Countdown to First Night: Winter's HeartSnowbound at New YearA Kiss at Midnight

by Jillian Hart

  “Exactly. I thought, who was this incredibly handsome man and why did he have a hold of my heart?” Her eyes sparkled as she leaned against the counter. “When he introduced himself, only then did I realize who he was. I hadn’t seen him in years. He proposed on New Year’s Eve, and no way could I go back to Seattle after that. I wound up staying here and taking over my mom’s business.”

  “You don’t seem unhappy living here.”

  “I love this town. It’s small, it’s friendly, the mountains are beautiful. Couldn’t imagine a nicer place to raise my kids.”

  “Exactly. How long have you been married?”

  “Fifteen years.” Jules smiled her happiness. “How about you?”

  “It was three years for me. Paul was my high school sweetheart.”

  “It doesn’t get better than that.” Jules beamed. “You were happy together. I can see it in your eyes.”

  “Happy?” Absolutely. “Paul and I disagreed on everything. He drove me crazy half the time always doing everything the opposite way I would have done it. We laughed together almost constantly, and when he was gone there was a hole in my life that could never be filled.”

  “No, nothing can ever be the same after that.” Jules tilted her head to one side, nodding slowly in understanding. “Love can’t be replaced. But I’m glad you’re here. I just wish I could offer you a permanent job, but in this economy—”

  “I’m grateful for a few days. Believe me.” Every little bit counted, especially if she found a job somewhere else and had to move on. She’d need deposit and rent money. “There. The cinnamon rolls are done. Anything else you need me to ice?”

  “You are an excellent froster.” Jules studied Shelby’s work. “Couldn’t have done better myself. A nice, generous layer, too.”

  “What’s a cinnamon roll without lots of thick, gooey frosting? That’s what I want to know.”

  “I like your outlook.” Jules winked, glancing again toward the door. “Okay, the noon rush is mostly over. Why don’t you go on your break. When you come back, I’ll train you for the counter. That’s where you’ll be primarily for the First Night celebration. Hi, Ronan. I wondered if that was you.”

  “She has supersonic hearing,” the man explained as he ambled into sight.

  Ronan Winters in the night had been impressive, but in full daylight he was breathtaking. Hard muscles, solid strength and steely masculinity. He moved with the easy athleticism of a man confident in his own skin. Add to that his dark hair a rich shade of molasses, freshly shaven face, showing off lean cheeks and strong jaw, and her heart stammered frantically. Oops, maybe it was because he made her forget to breathe.

  “Ronan.” His name caught in her throat. Likely because she still wasn’t breathing. Heat scorched her face as she met his gaze. They were practically strangers. Except it didn’t feel that way. Not at all.

  “I had to drop by and see how you were doing. Call me curious.” His dark winter jacket was partly unzipped, revealing a navy Henley beneath it. Worn jeans hugged his lean, long legs. Definitely not the boy he’d been. Nope, not at all.

  “She’s doing great,” Jules piped up. “Just sending her off for lunch. Maybe you ought to show her around. Acquaint her with a few of the nearby shops. I heard a rumor the Ludwigs are hoping to hire a new soda-fountain clerk.”

  “I’ll take her by.” His cheek faintly tingled where she’d kissed it. She stood there in a pink-and-green ruffled apron, her luxurious hair tied into a ponytail. Cute. “Ready for lunch?”

  “Sure, but I brought mine.” She reached around to untie her apron. “I’m brown bagging it. Granny made me a roast-turkey sandwich. Leftovers from Christmas. Come to think of it, those sandwiches are huge, much too much for little old me to eat. Why don’t you join me. You’d keep all that food from going to waste.”

  “Can’t say no to that. I’ve had your grandma’s roast-turkey sandwiches. I was laid up with a busted leg for a while, and she took it on herself to feed me.”

  “Look at him, being modest.” Jules took Shelby’s apron and hung it on a wall hook. “A busted leg, my foot. Don’t believe him for a minute.”

  “What else shouldn’t I believe about this man?” She ducked into the break room and emerged with the bagged lunch.

