Page 4 of Cozy Little Christmas

“Are you staying with Kelsey and Eric, then?” she asked.

“No. They offered but I figured their place is way too small for both me and Kodiak, with their two little kids. Plus, he needs a quiet place to recover. We’re staying at my grandfather’s house.”

His grandfather’s house. She fought her instinctive dismay. Not only was Wes intending to stay in Shelter Springs for an extended period of time, but apparently he was now living on Pine Ridge Road, only a few houses away from her.

Perfect. She almost wanted to laugh at the ridiculous horror of it. Apparently “out of sight, out of mind” was completely off the table now. While Shelter Springs wasn’t exactly huge, she could think of entire neighborhoods she hadn’t had any reason to visit in years. Why couldn’t he stay somewhere across town? But no. Wes had to move in practically next door.

She forced another tight smile. “What a coincidence. I bought Melva Pinkerton’s cottage this summer. I guess we’re neighbors.”

“Did you?” He didn’t look any more thrilled at the news than she felt. “Don’t worry. I’ll stay out of your way.”

She nodded. “Probably for the best. I wouldn’t want you to end up as injured as your dog.”

For an instant, he almost looked as if he wanted to smile. His eyes crinkled at the corners briefly before his features resumed their hard edges.

The dog—Kodiak, he had called him—shifted as if he knew they were talking about him.

“You poor thing,” she murmured, glad to have a good excuse not to stare at Wes. “Is it okay if I pet him?”

After a pause, he nodded curtly. “When he’s not working, he’s gentle.”

She held her fingers out for the dog to sniff, then smiled when he nudged her hand until she scratched his ears.

Over the years, it had been impossible not to hear a few rumors about Wes, especially when she lived in the same town where they had both been raised and where his grandparents had lived.

She had heard Wes was a decorated K9 police officer in Portland and the local weekly paper had even published a story about him once when he and his dog had been celebrated for rescuing a missing child.

Stanley seemed to delight in keeping her updated on his beloved grandson’s life whenever Hannah would encounter him at the Shelter Inn. She would always smile politely, trying not to show any of the hurt and betrayal she couldn’t seem to shed, even after all this time.

Now here he was, a remote stranger instead of the man she had once loved with all her heart.

She stepped away from the dog and closed the hatch of her SUV with a decisive snap. “I need to run.”

She couldn’t offer some trite words welcoming him back to town when she did not want him here at all. Instead, she forced a smile. “Happy Thanksgiving,” she said.

“Thanks. Good to see you, Hannah.”

Was it? Or did he find this encounter every bit as excruciating as she did? She hoped he felt more awkward than she did. After all, he had been the one to walk away.

He gripped his dog’s leash, a few stray snowflakes catching in his dark hair as he waited for her to climb into her driver’s seat.

Hannah started her vehicle, aware to her dismay that her fingers were trembling slightly. She had to hope he hadn’t noticed.

As she pulled out of the parking lot of the Shelter Inn, memories of the time when he had been her everything poured through her in an unrelenting deluge. She had loved him with everything she had. Yes, they had been young. He had been twenty-two, she had been twenty when they made the jump from friends to so much more.

She could remember the giddy wonder of that Christmas season when they had both been back from their respective universities, when he had finally seemed to notice her.

They had one glorious year together, a long-distance relationship mostly as she had been going to school in Utah and he had been finishing up his degree at the University of Washington.

Every chance they had, they had tried to carve out time to be together. The memories of those stolen moments still glowed in her mind, soft and warm like candlelight. Each shared laugh, each tender touch had felt like a gift, precious and rare.

And then suddenly everything changed.

A wave of emotion crashed over her, leaving her breathless. Her fingers tightened on the steering wheel as she forced herself to focus on the road ahead, pushing away the tumult of feelings threatening to overwhelm her.

Why did she have to confront him again now, after all this time? The thought of seeing him again, of casual hellos and awkward small talk, made her stomach churn.

Wes Kenner had been her first love, the man against whom she compared all other men she dated. And against whom all other men somehow never quite measured up.