Her throat wasn’t quite as sore, and while she probably still had a fever, she didn’t feel like she was going to die, so that was an improvement. Still in her fabulous outfit from earlier today, she padded down the hall to the living room, pausing when she realized that there was a fire going. She edged closer, smiling when she saw her baby girl.
Alice was sound asleep, lying on a pile of sofa cushions on the floor, a throw blanket over her. Her blond curls were a mess and she had a smear of dirt on her cheek, but she looked utterly content. One arm was wrapped around something that Eve couldn’t quite see under the blanket. She tiptoed closer still. “Is that a pig?”
From the chair where he, too, had stretched out and fallen asleep, Tanner jerked awake. “Wha—”
Eve lowered her voice but shot Tanner a very serious mom look. “Is it possible that my daughter has fallen asleep with...an actual pig?”
Tanner grinned.
Eve took a step back. She’d never seen him smile, not like that, not full wattage. He was shockingly handsome, intensely masculine. Just...wow.
He stretched and yawned, still with the smile. “We needed to bring that little one inside because he was cold. Alice is just doing her part to keep him warm.”
“I don’t think my in-laws will bottle-feed a piglet.”
“What? No.” He laughed. “I’m glad they were able to take the puppies, but I’ve got this one. Truthfully, though, it’s probably a good thing Alice is asleep. She got pretty attached.”
“I hope she wasn’t a pain,” Eve said as she walked into the kitchen to make some tea.
“No—we had a blast today. How are you feeling?”
She paused. “Mmm, a little achy still, but my throat doesn’t feel like it has razor blades in it anymore.”
He walked toward her and leaned on the counter. “You don’t sound like you feel better.”
“Thanks a lot.” She wrinkled her nose at him. But then her gaze caught on a crayon note propped on a bowl of farm-fresh eggs. In clumsy, childish print, it said Get Well Soon.
His eyes followed her gaze. “It was her idea. She helped me collect the eggs, and she made the card. She’s pretty special.”
Her throat closed up on her, tears filling her eyes. She turned away from him, busying her hands with filling the kettle, putting it on to boil.
He put his hand on her elbow, turning her toward him, his face falling as he saw her expression. “Hey, did I say something wrong?”
“Not at all. It’s just, Alice is something special, and not everyone sees that. Her own dad—” She shook her head. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter. Thank you for taking care of her today. For taking care of me.”
Her voice broke, and she fought the urge to run away. Instead, she swallowed hard and looked up into his dark, serious eyes that seemed to see too much.
“Why wouldn’t I take care of you?”
“No one ever has, not really.” She looked away to avoid those eyes, and her gaze fell on the note again. She picked it up, brushing her fingers across the waxy crayon letters. “When I was growing up, I was the one who made the cookies and wrote the notes. My parents are nice people, but they’re both doctors. They’re busy with their own careers, their own lives.”
“If they didn’t have time for you and Alice, they’re the ones who are missing out.”
“I know.” She wiped her eyes with the arm of her sweater. They felt hot and scratchy, and she thought she must still have a touch of fever because she surely didn’t just cry in front of Tanner Cole. She picked up the kettle, pouring water in her mug as a thought took form. “Maybe that’s why I love Christmas so much. It’s a chance to really soak in all that childlike joy. Who doesn’t love that?”
Tanner shot a look at her out of the corner of his eye. “Can’t imagine.”
“Stop it.” She smiled up at him. “I guess I just want to create the childhood for Alice that I never had. Her little life has been hard, and she deserves all the happiness in the world.”
“So do you.” His voice was quiet but arresting, his hand gentle as he reached out and slid his fingers down her cheek.
Eve froze.
Tanner dropped his hand but didn’t move. The moment stretched. Eve was acutely aware of the inches that separated them. The crackle of the fireplace, the wind rustling through the cotton field outside her door.
Finally, he stepped back, and the intimacy evaporated. Had she imagined it?
