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Don’t be silly, Colette, she reminded herself.You’re a woman in your prime, and you have plenty of living to do yet.
Shaking herself from her thoughts, she passed him one mug, keeping the other for herself.
“Here you go,” she murmured.
Zach eyed the drink in his hands, and then shook his head with a laugh.
“What?” Colette asked, glancing at her own hot chocolate to see what was so funny.
“It seems like everyone in town likes their festive, decadent drinks. Frosty’s Shack had a milkshake menu a mile long, and almost all of them were some kind of Christmas flavor.”
Colette shrugged, a grin tugging at her lips. “Why wouldn’t we like a festive drink? Christmas is the best time of year, after all.”
“I’m not judging,” Zach said, raising one of his hands in mock surrender. “It’s just everything here is so different than where I come from.”
“And where is that?”
“Rochester, New York.” He raised his mug and took a quick sip. Colette watched as his eyebrows darted up in approval. “This is excellent.”
She gave him an appreciative smile. “What brings you all the way from Rochester?”
Zach took another quick drink and then glanced into the fire. A silence stretched out between them, and for a moment, Colette wondered if he was going to answer her. Then, finally, he sighed.
“I just needed a change of scenery.” His voice was clipped, and she could tell that he didn’t want her to press the issue further, so she didn’t.
“Well, Snowy Pine Ridge will definitely give you that. There’s nowhere like it in the world,” she told him with a hint of pride.
“You know, I think you might be right.” Zach chuckled. “This place looks like the inside of a snow globe, or a Thomas Kinkade painting.”
“And that’s a bad thing?” Colette arched an eyebrow at him.
“Not at all,” Zach answered quickly. “It’s nice. Quiet. I need some quiet.”
She nodded. “Snowy Pine Ridge definitely moves a little slower than most towns. So you’ll find plenty of quiet here. And you said you’d be staying for at least a month?”
Zach nodded, and Colette paused to take a sip of her own drink. She watched as Zach’s eyes roved over the contents of her cottage and then stopped to study something. Following the line of his gaze, she spotted the photo album she had been leafing through before she’d gone outside and found him standing in the snow. The album was open to a selfie that she had taken with Emma, both of their cheeks smushed together as they smiled broadly at the camera. A flush rose in her face, and her hand darted down to close the photo book.
“Your grandmother?” he asked, his voice gentle.
“No.” Colette shook her head. “She owned this property. She passed away almost a month ago.”
A pregnant pause filled the air, broken only by the cracking of logs on the fireplace and the ticking of the clock above the mantel. Colette didn’t want Zach to see how much saying those words aloud hurt her, and she worked her jaw back and forth as she tried to keep her expression neutral. But when her gaze met his, his green eyes softened with something like understanding.
“I’m very sorry for your loss.”
His words hit her right in the chest. It wasn’t like plenty of other people hadn’t said that to her over the past few weeks. In fact, she’d heard that exact phrase so many times recently that the words had begun to lose all meaning. But there was something about them coming from a stranger, from someone who didn’t know her and who hadn’t known Emma, that made her feel seen. As if her hurt and her grief was more valid now that it wasn’t being tied in with the loss that everyone else who’d loved Emma was experiencing.
“Thank you.” Colette blew out a shaky breath. “Anyway, in regard to the house, I’d be happy to rent it to you. To be honest with you, I wasn’t expecting someone to be interested in the property so quickly. I have a few things that I need to finish inside, but I can have it ready for you to view by tomorrow evening.”
Zach gave another quick nod. “That’s faster than I was expecting, so it won’t be a problem at all.”
“Before you sign anything, I’ll let you check the place out. I want to make sure you actually like it, obviously. If you do, we can go from there and discuss price and all of that?”
“Sounds more than reasonable.” Zach gave her a quick, reassuring smile, and she wondered if her conflicting emotions about renting Emma’s place were beginning to show on her face. He shot another quick glance around the room before lifting his mug to his lips again.
Colette told him a bit about Emma’s old place, listing off a few special things about the house that he would get to see tomorrow. Things like the fireplaces, the drawing room, and the large windows. She also mentioned that in the spring—should he stay that long—the backyard had a giant, beautiful flower garden.
“That’s great. I noticed the bay window at the front of the house. What about the rest of it? How is the lighting?” Zach asked.
