Evergreen Springs

by RaeAnne Thayne

  Why was she so drawn to help him?

  The children, she told herself. It was all about the children. Cole Barrett could sit here in his cold, cheerless house for all she cared, but these children needed more.

  “Do you have a Christmas tree?” Ty asked her, his breath coming in puffs as they pushed the big ball across the yard one more time, working together to pat on more snow as they went.

  “I do. I have a couple of them, one in my bedroom and one in my family room. They don’t have very many decorations on them. I have two cats named Seamus and Simone, a tiger-striped and a black cat, and they like to knock off the ornaments.”

  “You don’t have a little boy or a little girl?” Ty asked.

  Devin forced a smile, ignoring the familiar crampy ache around her heart. “No. I’m afraid not.”

  “But you have two cats,” Jazmyn said. “I’d like to have a cat. If I did, I would name her Penelope and call her Penny.”

  “Sounds like you’ve given it some thought.”

  “I have. I’d like a cat or a puppy.” She went on about the time she, Ty and their mother had lived in an apartment building and the lady next door had four cats and let Jazmyn come over sometimes to pet them and help give them food and water. From there, she chattered about how easy school was for her because they were behind the school where she used to go, about her favorite TV show, about the trip to Disneyland her grandmother had apparently promised her.

  Whenever his sister stopped to take a breath, Ty interjected his own occasional commentary—about the new brick set he wanted for Christmas, about the horse his father said he could get someday and about his new friends at school.

  In the process, they finished the midsection of the snowman and worked together on the final ball.

  “That is the perfect snowman head,” Jazmyn declared. “It’s not too square and not too tall.”

  “I agree. Can you help me lift it up?”

  The two of them worked together to heft the large ball onto the top of the snowman and pat a little more snow in to anchor it in place. Then it was time for the finishing touches.

  “What a good idea you had to bring out a scarf. That’s just what he needs,” Devin said, which made Jazmyn preen. Devin wrapped the scarf around, even giving it a jaunty, complicated knot.

  “We have to put on a face now! I’m going to go see if there’s a carrot in the refrigerator.”

  “Good thinking. While you’re doing that, we’ll look for some sticks for the arms and something to use for eyes and a mouth.”

  She and Ty easily found sticks as well as an abundance of pinecones perfect for crafting the snowman’s face and buttons down his front. She was lifting the boy up to wedge in a couple of pinecones for his eyes when Jazmyn returned from the house.

  “No carrots,” she said in a tone of deep disgust. “All we had were dinky baby carrots and that would just look stupid. But I did find an orange plastic cup. I thought that might work.”

  “Nice save.” Devin smiled. “I think that should do very well.”

  “And look what else!” She pulled a battered black cowboy hat from behind her back. “This is the perfect hat for a snowman who lives on a ranch like us.”

  “As long as that’s not your dad’s best hat.”

  “He never wears it. He has a different one. I think this is an old one.”

  She could only hope so. Cole could always take it down if he didn’t want it on the snowman. With a mental shrug, Devin pointed to the cowboy. “You’d better do the honors and put on the finishing touches.”

  Looking much less surly than she had when they started, Jazmyn reached as high as she could to shove in the nose but she couldn’t reach the top so Devin scooped her up and held her while she positioned the cowboy hat at a jaunty angle.

  “There. Perfect.”

  “It’s the best snowman ever,” Ty declared.

  “I don’t know if it’s the best one ever but it’s the best one I’ve ever built,” Jazmyn agreed.

  Devin fought a smile. Beneath her contrariness, Jazmyn was actually a very sweet girl. She simply had strong opinions and wasn’t afraid to share them. That wasn’t a bad trait at all, only one that perhaps needed tempering. She needed to learn that her viewpoint didn’t necessarily trump all others.

  “We should build a friend for him,” Ty said.

  “Looks like he already has some.” Devin pointed to a couple of finches who had fluttered to a landing atop the snowman’s hat.

  Both children giggled and they stood still for a moment, watching the birds hop around the hat, while the beautiful view of the lake and valley stretched out below them.

  “Can we build another snowman?” Jazmyn asked. “That way he won’t have to be alone here when the birds fly away and it gets dark.”

  “It can be smaller. Maybe like a big brother and a little brother,” Ty said.

  “Of course. Now that we know how to do it, we should be able to make one in a snap.”

  They had finished the bottom two balls when she noticed a man come out of the small house not far from the main house. He picked up a snow shovel from the porch and started working on the small driveway and walkway, all of which looked mostly clear.

  He seemed to be watching them all intently. When Jazmyn spotted him, he waved. She returned it kind of halfheartedly, then dropped her hand quickly.

  Even from here, she thought the man’s shoulders slumped a little.

  “Who’s that man?” she asked Jazmyn.

  “Oh.” The girl shifted her gaze guiltily. “That’s our grandpa Stan. Don’t tell my dad I waved at him, okay? We’re not supposed to talk to him, never ever ever. We’re supposed to pretend he’s invisible.”

