The father picked up the toboggan that rested by their door while the mother zipped a little girl’s coat and tucked a boy’s scarf around the kid’s pudgy neck. Every one of them wore a reindeer scarf, even mom and dad. Something about that elemental bond grabbed him by the throat.
God, he envied that easy sense of family. He saw his brother struggle to be a part-time father after his marriage had buckled under the stress of too much time apart and Jared had no plans to go that route. He had put off that kind of happiness in an effort not to make the same mistakes, but at some point it had become easier to not take the risk.
And he’d never manage to take that gamble if he kept allowing Heather to think he’d invited her up here for nonstop monkey sex. But damn. He couldn’t look at her without wanting her.
“Ready?” She appeared in the hallway wearing a pale green sweater layered over a pink thermal shirt.
He liked the girly way she dressed. No sophisticated dark colors or suits. She had curves and she showed them.
“I’ve been ready.” He tossed her the hat and gloves she’d bought the day before. “Better bundle up.”
The phone rang while she was putting on her mittens. He remembered her call from someone who sounded like family the day before and diplomatically made no comment.
“I’m not getting that,” she announced, reaching for her jacket.
She set it back down two seconds later and frowned.
“What if it’s an emergency?” She seemed to ask herself more than him.
“Do you want me to step outside?” The phone started a fourth ring.
“No.” She dived on it at the last minute, picking up and answering in a rush. “Hello?”
He turned his back on the conversation, hoping Joe Golfer Dude wouldn’t call her here. He hated the idea that she’d been engaged and—damn it—today would have been her wedding day.
“I’m not going to plan this party from a thousand miles away.” Heather’s frustrated tone spoke to him more than the words he was trying not to overhear.
Scowling, he clicked on the remote to the TV, hoping some sports scores would distract him from her conversation about a life that didn’t have jack to do with him.
Unless…
Unless he made a serious play for her.
He looked back at her where she spoke on the phone, her eyebrows crinkled in worry. Or was it anger? It bugged him he didn’t know her well enough to distinguish between the two. He’d let a long-ass time elapse since he’d met her. Some of which he’d had reasons for, some of which he’d spent not wanting to seem like a stalker dude reappearing out of nowhere when she might very well have been married. If not for her business success and the articles he’d seen about her online, Heather might still be just a vivid memory.
The way she would be next week if he didn’t figure out how to make her stay. How to make her understand that he wanted so much more than he’d been able to tell her back then.
“I had every intention of coming home to finish up the details, Mom. I just wanted to take some time away for a change. This event gets bigger every year and—”
Okay, he couldn’t help but notice that snippet of conversation since it was clear she was getting upset. Her tone pitched a notch higher and when he stole a glance in her direction, she sort of paced in circles.
She needed to relax. Something he was good at helping her do. He smiled with satisfaction at his memories of last night. Too bad he hadn’t flat-out told her how badly the past few Christmases had sucked for him and that his need to see her came with a core-deep knowledge that she could fill the parts of his life that were empty.
That was going to change today. No distracting her—or himself—with sex. It was past time for him to show her something about himself and his life here. Only then would she be able to decide if her future might have a place for him in it.
* * *
“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Heather tromped through the snow to some secret destination Jared had in mind, her legs getting a workout with two feet of snow on the ground.
Who would have thought something that looked so fluffy on the way down could be so heavy to trudge through?
They’d spent all day outside since her phone call from her mother. Heather had learned how to snowshoe, which was fun, but didn’t compare to ice-skating. Maybe those two hours she’d spent on skates were part of the reason her thighs protested the drifts they walked through now in the middle of nowhere. Supposedly this would be a path back to her cabin at the Timberline Lodge.
“I’m sure. We’re following that star.” He pointed to a bright point of light in the sky even though night hadn’t fully fallen. The sun set noticeably earlier this far north.