“You get the kid, I’ll get the pig?” Tanner glanced back at her before he stepped into the living space and looked down at the pile of kid, dog and pig on the floor.
“Deal.”
As Tanner deftly nipped the piglet out of Alice’s arms and tucked him into the pocket between his jacket and shirt, the pig let out an incensed squeal. “I better get out of here. Sorry she’s so dirty. We really did have fun.”
“Thanks again, Tanner. You’re a lifesaver.”
“So are you, which reminds me. If you’re feeling better, Lacey wants you to come to Saturday lunch. The whole family will be there, and we can talk about the party plans.”
“I’ll let you know.”
As he closed the door with a soft snick, Eve lifted Alice into her arms. “You smell like a farm animal,” she whispered, but she smiled, happy Alice had a good day.
The smile faded as she remembered that moment in the kitchen. The crackle of awareness between her and Tanner. She was pretty sure she hadn’t imagined it. The real question was, did she follow up on it? He was her landlord. A friend.
No. She wasn’t sure what had prompted him to touch her. It had almost certainly been completely innocent, but her heart...well, her heart wanted to believe it could be something more.
She wouldn’t pursue it. She couldn’t. There was too much at stake—for both of them—and she wouldn’t risk her daughter’s happiness to chase after something that was never hers to want.
* * *
On Friday afternoon, Tanner worked in the cotton field with his brother Devin and a crew of teenage boys they’d hired from the local high school to help. After the harvest last year, Devin had somehow dreamed up a line system made of 4x4s and buckets of cement that would move row to row with them so that they could hang the cotton stems upside down as they worked.
When the row was complete, two men would take the line from the poles into the new barn and hang it to dry. In theory, this setup was supposed to save the step of separating and hanging after harvesting. And it worked. Mostly.
With loppers in hand, Tanner paused to watch a car drive slowly down their gravel lane and turn the corner toward Eve’s cottage. In-laws?
He went back to clipping and hanging—the motion repetitive and backache inducing but simple. He hadn’t seen Eve in a couple of days, not since the day he’d taken her to the doctor and watched over Alice. It wasn’t that he was avoiding her, exactly. And it definitely didn’t have anything to do with that supercharged moment in the kitchen when he’d touched her face.
What had he even been thinking?
Ah, that. That was the problem. He hadn’t thought first—he’d gone with impulse. Him, the champion of pros and cons, the one who was always saying things like we need to think this through or think before you leap. Something about Eve made him lose his composure.
He didn’t like it.
As they reached the end of their row, Devin hollered to the teenage boys to come and take the lines of hanging cotton stalks to the barn. His brother had gotten some wireless earbuds for his birthday and discovered podcasts, so he was quiet today, listening to some true crime something or other. Without speaking, they moved their contraption to the next row and strung a new wire.
The car slowly drove back down the drive and, in the window, Tanner caught a glimpse of Alice’s animated face as she peered out. She was a heartbreaker, that one. He knew she’d been thr
ough some traumatic things in her life. The armed gunman at her school, for one. The loss of her dad, for another.
No wonder she showed signs of traumatic stress. But in spite of it, she seemed to be thriving here. She wasn’t the quiet mouse of a child who hid her face in her mother’s shoulder anymore. She was cautious and watchful, yes, but she also seemed genuinely happy.
A few minutes later, Eve appeared, carrying her tablet. She had an electronic pencil in her hand and was looking up and down the road, making notations on the tablet.
He called to the boys who had finished a row and were carrying the loaded line toward the barn. “Hey, guys, take a break after you hang those. Grab a drink or a snack and meet me back here in twenty.”
To Devin, he said, “Taking a lunch break.”
Devin tugged an earbud from his ear and scowled. “In the middle of a row?”
“Yeah.” Grabbing his bottle of water from the back of the ATV, Tanner jogged until he could drop into step beside Eve. “Hey.”
“Hey, yourself. What are you up to?” Eve smiled up at Tanner. She had some color in her cheeks, and he was relieved to see that the feverish brightness in her eyes was completely gone.
