8. Cora

8

CORA

C ora stood by her own oven the next day, waiting for one last minute before pulling out the first batch of gingerbread cookies of the year.

The kitchen was already filled with the delicious aroma, and Sylvester waited by the counter, looking like he was going to explode if he didn't have a cookie in his mouth this minute.

"Almost," she told him with a smile.

"Thirty seconds," he told her. "Twenty-nine."

She laughed as he continued his countdown.

Ever since the get-together yesterday at Timber Run, Sylvester had been insistent that they have their own day of decorating. Though they didn't have a tree yet, they did have a small manger scene to set up on the little table by the fireplace, and some pine boughs waiting in a pile on the porch to be hung from the railings.

Sylvester hadn't seemed to have any kind of reaction to the tree yesterday, thank goodness. She would have to figure out how to get a real tree delivered. But for now, putting up the boughs on the porch would help them feel like it was the Christmas season.

I probably should have just taken Jared up on his offer, she thought to herself. We could have kept the tree on the porch if Sylvester had reacted.

But she knew better. She wouldn't have wanted that tree anywhere near them if it threatened an asthma attack, even if it made her seem too overprotective.

The doorbell interrupted her thoughts.

"Who can that be?" she asked out loud.

"I'll get it," Sylvester said as the oven timer dinged. "You have to get the cookies out."

He was off before she could stop him.

"Hang on," she called to him, quickly grabbing the cookies out of the oven, and placing the whole tray right on the cooling rack. She couldn't have him opening the door to just anyone.

He waited obediently, letting her get ahead of him to open the door herself.

When she did, a gust of cold air greeted her, along with the wide smile of Jared Webb. He had a tree trunk in his arms, the rest of the massive evergreen rested on the porch floor behind him, wrapped in clear netting.

"Wow," Sylvester said. "That's a big tree."

"Is that for us?" Cora asked, suddenly feeling shy.

"It sure is," Jared said. "I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty. I was over at Cassidy Farm anyway, and since little Rocky here didn't seem to have any bad reaction to our tree yesterday, I thought I'd pick you up the exact same type, just in case he's good with a fir but not a pine."

"That was very thoughtful of you," she replied, impressed that he had even considered whether a different variety might not work for Sylvester.

"Nah, it was no big deal," he said, smiling down at her in a way that made her stomach flutter.

"It must have been very expensive," she heard herself say out loud. Immediately she felt embarrassed. She shouldn't complain about the price of a tree he had been kind enough to bring over.

It was just that on her salary she had to be careful. She would have bought a much smaller tree if it had been up to her. But of course she would pay him back.

"Not at all," he told her. "And anyway, it's a present. You're not supposed to worry about the cost."

"Thank you," Sylvester yelled, trying to squeeze past them both to get a better look at the tree.

"It's too much," Cora said softly to Jared.

"Nah," he told her. "Why don't you let me bring it in?"

"Come on, Sylvester," she said, trying to ignore the warning bells going off in her mind.

It was one thing for the man to help out around the house a little to work off his guilt for yelling at her, even if that had been more than covered by the mailbox.

She had been trying to ignore the extra time he spent here, and the fluttering in her belly from the intense way he sometimes looked at her.

But expensive presents meant something. She couldn't afford to ignore this.

Why not see where it goes ?

She tried to shut down the little voice in the back of her head. It didn't understand that she was still trying to pull their lives back together. It was only since the move that she had stopped waking up sometimes expecting Arthur to be on his side of the bed.

But the moment to say something had passed, and Jared was already lifting the tree up to see if it would fit her ceiling height.

"Almost," Sylvester crowed excitedly as Jared slowly lifted the tree. " Almost ."

She couldn't help smiling as she realized that Jared was moving slowly on purpose, to let her boy get more and more fired up.

"Oh wow," she said, amazed when the tree fit perfectly, with just a few inches to spare for a star or an angel on top.

"I'll get the ornaments," Sylvester yelled, darting upstairs before she had time to warn him that the tree would need to rest for a day or so before they started decorating.

"Thank you," she told Jared quietly. "I can't believe you did this, and I really can't believe how perfectly it fits."

"I measured your ceiling height last time I was over," he confided, winking.

She could see the smug little smile that was partially hidden by his beard and once again there was a flutter in her belly.

