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“Army, Marines,” Sarah waved her hand in the air. “You’re both former military. With you sharing that background, I’d imagine you and Bodie would have a lot to talk about.”
“Cole doesn’t talk about his military days,” Sophie said softly, as if she wished the conversation would end as much as Cole did.
She was right.
“Some things are better not talked about.” He avoided looking toward Sophie as he silently added, Or written about.
“Bodie is that way, too,” Sarah informed, her expression a mixture of pride and sadness. “He doesn’t like to talk about his time in the military, but I know there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t think on his time there and the friends he made and lost while in the service.”
Cole fought wincing. This conversation had taken a horrible turn. Why hadn’t he left already?
Why had he bothered to come?
Oh, yeah. Toys. Kids. Christmas morning.
Still, they were finished with toy drive business.
He pulled his coat off the back of his chair. “Thanks for the invite. Maybe next time.”
“What he means is that he’d be glad to come to Hamilton House tonight,” Andrew corrected, standing and grabbing his coat, too. “Ben and I are headed to his place to check out these floors and see what needs to be done. With the three of us there, he’ll have plenty of time to go sledding later today if this snow holds out. What time should we have Cole at your place to get some expert advice from your fiancé?”
What Sophie had thought was going to be a small get-together had turned into a group of over twenty-five people. Leave it to Sarah to turn an impromptu gathering into a full-blown “It’s Snowing” party. She couldn’t help but be impressed with how beautifully her friend had managed to pull everything together. Then again, Sarah had worked as the church’s program director for years and was experienced in putting together events. She had a way of making things fall into place.
Sarah had created a party to celebrate the snow, so snow it had. Pine Hill had become a winter wonderland. There was a good four inches of soft powdery snow covering the ground and light fluffy flakes were still falling.
The group had met at Sarah’s, loaded into as few vehicles as possible and traveled the short distance to Thrill Hill, which was the most perfect location for sledding. Not only was there a wonderful long slope, but there was also a gravel road that led back to the top of the hill. Once at the bottom, it was easy to hook the sled to an all-terrain four-wheeler and pull the sled back to the top. There were couple’s sleds, single-person sleds, and a few tubes. A few more friends had shown up since their arrival.
Bodie, Andrew, Carrie’s son Jeff, and one of Jeff’s friends had each brought four-wheelers and were pulling the sleds back up the hillside, traveling way clear of where the sledders were zooming down the hill. Bodie’s dog, Harry, stayed close to wherever Sarah was, even riding on the sled with her after Sarah’s maiden voyage down.
“Sophie,” Sarah called after she’d made several more trips. “You haven’t been down yet, have you?”
Sophie glanced toward her. Sarah was barely even recognizable, bundled up as she was in hat, scarf, gloves, boots, and waterproof puffy jacket. Sophie shook her head. “I’m in no rush, though. Let everyone who wants to keep going go. I’m good.”
Thanks to her own cozy fleece-lined pants, jacket, boots, gloves, scarf and knitted toboggan, she really was. She loved playing in the snow and knew how to dress the part as she didn’t like to be cold.
“What about you, Cole? You’ve not gone down the hill yet, either, have you?”
Sophie did not glance toward the man Sarah was addressing. He’d been quiet since arriving at Hamilton House just as they’d been getting ready to depart.
As promised, Andrew had brought him, so he was trapped into staying until his friend decided to have mercy. Since Andrew appeared to be enjoying hauling the sleds back up the hill, Sophie didn’t think that was going to happen anytime soon. Which left Cole standing off by himself, watching the others.
Sophie had seen Bodie talking to him earlier, and the two men had seemed to hit it off. But once the sledding had started, Bodie had been tied up with sledders, and when he wasn’t busy with that, his attention had been on Sarah playing in the snow with his dog and two kids from church.
As Ben had ended up bringing a date with him, that left Cole on his own since he didn’t seem interested in making new acquaintances.
He didn’t appear to mind, but Sophie’s heart had squeezed every time she’d glanced his way, which was why she’d tried to keep from doing so.
If he was lonely then it was his own fault, going around and telling people he didn’t want to be their friend.
Remorse hit her.
She knew better than to have such negative thoughts. She knew why he didn’t jump in and join the fun. She’d watched her dad struggle with the same types of things, always uncomfortable when it came to interacting with others, not knowing how to be social. Even as a small child, she’d recognized that her father was usually an outsider on the rare family outing.
A two-person sled became free, and Sophie ended up on it with her sister.
“How is it I got stuck with you?” Isabelle complained, although Sophie knew she was teasing. Her sister had probably arranged it that way.
“You love it, and you know it,” Sophie retorted. “This way you can make sure I don’t do anything too daring.”
