Evergreen Springs

He hadn’t smiled once. She had been watching for it.

Was that his natural mien or did she bring out the worst in him somehow?

“I’m ready,” Ty sang out. “Where are you?”

Devin forced herself to move from the kitchen and followed the sound of the boy’s voice to the foyer. He wore a red-and-blue parka that looked a size too big and a pair of gloves that didn’t match each other.

“He should wear a scarf,” Jazmyn said. “And you need to take another scarf out for the snowman. That’s what they wear, you know.”

“Good idea.” Devin couldn’t help being amused by this girl with her strong opinions and her obstinate nature. She wanted to hug her but she had a feeling Jazmyn wouldn’t appreciate the gesture. “It sounds like you know all about snowpeople. It’s a good thing you’re coming with us to show us what to do.”

“I can’t find my gloves so maybe I’ll just watch.”

“I saw them in the mudroom behind the hamper,” Ty said, probably foiling his sister’s master plan to stand by and supervise.

“We’ll start rolling and you can come out when you’re ready,” Devin said.

“Okay.”

As she and Ty headed for the door, the ancient-looking collie climbed slowly to her feet and followed after them.

“Can Coco help us?”

“Is this Coco? Hi there, sweetheart.” Devin scratched the dog’s head. She adored dogs and had always wanted one but her mother had claimed to be allergic when she was young and then she had become too busy with medical school to make it practical. Independent cats were a little more forgiving of the brutal schedules of medical residents and interns than a dog.

Fortunately, her sister had a fabulous dog, a beautiful cinnamon standard poodle named Paprika, and she let Devin hang out with her and take her for a walk whenever she needed that exuberant canine affection.

This dog had gray hairs around her mouth and moved with the slow care of many old creatures. She had kind eyes, though, and Devin fell for her as hard as she had for these two motherless children.

“Coco is my dad’s dog. She was my dad’s grandpa’s dog before that. Dad says she’s about as old as the moon and the stars.”

She smiled at the charming phrase, words she never would have expected from a man who seemed so stiff and somber.

“Hello, Coco. Want to come help us?”

The dog headed straight for the door. Outside, she walked gingerly down the three porch steps and curled up in a little patch of sunshine at the bottom.

Devin wanted to lift her face to it, too, even though it was weak and pale.

The view from up here was spectacular, she had to admit. The ranch house at Evergreen Springs was perched on a hillside overlooking town, with a view of the entire lake and the towns of Haven Point and Shelter Springs up at the northern end of the lake.

She loved living right on the lakeshore. From her bedroom window she could watch geese peddle in for a landing and osprey dive for fish and sunrise over the Redemption Mountains reflected on the shimmering waters of Lake Haven. Even so, there was something to be said for stepping back—in this case up, into the foothills—to gain a fresh perspective. The lake looked stunningly blue against the new white snow around it, especially contrasted with the dark green of the firs and pines surrounding it.

She drew in a deep breath of crisp air scented with pine and snow, with stray hints of hay and livestock.

She had a million things to do on this, the first of a rare few days off, but right now she couldn’t imagine anywhere else she would rather be.

“Why aren’t we building the snowman?” Ty asked, a little frown furrowed between his brows.

Devin snapped herself back to the moment. “Sorry. I was just enjoying the view you’ve got here. It’s beautiful, don’t you think?”

He looked down at the lake and the towns. “I guess. I like it here but Jazmyn said she’d rather live by the ocean than a dumb lake that’s too cold to swim in most of the time.”

“Did she?”

He nodded. “But Dad said he’s traveled all over the country when he used to be in rodeos and he’s never seen anything, anywhere, as pretty as our ranch.”

Cole was turning out to be full of surprises. Maybe there was more to him than the taciturn rancher who couldn’t be bothered to crack a smile.

“Dr. Shaw, how do we build a snowman?”

“First of all, you don’t have to call me Dr. Shaw. Call me Devin, okay? People who build snowmen together ought to be on a first-name basis. Second of all, you really haven’t done this before?”

He shrugged. “We never lived in a place with snow before. That I can remember, anyway.”