  “He broke more than a leg, but I’ll let him tell you that story.” Jules handed her her coat and hand-knit scarf. “Stay warm, now. A Texas girl like you isn’t used to this cold.”

  “No kidding. I nearly froze my nose off coming to work. It was going to take me at least ten minutes to scrape the ice off my car, so I hoofed it. This town might be a winter wonderland, but the scraping-snow thing wasn’t in the brochure.”

  “We keep that under wraps.” He took Shelby’s coat and held it for her. “Think of it as—”

  “Deceptive advertising?” She slid her arm into the sleeves.

  “More like accentuating the positive.” Her hair brushed his chin as he helped her into her coat. “Looking on the bright side.”

  “That is my exact philosophy.” She moved away before he could help settle the garment on her shoulders. “Right now, for instance, I could be seeing your dropping by as an inconvenient thing.”

  “Inconvenient? Great.” He held open the back door for her. “That makes me feel better. Glad I stopped by.”

  “Hey, I said could.” She breezed past him, and he followed in her wake. “But clearly this is my chance to pay my debt to you. See? The bright side.”

  “Don’t think I’ve forgotten what you owe me.” He fell in stride beside her in the alley. “That kiss you planted on me last night isn’t going to do it.”

  “What kiss? I don’t remember any kiss.” She looked up at him, blinking innocently.

  “I must have misspoken. I do that sometimes.” He’d thought of little else but that kiss. Its innocence stuck with him like a sunbeam on a winter’s day. “All I seem to remember is your promise.”

  “Well, let me make good on it.” She stopped in the alley, framed by tall brick buildings on either side. The busy street behind her teemed with activity, but all he could see was her.

  He pulled open a steel door next to an empty garbage bin. “You can pay me back in a bit. Right now, I have plans for you.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of. What kind of plans exactly?” She feigned suspicion as she waltzed past him into the dark bowels of the building. Bare bulbs lit the way down a narrow hallway.

  “You’ll see. Trust me.”

  “I wound up marrying the last man who said that to me.” She shook her head. “I’ve been leery of the phrase ever since.”

  “Well, I overheard what you said to Jules. You were happily married.” He held another door for her, leading to a big common area full of shoppers. An indoor mall, she realized as he led the way up a set of wide iron stairs.

  “Guilty as charged.” She caught sight of a food court up ahead. White plastic tables and chairs sat beneath an awning of twinkle lights, all set up for the upcoming New Year’s celebration. “I was truly happy in my marriage. Every day was better than the last. Because of Paul, I know what true love is.”

  “That had to be hard to lose.”

  “Yes. There’s a saying my daddy taught me. Don’t cry because it ended, smile because it happened.” She didn’t want to talk about the grief, giving birth without Paul by her side, knowing he would never see their daughter. “It hasn’t been easy, but it got me through.”

  “You haven’t changed all that much.” He took the brown bag from her and handed it across the counter at a hot-dog stand. “Heat this up for me, Mel, would ya?”

  “Sure thing.” A plump man with a goatee took the sack and headed to a microwave on the counter behind him. He quirked one heavy black eyebrow. “Your usual?”

  “Make it two.” Ronan’s large hand land
ed on the curve of her shoulder. “Turn around and take a look at the view.”

  She tried to ignore the searing heat from his touch and the comfort of it. The instant she gazed through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the cloud-shrouded mountains she was hooked. Thick white cotton-candy clouds broke apart to reveal hints of the powder-blue sky behind. The sun’s rays pierced the clouds like a sign of hope. After every storm, the sun shone again.

  “It’s breathtaking.” The mountain peaks dominated the horizon, so close she felt as if she could reach out and touch the thick snow clouds. It looked as if it was storming in the mountains. Fresh snow textured the evergreens blanketing the mountainside, and the white town spread out before her. Light posts, old-fashioned and charming, lined the streets below, where workers put up banners advertising the coming festivities. Everything looked too cozy to be real. If she blinked, the scene might disappear. “Granny always traveled to see us for Christmas. I’ve never been here in winter.”