“Cutting cotton. It was a big seller for us at farmers markets last year, but it’s a pain to cut and dry.” He nodded at her tablet. “What’re you working on?”
“Right now? Just drawing out placement for some of the activities. I’m working on a master to-do list and I’m a visual learner, so the diagram helps. My in-laws got home from their trip to North Carolina late last night, so they came to pick Alice up. I’m taking the opportunity to get caught up on some work.”
“Nice.” He wanted to tell her she should take the opportunity to rest but restrained his impulse to cluck over her like a mother hen.
She held out the tablet to him. “I’m thinking down the lane, it would be cute to have giant candies, like candy canes or lollipops or both.”
“That would be...festive.” He looked down at the tablet. She’d called it a diagram, but it was really a drawing, a talented one at that. “You have four bouncy houses sketched in over here. Can we get that many?”
She nodded. “I talked to several different companies, and once one of them committed, they all did. It’s not a superbusy time of the year for them right now.”
“How much is that gonna set us back?”
With a shrug, Eve gave him a smug little smile and made a zero with her thumb and forefinger. “I told them we’d put up a sign thanking them for their sponsorship.”
“You’re kidding. Free?”
“Well, yeah. It’s great advertising for them for very little investment. There’ll be tons of parents and kids here.”
“Good point.”
Pointing to the tablet, she said, “And down here, where they first come in from the parking area in the front pasture, there’ll be a gorgeous balloon archway.” She swiped the screen. “Something like this.”
It was huge and bright, went with the candy theme and also looked very expensive. “Is this what we’re buying with the savings from the bouncy houses?”
“Ha! Not sure yet. I’m working on that company, too. It’s kind of a thing in party planning these days to have balloon sculptures.” He shot her another dubious look, and she laughed. “They’re cool, I promise you. Kids love ’em and parents do, too. Great pictures for the ’gram.”
“The wha—”
“Instagram. You know, social media? You have an account. Or Triple Creek Ranch does, anyway.” She tapped a button and went to the home page of her tablet, pressing an icon and then typing a few letters. It all took maybe ten seconds before she handed the tablet back. “See?”
He scrolled through some photos that definitely were taken at his farm. Cute baby animals. The farm stand with its bunting fluttering in the breeze. A few of Devin looking studly on a horse. There was even a picture of Tanner with one of the twins that he had no memory of taking. “Huh. It may surprise you to know this, but I am not on social media. This has Lacey written all over it.”
“I’m not shocked.” Eve took the tablet as he handed it back to her. “She does a good job. The photos are very friendly and welcoming, just like y’all are.”
“People really think about this stuff?” He had enough on his plate just trying to manage his work, much less remember to take photos and put them on the internet.
“People do, yes. I have one for my T-shirt business. Here, take a look.”
The T-shirts were laid out on a flat surface, mostly with jeans and bright-colored canvas tennis shoes. She’d posted a few of Alice wearing kid designs. “That looks like a lot of work.”
“It is, but I’m trying to get found in a sea of people who do the same thing. Competition is stiff, and if you want to make it these days, you have to have photos people can look at.” She waved an arm at the farm. “Which is why Lacey uses all this beautiful farm scenery to get people to buy what you’re selling.”
“Vegetables?”
Eve grinned. “Yes, vegetables. But more than that, it’s the lifestyle that sparks people’s imagination. And that’s what we’re going to do with this party. Make it so magical that the kids will never forget it.”
“You’re good at the magic,” he said as they reached the steps to the farmhouse. “Alice’s room looks beautiful with all the twinkle lights.”
“Thanks, Tanner.”
He cleared his throat. “Well, I definitely think we picked the right person to fill in for Lacey.”
“So why do you look so skeptical?”
“It’s a lot to pull off. We’re going to need a lot more hands to help out.” He shoved his own hands down into his pockets and rocked forward on his toes.
