“Barely.”
“I have a question, and I need you to be honest.”
“Don’t know any other way,” Red said. “What is it?”
“You really think I could fix things? After all this time?”
Red huffed out a breath. “Well, it sure isn’t up to me, son. But I think Cindy’s heart never stopped lookin’ for you. Even if her head gave up.”
Jack gave a short laugh. “You make it sound easy.”
Red shrugged. “Nothing about life is easy. But, Jack, this one ain’t that hard.”
The sleigh glided past the drive to his house where a whole bunch of winter-bare apple trees looked like tall sticks in the ground. But that wasn’t what Red saw.
He saw spring leaves and summer blossoms and a harvest in the fall. He could see his late wife standing there, wearing that blue flowered frock that fluttered when she walked, an apple basket on her hip. Cindy and MJ were hangin’ out of the trees, calling, “Daddy, Daddy!”
“The days slip by so fast,” he said, his voice thick, but he didn’t care. “Don’t waste them, son. That’s the biggest sin you can commit.”
Jack turned to him, his own eyes a little misty. “Good advice, Red. You always give good advice.”
That made Red smile. “Yeah. Now get me to the kitchen before MJ tosses the waffle batter. I never got breakfast.”
“Trust me, it’s worth the wait,” Jack said.
“Most of life is,” Red replied, looking out at the trail that looped back toward the lodge.
Smoke curled from the chimney and sunlight bounced off the second-story windows. Red looked at it—at the home he’d built with his hands and his heart—and knew deep in his bones that maybe Jack Kessler wasn’t done with Snowberry after all.
“Well,” Red muttered, rubbing his knees, “better get used to this again if I’m gonna be stuck in that red suit for the next few weeks.”
Jack grinned. “Can’t do sleigh rides without Santa.”
Red rolled his eyes. “Tell that to my aching back.”
But his smile lingered as Copper slowed at the paddock and neighed for peppermints and praise.
It had been nearly a week since Jack arrived and the sleigh rides started—not that Cindy tracked time by the comings and goings of Jack Kessler—but she had to admit, things were looking up a tiny bit.
Cautiously optimistic, she clicked through her accounting files and did some mental math.
Yes, reservations had come in. Not piles of them, but they’d barely had a chance to advertise the sleigh rides. Somehow, word got out, though.
Gracie was talking the rides up to all her customers at Sugarfall, which helped. Nicole had persuaded darn near every person who walked into the shed to book a ride, and they did. Then Cindy had updated the Snowberry website with the cutest picture of Red in full Santa gear and Jack in his Victorian costume, holding the reins of the sleigh.
That resulted in three of the cabins booking out, and several of the suites in the lodge. Not for the entire month, but it was a start. Still, they were a long way from what they needed to pay that tax bill in the new year.
And that took her back to the notes on her desk, made during yesterday’s call with Henry Lassiter. The fact was, he wasstarting to make sense, and the next natural step would be to talk to MJ about it.
She hadn’t yet, mostly because she wasn’t sure she completely understood the structure of Henry’s proposal. He owed her more information and she’d promised him she’d bring it up with her sister.
How would MJ react to the idea of giving up some of their ownership in order to save this place? She was reluctant to broach the subject, to be honest. They’d just had the best week—full of fun and family, long dinners and big laughs.
Cindy rubbed her temples and narrowed her eyes, her brain—and heart—shifting back to one of those dinners last night. She and Jack and MJ had lingered over decaf and cookies late into the night. Nicole and Brianna had stayed, too, after the ski shed closed, and Nina and Pedro, the couple that worked for them, had joined the fun around the table.
Benny had nodded off and needed to go to bed, so Red offered to stay with the boy—as long as Gracie brought cookies home.
They’d all talked about the mountain, the snow, Park City events, Christmas, life. They shared old stories and dear memories, and it felt like the good old days.
