“No,” he stopped her before she could finish, cupping her shoulders with his warm, strong hands. “Not even close. All I have to say is thank you. For thinking about my daughters, and for giving me this night. Just…thank you.”

  And there, in the soft glow of the Christmas lights, Alex bent his face toward Juniper’s and kissed her.

  7

  His evening in town seemed like a dream to Alex the next afternoon as he worked to repair a snow-battered fence. That world, the one filled with hot chocolate, cold noses, and warm lips, seemed like it belonged to somebody else.

  Or so he told himself, again and again as he saw to his work. Even so, he couldn’t seem to get Juniper off of his mind. It felt like he had been living his life in black and white since Fiona and his mom’s passing, and now, with Juniper, he was seeing the world in color again.

  Then, there was that kiss. When he shut his eyes, he imagined he could still feel her lips, soft and ever so slightly parted, against his. It was enough to make him hot all over in spite of the chilly air. The first thing to successfully knock him out of his daydreams was the sound of tires crunching on the snow covering the ranch’s long front drive.

  “Huh,” he said to the open land. “Will you look at that? I thought about her enough that she materialized.”

  Because it was Juniper’s car bumping along his road. He had spent the whole morning thinking about her, and now, here she was.

  He laid his tools aside, any pretense of work gone for now. His heart hammered in his chest as she parked and hopped out of the driver’s seat, looking truly lovely in a long blue coat with a white hat pulled snuggly down atop her head. His mouth actually watered with his desire to kiss her again.

  “Hi!” She called out gaily, moving deftly across the slippery snow to join him. “I can’t believe you’re out here working when it’s this cold.”

  Alex smiled and shrugged. “The chores of a ranch wait for no man, and no weather conditions. What brings you here?”

  “Oh, did I forget to mention? I’ve brought the ornaments the girls made. Is that okay?”

  He smacked his forehead lightly. “Nope, you didn’t forget at all—I did. Why don’t you come on inside? I don’t think I have any hot chocolate, but I can offer you some heat, at least.”

  Her whole face brightened at the offer, a pretty smile making her features glow. Alex was thunderstruck by how much he liked seeing that pleasure and knowing it was because of something he’d said. The glow he got from being around her was something he thought he could get addicted to, if he wasn’t careful.

  Still, it was impossible for him to ignore the tension between them as they made their way to the front porch of the house. He could feel their kiss hanging between them, and part of him wanted to stop her in her tracks, scoop her up in his arms, and kiss her again. Only the knowledge that his daughters and father might see the display stopped him. That, and the fact that he wasn’t sure if she would welcome a second kiss. It had been a long time since he had started a romance. He was more than a little rusty at reading the signals.

  It occurred to him that the smartest strategy might be to just talk to her before they went inside. He stopped a few feet in front of the door with the intention of doing just that. She stopped, too, a question on her face, and he opened his mouth to speak, his heart in his throat.

  “Juniper! You’re here!”

  Before Alex could begin to say anything, Thora threw the front door open and bounded outside, flinging herself at Juniper with such gusto that she almost knocked her off balance.

  “Woah, there, kiddo,” he said shooting Juniper an apologetic look as he attempted to rein Thora in. “Give the woman a little room to breathe. Don’t want to knock her clean off the porch.”

  Juniper laughed and bent to kiss the top of Thora’s head. “It’s totally fine! I don’t often have people this excited to greet me. I’ll take all of the enthusiasm I can get.”

  “Presents!” Thora crowed loudly, oblivious to everything but the bag in Juniper’s hands. She grabbed onto her free hand. “It’s too cold. Inside now!”

  Alex, helpless to temper the force of Thora’s enthusiasm, just shook his head and trailed after the pair. Sophia and Lizzie were by the Christmas tree waiting. Sophia looked guarded and hesitant, as usual, but Lizzie was bouncing up and down on her toes.

  “Presents!” Thora announced this loudly, on the off chance that her sisters hadn’t already heard. She led a still-laughing Juniper over to the couch and plopped down right beside her with an expectant look on her face.