"I brought a tree stand too," Jared said. "It's on the porch, if you want to grab it for me. "

"Oh, yes," she said feeling a little flustered. "Sure, I'll get it."

She was happy to drink in a little of the cold, crisp air outside, and relieved that he had thought to bring her a stand. They had only ever had a small plastic Christmas tree in the past.

By the time Sylvester scampered back down the steps with a bin of decorations, Cora and Jared had the tree just about secured in the stand.

"Wow," Sylvester said. "It smells good in here."

"I was going to say the same thing," Jared said.

"You're smelling the tree, Sylvester," Cora told him. "It's nice, isn't it? And Jared, you're smelling our famous gingerbread cookies."

"My cookies," Sylvester squeaked, looking like he had won the lottery.

"I'll bet they'll be cooled off enough for you to offer some to our guest by the time we take this netting off the tree," Cora told him. "We won't be able to decorate the tree today. The branches need to stretch out after being bound up like this."

Sylvester looked really disappointed.

"This is actually the best part," Jared told him. "When you cut off the netting you get to see the size and shape of your tree. Can you help me do it?"

Sylvester's eyes lit up and he nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay," Jared said. "I normally use my pocketknife. But I'd rather you used scissors. Do you have some?"

"Yes," Sylvester told him, trotting to the kitchen drawer .

"He's such a good kid," Jared said, looking after him with something faraway in his eyes.

"He is," Cora agreed.

A moment later, Jared was lifting him up so that he could start cutting away the netting.

Cora watched them with a lump in her throat. Arthur had been hands-on with Sylvester and adored him, but he didn't have Jared's incredible strength. Seeing him lift Sylvester up like that, the boy laughing in his arms, gave her an odd pang.

A moment later, the two of them had succeeded in fully releasing the tree. Its branches let down with a whoosh, and all three of them silently admired it.

"It's a beautiful tree," Cora said softly.

"It's a nice shape," Sylvester said. "Just like in a book."

"And the branches are nice and sturdy," Jared said, nodding in satisfaction. "It will hold all the ornaments you want."

"I don't think we have enough," Sylvester said sadly, looking at the little bin that held plenty of ornaments for their small plastic tree.

"You can make more," Jared told him. "That's the best part of Christmas. Then your mom can keep the ones you made, and you can both remember this Christmas every single year."

"Okay," Sylvester said, looking excited about that idea.

"I'll show you how to make some of the ones we used to do at home," Jared told him. "But first, I have to give your book back."

To Cora's surprise, he pulled the tattered copy of The Swiss Family Robinson out of the pocket of his jacket that lay on the back of the sofa.

"Did you read it?" Sylvester asked, sounding almost breathless.

"I did," Jared said. "And you were right. It was so good. Which of the kids is your favorite?"

Cora listened in amazement as the two of them headed up to Sylvester's room to put the book back, talking excitedly about the characters and their adventures.

"I have another one you should read next," Sylvester decided. "Hang on. I'll find it."

Jared's eyebrows went up when he saw the boy trying to dig it out.

"Your books are still in boxes?" he asked, sounding troubled.

"I just have so many of them," Sylvester said, his head peeking up from the box he was looking through. "It's okay though. I'll find it in a second."

"That will be our next project," Jared said thoughtfully, as he scanned the walls of Sylvester's room. "We're going to put up built-in bookshelves for your library. If it's okay with your mom, of course."

Cora stood in the hall, blown away.

She had seen Jared as a restless cowboy, a man who only wanted to be outside—who yelled at strangers about fishing holes and ripped broken mailboxes right out of the ground.

But Sylvester had offered him a book, and Jared had actually read it and wanted to talk about it.

And beyond that, he understood the things that were important to her son, and he was trying to help him with all of them. From finding a way to get him a real Christmas tree with his mother's blessing, to a family party, to an adventure book club for two and a library in his bedroom, Jared was ready to meet Sylvester right where he was.

And he didn't judge Cora, or say she was overprotective. He respected her desire to do whatever was best for her boy, a stance that made her let go of a worry she hadn't even realized was binding itself around her heart, like the netting around the tree.

She suddenly wondered what their holiday would have been like here if Jared Webb hadn't stormed his way into their lives, and she felt a stab of loneliness so intense it frightened her.

He's good for us, she realized . But what does that mean?