Evergreen Springs

“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 raced 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 (#ulink_373e297b-b1b7-5551-8138-966edb868e94)

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.