  “Okay, they aren’t exactly presents,” she warned, pulling five delicately wrapped objects out of her bag. “But I think you’ll be happy to have them. I brought the ornaments you guys made at my shop the other day, including…” she paused dramatically “…the picture ornament! I told you I’d be able to fix it, didn’t I?”

  Thora and Lizzie both erupted into cheers, and even Sophia’s face broke into a wide grin, especially when she unwrapped the newly-repaired ornament that showed her and her mother. Juniper had done an amazing job—you’d never have known it had been broken at all. But that was Juniper in a nutshell, wasn’t it? She made everything better. Seeing that joy in his daughters filled Alex with gratitude toward Juniper. What he felt for her wasn’t just attraction, and he couldn’t pretend otherwise. He liked her, too. He liked having her in his life.

  It was a picture-perfect scenario, right up until Juniper stood to go. Before she could even take a step, Thora took hold of one hand, while Lizzie hurried to hang on the other.

  “No!” Thora whined, frowning up at Juniper. “Stay! Remember? You said you were going to help us bake cookies. Just like in the picture, right?”

  “Cookies!” Lizzie shouted gleefully. Even Sophia looked hopeful and interested in this new development.

  Alex held up a hand to stop them before they got too worked up. “Hold on, girls. It was really nice of Juniper to bring us the ornaments, but she’s a busy lady. She doesn’t have time to hang around to bake with us.”

  “Actually, because of all of the time you saved me by bringing over that wood, instead of me having to scavenge for it, I have some time on my hands today. Margot is watching the store, so –” She trailed off, her eyebrows raised while she waited for his reply.

  Alex looked at the faces of his girls, so hopeful, and nodded. “If that’s really alright with you, I think that some cookie baking time sounds like fun.”

  “And you’ll do it, too, right Daddy?” Thora demanded, so excited she looked ready to burst. “We can all do it together!”

  “Hold on, honey,” he said as gently as possible. “I’ll find Grandma’s baking book for you, but there’s no way I can stay and bake with you. I’ve still got too much work to do.”

  For one moment, the room was completely silent. Then, with a force that Alex found stunning, Thora exploded. Her hands balled up into little fists held close at her side, and her face turned beet red. She stamped her feet and looked at him with pure anger unlike anything he’d ever seen on that sweet face before.

  “You always work, Daddy. That’s all you do! You don’t do anything with us!”

  Stunned, Alex opened his mouth to offer some kind of rebuttal. Before he could say a word, she turned and fled from the room.

  Juniper’s heart hurt when she saw the stricken expression on Alex’s face. She could see how badly he wanted to make his girls happy. At the same time, she could tell that he felt the pull of his responsibility to the ranch. He seemed totally unsure what to do next, and Sophia and Lizzie both looked worried.

  She stepped to his side and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Hey, Alex? Would you mind if I went after her? Maybe tried to talk to her? I don’t want to overstep, but maybe I can help. What do you think?”

  “Be my guest,” he answered with a miserable, defeated shrug. “You can’t do any worse than I just did. I really made a mess of things.”

  She smiled softly and shook her head. “No, I don’t think you did. You’re just trying to take care of everything all at once. So, let me try to take care of this one.”

  She headed off after Thora and could practically feel the relief of Sophia and Lizzie behind her. She was glad to be helping them, and glad to be able to take just a tiny bit off of Alex’s plate. She just hoped she could help Thora, too.

  Seeing Thora’s disappointment at her dad’s refusal to join in the baking had brought back an unexpected flood of memories from her own lonely childhood. She remembered with utter clarity an endless reel of memories of small neglects, little hints of indifference that made it clear her aunt and uncle didn’t care enough about her to factor her into their time. There was a special kind of loneliness reserved for people who felt unwanted. She knew that wasn’t actually the case for Thora, but that didn’t make the feeling less real or less painful.

