“Now I understand.” Maple aimed a wide grin at Adaline and spread her arms out wide, encompassing the entirety of Gus’s old red barn, now packed full of trees from the Texas Tidings Christmas tree lot.
Adaline dragged her gaze away from Jace as he methodically moved from tree to tree, adding water to their stands and gave her friend a curious glance. “What exactly do you understand?”
“Why everyone in Texas drives a pickup truck.” Maple nodded. “It all makes sense now.”
Adaline laughed. It never failed. Every time she started to forget that Maple wasn’t born and bred in Bluebonnet like the rest of the Comfort Paws girls, she gave herself away by sounding exactly like a city mouse, which happened to be the cute nickname Ford sometimes used for her.
“First of all, that’s a sweeping generalization. Second, I’ve lived in the Lone Star state all my life, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen a pickup truck convoy hauling Christmas trees from one end of town to the other. But clearly there’s a first time for everything.” Adaline looked over her shoulder at the line of Chevy, Ford and Ram trucks parked near the barn’s wide double doors. All it had taken was a few phone calls, and her friends and family had turned out in full force to help Jace.
Her brother had immediately volunteered his 1967 classic turquoise Ford pickup. Within minutes, she’d gotten Jenna’s boyfriend, Cam, on board too. Cam played professional football for the Houston Rattlers, but spent as much time in Bluebonnet as he could in order to stay close to Jenna, his sister and his twin nephews. During the offseason, he coached the twins’ peewee football team, which meant he knew a lot of dads...dads who drove trucks, because as Maple pointed out, this was Texas.
Not only had the cavalry shown up to help Jace save the Christmas tree lot, nearly every truck was now about to head home with at least one tree in tow. People had been buying trees as they were piling them into the truck beds. Loading up Jace’s inventory had been the most time-consuming part of the process, but even that went fairly quickly since so much of the town had turned out to help. Once every last pine, fir and evergreen had been placed in the back of a pickup, it had only taken the caravan one trip to transport them to Gus’s farm.
Adaline could hardly believe it. They’d done it, and without a second to spare. The sun had just dipped below the horizon when the line of trucks pulled up to Gus’s log cabin. Jace wasted no time unlocking the barn. The big double doors opened with a groan, and for an odd moment, he’d just stood there, staring into the darkened space like the hardest part was still ahead. But then a crack of thunder sounded, and a flash of lightning illuminated the empty building, revealing nothing but a vacant space. Jace had snapped back into action and hadn’t slowed down since.
“The pizza just got here.” Jenna peered at Adaline around the stack of flat cardboard boxes in her arms. “Where should I put it?”
“Oh, great. Let’s take it over to Jace’s truck. I’ve got a little tailgate station set up with some paper towels I grabbed from the kitchen.” Adaline took a few boxes from the towering pile and steered Jenna to Jace’s vehicle.
She hadn’t run the impromptu pizza party past Jace. He’d been moving around nonstop for hours, directing the helpers and organizing the trees in the barn so that it almost looked like a Christmas showroom. But if she knew Jace—and, crazily enough, she was beginning to feel like she understood him in a way she’d never really known her previous real boyfriends before—she knew he’d want to properly thank the community for turning out for him. What else would a golden retriever do?
So once again, she’d taken the bull by the horns and placed a massive order with the one pizza delivery place in town. She may as well have made an entire batch of cookies with Jace’s initials on it this time. After tonight, there wouldn’t be a soul in Bluebonnet who didn’t think they were a couple. At least since she was supposed to be his girlfriend, she had a valid—albeit thoroughly fraudulent—reason to go overboard.
“What’s all this?” Jace said when he found her stacking the pizzas—organized by flavor, of course—on the tailgate of his truck.
His hair was dusted with pine needles, and his chiseled face was smudged with dirt, but Adaline wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him quite this unguarded before. As kind and supportive as Jace had been to her thus far in the brief duration of their pretend romance, he mostly kept the focus on her. While she felt like he knew all of her deepest, darkest secrets, in many ways, Jace remained a closed book. The more time Adaline spent with him, the more she wished she could hide herself away and read him cover to cover.
She kept her attention focused on a pizza with pepperoni and extra cheese and prayed he couldn’t read her mind. “It’s a pizza party. I hope you don’t mind...”
Jenna slid her a sideways glance and must’ve wanted to give them a few minutes of privacy so she made herself scarce. “I’ve got a case of bottled water in my car that I picked up to keep on hand at the dance studio. I’ll go run and get it, so everyone has something to drink.”
