“I’m jealous though. I love that sweet house in the Palmer Lake Glen.”
The house was built on the side of a hill, and behind it was a trail that went up Sundance Mountain to the reservoirs above the town, and had been the first place their family lived in when they moved to Colorado.
The small town had once been a vacation spot for the Vail family, who did their best to gentrify it. In the 1920s, they established the Rocky Mountain Chautauqua Assembly, making Palmer Lake a destination point for many travelers.
It had suffered from the drought in the last couple of years, and the town struggled to maintain its former glory, without much success. However, the beauty remained, making it one of the nicest places to live on the Rampart Range. The holiday traditions were a big part of what made Palmer Lake so special—and, despite the difficult economic climate, they remained.
During the Great Depression, the town’s residents had erected a five-hundred-foot, five-point star on the side of Sundance Mountain, above the lake. Each year since then, the star was lit the entire month of December.
“Remember looking for the yule log?” Blythe asked.
“Every year.”
“Could Dad see them hiding it from the back windows?”
“I don’t know. What makes you think he could?”
“I can’t imagine it was a coincidence that he found it three years in a row.”
When Blythe and her sisters were little, they’d join as many as five hundred people on the annual hunt for the Yule Log—another Palmer Lake tradition, started by the Vail family in the 1930s. The hunt was held the first weekend of December and started at the town hall, where residents would gather, sing Christmas carols, and drink wassail and hot chocolate before donning red and green capes to begin their trek into the forest.
Sometimes it took a few minutes to find the eight-foot notched log, and sometimes it took as long as an hour or two. Whoever found it was given the honor of riding it, pulled by ropes held by other revelers, back up the steep road to the town hall. Three times in her life, her father had been the one to find it, so she and her sisters got to ride the log.
“I never thought about it, but maybe you’re right. I’d hate to think Dad would cheat, but he probably did it so each of us could have their turn riding up the hill.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Anyway, you’ve decided to move in with Lyric. I think it’s a great idea. When?”
“Tonight.”
“That soon?” Blythe shouldn’t be surprised. Bree couldn’t stay with her parents forever; she was a grown woman. She wasn’t like Blythe, who still hadn’t moved out on her own.
12
“The baby isn’t your responsibility, Jace.” Blythe wished Bree was here this morning instead of at the house in the glen. Whenever he started in on her about something, Bree would jump in and tell him to leave her alone.
“What if I want to make it my responsibility? I care about you, and I care about the baby. Let me do this, Blythe. Let me be part of your lives.”
“Jace, you have to understand—”
“I know what you’re gonna say, and it’s okay.”
“What was I going to say?”
“That you’re not over Tucker. It’s okay. I can wait.”
“It isn’t that I’m not over him. I’m having his baby, Jace. Doesn’t that kind of…I don’t know…turn you off of me?”
Jace touched the side of her face. “No, it doesn’t. I meant what I said. I want to be part of your lives. And if you don’t feel the same way about me as I feel about you, well, I’ll learn to be patient.”
“What if I never feel the way you do, Jace?”
“You did once, Blythe. I know you did. Things got all kinds of mixed up between you and me and Tuck. But I’m here now, and he isn’t. I asked you once before, and I’ll ask you again. Please, give me a chance. That’s all I’m askin’ for. A chance.”
“And if I say no?”
“I’ll ignore ya.”
“That’s what I figured,” she laughed. “But, Jace, I have to be honest with you. I think I knew from the first day I met you and Tucker that he was the man for me. I’m sorry if I gave you a different impression.”