  Down the corridor, in what had once been a home office of sorts, Juniper heard the door slam and smiled a little to herself. She admired Thora’s spunk, even while it was coming in the form of a tantrum.

  “Knock, knock,” she called, tapping her knuckles lightly on the tightly shut door. “Hey, Thora, it’s Juniper. I was wondering if it would be okay if I sat with you for a little while? Unless you would rather have some space.”

  “No,” came Thora’s tear-thick, sulky voice. “I don’t want you to go away. I want you to come in. You can see my room.”

  Juniper remembered how sacred a space a little girl’s room could be to her, and she was touched by the offer. She eased the door open, her eyes scanning the room as she moved toward the bed where Thora was curled up in a little ball. Here, too, she saw things that reminded her of her own girlhood self. It would be impossible to know Thora and not know this was her room. The walls were splashed with pictures—of horses, of a cartoon character Thora seemed to adore, and a whole host of pictures of her family.

  Thora sat with her back pressed up against a bright pink upholstered headboard. Her knees were pulled up close to her chest, with her arms wrapped around them tightly. It was plain to Juniper that she had been crying.

  “Hey there, sweet girl,” Juniper said gently, climbing on top of the bed and scooting over close to the hurting child. “That was kind of rough, wasn’t it?”

  Thora sniffed and swiped angrily at her eyes. “He doesn’t like us. He doesn’t want to do anything with us.”

  “Yeah, I can see how it feels that way, but I have to tell you, I don’t think that’s really true.” Juniper kept her hands clasped loosely in her lap, her legs crossed. She wanted her posture to be as open as possible in the hopes that Thora would understand that she was being honest with her.

  Thora relaxed a little, unclasping her legs and mimicking Juniper’s posture. “But that’s how it feels.”

  “That makes sense to me,” Juniper said, hesitating for just a moment before placing a hand on Thora’s small back and rubbing lightly. “I used to feel that same way when I was your age. My aunt and uncle took me in when my parents died, and I never felt like they wanted me around.”

  “Your mommy and daddy died?” Thora asked with wide eyes. “My mommy died, too.”

  Juniper smiled sadly. “I know she did, honey. And believe it or not, that’s part of why your daddy has to work so much. It’s not because he doesn’t want to spend time with you. He does, more than anything. But he’s trying to do the job of a mommy and a daddy now, and take care of the ranch, too. That sounds like kind of a lot to me. What do you think?”

  “That is a lot,” Thora said, a thoughtful frown creasing her brow. “I didn’t know.”

  “Of course, you didn’t! And that’s okay! You’ve got lots to do, too—with school, and your chores, and looking after your little sister. But now that you know, maybe you can think about it when you wonder why he sometimes doesn’t do things with you. I actually think I have an idea about how that might get a little better. It might even mean he can make some cookies with us.” Juniper waited, holding back a laugh when Thora sat up straighter, like a dog coming to attention.

  “How?” she demanded insistently.

  Juniper unfolded her legs and stood, motioning for Thora to do the same. “I think all it’s going to take is a little bit of compromise. Think you’re up for that?”

  8

  Alex, his hand shoved deep down in his pockets, paced around the living room. He could practically hear his mother telling him he would wear a hole in the floor, but he couldn’t make himself stand still, even though he could tell that he was only putting Sophia and Lizzie more on edge.

  There had been plenty of times he’d felt like he had let his girls down. But never before had he been so brutally confronted by his daughter’s feelings of neglect. This was like reading Thora’s letter to Santa all over again, only worse. Because this wasn’t just him falling down on the job where the holidays were concerned. This meant that time and again, Thora, at least, didn’t feel like a priority to him.

  It wasn’t until he heard two sets of footsteps padding down the hall that he made himself stand still. He watched the doorway anxiously, almost like he expected Juniper and Thora to disappear before they could reach him.

  “Hey, Thora,” Sophia said quietly, glancing from her sister to Alex hesitantly. “Are you okay?”

