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,