  “It’s really something, isn’t it? Whenever I was away from home and things got tough, this is where I would go in my head.”

  “I can see why. Those mountains, that sky, it’s like you can just breathe them in, all that beauty.” Okay, that didn’t exactly make sense, but it was hard to think with his hand on her shoulder. It was hard to make sense of anything when he stood so near. His hand on her shoulder was a connection that eased the ache of loneliness in her. She felt his body’s heat, reminding her he was a man. An attractive, solid man.

  An old friend. “No wonder you’ve never left this place.”

  “Now, I didn’t say that.” He broke away to draw out a chair for her at a nearby table. “I’ve spent my time away from Snow Falls, but there’s nothing like coming back. Coming home.”

  “No kidding. This town does feel like home, or close to it. That’s good enough for me.” She slipped into the chair he held for her, doing her best not to meet his eyes. No way did she want him to know everything she’d been through. “When you left town, where did you go?”

  “I got a notion to join the marines. See the world. Make a difference.” He dipped his chiseled chin. Mel called him and he bounded over to the counter.

  So that explained the man’s steely, quiet confidence. His do-anything aura. The discipline that radiated from him.

  “These are the best fries in town.” Ronan set two red baskets on the table, lined with red-checked paper. Half the turkey, stuffing and gravy sandwich steamed alongside a generous heap of seasoned steak fries. “Hope your favorite drink is still the same.”

  “Absolutely. Why change a good thing?”

  “My philosophy, too.” He dropped into the chair across from her. Definitely hard not to like a man who shared her love of cherry lemonade. He leaned in. “Is Georgia watching your kids?”

  “Watching them? Oh, no, she’s spoiling them.” She unwrapped her straw and poked it through the plastic lid. “When I left the house this morning, she was making them snowman pancakes. I caught her decorating those snowmen with candies. Hate to think of how fast they’ll buzz around her house with all that sugar.”

  “Georgia’s got a lot of energy. She can keep up with them.”

  “Right, ’cause she ate the pancakes, too.” Shelby took a sip of lemonade. Sweet, tangy. “Poor Granny. She’s campaigning hard to find me a permanent job here.”

  He uncapped the ketchup bottle and upended it over his fries.

  She freed a couple paper napkins from the dispenser in the middle of the table.

  “How long have you been between jobs?” He tackled the sandwich with a plastic knife and fork. He’d learned that from prior experience with Georgia’s sandwiches. “Don’t try to make light of things, either. You’re driving a twenty-six-year-old car and everything you own was in the trunk.”

  “You don’t want to hear about my problems, Ronan. They’re a downer and I’m trying to stay positive.”

  Her sunny outlook was one thing he’d always been drawn to. “Sometimes it’s healthy to talk about things. Share the load. It’s got to be hard carrying everything around on those skinny shoulders of yours.”

  “Skinny?” She arched an eyebrow at him. “That word used to insult me back in the day. Remember how angry I’d get at you when you called me that?”

  “I do, but it was the truth.”

  “After having two kids, you just won my heart, Ronan Winters. Then again, you’ve either seen me sitting behind the wheel, with my coat on, or wearing that apron.”

  “What about now?”

  “I’m hiding behind the table. You just keep on calling me skinny.” She flashed a smile at him.

  He was the one who’d lost his heart.

  “Two years. That’s when I lost my job answering phones at a law firm.” She tackled her half sandwich with a knife and fork. “We were all right for a while. I still had some of Paul’s life insurance money, so I wasn’t panicking yet. I found a job in Beaumont. It was an hour drive, but it was a job. Eight months later, that law firm cut back on employees and I was out.”

  “I’m seeing a pattern here.”

  “I’ve worked fast food, made lattes, scrubbed floors and delivered pizza. None of it was enough to keep up with the mortgage. I couldn’t sell the house before the bank seized it. Look at that worry on your face. Hope it’s not for me.”

  “Not at all. I was worrying about Mel over there. He’s battling a case of gout.”