Eve looked down at her tablet and started typing again.
“Now what?”
“Just adding it to the to-do list. Get more hands.”
She was joking...maybe. But the party would be here before they knew it, and both of them had a full plate already. “Bring your list to dinner Saturday. We’ll get the rest of the family on board with this plan of yours.”
“Sounds good. We got this. I’m going to keep walking and dreaming.” She took a few backward steps toward the road. “Good luck with the cotton.”
“See you later.” Tanner walked into the house, not surprised to see his brother Devin, who’d beaten him in for lunch, quickly drop the curtain on one of the front windows.
Inside the living room, he waited for the smart remark from Devin. “Nothing to say?”
Devin shot a longing look across the room, where his wife was rocking Phoebe. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he sighed. “Nope.”
“I’m going to make a sandwich.” Tanner started for the kitchen as he heard Devin’s voice.
“Except our new neighbor seems to fit in around here just fine, especially with some people.”
Ignoring his brother, Tanner hid the small smile that formed. In the kitchen, Tanner’s smile faded as he took in the gallery wall. Years ago, his mother had framed a recipe, special because it was in his grandmother’s handwriting. When Lacey joined the family, she’d framed one of his mother’s and one of Kelly’s and one of her own to add to the wall. He walked over to Kelly’s now, running his fingers down the glass. The recipe was written in round, loopy script.
It read: Kelly’s Famous Lasagna. Go to the store and get you a frozen lasagna. Bake it in the oven for two hours. Serve with salad. Don’t tell anyone you bought it.
The smile was back, along with an ache in his throat that never seemed to completely leave him. He’d always been the serious one, the foil to her irreverence. She’d made him laugh, and when she’d died, she’d taken his smile with her. He hadn’t thought he’d ever find it again. Hadn’t been sure he even wanted to.
Eve wasn’t Kelly. In fact, she was nothing like her. But
now he found himself smiling again. Found himself wanting to.
And he just didn’t know how he was supposed to handle that.
Chapter Seven
Sitting in the driveway at her in-laws’ house, Eve checked her reflection in the rearview mirror and sighed. Her mother-in-law had an uncanny ability to size up how much sleep a person got the night before, if she was eating enough, maybe even what her current temperature was. In other words, Maribeth had the mother form of spidey-sense. Eve both dreaded and aspired to that kind of intuition. Regardless, there was no fixing the haggard poststrep bags under Eve’s eyes, so she might as well go in.
When the front door opened, Eve was, as usual, immediately drawn into Maribeth’s embrace. For a minute, she leaned into those soft arms, letting herself rest in them.
“Sweet Eve.” Her mother-in-law stepped back, placing one hand on each side of Eve’s face, tilting her face so she could see her daughter-in-law clearly through the lenses of her bifocals. “Let me see you. Alice said you’d been sick.”
Stepping back, Eve raised an eyebrow. “Alice said that?”
“Well, yes. I asked how you’d been doing, and she said sick. Are you feeling better?”
“I am. I went to the doctor and got medicine and everything. Thank you, though.” She stopped, pretending to sniff the air. “Wait a minute. Are those your famous Christmas cookies I smell?”
Maribeth smiled, her blue eyes shining. “It wouldn’t be Christmas without them. I loved having Alice help me decorate them this year. And before you have to ask, she did just fine last night. A little weepy at bedtime, but we turned on a show and snuggled up, and she was asleep in no time.”
“I’m sure she loved being here with you. And I’m proud of her for spending the night.” Eve followed Maribeth into the kitchen. With the spicy scent of apple cider and the heady scent of buttercream hanging in the air, the aroma was Christmas, and it made Eve feel happy just being here.
She dropped a kiss on Alice’s head and had to laugh as Alice smiled up at her with sprinkles and a smudge of frosting stuck to her chin. Eve stuck her finger into a bowl of green buttercream and licked it. “Mmm. Can I have a spoon, please? I’m having this for supper.”
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