  Thora lifted her chin defiantly. “Yup. Juniper came up with a solution.”

  “I might have, at least. If it works for you, Alex.” Juniper stood close to Thora, her arm around his daughter’s slight shoulders. Alex saw how comfortable the two of them already seemed with each other, and it tugged at his heartstrings.

  He sat on the couch, patting the place beside him for Thora to join him. “Well, alright. I’m all ears. What’s the solution?”

  Thora didn’t hesitate to sit beside him, to his profound relief. “Juniper said we need compromise. Do you know about compromise, Daddy?”

  “I’ve heard a thing or two about it, yes.” He looked at Juniper over the top of Thora’s head, both of them clearly doing their best not to smile.

  Thora nodded matter-of-factly. “That’s what she says we should do.”

  Alex nodded. “Okay, I’m with you so far. And what are the terms of this compromise?”

  Thora looked to Juniper, who came forward and took the chair closest to the couch. “Well, my thought was that if you spent some time in the kitchen with us baking cookies, the girls could help you with the chores in the barn afterwards. That way, everything gets done—and we all get to spend time together. But only if Sophia and Lizzie agree, of course. And I would love to stay and pitch in, too.”

  This suggestion was met with a passionate agreement from Lizzie, although Alex wasn’t entirely sure she understood what she was agreeing to. Sophia also agreed, looking quietly pleased with the idea.

  Alex made a show of mulling the potential plan over while Thora squirmed beside him and Lizzie hopped in a tight little circle, chanting “cookies” all the while.

  When he felt like he had done a sufficient job of making them sweat, he let his hand drop and grinned. “Sounds like we’ve got a plan, ladies. But God help whichever one of you decides to eat any cookie I attempt to bake.”

  Twenty minutes later, all five of them were in the kitchen, chattering happily over each other. Without Juniper there, a scene like this would have been utter chaos, and would almost certainly have resulted in at least one of the girls dissolving into tears. But under her guidance, there was a method to the madness of this baking extravaganza.

  She was like a conductor, leading each section to work in beautiful harmony. Alex’s job, thankfully, required his height and zero baking skill, because he was put in charge of getting all the ingredients out of the cabinets and the fridge and lining them up as they were needed. With that done, he was able to step back and watch the others.

  For Lizzie, Juniper had designated the very special task of measuring out the dry ingredients. She looked cute as a button doing it, too, her face screwed up in determination as Juniper guided her little hands slowly from the bag of flour to the measuring cup.

  Thora was commanding the process of mixing, and she took to it with gusto. It was easy for him to see how much she loved baking, and he knew that Fiona would have been tickled pink to see her middle daughter follow in her footsteps.

  Sophia was given the most delicate job of cracking the eggs and doing so without allowing a single scrap of shell to make its way into the bowl. Alex watched her closely and was impressed by how delicate her movements were. She had a surprising amount of grace for a girl still so young. He felt a pang of regret for not having seen that about her more clearly before, but he was thankful to have that new insight into her now. She seemed to take pride in the work she was doing, too, and Alex loved seeing that. Maybe, with more of this kind of thing, she would come out of her shell. As a little girl, she’d been playful and adventurous—but she had lost something when her mother died. For the first time, he was starting to think she might not have lost it for good.

  Juniper put herself in charge of rolling out the dough and then showed them how to use a cookie cutter to cut out delicate snowflakes to place on the waiting tray. After snowflakes came Christmas trees. After Christmas trees came wreaths. After wreaths came snowmen—and after snowmen, even the girls had to admit that they had enough cookies to enjoy for themselves and to share with friends. Good thing, too, since they’d used up every cookie sheet in the house and were down to their very last egg.

  “They have to cool completely before we can decorate them,” Juniper announced. “So now it’s time for the four of us to hold up our end of the bargain. I believe there is a barn waiting for our attention.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Alex said quickly. A quick glance at the clock showed him that she had already spent a nice chunk of her afternoon on his girls. “I know this is a busy time of year for you.”