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  She nodded and he watched as her face relaxed again. She’d definitely been jealous. An interesting observation he’d examine in depth later. Now wasn’t the time.

  “You’re right,” she said after a moment. “It’s hard not to notice and my mom, even though she never actually visits, talks to him a few times a week on the phone and she’s mentioned his memory loss as well. I’m going to talk to the doctor, too, but…” She sighed deeply. “We all agree that it might be time to get rid of the house and move him.”

  “I know it’s hard.”

  She dropped her head for a moment before looking up quickly. “I’ll bring it up with him and I’ll do my best to get him to agree, but I’m not forcing anything until after Christmas.”

  Jeremy wasn’t expecting that. “I assumed you would—”

  “Christmas,” she said with more authority. “No move until after Christmas. You didn’t see the way he lit up when he started going through his old decorations. I can’t do that to him. He needs one more Christmas in his house. He loves it.”

  Jeremy didn’t know Roy well, but he did know that much about the man. After all, he was the town Santa.

  “Okay.” He found himself agreeing. He’d deal with the chief. “And you’ll stay?” He couldn’t be sure whether he was asking for Roy or himself. “Until after Christmas?”

  She looked him in the eye and nodded slowly.

  He turned quickly so she wouldn’t see the grin that he couldn’t stop, and grabbed two mugs of the cooling hot cocoa. “We should get these out to Roy.”

  Chapter 3

  “This is the last strand.” Logan Langdon handed Jeremy another bundle of lights and Jeremy couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in question. Logan had been telling him “just a few more” for over an hour. Jeremy’s fingers were numb from cold, and even in his thick parka, he was starting to shiver.

  “I promise,” Logan said in response to his unanswered question.

  “It is.” Levi Langdon, Logan’s cousin, chimed in. “You’re lucky Hope is on bed rest, or she’d demand lights on all the trees.”

  From his perch on the ladder, Jeremy looked around the Ever After Ranch that was surrounded by dense forest and laughed. “I don’t doubt that for a minute. How is Hope doing, anyway?”

  Levi’s face lit up. He and his wife, Hope—one half of the Turner twins—were expecting their first child in a few months. It was a bit of a tricky pregnancy due to an earlier cancer diagnosis, but despite some bed rest as a precaution, everything seemed to be going just fine. “She’s doing really well, but with Christmas coming and some weddings booked up, she has these grand plans to create a winter wonderland out here.”

  “Right,” Logan chimed in. “Which means we’re basically at her beck and call creating it.” He complained, but he wore a wide grin on his face. Logan had recently married Faith, Hope’s twin sister, and was just as head over heels in love with her as Levi was with his wife. Jeremy had no doubt that both men would do whatever they could for the women they loved and the wedding business they were all part of.

  Ever After Ranch had been solely run by Hope, but Faith returned to town the previous spring to take over when Hope got sick. Right around the same time, Levi had returned to Glacier Falls and it didn’t take long for him and Hope to remember how much they’d loved each other when they were kids. So when they decided to get married and go traveling before starting a family, that left Faith alone to run the business. Thankfully, Logan stepped up to help Faith out. It was clear to everyone else in town that he’d been in love with Faith since…forever. And sure enough, it only took a few months for them both to realize it once and for all.

  Not that Jeremy begrudged any of them their happiness. They were all great people—his best friends, really—and they all deserved to be happy. But he’d be the first to admit that sometimes it wore on him that everyone around him seemed to be finding their happily ever after while he…what?

  Jeremy shook off the mood that threatened to descend over him and climbed up to the top of the ladder one last time to string up the last of the lights.

  Twenty minutes later, they were warming up in the house with mugs of steaming coffee thawing their hands.

  “I really appreciate it, Jeremy.” Faith set a plate of baked goods in front of him and reflexively he looked to Logan, who laughed.

  “They’re from Sweetie Pies,” Logan said with a laugh, earning him a smack to the arm. “Stephanie keeps us stocked in baking. I swear I’ve gained at least ten pounds.”

  Stephanie was the twin’s half-sister, a pretty recent discovery that had changed the dynamics of the Turner family. “You think you’ve gained weight,” Stephanie said as she walked into the kitchen. She rubbed her flat stomach and groaned. “But I can’t seem to stop myself. It’s just so good and after being on every no carb, low carb, no sugar, no dairy, no wheat diet out there for as long as I could remember, well…” She shrugged.

  “It’s a good thing you don’t have a role to prep for or anything,” Faith said. “Or maybe it isn’t good. Seriously, we could all use a little less baking around here.”

  “No roles coming up?” Jeremy had never known a celebrity before, and Stephanie Starz was the very definition of celebrity. In fact, she’d recently been named one of the hottest movie stars in the world.

  “Not yet.” Stephanie grabbed a scone and sat at the table. “I’m taking time off but still looking at a few scripts. If something really awesome comes up…” She tore off a piece of the baked good. “But I’ve been thinking I might want to do something else, too. Maybe a…never mind. It’s dumb.”

  “It’s not dumb,” Levi said. “It’s a great idea.” He turned to Jeremy. “She’s talking about opening a little retreat center.”

