The sled veered unexpectedly. Brody landed in a heap, and Lila landed with a fierce thump on top of him.
He looked up into the laughter of her eyes, the joy on her face, and he let himself have it. He let himself have this moment.
Something inside of him let go: his need to protect himself, his need to be in control, his need to not ever be hurt again.
He looked into Lilaâs shining face and he could clearly see she had risen to the challenge of allowing her heart to be made braver. She was welcoming whatever was happening between them.
He let go of his own desire to run from it. If she could be so brave, than he could be too.
It was not the kind of bravery that reached into a burning car and pulled out a woman stuck behind the steering wheel.
No, it was not that kind of bravery. That kind of bravery had its place.
But it did not hold a candle to the kind of bravery that was being asked of him now. To put his heart at risk. To say yes to the mystery of something bigger than he could control. Say yes to what was in the laughter of her eyes, and the way she had rested against his chest last night.
To say yes to life.
Cara Colter lives on an acreage in British Columbia with her partner, Rob, and eleven horses. She has three grown children and a grandson. She is a recent recipient of the Romantic Times BOOKreviews Career Achievement Award in the âLove and Laughterâ category. Cara loves to hear from readers, and you can contact her, or learn more about her, through her website: www.cara-colter.com
Dear Reader
There is something about turning fifty (two days after Christmas for me), that makes a person ask: have I used my life wisely? Have I done enough? Been enough? Have I achieved the things I hoped to achieve?
Sometimes answers come in unexpected ways. As I was working on this Christmas story, I heard Josh Groban sing âThe Little Drummer Boyâ.
It was such a beautiful reminder that we are all given a giftâperhaps humble, perhaps grandâand it is not the gift itself that matters, but how we use it.
I recall a waiter so wonderful I still remember him with more delight than the musical concert that followed; I have a hair stylist who loves her work so absolutely it is pure pleasure to see what sheâll do this time; I was at a hotel in Mexico where the maid radiated good cheer and amazed us over and over by sculpting the bathroom towels into swans and boats and other creations.
If you bring your heart to what you do, no matter what that is, it becomes a gift to others. And to Him. That is my intention with each story I write. May it bring joy.
With holiday wishes
Cara Colter
CHAPTER ONE
OFFICER BRODY TAGGERT decided he was upgrading his mood from cranky to just plain foul.
âAs good a time as any to go see Miss L. Toe,â he said, out loud, heavy on the sarcasm as he said the name. Tagâs dog, Boo, the only other inhabitant of the police cruiser, who was stretched out comfortably in the backseat, woofed what Tag took as agreement.
Actually, Tag thought, given his mood, now was probably not the best time to go see Snow Mountainâs newest business owner, resident, budding author and pain in the butt.
Unfortunately the new-in-town Lila Grainger, aka Miss L. Toe, unlike most people Tag ran into who had an aliasâan also known asâwas not a criminal at all. She was the chief of policeâs niece.
Which was the reason Tag had to go see her.
Directly ordered.
Tagâs boss, Chief Paul Hutchinson âHutch,â was notoriously mild-mannered, but he had a core of pure steel and he had not been amused that Tag had missed the first ever meeting of the Save Christmas in Snow Mountain Committee last night.
âSheâs up to something,â the chief had muttered. âSheâs crafty, just like my sister, her mother. And you missed the meeting, so now weâre in the dark.â
Tag decided not to point out that in the dark was a particularly bad choice of phrase, since that was what had ignited the Christmas fervor in Snow Mountain in the first place.
Town Council had decided to turn off the lights. The Christmas lights, that was. And the traditional Christmas display in the tiny Bandstand Park that was at the end of Main Street was to be no more.
Every year since 1957, the park had been transformed into Santaâs Workshop. Ingenious motorized elves made toys and wrapped gifts, reindeer cavorted and Santa ho-ho-hoed and waved. But those particular models of elves and reindeer did not have fifty-year life spans.
Santaâs ho-ho-ho had gone into slow mo. Last year one of the elves had seriously overheated and burst into flames. Unfortunately, someone with a cell phone camera had caught on film a child wailing in fear, his face dramatically backlit by the flickering blaze, and Snow Mountain had been put on the map.
The whole issue had been causing heated debates since last January. But at the October Town Council meeting, Leonard Lemoix, who was not Tagâs favorite councilor, had gone where no one had gone before. Leonard had crunched the numbers. The cost of the much-needed repairs, setting up, and taking down of the display could, in three years, added up to enough money to buy a new police cruiser.