A Cold Creek Holiday. RaeAnne Thayne

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СКАЧАТЬ for a visit. This area of eastern Idaho is pretty year round, but there’s something special about the place during the holidays, as long as you can stand the cold.”

      She had only seen the one picture, but she knew his father shared that same smile, that same thick, wavy, dark hair.

      “Let’s tie your horses so you can come in out of the cold for a minute and I’ll let Tanner know you all are here,” he said. “And don’t worry, he’s not contagious anymore. Just grumpy as can be.”

      The girls giggled at that and followed him back up the porch steps and into the house.

      The house was huge and warm and welcoming. Here were the Christmas decorations the girls’ home lacked. A massive Christmas tree decorated with plaid ribbons and hundreds of ornaments brushed the top of the soaring vaulted ceiling and pine garlands with matching ribbons draped the river rock fireplace and hung from the log staircase.

      Whoever decorated the place had used a pleasing mix of color and texture to create a sense of brightness and warmth.

      She was studying a particularly lovely embroidered sampler on the wall when a woman with blond hair and fine-boned features entered the room.

      “Tallie and Claire Palmer. Two of my favorite people!”

      “We brought Tanner’s homework assignment. Mrs. Peterson said he can turn it in when he goes back to class.”

      “He’ll be so excited to see you,” the woman said with a warm smile. “Come on back to the kitchen. I just took a tray of cookies out of the oven. You’d better come grab one before the hungry little mouths around here gobble them all up.”

      “And the hungry big mouths.”

      The man owning the hungry big mouth in question swooped the woman into his arms and planted it on hers and kissed her soundly, apparently unembarrassed by the presence of a stranger.

      “You’ll have to fight Cody for them, I’m afraid,” she answered after he released her. “He’s already snitched three off the cookie sheet before I could even transfer them to the cooling rack. I’m sure he had to have burned his tongue, but he’ll never admit it.”

      Wade Dalton chuckled, then apparently remembered his manners. “Sorry. Carrie, this is Emery Kendall. She’s staying at Hope Springs and was nice enough to ride with the girls over here to bring Tanner’s homework. Emery, this is my wife, Caroline. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go fight off my kids for the cookies. It was nice to meet you.”

      “Thank you,” she murmured. Only after he left the room did her heart rate seem to settle down.

      “Tanner and Nat are in the family room playing video games,” Caroline said to the girls. “I’m sure Tanner would love some company besides family for a few minutes if you’ve got time to visit.”

      The girls looked to Emery as if for permission and she wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Right now she didn’t feel in charge of anything, not even her own breathing. “A few moments, I suppose. Then we’d better ride back before your uncle begins to worry.”

      “I told Tanner I would explain the math assignment,” Tallie said. “We’re subtracting fractions and stuff and it’s really hard.”

      “That is so kind of you to help him,” Caroline said with a warm smile. “I don’t know what we would have done without you.”

      Though it was only a first impression and she could be way off-base, for all she knew, Emery thought the other woman seemed completely sincere in her gratitude, the sort of person who could lift even the most defeated spirit just with her smile.

      She would have been very much inclined to like her, even if she hadn’t already read and admired Caroline Montgomery Dalton’s self-help books on finding your life’s direction before she knew of the connection to the Daltons of Cold Creek Canyon.

      “Emery, where did you say you were from?” Caroline asked when the girls hurried from the room.

      “Virginia. Warrenton, an hour outside Washington, D.C.”

      “Lovely country there. Are you in Pine Gulch visiting family?” Caroline asked.

      Under the circumstances, Emery didn’t quite know how to respond to that particular question.

      “I guess you could say I needed a change this Christmas. It’s been a…difficult year. My mother died of cancer in September.”

      “Oh, I’m so sorry for your loss. I can only imagine how hard the holidays must be for you.”

      Though she didn’t physically touch her, the concern in her voice was somehow just as comforting as an embrace.

      “The grief is still very painful, especially as she was my…only family. I wasn’t quite ready to face the parties and celebrations of the holidays and was looking for a change this year. I read about Hope Springs Guest Ranch online and it seemed just the place to spend the holidays.”

      “It’s a very peaceful spot,” Caroline said softly. “I’ve always thought it had healing energy. I know Suzi, the girls’ mother, felt the same.”

      She didn’t expect to find healing. She only wanted to figure out how everything she thought she had known about herself could turn out to be a lie.

      “I’m surprised Nate is taking new guests. I was under the impression he’s working toward closing the place, which is really a shame after all the work and heart and soul Suzi and John put into it.”

      “I made my reservation back in September. There was some mix-up with it, but Mr. Cavazos agreed to honor it.”

      “He has his hands full, that man.”

      Before Emery could answer, a timer dinged from somewhere in the house. Caroline glanced behind her.

      “My cookies are just coming out. Listen, do you mind coming back to the kitchen with me? I don’t want to leave you out here by yourself, but if I don’t take them out, they’ll burn. Of course, they’ll still get inhaled around here, no matter how crispy they are.”

      “I don’t mind,” she answered. She followed Caroline down a hallway toward the origin of the delicious smells of almond and butter and sugar. The hallway was lined with photographs, old black-and-whites, framed snapshots and some that looked like professionally taken portraits. Emery’s head swiveled as she took in the barrage of images and she had to stop so she could absorb them all.

      “This is…your family?”

      “Yes.” She noticed the direction of Emery’s gaze, a candid shot of three men in Western-cut suits standing at what looked like a wedding. They were laughing and lighthearted, each of them extraordinarily handsome. “Those are my husband’s brothers, Jake and Seth. That was taken at Seth’s wedding. They both live nearby, which is wonderful for all of them. We’re very close with them and their wives.”

      She couldn’t stand here gaping at someone else’s family, not without making Caroline Montgomery Dalton think she was crazy, so she followed her down the hallway into the kitchen, doing her best not to cast longing looks over her shoulder.

      In the kitchen, СКАЧАТЬ