“Yes, I do. I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you when you said you...loved me. I was afraid. And then I saw that stocking today and all the wonderful gifts inside, and I realized something. You would never hurt me. You see the real me more clearly than anyone else in my life ever has. Better than I see myself.”
“I see an amazing, courageous, beautiful woman who gives away her own carefully purchased and wrapped Christmas gifts to strangers in need.”
She blushed. “And I see a man who cares enough about a woman he barely knows that he’ll do whatever it takes to make her dreams come true. I love you, Jamie. I’ve loved you forever. You were my secret crush from the time you moved to Haven Point, but it was only after I saw how sweet you were to the boys, how kind you were to your family, that I came to love the real you. The one beneath the teasing and the flirting. That’s the man I love.”
He had to kiss her again after that, of course, a kiss he never wanted to end.
He only wore a sweater against the December wind and snow, but with her tucked up against him, he didn’t feel the cold.
Christmas was magical. Why hadn’t he ever fully realized that? It was a time of miracle and hope and second chances.
She was everything he had been looking for all his life, all the things he never realized he needed.
“It’s cold,” he said after several more long moments. “I can’t keep you out here all night.”
“I wouldn’t mind, as long as you were with me. I’m fine going inside, too. If you want to. We’ve probably missed the Christmas story, but I’d love to see your other family traditions.”
He wanted to take her back to her house, to tuck them both under that beautiful, sensuous canopy and spend hours keeping away the cold.
There would be plenty of time for that. The future stretched out ahead of them, full of kisses and laughter and adventure.
“You know my family is crazy, right? Full disclosure. If we go back in there together, they won’t give us a moment’s peace. My brothers can be relentless.”
She smiled, not looking at all cowed by the prospect. She loved his family, and it was clear they all adored her.
“You know they only want you to be happy,” she said.
He kissed her again as the snowflakes swirled just beyond the porch and the Christmas lights glittered around them. “They will get their wish, then. I am happier than I ever believed possible.”
They turned to go inside, to join his family in celebrating this season of miracles.
EPILOGUE
“AND THEN WE went to the beach and we walked out on the pier and we saw surfers and people riding bikes without coats on and we even saw two whales!”
“No way!” she exclaimed to Davy. He beamed out of her computer screen at her, so vibrant and alive that she had to smile, deeply grateful for the miracle of technology that allowed her to see them through a video call, if not in person.
“How was your Christmas, Clint?” she asked the older brother, who stood just to the left of Davy.
Clint smiled, though a little less exuberantly than Davy had. “Pretty good. We loved our stockings you made us. Thanks.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Davy said. “We’re drawing you pictures to say thanks, and Aunt Suzi said we can mail them tomorrow.”
“I will look forward to getting them,” she said. “Mail is one of my favorite things. And you’re very welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed the stockings.”
“I already started reading that book you got me, the one about the dragon,” Clint said.
“Oh, I’m so glad. It’s a great one. I think you’ll love it.”
“Did you get our presents?” Davy asked.
She thought of the gifts Jamie had pulled out from under the tree, the hand-painted scarf and beaded earrings he and the boys had secretly purchased during the Lights on the Lake festival.
When she’d opened the gifts, she had wept for the boys she had only been able to love a short time, but this time she had Jamie to hold her. The pain of losing them hadn’t been as intense with him there to share it.
She would be forever grateful she’d had the chance to get to know these two sweet boys. They had changed her, had helped her open her heart.
Maybe she could enter the foster parent program through traditional channels. There were many children out there who needed love, and she had a heart overflowing with it. They talked a few more moments about their bedrooms and swimming in their pool and seeing their friends again.
“Do you think we could Skype with Jamie?” Clint asked. “Is he home upstairs?”
“He’s not. He had some errands to run.”
She didn’t tell them Jamie was no longer living upstairs. He was still at Snow Angel Cove but would move into his condo later that week.
She would have loved to have him closer, but they both felt it would have been too strange for her to rent to him now, at this new stage of their relationship. Neither of them was quite ready to move in together, though she knew in her heart this was real and right.
Every moment she was with him only strengthened her love for him.
“Will you have him call us?” Clint said.
“Yeah. I want to tell him about the airplane we flew to California. We had to wait forever to get on it. It was huge and we were way in the back of the plane and all they had to eat were pretzels,” Davy said with a note of disgust.
She swallowed a laugh. These two little boys would be forever spoiled for regular air travel, considering their first trips had been on a private jet.
“I’ll tell him.”
“We gotta go. We’re gonna go ride bikes. I’ll call you again, okay?” Davy said.
“I’m counting on it. Goodbye, my dears.”
After the call disconnected, she gazed at her screen for a long moment, aware of the tiny ribbon of sadness curling through her.