  Ty glanced down at the little house. “Dad says if we ignore him, maybe he’ll go away, like a stray dog.”

  “But then he said we shouldn’t say that because it’s not very nice to stray dogs,” Jazmyn added.

  She remembered what Tricia had said the night before. I’m not saying Cole doesn’t have his reasons for being angry, but people can change, right? Dad is trying.

  What problem did Cole have with his father? It must be something intense if he warned his children away from even waving at the man.

  This appeared to be yet another tangled strand in the knotted, complicated life here at Evergreen Springs.

  They started in on the head and were rolling it in the last untrampled patch of snow when Cole headed around the house. He paused for a moment, watching them with an inscrutable expression on his features.

  He wore a ranch coat and a black Stetson—much nicer than the one on their snowman. Devin told herself that little jerky skip in her heart rate was only because of the exertion and the cold.

  “You’re not done yet? I thought you’d be all wrapped up out here.”

  “Almost,” Jazmyn said. “We decided to make two snowmen.”

  “They’re friends,” Ty added.

  Devin smiled. “You’re just in time to help us put the head on. That’s the hardest part.”

  He didn’t look thrilled at the job but she had to give him credit for at least pretending to get into the spirit of the thing. He lifted up the snowman’s head and set it atop the other two stacked balls. “There you go. Looks great. I see you used my old cowboy hat.”

  “I hope that’s okay,” she said.

  He shrugged. “It’s so old, it’s a wonder any of the stitching still holds. I’m not sure why it was still hanging around. I thought I threw it away ages ago.”

  “We need another hat,” Ty said suddenly. “I want to find one for this snowman.”

  “You pick the hat and I’ll find another scarf,” Jazmyn ordered.

  Her brother acquiesced—Devin had a feeling he did a lot of that—and the two of them ra
ced into the house.

  The ancient border collie lifted her head and watched them go, then went back to sleep while a few more finches fluttered atop the cowboy hat of the bigger snowman.

  Devin was ridiculously aware of Cole. She had no idea why she was so drawn to this rough, taciturn rancher; she only knew she didn’t like it. At all.

  “Thanks for spending a little time with the kids. They seemed to enjoy it and it helped me get a few things done without having to stop every few minutes to deal with some crisis.”

  “We had a good time,” she said. “I think it helps make the place look a little more festive for the holidays, don’t you?”

  “Um, sure.”

  She thought about keeping her mouth shut, but the kids had mentioned a Christmas tree several times while building the snowmen. It was obviously something that mattered to them and she wasn’t sure their father quite grasped how important it was.

  “Jazmyn and Ty were telling me that you always cut a live Christmas tree here at Evergreen Springs.”

  “Yeah. It’s on the list. Things have been a little crazy around here the last few weeks. We were planning to go today but with Tricia in the hospital, I’m not sure when we’ll get to it.”

  “Is that something I could help you with?”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  COLE GAZED DOWN at the soft and pretty doctor. Her cheeks were rosy from the cold, which ought to clash horribly with her auburn hair. Instead, she somehow looked fresh and sweet and adorable.

  He let out a breath. He did not understand this woman. First she brought boxes of food for him, then she spent an hour out building a snowman with his kids. Now she was offering to help him cut down a Christmas tree.

  “Have you ever cut down a Christmas tree before?” he asked, eyebrows raised.

  “Me? No. Heavens, no. My mom always insisted on an artificial tree, though I think one year my dad bought a real one out at the tree lot south of town, just for the smell. How hard can it be, though?”

  “Harder than you might think,” he answered. “It’s not just about cutting down the tree. We could be up there and back in a half hour, as long as we find the right one quickly. But then the whole thing always seems to turn into an all-day thing, with setting it in the stand so it’s straight, then finding the lights, checking them for dead bulbs, hanging them on the tree, finding the box in the attic that has the ornaments, then hanging those, too, just so.”

  He shrugged. “With the new horses that have come in the last few weeks, I just haven’t had the time to spare.”

  “I understand. But can I be blunt?”

  He couldn’t help his wry response. “Judging from our short acquaintance, I’m going to go with yes.”

  She made a face. “May I be blunt, then.”

  This was the part where she was going to tell him what a terrible, neglectful father he was. Yeah. He knew all that.

  “The children need a Christmas tree,” she said, confirming his suspicions. “This year, more than ever.”

  “They told you about their mother?”

  “Tricia told me last night. I’m so sorry.”

  Did she think he mourned Sharla? He felt the loss only for his children’s sake. “Then you have to understand the way things are right now. Jazmyn and Ty are still grieving and lost, and they don’t want to be here with me right now. Whatever you might think, a Christmas tree is not going to be some secret healing balm to make us one big happy family.”

  “It’s not about the tree,” she insisted. “It’s about the process of cutting it down with them, about helping them build new traditions while still providing the comfort of continuing with old ones.”

  He wanted to tell her she was crazy but her words had the resonance of truth. He had to do something about Christmas for the children. Yeah, none of them was much in the mood for Christmas but they needed to go through the motions if they had any chance of returning to a place of normalcy and healing.

