Evergreen Springs. RaeAnne Thayne

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.”