“I do love her.” For some reason, it was important to me that Betty knew I was truly committed to her daughter.
Her eyes softened and her mouth opened, but before she could respond, Ryder came bounding into the kitchen.
“I won!” He clapped and went right for the fridge, taking out the SunnyD that Betty kept stocked for him.
Nate and Willa came into the kitchen too, smiling at one another.
“Oh, I’ll take that garbage, Jackson.” Nate went for the bag, but I waved him off.
“No worries. I’ve got it.”
“Thanks.” He clapped my shoulder. “I hate garbage duty. I guess it’s good that Betty and I made a deal years ago. I do my own ironing and she takes care of the garbage.”
“What?” Betty’s mouth fell open.
Willa giggled. “Uh, Dad? I think you might have that backward.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do!” Betty shouted.
I laughed, escaping the kitchen with the garbage bag in hand as the two began arguing over when and where they’d made the deal. When I got back inside, I hovered in the hallway outside the kitchen, just watching.
Willa and Ryder were doubled over, laughing hysterically. Betty and Nate were still arguing, though both had smiles on their faces. I bet they hadn’t had a knockdown, drag-out fight in a decade.
They made marriage seem like the best damn idea in the world.
It was hard to believe that just a few months ago my life had been so lonely. Worse, I’d been okay with it.
I hadn’t even known what I’d been missing.
Willa’s laugh seeped into my heart, filling the last remaining cracks until it was whole.
From the corner of his eye, Nate caught me watching his daughter. He grinned, then went right back to arguing with his wife.
He knew why I was watching, and he knew why I was smiling.
Tomorrow, Willa would too.
“What about that one?”
I followed Willa’s finger to the fir tree she was pointing at, then shook my head. “Too small.”
“Too small. Too big. Too many pine cones. Too thin.” She huffed. “You’re the pickiest Christmas tree hunter in the universe.”
I chuckled and stopped hiking. “Don’t you want the perfect tree for our first Christmas together?”
“Yes.” She stopped by my side. “That’s why we should have bought one from the church’s fundraiser. Those are grown to be perfect.”
“What’s the fun in that?” I put my gloved hands on each side of her face, then bent to kiss her forehead. “How are you doing?”
“Good.” She smiled. Her nose and cheeks were pink from the cold and her chest was heaving as she breathed. “I didn’t realize I was so out of shape.”
“You’re doing awesome. It’s just because the snow is so deep.”
“Should we look around here?” Her gaze ran over all the trees around us. “Or keep going?”
“Let’s keep going. Just a little farther.”
She didn’t know it, but we were following the trail I’d left here this morning.
“It looks like we aren’t the only ones who have been up here,” she said. “There are tracks everywhere.”
I grinned. “Yeah. Popular spot.”
Ryder and I had hiked up here at first light to find the perfect tree. We’d told Willa that we were going ice fishing when we’d really come up to the mountains. So while she’d spent a quiet Sunday morning at my place, Ryder and I had trekked all over this area of forest in search of the perfect tree.
When we’d finally found it, we’d spent two hours setting everything up before hiking back down the mountain. Along the way, I’d made sure to make note of landmarks and leave a few of my own markings behind to guide us back to the spot.
I turned on the trail and took a couple more steps.
Behind me, Willa followed. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, babe.”
“What’s up with Hazel and Sheriff Magee?”
“Caught that, did you?”
“They either hate each other.” She giggled. “Or don’t hate each other at all.”
“Hazel would never admit it, but she’s got a thing for him. When I first moved here, he used to come into the bar all the time when she was working.”
“Really? Did they ever date?”
“No. She turned him down every time he asked.” I shot a look over my shoulder. “Kind of like someone else I know.”
The red in Willa’s cheeks got brighter. “I eventually gave in.”
“It was the sticky notes, wasn’t it?”
“And the Snickers.” She wagged her eyebrows. “So what happened with Sheriff Magee?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “He just stopped coming in to see her one day.”
“Nooo,” she groaned. “They’d be so cute together.”
“He’s like ten years younger than she is. I think the age difference freaked her out at first.”
“That’s too bad. I like him.”
“So do I. Did you know I bought my house from him?”
“You did?”
I nodded. “When I moved here, I rented it from him. Hazel set it up. I didn’t have shit at that point and I was broke all the time. There were a couple of months where I wasn’t going to make rent by the first and he worked with me. I did improvements for him. He cut me a break. After I got on my feet, I told him I wanted to buy my own place. He said he’d sell me that one so I didn’t have to move.”
He’d given me a fair price and had been patient while I’d gotten a loan. It wasn’t much of a payback, but when Dakota had moved to Lark Cove and needed a job, Thea and I had hired Magee’s nephew immediately.
It was a win for the bar too. Dakota was good at his job, and as a bonus, he entertained the single ladies who used to drool over me.
“I’m glad you bought that house,” Willa said.
I paused and looked back. “You are?”
“Yeah. It’s got such great potential.”
“Potential, huh?” I asked. “Does that mean you want to help me do some remodeling?”
“I might have a few ideas brewing.” She smiled, excitement dancing in her blue eyes.
If she wanted to redesign the entire house, I’d let her. I couldn’t afford to build her some fancy house on the lake or a lodge in the mountains. What I could give her was a nice home in town, someplace we could call ours.
“Come on, babe.” I reached back for her hand.
She took mine immediately and I held it tight, my gloves to her mittens, as we walked around the last bunch of trees on the trail toward the clearing where I was taking her. When we rounded the evergreens and hit a flat spot, I stopped and turned around.
Willa’s eyes were on the ground, watching her steps. But when she looked up, the happiness on her face nearly blew me over. “Need a break?”
“Yeah.” I smiled at her, then jerked my chin so she’d look past my shoulder.
When she did, her smile fell. Her eyes got big and she looked between me and the tree. “What’s going on?”
I kept her hand and pulled her toward the tree in the middle of the clearing—the tree that Ryder and I had decorated with silver and gold Christmas ornaments this morning.
In the sunny afternoon, the bulbs shone brightly. Along with the snow, they made the entire tree sparkle. And they made the single red bow tied right in the center of the tree nearly impossible to miss.
I led Willa right to the bow and waited for her to notice.
“Jackson, what is . . .” Her hand came to her mouth as she saw the ring I’d tied to the red velvet.
I shucked off my gloves, tossing them into the snow, then untied the bow, careful not to drop the ring I’d bought in Kalispell the day after Magee had cleared me of Mom’s murder. Two days after that, I’d gone to the school and asked Nate for permission to marry his daughter.
“Willa Doon.” I held the ring between my thumb and index finger, then dropped to a knee. “I love you. You’re the reason I smile every day. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. You’re my everything. And I want to be yours. I want to make every dream you’ve ever had come true. Will you marry me?”
Tears filled her eyes. “I thought you didn’t want to get married to anyone.”
“I don’t. I want to get married to you.”