  “That’s good.” Her ponytail bounced over one shoulder. She made a pretty picture sitting there, sipping from her straw with the mountains behind her through the windows. Life had given her a hard run lately, but she hadn’t let it harden her. When his eyes met hers, he saw the innocent, gentle girl he’d known as a child.

  “It’s all going to work out,” she declared. “I’ve filled out one thousandish applications.”

  “Anyone would be a fool not to hire you.” He looked away. Before she’d driven into Snow Falls, he’d been afraid he might never truly feel again. That somewhere in the dark underground tunnels of the Afghanistan mountains, he’d lost the gentler places in him.

  He took another bite of roast turkey. “Sounds like Georgia is doing her best to keep you here. Maybe I’ll help the cause.”

  “I won’t turn down help.” She nibbled on a fry, studying him thoughtfully. “I’m glad we crossed paths again, Ronan.”

  “Me, too.” He swallowed hard against the affection welling up and threatening to overtake him. What surprised him most was he wanted to let it.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “YOU KNOW ME—NOSY. So I have to ask.” Shelby tapped the display glass above the chocolate razzle-dazzle-flavor ice cream, on special for the New Year’s celebration. The gal behind the counter nodded and grabbed her scoop. “Why hasn’t some woman snatched you up and put a ring on your finger?”

  “Uh, I’m a fast runner? I’m hard to catch?” His dangerous dimples ought to be illegal. “I see a woman with marriage on her mind and I flee the country?”

  “Ah, mystery solved. You’re one of those men. Commitment shy. Afraid to grow up.” She winked as the woman behind the counter handed over the cone. “You know the type, don’t you?”

  “Do I. Men like that? A dime a dozen.” Ashley, according to her name tag, gave Ronan an appreciative assessment. Proof that if he’d wanted to be caught, he would have been.

  “I prefer real men.”

  “Hey, I’m a bona fide man. Aside from the commitment issue,” he defended lightly. “That cone looks good. I’ll take one, too.”

  “Reach for your wallet, and you and I are gonna have problems.” Shelby pulled a ten-dollar bill from her pocket. “He’ll take three scoops.”

  “Proof you know me.” He eased in behind her at the counter, tall man, unmistakable presence. “So, you’re paying up on that debt all a
t once?”

  “No need to drag it out.” Breathe, Shelby, she thought, suspecting she knew exactly why it felt as if all the oxygen molecules had been sucked out of the atmosphere. “I’m not one to let an ice-cream debt slide.”

  “The last time a pretty girl bought me ice cream I was ten.”

  “An unlikely story I don’t believe. How about you, Ashley?” She slid the greenback on the counter.

  “Not one bit. With a line like that, he looks like a player to me.” She handed over the triple cone.

  “A player? Yep, you called it.” Shelby bit the side of her mouth to keep from laughing. “Slick, smooth, thinks he’s charming.”

  This was fun. The glint of humor in his eyes wasn’t half-bad, either. “So that’s why you’ve never settled down. You just play one female after another.”

  “I have a way with the ladies, what can I say? It’s a gift.” Mr. Slick accidentally stumbled over his own boot on the way to the door. The look of surprise on his face? Priceless. “Well, maybe not a gift, but real close.”

  “Right.” She stepped out into the wintry air to join the madness on the sidewalk. People were arriving to fill the cobbled streets for the First Night celebration tomorrow. Bright banners snapped in the wind overhead and festive light displays topped the old-fashioned street lamps. She could just make out the closed-off street up ahead and the giant walls of ice, where workers were putting the finishing touches on the snow maze. Now, that looked like fun. Something the kids would definitely want to do. She’d make sure to tell them all about it when she got home.

  “What about you?” His baritone’s rich cadence did something amazing to her stomach. It was really hard to ignore all those tingles.

  “What about me?” she asked, a little dazed—no, not dazed, she corrected. Confused. All this commotion on the street, everything going on, it was muddling her, making it hard to concentrate.

  “You’ve been widowed six years. That’s a long time.” She sighed as he fell into stride beside her. Her senses felt hyperaware, noticing everything.