“Great idea. Thanks,” Adaline called after her.
Jace cupped her cheek with one hand and gently aimed her face toward his, so she had no choice but to look him in the eye. “Do you honestly think I mind that you put together a pizza party for a bunch of people who just came together to help save my Christmas tree lot even though they hardly know me?”
“Sometimes I get carried away,” Adaline said. The intense eye contact was unnerving. “I thought this might be one of those times.”
Jace pressed his forehead against hers and dropped his voice to a whisper. “I’m going to tell you a secret, so listen up—I love it when you get carried away.”
A shiver coursed through her that was in no related to the freezing drizzle whirling around them. “You do?”
“Very much,” he said, and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out if this sweet conversation was for show or if it was the real deal. Half the town was milling about around them, but she felt like they were in their own private bubble.
“Your trees are safe, Jace. We did it.” She felt like crying, and she wasn’t altogether sure why. She just knew they were happy tears, even though Comfort Paws had just lost an entire evening worth of hot chocolate sales and community donations.
“No.” Jace shook his head. “You did it. Take a look around. This was all you, Adaline. And no matter what happens after midnight on Christmas Eve, I’ll never forget it.”
Then he brushed his lips against hers in a tender kiss, and Adaline knew she had every reason to be merry. She’d worry about Comfort Paws once the storm had passed. But the reminder of the end date of their arrangement made her feel like a Christmas Cinderella. The tick of the clock was getting louder by the day, and she was starting to wonder if she could outrun it.
Or if she even wanted to anymore.
Jace’s breath fogged the air as he tied the last tarp in place over the trees in the back corner of the barn. He’d decided not to risk the furnace since Gus hadn’t used it in quite some time. The last thing he needed was for the barn to go up in flames, especially after the way so many people had pitched in to help move the trees.
He wasn’t sure what he would’ve done without Adaline today. There wasn’t a single pine needle left in the town square, and it was all because of her. Not only that, but as they’d filled the once empty barn with row after row of Christmas trees, their sweeping green boughs chased the old memories away. Jace could breathe in here again. Now when he looked around the old red barn and inhaled the earthy scent of dirt and straw, the only ghosts he saw were those of the community of strangers who’d come together to help him. He felt a little bit less like that scared little boy who’d cowered in the back stall and more like he’d returned to the place where he really belonged.
More like a man who’d made his way home.
He closed his eyes and tried to imagine starting over here for good. Until tonight, he hadn’t been able to picture himself signing the contract and letting go of Texas Tidings. Now it didn’t feel quite so much like losing something—not when his heart was this full. He could start again in Bluebonnet. Gus’s property had plenty of land to plant a new batch of trees. It would take at least four years before he could harvest and sell fully grown trees, but in the meantime, he could source trees from elsewhere and still run the lot in the town square every year.
Jace hadn’t allowed himself to truly consider making a permanent change until just now. Why would he do that once Gus was gone? The time to put down roots in Bluebonnet would’ve been years ago when he first started Texas Tidings. Now that he was back, though...
He felt that familiar tug to stay.
But just like last time, that bone-deep ache wasn’t based in reality. This life was a fantasy. Staying in Bluebonnet after Gus passed away wouldn’t be like tonight...not after midnight on Christmas Eve.
“Here you are,” Adaline said brightly as she appeared from the maze of trees that crisscrossed the barn. “I knew you had to be around here somewhere. Everyone’s gone. The weather is getting worse, and I think they were worried about the streets getting icy.”
Jace nodded. “Understandable.”
“Plus, we ran out of pizza, so that might’ve also been a factor.” She gave him a shoulder bump as she came to stand beside him and planted her elbows on the four-foot wall surrounding a nearby stall. The stall, actually. “But don’t worry. I saved you a few slices.”
“Thanks. I’ve been too busy to even think about food.” He dragged a hand over his face. Exhaustion was beginning to set in.
“You look dead on your feet. Come sit down. I think I’ve still got a minute or two before I need to head over to Belle’s apartment to pick up Fuzzy. She’s watching Lady Bird and Ginger too.” Adaline wove her fingers through his and tugged him inside the stall. A pile of saddle blankets sat in the corner, and she plopped down on one and patted the empty space beside her.
How long had those blankets been there? Jace didn’t want to think about it. But the feel of the scratchy material against his skin and the damp, dark corner of the stall took him right back to that day...the day he wanted to hide in this exact spot forever and never leave.
