Holiday Homecoming by Jillian Hart

Author:Jillian Hart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steeple Hill
Published: 2004-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

The sleigh slowed to a stop on snow so pure, it looked like clouds. The sun poked out between a break in the clouds to smile on the wintry forest, and a billion glimmers shone everywhere making the world so bright, it hurt to look at it.

“Notice how they sent us out to scout for trees.” Ryan’s stride was bigger than hers, and the knee-deep snow hardly troubled him.

“I noticed.” Kristin trekked beside him, working harder to keep up with him. The snow was deep and dangerous. While they weren’t in the mountains, snow pack avalanching off the ridge nearby had them sticking to the thicker woods, where the trees offered protection.

Though it made it tougher to hike. She pushed aside a branch, and snow cascaded down on her, slipping between her collar and the back of her neck. Talk about freezing. She shivered. “I don’t know if they’re trying to pair us up or give us hypothermia.”

“Yeah, notice how they didn’t offer us one of those thermoses your sister brought with her. Hot chocolate?”

“And coffee.” Kristin knew from experience. “When we were kids, Mom would bundle all of us up and Granddad would come by on his sled. Gramma was the one who brought the hot drinks then, and a bag of homemade Christmas cookies, too, and we’d sing carols all the way up and all the way back. But things change.”

“People leave you.”

“Yep. First Granddad. Then Allison. You said it doesn’t seem right without your dad. That’s the way it is with me, too. I don’t know how my sisters do it. They go on, they get married, have kids. I don’t know. I guess they’ve coped with it in their own ways, but I can’t pretend Allison didn’t die. It’s like saying she didn’t exist, that she didn’t matter.”

“Yeah.” Ryan sounded choked. “Yeah.”

Because it hurt, she said nothing more. Let the cold chap her face and burn down her throat when she breathed. “What about that one?”

“I think it would be just the right size for Mom’s living room. Here, let me get this contraption started.” Pointing the tip downward, safely away from their feet, he yanked on the starter. The small motor coughed before it started on the second pull. The earsplitting whine shattered the serenity.

Kristin held the shoulder-high cedar by the trunk, as Ryan knelt to dig the saw into the bark at the snow line. The vibration rocketed through her arm until the tree came loose. The roar died, and Ryan set the saw aside as she kept the young tree from falling on its perfect branches.

Yep, he was a Montana boy at heart, just as he’d said. He handled the chain saw with the same competence that he did everything.

When he helped her lay the tree gently on its side in the snow, the solid length of his arm bumped hers. He was one hundred percent substantial man. Dependable. Amazing.

Was it her imagination, or was her pulse skyrocketing?

He hiked the chain saw up by the handle.

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