  “Not so much a center,” Steph interrupted. “Maybe just some cabins.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s still very much in the idea stage. I was talking to Nick about—”

  “Nick, huh?” Faith wiggled her eyebrow. “How is Nick?”

  Jeremy had to laugh at the family. They reminded him of the soap operas his mom used to watch when he was a kid, only with less angst. Mostly the family seemed to get along pretty well, but it wasn’t unusual for at least one of them to have some kind of drama going on.

  “Nothing is going on between Nick and me.” She spoke with such authority that no one questioned her. “We’re only friends. I haven’t even really spoken to him since he left town with the baby.”

  The baby.

  It was hard to forget that particular dramatic turn of events. In September, at Faith and Logan’s wedding celebration, a stranger had shown up out of the blue with a baby, claiming it was Nick’s responsibility. He’d been pretty much MIA since then, dealing with the details of exactly what it meant to have a baby thrust into his life.

  Jeremy still didn’t know the details about what had happened; as far as he knew, nobody did. Nick had been in the city pretty much since then, and if anyone knew what was going on, they weren’t saying.

  And he didn’t ask. Soon the conversation shifted to Christmas, and the festivities they were planning, including the orphan dinner on Christmas Eve that the fire department put on every year.

  “You’ll all be there?” he asked unnecessarily.

  “You know we will.” Faith smiled. “I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t been in years. Is your family going to be there?”

  Jeremy shook his head. “Not this year. Mom and Dad went to visit my sister, Charlotte. She’s been living on the East Coast. So I’m on my own.”

  But maybe not. The conversation swirled around him, but Jeremy was only half listening as he let his thoughts drift to the one person he’d really like to be celebrating the holidays with. Ever since Bella had mentioned she’d be staying for Christmas, he couldn’t help himself from making a bit of a Christmas wish for himself.

  One he certainly hoped would come true.

  Bella put the brochures for the assisted living homes on the kit
chen table in front of her grandfather and pasted the biggest smile she could on her face.

  “This one looks nice, don’t you think?” She tapped a finger at the glossy picture of a home in the city, close to her parents’ condo downtown. “It has a pool.”

  “A pool?” Papa looked at her as if she were the one who’d lost her mind. “Do you think I care about a pool?”

  “You might.” She knew she was grasping at straws. “It could be a lot of fun to take one of those classes with the music and belts where you kind of run in the water.”

  Her grandfather eyed her suspiciously. “You think that sounds fun?”

  She couldn’t help it. Bella laughed. “No,” she admitted. “It doesn’t.”

  She dropped her head in her hands and massaged her temple. She’d convinced her parents to let her talk to Papa about moving. She thought he might take the news better from her, but so far, despite her best attempts, he was not buying into the idea.

  “Bella. This is my home. I don’t want to move to the city.”

  “But, Papa. You can’t stay here.” She looked up. “It’s not safe. Jeremy said the fire department practically has your house on autopilot.”

  “Fine.”

  Bella looked up cautiously. There was no way she’d just spent over thirty minutes trying to convince her grandfather to move and now, just like that, he’d agreed. She knew better. Bella narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “What do you mean, fine?”

  “Fine. I’ll move.” He took a sip of his tea. “But not to the city.”

  Ah.

  She knew it was too easy.

  “But, Papa, that’s where we all live.”

  “No.” He put his mug down. “That’s where you all live. I live here. And I will not have my family’s poor life choices affect my life.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh. “The mountains are gorgeous.”

  “Damn straight they are.” He looked at her seriously. “But that’s not why I stay.” He waved his hand to dismiss her oversimplification. “The mountains put everything in perspective. Strip away the noise of the city and the busyness so you can find yourself and everything that’s really important. The city has a way of muting you.”

  Bella thought about that. Had the city muted her? She didn’t know the answer because the city was all she knew. It’s all she’d ever had.

  Not true.

  She’d had the mountains once before, too. When she was young. Some of her favorite summers had been spent in Glacier Falls. It felt like a million years ago that she’d felt the freedom of her youth. It was almost a wildness that had flowed through her.

  She’d never stopped to think of it before, but it was only when she’d stopped visiting her grandfather that it had changed. But Bella had been too busy working on her career. Taking every singing gig she could get, paying her dues, performing all night in smoky dive bars, falling into toxic relationships, trading the neon lights of the downtown strip and a muted version of herself for the wild child she’d once been.

  But that was the only way to make it.

  Bella would have laughed at herself if it hadn’t been so deeply sad—because she hadn’t made it.

  As if Papa knew exactly what she was thinking about, he chose that moment to ask the question she’d been avoiding. “When is your album coming out, Bella?”

  “You’re changing the subject.” She grinned and shook her head.

  “No.” He was firm. “I said I’d move. Just not to the city.”

  He raised his eyebrow and Bella had to shake her head with a small sigh. Baby steps.

  “Now answer the question. When’s the album coming out?”

