Do you want to fly out to Pittsburgh and see your mom and dad or not?” I wanted him to make a final decision so I could make travel arrangements. Christmas was just five days away.

Ryan groaned loudly. “As much as I love my mom and dad, I don’t want to fly anywhere. I only have two weeks off.”

“Well, you could always put your family on a plane and have them come out here,” I suggested.

He wrinkled his nose. “No. We have to go or I’ll never hear the end of it. You know what I really want to do for Christmas?” He wrapped me in his arms, pulling me close. “I want to go cut down a big evergreen and have my first real Christmas tree,” he stated. “My parents put up the same fake tree every year. I’ve never had a real tree, even when I lived on my own.”

I smiled and softly kissed his lips. Being normal sounded wonderful.

The next morning we borrowed Pete’s pickup truck to go get a tree.

“Here’s the directions Pete wrote down.” Ryan handed me a piece of paper. “After I get on the highway, where do I go from there?”

I flipped the paper around, noting that we just passed a place that had cut trees for sale. But Ryan wanted the experience of cutting his own Christmas tree down.

“Go five more traffic lights and then turn left. We need to get lights and a tree stand too. There’s a store there.”

Ryan put the truck into park and I saw the panic attack start to well up on his face. “I can’t go in there,” he whispered.

“Sure you can,” I softly replied. “It’s a small mom and pop hardware shop. See? They have Christmas lights and stuff.”

He shook his head, indicating that he was staying put.

“It will be okay. Not everyone on the planet knows who you are.” I tried to ease his worry. “Besides, you haven’t shaved in a couple of days… it’s almost like a disguise. If anything happens, we’ll run for it. I promise.” I held out my hand.

Hardly anyone was in the store except for two older gentlemen who worked there and a nice older lady who wrapped each of the glass ornaments I picked out. The gentleman with the dark gray hair spent over ten minutes telling us which tree stand would be better for a live tree and how Ryan should brace it so the tree doesn’t fall over. The man had no idea who Ryan was; in his book we were just ordinary customers.

Ryan was grinning from ear to ear when we walked back to the truck with our bags. He was able to go into a store like a regular person and buy lights for his Christmas tree without anyone taking his picture or asking for an autograph. I was glad; such a simple task that people take for granted every day brought such joy to him.

He spent a few extra minutes shaking the loose pine needles off of our beautiful cut tree out in the alley before dragging it up our steps.

“This is wonderful!” he announced, glancing up and down the alleyway. “Look Honey! No paparazzi!”

Ryan bolted the tree in place by the front window. He stood there with a big grin on his face, marveling at his handy work. I had the stereo on in the background, playing all the traditional Christmas songs to set the mood while we decorated our first tree... together.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Pete and Tammy’s house for dinner. It was so nice to see Ryan relaxed and happy. When we returned to the apartment later that night, I realized that both of our blood pressures were normal for once. No one chased us down the sidewalk taking our picture while asking us ridiculous questions or pestered him for his autograph.

“Do you want to open your gifts now or wait until the morning?” Ryan asked, tossing my car keys onto the kitchen table. The glint of hopefulness was evident in his eyes.

“You can open two presents,” I told him, knowing that he would be completely distracted by the first gift I planned to have him open. “The rest have to wait until the morning.” I picked a specific box off his pile of gifts and handed it to him.

“Okay, then you get to open two.” He crawled around the side of the tree and picked up one of the smaller boxes he had wrapped. “You first.”