She couldn’t be too sad, though. The boys were both obviously very happy in their new lives, in a home where people loved them. She was just closing her laptop when her door opened, and Jamie walked in carrying a large white box wrapped in a red ribbon.
“What’s this?” she asked. She didn’t need more gifts. Not when she had already enjoyed the most joyous Christmas she could ever imagine.
He gave her a wide-eyed, guileless expression that didn’t fool her for a second. “I don’t know. I found it on the porch. Look, it has your name on it.”
“Christmas was three days ago, Jamie.”
“I know. Weird. I guess maybe somebody couldn’t quite get this one to you on time. Maybe you better open it.”
He set it on her coffee table, then stepped back with that same air of innocence that left her more than a little wary—and completely charmed.
She was so in love with him. She never would have believed she could be this deliriously happy. It didn’t matter that it was December, that they were in for a blizzard, that the clouds were heavy and full of snow. Her world had never seemed so sunny and bright.
Cautiously she opened the lid of the box, then gasped at the sight of a little tan fur ball of a puppy inside. He was adorable, with the squished-up face and sad-looking eyes of a pug.
“Where did you...where did he come from?”
“I’ve got a friend who works at the county animal shelter. I asked her if she knew of any well-mannered little dogs in the shelter. She told me about this one. He’s a pug, obviously, with a little mutt thrown in, and he’s four months old and almost house-trained.”
“Almost?”
He grinned. “Think about how much you love a challenge. Plus, you work at a library and can check out all the books on puppy training in your entire collection.”
She laughed and shook her head. The little guy was truly the sweetest thing she’d ever seen. But a puppy! She c
ouldn’t take on a puppy right now. Could she?
She scooped him up, and he immediately licked her hand and wriggled with delight when she petted him. Oh, he was adorable.
“His name is Humphrey Bogart. How perfect is that? And I haven’t told you the best thing yet.”
“What’s that?”
“He adores cats.”
As if on cue, Empress, Tabitha and Audrey Hepburn sauntered in the room to investigate. Their backs arched, their tails curled and they looked positively appalled to find a puppy in their midst.
Julia set him down, and Humphrey happily waddled from cat to cat to introduce himself. He seemed completely unfazed, even when they hissed at him balefully. Eventually, he plopped into the middle of the floor and started chewing a little toy Jamie pulled from the box. Only then did the cats wander closer, and within minutes the contrary things seemed to be vying over who got to sit next to him.
“What do you think?” Jamie asked. “You don’t have to keep him. I told my friend at the shelter that I would find someone else to take him if you thought it was too much.”
“You’re not taking him anywhere,” she said, her heart bursting with love for this man. “He’s perfect. I love him.”
She had no idea how she would juggle caring for a puppy in her already busy life, but she had figured out how to take care of two little boys. How hard could one cute pug be?
“Get a puppy. That was the last thing on your list,” Jamie said with a grin. He sat on the sofa and pulled her down onto his lap. “Look at you, Miss Overachiever. It’s not even New Year’s Eve, and you’ve accomplished all your goals. I bet nobody else in your book club can say the same.”
She laughed, rolling her eyes as she kissed him. That stupid list had completely changed her life. She owed Roxy Nash far more than a pitcher of sangria.
“Now what will you wish for?” Jamie asked, after several long, glorious moments.
“I have no idea,” she said honestly. “What does a girl wish for when she has everything she ever wanted?”
“Fair enough.” Jamie gave that wicked smile she was coming to adore. “I guess that means it’s time we start working on my list.”
He whispered something in her ear, something that made her laugh so hard she couldn’t breathe. And while the three cats vied for the pudgy puppy’s attention and the tree lights twinkled and snowflakes danced outside, they made each other’s dreams come true.
* * * * *
Come home to Winder Ranch in these two beloved stories, where broken hearts can find exactly what they meed to heal—and love again.
Read on for a sneak peek at The Pines of Winder Ranch: A Cold Creek Homecoming by RaeAnne Thayne!
There’s no sweeter place to fall in love...
Don’t miss any of the titles in the captivating Haven Point series!
Serenity Harbor
Snowfall on Haven Point
Riverbend Road
Evergreen Springs
Redemption Bay
Snow Angel Cove
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“[Thayne] engages the reader’s heart and emotions, inspiring hope and the belief that miracles are possible.”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber
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The Pines of Winder Ranch: A Cold Creek Homecoming
by RaeAnne Thayne
Chapter One
“YOU’RE HOME!”
The thin, reedy voice whispering from the frail
woman on the bed was nothing like Quinn Southerland remembered.
