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She was sitting on the front porch of her cottage with a blanket thrown over her and a small heater tucked beneath her chair to lock in the warmth as she watched the fat snowflakes fall toward the ground. The waning sunlight glinted off them, painting them in hues of calming orange and glistening blue.
She used to do this with Emma all the time. They had often sat and watched the snow while they talked about life and the various reality television shows they were watching. There had never been a single topic off limits with them, and it was only beginning to dawn on Colette now just how much those moments had meant to her.
Colette had always been someone who liked her own company and found comfort in her quiet moments of solitude. Loneliness wasn’t a feeling she was accustomed to, but she had been feeling it all too often since Emma’s passing. And she was beginning to wonder if all of the alone time was good for her.
She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that it took her quite some time to notice that she wasn’t actually alone. She hadn’t noticed when Zach had slipped out of the main house and begun walking across the yard. She hadn’t noticed when he’d waved to her as he approached, and it wasn’t until one of the boards of her porch creaked under his weight that she realized he was there at all.
A small yelp of surprise burst out of her when she saw his tall, broad figure suddenly standing before her. His vibrant green eyes glowed with amusement as he smiled at her, complemented by the dark hunter green coat that he wore.
“I waved at you and called your name,” he said, giving her a crooked grin. “But you were lost in your own thoughts.”
“I’m so sorry.” Colette held her hand to her chest, feeling her heart beating rapidly beneath her palm.
She felt something wet dripping down her cheek, and with another jolt of surprise she realized that she had been crying. Colette quickly tried to wipe the few tears away, but she wasn’t fast enough to escape Zach’s keen gaze. His brow creased with concern as he crossed the last few feet of her porch and lowered himself into the chair beside her.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his gaze roving over her face.
“I’m fine,” Colette said, but even she could hear the lie lacing her words.
Zach didn’t say anything. He just sat there, watching her while her mind began to spin with all of the things she was thinking about. She appreciated the fact that he wasn’t pressuring her to talk if she didn’t want to, that he was perfectly okay with just providing a steady presence while she figured out how much of her thoughts, if any, she wanted to divulge. It was that fact that had her blowing out a quick, steadying breath before she began to speak.
“It’s Emma,” she said.
The moment the words left her lips, she felt something inside of her open fully, and more words poured out of her than she had intended. It was as if speaking to someone who hadn’t known the old woman made it easier for Colette to talk about Emma. Or maybe it was just something about Zach. Either way, all Colette knew was that one second, she was warring with herself about what all she should tell this handsome man beside her—who, despite living in a house that she owned, was practically a stranger—and the next second, she was talking so quickly her brain could hardly keep up with her mouth.
“She was like a mother to me. I moved here when I was very young, fresh out of high school, actually. Derek, my cousin, the one who owns the dog sledding business?” She sent a quick glance and saw Zach nodding, confirming that he knew who she was talking about. “Well, he and I have always been close. The rest of my family though… it’s complicated.”
“How so?”
Zach’s voice was filled with genuine interest, and when Colette’s eyes roved over his face there was no pity to be found there. She breathed a small sigh of relief at that, encouraged to continue by his open and empathetic demeanor.
“My father was an alcoholic. He and my mother divorced when I was young. And when she remarried… well, let’s just say her new husband didn’t necessarily like kids, and especially not teenagers. Things were pretty iffy for a while, so as soon as I graduated high school and had the opportunity, I came here. At first, I lived with Derek. But it wasn’t long before I met Emma. She took me in. She would have told you that she offered a job to me, some kid down on her luck, because she knew that the labor would come cheap, especially if she provided me with room and board, but that wasn’t even remotely true. She paid me more than enough. More than minimum wage, and more than what I would have made at literally any other job that I could have gotten fresh out of school.”
Colette glanced over her shoulder to the cottage. “She let me live here, and in return, I helped her with everything around the property. It was tough at first. What eighteen-year-old do you know who would excel at managing a household and taking care of an old woman?”
Zach laughed. “Not many.”
He shot Colette a look, letting her know that she could continue, and so she did.
“Emma was a wild one, you’ll hear that from just about anyone that knew her. She was an absolute force of nature. But she also became the person I loved most in this world. She was the mother I never truly got the chance to have.”
Colette raised one shoulder in a shrug before letting it drop. She had expected to feel the sting of tears behind her eyes now that all of her feelings and the less savory details of her past were laid bare, but she didn’t. Instead, when she looked back at Zach, who was watching her with something like admiration, she just felt kind of relieved to have it all out in the open.
“I can’t say that I completely understand what you went through,” Zach said after a pause. “But I can say that I’m very sorry you went through it.”
“No horrific stories about your own parents?” Colette asked with a chuckle as she pressed her mug of rapidly cooling cider to her lips.
“Quite the opposite.” Zach shook his head as a soft, affectionate smile played at his mouth. “Don’t get me wrong. My parents and I had our disagreements when I was growing up, just like with any family. But they were so supportive. They’ve been my biggest cheerleaders for my entire life. I wish you could have had that.”
Colette typically hated when people said things like that, because the words were usually only accompanied by pity. But there was none of that hidden behind Zach’s words or his gaze. Instead, his green eyes shone with a stark honesty that she found refreshing.
“How long have you been an artist?” she asked, not because she wanted to change the subject, but because she found herself genuinely curious.
Colette found that she wanted to learn everything she could about Zach, and that realization startled her. She hadn’t expected to be so intrigued by him when they’d first met. She hadn’t expected tolikehim so much.
“My entire life.” Zach shrugged, a far-off look dancing behind his eyes. He chuckled at some memory, giving his head a slight shake. “When I was little, I think five or six, maybe? Well, I used to draw on the walls of my bedroom. On every surface that I could reach. I’d hide my wall drawings behind my dressers, behind my bed frame, anywhere I could. But my mom would always notice them. The first couple of times, my parents painted over them, but once they realized that I wasn’t going to stop, they took me to an art store, let me pick out some paints and told me to go to town. They let me paint a mural on my wall.”
“A mural?” Colette echoed, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise and Zach nodded.