  “Okay. I get your point. I need to make time, even though it’s tough. Fine. I’ll take them to cut a tree. I’ve got an hour or so before the vet is supposed to be here. We can do it in that time if we leave now. Maybe we can find time to decorate it tomorrow or Monday after school.”

  She pursed her lips again, giving him a wild desire to lean down and nibble on them. What the hell was wrong with him? Didn’t he have enough on his plate right now without tossing in inappropriate lust for a curvy little doctor with kissable lips and a tiny smattering of freckles over her nose?

  “I’ll tell you what. If you cut the tree down, I’ll stick around and decorate it with the kids. You won’t have to do anything. You can go back to your horses or your ranch accounts or whatever you need to do.”

  He frowned. “Nobody told me we’ve become the Haven Point charity project for the month.”

  “You can look at it that way and be all grumpy and suspicious. Or you can simply say thank you.”

  She was right. He was being an ass. She was being more than nice and he was fighting it every step of the way.

  “This whole needing-help gig is tough for a guy like me. I’m not real crazy about it.”

  “I get it. They say the first step is the hardest.”

  He couldn’t help himself. He chuckled. It wasn’t much of a laugh and sounded a little rusty to him, but she stared at him as if he’d just sprouted stick arms like the snowmen and started waltzing with one of them.

  After a startled moment, she smiled, too, and he felt a sharp kick to his gut. Oh, she was lovely. In the sunlight, amid all the fresh snow, she looked as bright and pretty as a gleaming Christmas angel ornament.

  Looking at her reminded him of the same feeling he had when he was doing morning chores and walked out of the barn to find a brilliant winter sunrise over the Redemptions—breathless, awed and a little humbled that he had been lucky enough to see it.

  “Just think,” she said. “Give your kids an hour of your time right now and then you don’t have to think about the tree again until you take it down after Christmas, except for watering it.”

  He released a long sigh as the kids came running back out of the house. He had a million things to do for Christmas. Tricia had made a to-do list for him after Thanksgiving and she had even picked up a couple of presents for the kids but he still had the bulk of their shopping to do. He planned to go online after they were in bed so he could order a few more gifts.

  The Christmas tree had been a huge part of his to-do list. Dr. Shaw was right. Kids needed that sort of thing. He used to love going with his grandfather up to the thick evergreen forest above the house to pick out a tree. Even after he’d grown older and tried to pretend it was a pain in the neck, he still enjoyed it.

  He would love to be able to check that off—especially if she was sincere about helping him decorate.

  He still didn’t get why she wanted to help him and his struggling little family, but only a stupid man would turn down a pretty woman offering to take on a task he had been dreading.

  Cole was plenty of things, but he wasn’t stupid. Most of the time, anyway.

  He released a breath. “All right. Looks like we’re going to cut down a Christmas tree. I’ll go get my chain saw.”

  * * *

  LIFE COULD TAKE such surreal turns sometimes.

  Devin couldn’t quite believe she was sitting in a pickup truck beside Cole Barrett—a man she had met less than twenty-four hours earlier—driving up a snowy road on his ranch on her way to help him pick out a Christmas tree.

  His tough pickup was equipped with a plow and seemed to have no trouble cutting through the six inches of fresh powder as they drove through a stand of bare aspens, with their fragile white trunks.

  As they drove higher, the aspens gave way to a pine and fir forest. She could see a dozen trees that woul
d work for a Christmas tree, but he obviously had a specific destination in mind.

  “How long is this going to take?” The fun and sweet Jazmyn who had helped them build the snowpeople had reverted to Cranky Jazmyn, finding fault with everything.

  “A little longer,” Cole answered. “We try to take each year’s tree from a different area so we’re not leaving bare spots in the forest.”

  “This is dumb.” The girl pouted. “Why can’t we just go to a store and buy a tree like everybody else does?”

  “What’s the fun in that?” Cole said. He was obviously trying to be cheerful, which Devin found rather touching, considering he had been reluctant to do this in the first place. “When you cut your own, you’ll have the freshest, most beautiful tree in town. Just wait until you smell it.”

  “I was hoping we could have hot chocolate after we built the snowman,” she groused. “My mittens are wet and now I’m freezing to death.”

  Oh, the drama. Devin had to smile. “We can have hot chocolate while we wait for the tree to dry out a little before we hang the decorations. And if you take your mittens off and hand them to me, I’ll try to warm them a little on the heater up here.”

  Jazmyn grumbled a little more but handed up her mittens, which Devin held in front of the vent blowing hot air from the engine compartment.

  “Can I use the chain saw?” Ty asked.

  Cole gave a rough chuckle that seemed to shiver down her nerve endings. He glanced in the rearview mirror at his son. “I think we might need to work our way up to that, but we’ll see.”

  A moment later, he pulled the pickup truck into a little clearing surrounded on three sides by thick forest. The other looked down to the lake.

  She climbed out, speechless at the vista spread out below them. The view from his ranch house had been lovely enough but it was positively stunning at this higher elevation. She could see the entire lake in all its turquoise glory.