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?”
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