“COME ON, JASE, DOC, bundle up, and let’s go looking for a tree. We have a couple hours of break in the storm, and this might be the best opportunity we have.”
“What did the weather report say?” Maia asked.
Cole gave her a sharp glance. “Don’t think you’re escaping when you’ve got a mountain lion penned up in my shed and a horse in the barn and a teenage boy looking for a huge meal. I don’t have the time to clear the road and let you out even if I were so inclined, which I’m not.”
“You’ll do anything to get out of cooking, won’t you?” Maia said, her grin as contagious as always. She slipped into her jacket and pulled on gloves. “I’m definitely going with you. I’m very particular about trees.”
Jase and Cole exchanged a long, amused look, then groaned in union. “You would be,” Cole said. “We’ll take the snowmobiles and head out toward the upper ridge. The fir trees are thick there, and we can top one of them.”
“Why are we just taking the top of the tree?” Jase asked.
“We don’t want to kill the tree,” Cole said. “I like our trees. You can never have enough trees.”
Jase looked out the window toward the tree-covered mountain. “Guess not. We’d have such a shortage if we took the whole tree.” He exchanged a grin with Maia.
“I did notice the trees on the ranch were getting thin from all the Christmas celebrations going on around here,” Maia teased.
Cole opened the door to the mudroom and waved them through. “I can’t believe how funny the two of you are. I let you spend a little time together taking care of that horse, and you develop a comedy routine.”
Maia leaned in close to Jase, her arm slipping around his shoulders. “He’s grouchy this morning.”
“Yeah, it’s the one cup of coffee syndrome. I’ve seen it before,” Jase replied. “No one talks to him before the first cup of coffee, or he bites off their head. After the first cup of coffee he growls at everyone, but there’s no biting.”
Cole caught Maia around the waist, bringing her to a halt, his teeth scraping back and forth at the nape of her neck. “I bite after the first cup of coffee if you deserve it,” he warned. His teeth nipped a little harder, sending chills down her back. His tongue swirled over the sting right before he pressed a kiss against it.
“Bite Jase if you’re going to bite someone,” Maia admonished, shoving at him.
“Ugg. That’s sick, Doc,” Jase protested. “Totally sick. Cole, don’t you even try biting my neck.”
A slow, mischievous grin curved Cole’s mouth very slowly, giving him a young, boyish look. Maia’s breath caught in her throat. Jase backed away from him, laughing, holding out a hand to stop his older brother’s purposeful advance.
“Back off!” He dashed out into the snow.
Deliberately, Cole pelted his brother with several snow- balls, packing the white flakes into round balls and heaving the missiles on the run. Maia sided with Jase, just as Cole knew she would, throwing snowballs with good aim, scoring several hits. She threw hard and accurate so he was forced to turn away from his intended victim to protect himself. To his astonishment, Jase tackled him from behind, throwing him into the snow and leaping off, running, his laughter carried away by the wind.
The sound stirred some long-forgotten emotion in Cole. He had to fight back a lump in his throat and blink to clear what had to be tears from his burning eyes. He got up slowly, keeping his back to the two of them, shaking with the tidal wave of intense feelings Jase and Maia roused in him. A dam really had burst somewhere deep inside of him, blown open by the happiness spilling over from a simple snowball war.
Or maybe it was so much more than that. Maybe it was all the things in his life he had now that he’d never had, never trusted, and never thought he wanted.
He watched Maia chase Jase through the snow. Her cheeks were red and her eyes filled with merriment, with happiness. He had all but forgotten those things until he found her. The boy was throwing missiles as fast as he could, but Maia clearly had him on the run. Cole could only stare at her, flooded with the knowledge that the intensity of the emotions she brought to him was the very thing he had feared from her. He loved her. It was too fast and too insane for someone like him to even consider, but he knew he needed her. And Jase needed her too.
Jase turned and streaked past Cole, skidding to a halt behind him so that a snowball landed with a splat on Cole’s chest. The snow was dazzling white, nearly blinding him. He pushed sunglasses on his nose and settled them in place just as Maia plowed into him. Catching her in his arms, he fell backward, Maia landing on top of him. He rolled, pinning her beneath him.
Time seemed to stop, and he felt his heart somersault, his stomach tighten. She was so damned beautiful lying beneath him with her eyes so full of life.