She found that rather sad, as she loved each changing season. But then, people in warm climates didn’t have to shovel snow or scrape windows. Everything in life had trade-offs.

“Should we get started?”

“Yes!”

Jazmyn bounced down the steps as Devin was demonstrating to Ty how to craft the perfect snowball, the start of every snowman.

The snow was the ideal consistency, wet enough to stick together, but not so heavy it was hard to work. She crafted the first large snowball until it was too big to hold in her hands, then set it down on the ground.

“Okay. This is the fun part. Start rolling it around and around.”

Cole took up the challenge and in just a moment, the snowball had doubled in size.

“How’s that?”

“It’s still not big enough for the bottom ball,” Jazmyn declared. “I’m stronger than you are. Maybe I better do it.”

“If we all three work together, we can make it even bigger,” Devin told her. “We have to figure out where we want to end up. Where do you want the snowman to stand?”

Ty stopped, his cheeks flushed pink from the cold and the exertion. “How about right there, by the front porch, where we can see it from the window?”

“No. that won’t work,” Jazmyn said.

“Why?” he demanded.

“Because that’s where we’re going to put our Christmas tree, remember? Aunt Tricia promised we could put one up this weekend.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot.”

Devin didn’t have the heart to tell either of these children their aunt wasn’t coming home this weekend to put up a Christmas tree. She wondered if Cole had told them yet that Tricia would probably have to stay in the hospital until she delivered her twins.

“We’re going to cut down our very own tree,” Ty informed Devin. “We were going to do it last weekend except Dad didn’t have time. He had a horse ’mergency.”

“Our mom liked a fake Christmas tree. It was white with pink lights and it was soooo pretty,” Jazmyn said.

“Aunt Tricia said we can’t put up an artificial Christmas tree here,” Ty said.

Jazmyn sniffed. “I don’t know why not. I want a white tree with pink lights but Aunt Tricia said Evergreen Springs always has to have a real tree. It’s even in the name. Christmas trees are evergreens—did you know that?”

“I did.” Devin smiled, her heart aching a little at the sad note in Jazmyn’s voice when she talked about her mother. Deep compassion seeped through her for these children whose world had been tossed around as if they were pinecones floating in the fast current of the Hell’s Fury.

Personally, she thought a white tree with pink lights didn’t sound appealing, but she supposed it was like the difference between living somewhere like Haven Point or choosing a warmer climate. Everybody had personal preferences, which was what made the world such a crazy, jumbled place of both beauty and tragedy.

“Well, there are tons of evergreens at Evergreen Springs,” Jazmyn informed her. “Just look around.”

“There’s a whole forest of them,” Ty added, grunting a little as he tried to keep rolling the ball that was now up to his chest.

“I wish we had a tree already but Dad hasn’t had time,” Jazmyn said with a little note of disgust in her voice.

“He got four new horses to train this week and maybe two more coming next week,” Ty answered.

So they didn’t only raise cattle here at the ranch, apparently. Cole Barrett sounded like a busy man. Still, that was no excuse for not giving two grieving children as happy a Christmas as possible.

That was the missing element at the house, Devin suddenly realized. She had seen no sign of Christmas anywhere. No stockings hanging over that beautiful hewn-log mantel over the river-rock fireplace in the great room, no evergreen garlands twining down the staircase, no candles or bells or wreaths.

And no Christmas tree.

The holiday was now a little less than two weeks away. Busy or not, Cole would have to find time to give this to his children.

What would he do now, without his sister here to help? She could only imagine how overwhelming he must be finding this, suddenly having custody of two needy, emotionally fragile children.

Had he even bought gifts for Jazmyn and Ty?

Tricia probably would have done a few things to bring a holiday mood to the house but considering her marriage was in trouble and she was pregnant with twins, perhaps she hadn’t quite had the energy.

Not her business, Devin reminded herself. She had done her kind deed for the day, gathering freezer meals for him in an effort to take one thing off his plate until he could hire a housekeeper. She couldn’t jump in and start decorating his house.

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 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?”

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