The blizzard was finally kicking in, Jake thought as he stepped from the shelter of the stable into a wind strong enough to knock a man down. Wrapping his right arm around the rope stretched across the yard, he made his way to the main house. The snow was flying and with every step he took, the flakes came faster, thicker, until even squinting, he could barely see the porch he was aimed for. It was as if the storm had waited for him and the ranch hands to return before cutting itself loose. He finally reached the porch, stomped most of the snow off and gratefully stepped inside.
Warmth reached for him and Jake took a deep breath, then released it on a sigh. Grateful to be out of the cold, it took him a second to realize that the scent of pine permeated the house.
“What the hell?”
He shrugged out of his jacket, tossed his hat and scarf onto a nearby hook, then stomped through the entryway into the main room, looking for the source of that smell.
Everyone on the ranch knew he didn’t do Christmas. Didn’t do trees. So he knew Anna wouldn’t have brought anything into the house. Which left Cassie. Though how she would have managed—
His thoughts broke off. There was no tree in the room, just boughs of pine branches lining the fireplace mantel and stuck behind picture frames. There was a vase filled with pine branches, and the roaring fire heated the scent, saturating the air until it was rich and thick.
“You’re back.”
His gaze snapped to the woman sitting on the floor in front of the wide windows. Her hair was long and loose around her shoulders and her smile when she looked at him sent heat sliding through him. It had been a long, hard, cold day, but coming home to that smile was something a man could get used to.
Backlit by the growing storm, Cassie looked impossibly young and beautiful as she sat opposite Luke, with Boston sprawled on the floor beside them. As he watched, the baby slapped both hands onto the dog’s broad back and rocked unsteadily from side to side, grinning wildly when he’d completed the task. An answering smile of pride touched Jake’s mouth briefly. How was it possible that such a tiny human being could turn a man’s heart inside out?
Boston’s tail thumped in appreciation.
“This is the best dog,” Cassie said, her voice breaking the spell holding him in place as she reached out one hand to stroke Boston’s head. “He just loves Luke to pieces.”
“Yeah, he does.” She and the baby were taking over his home, his life. Hell, even his dog had abandoned him in favor of Luke. Jake’s gaze swept around the room, taking in the rest of the pine decorations until he spotted a nativity scene on the coffee table. He hadn’t seen it since he was a boy. “Where did you find that?”
Cassie pushed herself to her feet, picked Luke up and wandered over as if she had all the time in the world. As if she hadn’t noticed the tightness in Jake’s voice.
“In the attic,” she said with a smile, setting Luke down in front of the hand-carved wooden pieces. Instantly, the little boy picked up a sheep and started gnawing on it. “It was Ben’s idea. He said that all of the old family decorations were up there and I should help myself to what I could find.”
His own grandfather. Still working against him. Ben liked Cassie, and now that Luke was involved too, the older man was making no secret of the fact that he wanted them to stay. Well hell, so did Jake. But he had more at risk than Ben did, so Jake had to look at the situation from all angles.
He took another pine-scented breath and tried to still the rumblings inside him, his gaze fixed on the long-forgotten nativity. Ben had carved that set himself when Jake’s mother was just a girl. When he was a kid, Jake had done the same things that Luke was doing now. Funny, he hadn’t thought about that nativity set in years. But then, he didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about the past or Christmas in particular.
Still, he watched Luke move the cows and sheep around on the table and he found himself smiling again.
“Good. You don’t mind that I set it up. Luke loves it. He’s been playing with it all afternoon.” Then she looked up at him and seemed to see him for the first time. “You look tired. Are you hungry? Anna left a pot of stew cooking before she went home. She said since the blizzard hadn’t hit yet, there was no reason for her to stay.”
“Yeah, the men will be out working in this mess tomorrow so Anna will probably spend the next few days cooking here for everyone. So it’s good she went home to rest up.”
“So many words,” Cass said with a smile. “You must be hungry.”