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

He shouldn’t be running like that in the cold, but she let it go this time.

“Sylvester is named after his grandfather,” Cora told Jared lightly. “We don’t use nicknames.”

An odd expression flashed across his face for an instant and then it was gone.

“I’m sorry about yesterday,” he said. “The way I acted wasn’t neighborly.”

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a folded piece of paper and held it out to her.

She took it. The paper was warm and a little crumpled from being in his pocket while he worked.

“You can read that later,” he told her. “Anyway, I thought I should do something to make it up to you, and I couldn’t help noticing your mailbox was busted yesterday. I meant to put up a new one before you got home and leave that note for you, but the ground’s a little rocky here, so it took longer than I expected.”

She blinked at him, amazed. She wasn’t helpless, but she had never really thought of herself as the handy type. The thought of tackling a job like that on a whim was impressive.

“Anyway, welcome to Trinity Falls,” he said. “People here are really nice. You just got unlucky by meeting me first.”

She heard herself laughing before she had time to think about it.

His expression of chagrin suddenly melted into a smile of his own and it was impossible not to notice his blue eyes dancing in the shadow of his cowboy hat.

“That fishing hole means a lot to you,” she acknowledged. “I understand. But I need to keep my son safe.”

“The land is yours,” he said, nodding once. His smile had vanished, but his expression was accepting of his defeat.

She knew it cost him to say it, and she felt a pang of sympathy.

“Maybe we can work something out,” she said without thinking.

His eyes lit up and again, she felt a pull of kinship between them.

“Maybe you could use a hand around here?” he said. “An older house is a lot to manage. Radcliffe did a good job with these homes, but I know he had most of the trim painted in the wintertime, and I heard that a lot of the new owners are finding out that their windows are sticking, or just painted completely shut. I could start with that, if you wanted?”

“Why don’t we take a look at the windows?” she offered.

He smiled and those blue eyes twinkled again.

“Great,” he said. “I’ll just leave this out here. It’s filthy.”

He peeled off the flannel and left it on the grass with the rest of his stuff.

She turned her gaze to the house as they headed for it, so as not to be tempted to look at how his tee shirt might be fitting any part of him.

“It’s a really neat house,” he said. “I always thought it looked like something out of a book.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” she said, smiling in spite of herself.

Sylvester appeared in the doorway, free of his enormous backpack.

“Hey,” he called out excitedly. “My dad had a shirt like that.”

She glanced over and saw that Jared was wearing a faded Trinity Falls high school football tee shirt.

“Oh, yeah?” Jared said. “Your dad played football in Trinity Falls?”

“Yes,” Sylvester said proudly. “My dad’s name was Arthur Davies. Did you know him?”

Cora felt her heart skip a beat. They didn’t get to hear new stories about Arthur anymore. And she treasured every single memory of him.