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The snow left a light dusting across the tree needles and the Winters Christmas Tree Farm was picturesque, a Christmas-card quality scene. The country setting combined with the elements of winter, his favorite season, gave Clark a sense of peace, something that had been lacking while living in California. He’d moved to the west coast for college when he was seventeen and rarely escaped to the mountains while living there the past ten years. The smells of the city didn’t compare to the woods. Clark breathed in the scents of pine and soil, his face splitting into a wide, satisfied grin. Mistletoe, Idaho, really was a breath of fresh air.
He could see the blow-up Micky and Minnie deflated on the ground beneath the big red sign for the Winters farm. Although Christmas was still eight weeks away, the weather turned fast after mid-October, and with trucks coming in before Thanksgiving to collect the pre-cut trees to fill local orders all over the region, the holidays would be over before he knew it. Since it was his first season with the farm, he’d wanted to get a jump on everything and prove he belonged here, that he was the best man to keep this farm running smoothly.
Although he’d been an agricultural science major at UC Davis, he’d been most interested in plant pathology. When he’d finally finished his graduate program, he’d ended up working for EcoLeaf, a biotech company where the hours were long and migraines at the end of the day from peering through a microscope hours on end were severe. He’d worked hard to put himself through school to get a great job to take care of Jace, but he realized rather quickly that financial security didn’t make up for not seeing his son.
“Dad!”
Clark grinned as Jace came racing down the hill towards him, his gangly legs churning so fast Clark held his breath, waiting for his son to crash and burn. Clark dropped the empty tub he’d been carrying and rushed forward. He caught Jace as he launched himself into Clark’s arms, swinging him high into the air before hugging him. Jace laughed against the side of Clark’s neck, holding him tight, and Clark breathed him in. He still remembered standing in the hospital room the day after Jace was born, staring at the empty bed where he’d left Patrice sleeping. He’d gone back to their apartment to get the car seat and thought maybe she was in the bathroom until he opened the door and found it empty. But it wasn’t until he called her cell and discovered she’d blocked him that the reality sank in. She was gone and Clark was on his own.
Being a single dad before his twenty-first birthday hadn’t been in his plan, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.
“Were you good for Victoria?” he asked, picking up the empty tub with one hand and balancing his son on his other hip.
“I’m always good. I helped her bake cookies and I even cleaned up my mess.”
“I’m proud of you.” Clark carried him up the rows, realizing that soon enough Jace wouldn’t let him do things like this. He was growing up so fast and Clark planned to enjoy his kid cuddles as long as he could.
“I was thinking tonight we’d do breakfast for dinner. Waffles.” Jace’s hazel eyes brightened. “Eggs. Maybe some fresh cut strawberries? What do you think?”
“Yes! I love breakfast for dinner.”
“Me too.”
Suddenly, Jace pushed against his shoulder. “I want to get you a cookie to try. They’re really good.”
Clark set him down. “You know I don’t like cookies, buddy.”
“I promise you will like these!” Jace took off at a run for the main house with Clark trailing behind, smiling contentedly. Their first five years together were rife with struggle, but he’d been determined to finish school. He’d found services and grants, pushing himself through his last year and a half while working nights and weekends. He’d taken all of his earnings, and what didn’t go to supplement daycare, food, and housing, he invested. Clark studied the stock market, IRAs…any way to make his money go farther so they would never have to struggle again.
Clark caught up to Jace as he took monster steps up the stairs, clearing them in seconds.
“Remember to knock! Don’t just barge—” Jace pushed inside the front door and Clark finished with a groan, “in.”
Clark climbed the front porch steps and set the empty tub to the left of the door with the other empty red and green containers they would be putting back into the shed tomorrow. He followed after his son, knocking politely against the open red front door, waiting for Victoria Winters to acknowledge him. She stood in the kitchen smiling at Jace, who was hugging the family’s big bloodhound, Butch, and she waved her hand at Clark to come farther in. Her blond hair was clipped back from her face, falling just past the hood of her red button-up sweater. She pointed apologetically to the phone pressed against her ear and he shut the door behind him with a shake of his head to silently convey it was no problem.
“Yes, I understand that. It really is hard, especially when these things happen unexpectedly. I’m sure she’d be happy to help out. Do you have a pen?” Victoria rattled off a phone number and nodded her head as she spoke. “Absolutely. You take care, Dana. Bye.” She set her phone down on the counter with a tired smile. “Hello, Clark.”
“Hi. Everything okay?”
“Oh yes. Dana Kirk isn’t able to do the Festival of Trees this year and she tried to get me to take over, but I can’t right now with everything going on here. I told her to ask Merry.”
Merry. The middle Winters daughter. Funny, kind, and helpful—at least, that’s what people said about her. Besides a few brief interactions when he’d worked on the farm his senior year, they hadn’t spent much time together before he left for college. There was one day when he’d thought there was more to her than the bubbly, popular girl, and he’d worked up the courage to ask her out, but that brief infatuation had been squashed under her boyfriend’s pickup tires as he’d peeled out of the driveway with Merry in the passenger seat.
When he came back to town, Merry hadn’t been rude to him but there was a definite aloofness. She’d never come out to Clark’s face and said anything, but a few weeks after he moved in, he’d been coming around the side of the house and Merry and her sister had been on the porch. He’d pulled up short when he heard his name.
“Why do you care if he’s here?”
He’d recognized Holly’s voice, which was slightly higher than Merry’s husky one.
“Because I feel like Dad doesn’t trust me to run the farm. Why else would he hire a new foreman?”
“Maybe he’s playing matchmaker. Hot foreman who knows his stuff paired with his eager daughter—”
“Okay, no, that sounds like the start of a bad porno. Besides, Dad would never. Mom might, but they both know how I feel about dating right now. It’s just…why him?”
Why him, indeed. He’d been in a lab since graduating college, even though he preferred the outdoors. He might have the education, but he didn’t have the hands-on knowledge, which was why this first season was so important. Clark needed to prove the Winters family chose the right man, and keeping Merry at a distance insured she wouldn’t witness him making a mistake, giving her ammunition to go to her dad. The way the people of Mistletoe talked, he half expected Merry to walk on water, but humans were flawed and could do some crappy things to each other, especially when they wanted something.
Despite his reservations, his son adored her and was always finding a reason to run next door to see her. Working with a mostly male crew who gossiped worse than prep school girls on TV, he’d learned Merry moved home a year ago after a bad break-up, and despite multiple offers, she’d turned every one of them down. Didn’t stop the guys from talking about how beautiful she was, and he couldn’t disagree. Watching the two of them this morning laugh and sing while they worked on the snarled Christmas lights created a dull ache in his chest, bringing attention to the hole in their lives he tried desperately to ignore. People to love. Family.
