A muscle in his jaw twitches as he continues to look at me. “You’re impossible.”

“And you need to lighten up a little,” I tell him with an eyebrow raise. “I know that being like, broody, is kind of your thing…but it’s Christmastime. I think you can make an exception.”

He scoffs at that. “I’m sure you do. But you wanna know what I think?”

“Is this a rhetorical question?”

He moves the ladder over again, and then looks back at me. “ Bah humbug.”