“What is this place?” Adaline planted her palm on the smooth pine wall and glanced around the stall. “Did Gus have horses back when you were in elementary school?”
“No.” Jace shook his head. “A long time ago he raised quarter horses, but that was before I came to stay with him. I’m not sure why he stopped. Not sure you’ve noticed, but Gus doesn’t share much.”
They shared a quiet laugh, followed by a long, silent moment when the only discernible sound was the tap-tap-tap of sleet falling against the barn roof.
“Why did you leave? I always wondered.” Adaline turned toward him, eyes full of questions.
On any other day, Jace would’ve changed the subject. But he couldn’t do that anymore—not here in this stall, and not with her.
“I was never supposed to stay. I came to live with Uncle Gus for just that one school year while my dad had cancer treatment. The plan was always to go back home.” Jace cleared his throat, because that word—home—had lodged itself there and refused to budge.
“Oh, Jace. I had no idea.” Her eyes softened, and the look on her face was just the sort of expression that would’ve broken him in fifth grade. Now it did the opposite—it soothed the rough edges of memory.
Jace should’ve talked about this more often. Maybe if he had, he wouldn’t have ended up in Bluebonnet all alone after all these years.
You’re not alone.
But wasn’t he? It was hard to tell anymore. All the lines were beginning to blur.
“Did your dad recover?” Adaline asked.
“Yes.” Jace nodded, and then felt his face fall. “He did, but he passed away last year. He and my mom both. Car accident.”
Adaline flinched, then squeezed his hand so hard that he thought it might break.
“So, Gus...” Her voice faded away as the stark reality of his current situation sank in.
Jace nodded and met her gaze as his lips curved into a sad smile. “Yep. He’s the only family I have left.”
For now.
He didn’t have to say it. They both knew why he was at the senior center. Patients like Gus weren’t there for rehab or to recover from a short-term illness. His uncle was very clearly there for end-of-life care.
“I’m sure Gus is glad you’re back, even if he has a hard time showing it.” Adaline dropped her head onto his shoulder. Soft blond waves tickled his nose, and he smiled to himself when he realized her hair didn’t smell like sugar cookies anymore. Now the icy scent of Christmas trees clung to her, just like she’d once told him.
“I think I’m wearing him down. He’s getting more tolerable,” Jace said, and Adaline shook with gentle laughter against his chest.
“So he wasn’t as much of a grinch back when you were a kid?”
“He put up a Christmas tree that year, but it didn’t have any decorations.” Jace’s gaze roamed over the evergreens that surrounded them in the barn. As much as he loved lights and tinsel, there was something majestic about the simplicity of an unadorned tree.
Or maybe it just reminded him of a Bluebonnet Christmas, once upon a time.
Adaline lifted her head from his shoulder and swiveled to face him, eyes sparkling in the dim light of the barn. Tiny ice crystals glittered in her hair, diamond-bright. “Jace, we have to get to the bottom of this. There’s got to be a reason Gus doesn’t like Christmas. Maybe if we can figure out what it is, we can fix it.”
“Fix it?” Jace regarded her through narrowed eyes.
Leave it to Adaline Bishop to think she could change a cranky old geezer like Gus. Who knew? Maybe she actually could. Jace sure hadn’t expected to find Fuzzy in his uncle’s lap when he arrived at the senior center earlier this morning, but hoping for more felt like setting himself up for disappointment.
“I’m getting carried away again, aren’t I?” Her brow lifted in amusement, and her eyes flickered like a bonfire—all comfort and warmth on a cold winter night. “Earlier, you said you loved it when that happened.”
“I did indeed, and I meant it,” Jace said, stifling a laugh.
“Then what’s so funny?” Her lips turned down in the corners, and the temptation to kiss a smile back on her face was overwhelming.
“You seem to have forgotten another one of your ground rules.” He held up two fingers and recited her own words back to her. “‘Rule number two—as little involvement in each other’s family lives as possible.’ Does that ring a bell?”
She opened her mouth to object, and then promptly closed it again. Embarrassment rolled off her in waves.
Jace almost felt sorry for her...but not quite. The flush that swept across her cheeks was awfully cute, and he’d tried to warn her that she couldn’t stick to her own guidelines. She hadn’t wanted to listen.
“That’s two rules broken now, isn’t it?” Jace arched a single, knowing eyebrow. Guilty as charged, sweetheart. “Only two more to go.”