Teacher's Christmas Cowboy (Trinity Falls Sweet Romance - Icicle Christmas #5)

“Thank you,” she said, leaning over the railing to grab them. “Is what this man says true? Do many people around here really use that fishing hole?”

“Oh, I’m a government employee, ma’am,” George said, raising his ancient arms. “I can’t get involved in any kind of private land disputes.”

“Good grief, Culpepper,” Jared exploded. “She’s not asking your opinion as a mailman. You grew up here. You were the head of the Cub Scouts.”

But George was already hurrying back to his truck as fast as his feet would carry him, which wasn’t at all fast, but was enough to tell Jared he was looking for help from the wrong quarter.

“I have a little boy,” the woman said quietly. “I can’t risk him wandering into the woods and falling into that creek.”

Jared and his brothers had spent half their childhood wading, swimming, and hunting for treasure in the creek behind their own childhood home. This woman was obviously the overprotective type.

“Is your husband here?” Jared asked.

“No,” she said tightly.

“When’s he coming home?” he asked.

“He won’t be. But we’re going to visit him in a little while,” she said. “I’ll be sure to pass along all your thoughts to him.”

“Where is he?” Jared asked.

“Over on Possum Hollow Road,” she said. “Beside the church.”

“Mom?” a little voice said from the doorway.

“Thanks for stopping by,” she said in a friendly tone that clearly meant get off my property.

Jared headed to his truck, trying not to notice George staring at him openly from where he still stood by his mail truck.

Shaking his head at the madness of the whole messed up situation, Jared pulled out of the drive and headed back toward home.

The lady was obviously bananas. Nothing about her situation made a lick of sense. Why would she and her husband be buying a house if they didn’t even live together?

“There isn’t even a house beside that church on Possum Hollow,” he muttered to himself as he turned down Knowlton Road. “The only thing over there is the…”

Suddenly the truth of the matter landed on him so hard he almost had to pull the car over.

The only thing next to the church was the graveyard.

Her husband wasn’t going to be having a heart-to-heart with Jared about fences, fishing holes, or anything else. Her husband was dead. And she and the little boy were about to go visit him at the cemetery.

And George Culpepper obviously knew. That was why he had been looking at Jared like he had two heads.

Why did she have to be on George’s route? Jared groaned out loud at the thought of his stupid misunderstanding going down the gossip chain, getting more and more ridiculous with each retelling.

And why hadn’t the woman said something?

The memory of her standing there so fiercely tugged at his heart, in spite of his frustration. She and her boy were in mourning, and he had yelled at her and acted like she couldn’t do anything for herself.

And instead of crying or complaining about it, she had quietly made him look like a complete fool. He couldn’t help the little shiver of admiration that went down his spine.

He drove the rest of the way home trying not to think of her flashing gray eyes and the stubborn set of her jaw.

He managed to keep more or less busy with household tasks throughout the day, though his interaction with the gray-eyed lady kept playing in his mind. He ran over to a neighbor’s place to help out with a roofing project in the afternoon, just to have something to do.

His sore muscles had finally brought his frazzled mind to heel by the time he got home for supper. Everyone else was already seated around the table, smiling and laughing as he came in the back door and hung his jacket on the hook.

“Sorry,” he called out to the group. “We were close to being done, so we kept going a little past dark.”