Though she was small in stature, Jo Winder’s voice had always been firm and commanding, just like the rest of her personality. When she used to call them in for supper, he and the others could hear her voice ringing out loud and clear from one end of the ranch to the other. No matter where they were, they knew the moment they heard that voice, it was time to go back to the house.
Now the woman who had done so much to raise him—the toughest woman he had ever known—seemed a tiny, withered husk of herself, her skin papery and pale and her voice barely audible.
The cracks in his heart from watching her endure the long months and years of her illness widened a little more. To his great shame, he had a sudden impulse to run away, to escape back to Seattle and his business and the comfortable life he had created for himself there, where he could pretend this was all some kind of bad dream and she was immortal, as he had always imagined.
Instead, he forced himself to step forward to the edge of the bed, where he carefully folded her bony fingers in his own much larger ones, cursing the cancer that was taking away this woman he loved so dearly.
He gave her his most charming smile, the one that never failed to sway any woman in his path, whether in the boardroom or the bedroom.
“Where else would I be but right here, darling?”
The smile she offered in return was rueful and she lifted their entwined fingers to her cheek. “You shouldn’t have come. You’re so busy in Seattle.”
“Never too busy for my best girl.”
Her laugh was small but wryly amused, as it always used to be when he would try to charm his way out of trouble with her.
Jo wasn’t the sort who could be easily charmed but she never failed to appreciate the effort.
“I’m sorry to drag you down here,” she said. “I...only wanted to see all of my boys one last time.”
He wanted to protest that his foster mother would be around for years to come, that she was too tough and ornery to let a little thing like cancer stop her, but he couldn’t deny the evidence in front of him.
She was dying, was much closer to it than any of them had feared.
“I’m here, as long as you need me,” he vowed. “You’re a good boy, Quinn. You always have been.”
He snorted at that—both of them knew better about that, as well. “Easton didn’t tell me you’ve been hitting the weed as part of your treatment.”
The blankets rustled softly as her laugh shook her slight frame. “You know better than that. No mari-juana here.”
“Then what are you smoking?”
“Nothing. I meant what I said. You were always a good boy on the inside, even when you were dragging the others into trouble.”
“It still means the world that you thought so.” He kissed her forehead. “Now I can see you’re tired. You get some rest and we can catch up later.”
“I would give anything for just a little of my old energy.” Her voice trailed off on the last word and he could tell she had already drifted off, just like that, in mid-sentence. As he stood beside her bed, still holding her
fingers, she winced twice in her sleep.
He frowned, hating the idea of her hurting. He slowly, carefully, released her fingers as if they would shatter at his touch and laid them with gentle care on the bed then turned just as Easton Springhill, his distant cousin by marriage and the closest thing he had to a sister, appeared in the doorway of the bedroom.
He moved away from the bed and followed Easton outside the room.
“She seems in pain,” he said, his voice low with distress. “She is,” Easton answered. “She doesn’t say much
about it but I can tell it’s worse
the past week or so.”
“Isn’t there something we can do?”
“We have a few options. None of them last very long. The hospice nurse should be here any minute. She can give her something for the pain.” She tilted her head. “When was the last time you ate?”
He tried to remember. He had been in Tokyo when he got the message from Easton that Jo was asking for him to come home. Though he had had two more days of meetings scheduled for a new shipping route he was negotiating, he knew he had no choice but to drop ev-erything. Jo would never have asked if the situation hadn’t been dire.
So he had rescheduled everything and ordered his plane back to Pine Gulch. Counting several flight delays from bad weather over the Pacific, he had been travel-ing for nearly eighteen hours and had been awake for eighteen before that.
“I had something on the plane, but it’s been a few hours.”
“Let me make you a sandwich, then you can catch a few z’s.”
“You don’t have to wait on me.” He followed her down the long hall and into the cheery white-and-red kitchen. “You’ve got enough to do, running the ranch and taking care of Jo. I’ve been making my own sand-wiches for a long time now.”
“Don’t you have people who do that for you?”
“Sometimes,” he admitted. “That doesn’t mean I’ve
forgotten how.”
“Sit down,” she ordered him. “I know where every-thing is here.”
He thought about pushing her. But lovely as she was with her delicate features and long sweep of blond hair,
Easton could be as stubborn and ornery as Jo and he was just too damn tired for another battle.
Instead, he eased into one of the scarred pine chairs snugged up against the old table and let her fuss over him for a few moments. “Why didn’t you tell me how things were, East? She’s withered away in the three months since I’ve been home. Chester probably weighs more than she does.”
At the sound of his name, Easton’s retired old cow dog that followed her or Jo everywhere lifted his grizzled gray muzzle and thumped his black-and-white tail against the floor.
Sugar Pine Trail--A Small-Town Holiday Romance Page 29