  Bella forced a smile on her face. “Soon.” It was a lie. The truth was there would be no album, not after discovering Kyle—her sort-of boyfriend, the leader of Velvet Heart, the band she was in, and the man who had creative control over the album in question—in bed with another woman. Kyle hadn’t thought it was a big deal, but Bella had a different opinion. One that she expressed in the form of yelling and throwing all of Kyle’s things—including his guitar—out the window of his studio apartment to the street below.

  Her little tantrum, followed by her subsequent quitting of the band and leaving them in the lurch right before a gig had pretty much guaranteed she was out of the record deal. Never mind the fact that she no longer had a band to play with, or well…much of a career left at all.

  All details she didn’t think needed to be shared with her grandfather at that moment. After all, it’s not as if it would change anything if he was disappointed in her.

  “I’m working on a few things, Papa.” She forced a smile to her face. “But I think the most important thing to work on is getting this house ready for the holidays, don’t you think?”

  He watched her carefully, but finally gave her a nod. Papa wasn’t a stupid man. Even if his memory was starting to fail him, he wasn’t going to fall for her lies that easily, and she knew it. With any luck, she could distract him long enough to sort something out.

  Papa pushed his chair back from the table and stood. “I agree.” He dusted his hands together. “Jeremy should be here any moment.”

  At the mere mention of his name, her heart fluttered and a blush came over her before she could stop it. “Jeremy? What does he have to do with anything?”

  Chapter 4

  “I noticed a tree lot down by the hardware store when I came through town the other day.”

  Jeremy didn’t even try to hide the shock on his face when he turned to Bella, who sat next to him in the cab of his truck. Close, but still too far away for his liking. He silently cursed his oversized truck. He’d prefer to have her closer. Much closer.

  “A tree lot?”

  Bella blinked hard. “Where else would we get a tree?”

  He couldn’t help it; Jeremy burst out laughing. “I’m not sure if you’ve looked around lately, city girl, but we’re surrounded by trees. Almost all of which would make the perfect Christmas tree.”

  When Roy had called him at the station to ask him a favor, Jeremy had jumped at the opportunity. If it involved spending the afternoon with Bella, he was in. Hell, if it involved spending any time with Bella, he’d make it a priority. And he was pretty sure Roy knew that. The old man was smarter than most people gave him credit for, but Jeremy saw right through him. He had ulterior motives, for sure. Not that Jeremy was complaining. He took another look at Bella in her red puffy jacket, her dark hair spilling out under a knit cap. She looked so perfectly at home in Glacier Falls.

  She belonged there.

  Except she didn’t.

  He needed to remember that. Glacier Falls wasn’t her home. And she’d be leaving again.

  But that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy his time with her while she was there.

  And that’s exactly what he planned to do.

  “So you mean…”

  “We’re going to go into the woods and cut down a tree.” Jeremy grinned. “But not just any tree.” He winked at her and had to resist the urge to put his hand on her leg. It was incredible, and a little scary, how comfortable he felt with her so quickly. “We’re going to find the tree.”

  “You’re serious?” She laughed and it was such a full sound in the cab of his truck that Jeremy instantly wanted her to do it again. “We’re going to cut it down?” She turned so she faced him. “Like with our bare hands?”

  “Well, I don’t know what your hands are made of.” He laughed along with her. “But I thought maybe we could use an ax.”

  She smacked him playfully.

  “Does that sound good?”

  Bella nodded before turning back to look out the window of the truck, where it had started snowing. “It sounds amazing. I can’t believe we never came to Glacier Falls for Christmas. Papa always came to us. Until he started playing Santa, that is. Then he’d only come if it didn’t interfere with his duties.”

  Roy had made a great Santa. He himself had fond memories of more than
one Christmas Eve where he’d sit on his lap and, with wide eyes, tell Santa all the things he wished for. And most of the time, those wishes would come true.

  He glanced over at Bella and couldn’t help but wonder whether that strategy would work now. If he told Santa what he wanted for Christmas, maybe she would stay and—

  “I ran into Katie at the store the other day.”

  The name of his ex-girlfriend coming from the lips of the woman he was currently contemplating making Christmas wishes about startled Jeremy into reality.

  “Did you?” He tried to sound casual. “I didn’t think you even really knew Katie.”

  “Of course.” She laughed. “I mean, I didn’t think I’d actually recognize her, but her voice was a dead giveaway. She still has that same bubbly personality, doesn’t she?”

  Jeremy nodded. He didn’t know how much Bella knew about his relationship with Katie. Not that it had ever been much of a relationship. Mostly just an on-again/off-again thing through high school and…well, beyond. Not that he’d actually thought it would go anywhere. Which it clearly didn’t, because she’d recently married her best friend, and his high school buddy, Damon Banks.

  He’d be lying if he said it hadn’t taken him off guard, though. Truthfully, Damon and Katie were the best match and it had just been Jeremy’s pride that had been wounded. He really was happy for the two of them, even if their coupling forced him to face the fact that he was alone.

  “She’s married now,” Jeremy said. “To Damon. Remember him?”

  “Of course!” She spun again in her seat and her eyes gleamed. “Even when we were kids, he was tall and oh, those eyes.”