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“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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