The Cottage on Juniper Ridge. Sheila Roberts

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       Chapter Seven

      A new beginning is also a new adventure.

      —Muriel Sterling, author of Simplicity

      Everything had worked out. Jen had been able to rent her condo in Seattle for enough to cover her mortgage and most of her rent. Now, the first weekend in January, she was moving into her charming mountain cottage with the help of her sister and family.

      She’d nearly put dents in the steering wheel driving up the mountain in the snow, but once Wayne had gotten the chains on her tires she’d been able to relax a little. As they neared town, the roads weren’t bad, and he had taken the chains off again. That had been enough to make Jen hyperventilate until Wayne pointed out that the roads had been cleared and they were now all level. This, she had to admit, was a nice improvement over Seattle, which was a city of hills.

      Still, she breathed a sigh of relief when they made it to the cottage in one piece. Garrett Armstrong met them there with the key and offered to help unload. He was just as gorgeous as she remembered, and obviously kindhearted. It would be so easy to fall for this man.

      “That’s awfully nice of you,” she told him.

      “No problem,” he said, shrugging off her praise.

      Now Jeffrey had bounded out of his parents’ SUV, which had been stuffed to the roof with boxes. “Can we go tubing?”

      “Maybe after we’re done unloading everything,” his father told him.

      As Jen was making introductions, Jeffrey picked up a handful of snow, made a snowball and hurled it at his sister, who was standing huddled inside her coat, waiting for her father to open the small trailer they’d been pulling.

      It hit her in the chest and she snarled, “Cut it out, you butt.”

      Of course, being a boy, Jeffrey ignored her request and started forming another snowball. And that was enough to make Jordan forget she was now officially a sophisticated teen girl and start doing the same. “Come on, Aunt Jen, help me.”

      Well, why not?

      “Okay, five-minute fight,” Toni said, heading for the cottage with a box. “Then we’re going to get the work done.”

      Jen was happy to join in and release the last of the tension from her scary trip up the mountain. She’d just stuffed a ton of snow down Jeffrey’s back when she realized she was the only grown-up playing. Toni was inside the cottage, probably stowing things away in the kitchen cupboards where Jen would never find them, and Wayne, who’d tossed a few snowballs, was now pulling a box out of the trailer.

      “Okay, I’ve got to go work now,” she told the kids and herself.

      “Aw, come on, Aunt Jen,” Jeffrey pleaded.

      “Sorry, guys,” she said, and went to open the trunk of her car.

      She stepped inside with her load in time to hear Toni asking Garrett, “You don’t like snowball fights?”

      “Not when there’s work to be done.”

      She felt her cheeks heating. Way to make a good impression on a gorgeous man. Now she looked like a slacker. But she felt so much better. Just a few minutes of fun had reenergized her.

      “Work is important,” she said as she set a box of food on the counter, “but sometimes you need to take a break and get in touch with your inner child.” The expression was kind of lame, she supposed, but as hard as she’d been working, she deserved a break.

      Garrett said nothing to that, which made her feel mildly chastised. And that made her feel mildly irritated. This guy didn’t know her. Was he making some sort of snap judgment about her? If so, he needed a life.

      “I think the kids have had enough of a break,” Toni said, and went outside to order the troops back to work.

      “So, when was the last time you had a snowball fight?” she asked Garrett as he walked out the door.

      He paused for a moment, then shook his head. “Can’t remember.”

      “Me, neither,” she said, but he was already on his way down the porch steps and obviously hadn’t heard her.

      Jen had asked Garrett to remove the ratty twin beds and the offensive living room furniture that had originally been in the cottage so she could use her own furniture. All that was left of the old stuff was the kitchen table, which she figured she could dress up with a cute tablecloth.

      Now he and Wayne unloaded her white leather couch. Ah, couch, sweet couch. She had them put it down at an angle so she could sit on it and simultaneously gaze out the window and enjoy a fire in the woodstove. She smiled, pleased with how it looked. This cottage was going to be her little corner of heaven on earth.