A Bright Winter Season (Rosewood Beach #4)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Hazel Owens pushed open the back door of her cozy little house and let out a long sigh. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was a bit windblown, and in her hands were several shopping bags and a pair of ice skates.

“Oh, wow, am I glad to be home.” Behind Hazel, her daughter Samantha stepped inside the house as she spoke. Samantha’s nose was pink from the cold, and she was grinning happily. “Today was amazing, but I am so ready to sit on the couch and drink some hot cocoa.”

“That sounds amazing.” Hazel smiled at her daughter. “But then don’t forget about your homework, okay?”

Samantha sighed dramatically. “I never mind homework unless there are better things to do.” She wrinkled her nose. “And there are usually better things to do.”

“Nothing better than getting a good education,” Hazel said cheerfully as she began to unload the contents of their shopping bags onto the kitchen table. “Just let yourself pretend the work is a game. Do your best, and that will make it more fun.”

“Okay.” Samantha smiled and scampered over to the kitchen table. She watched eagerly as her mother unloaded item after item from the shopping bags. “We really had a great haul today, didn’t we?”

“Oh, we really did.” Hazel set down a snowman-shaped soap dispenser with a sigh of satisfaction. “And honestly, I think we got even better stuff at the thrift store than at the general store.”

“I almost agree—but that snowflake-covered fleece blanket from the general store is my favorite.”

“Mmm, I hear that. But I love this snowman and the set of window candles from the thrift store the best. Our house is going to look so cozy at night, with little electric candles shining in every window.”

“Tomorrow, we need to do all our decorating,” Samantha said excitedly. “Now that we’ve put up the Christmas lights outside, we need to make the inside of our house look all Christmassy too.”

“I agree. Maybe we can start later tonight, when your homework is all done? We could put on a couple of Christmas movies and decorate the living room.”

Samantha grinned. “Yes! I’ll do my homework so fast.”

Hazel shook her head, laughing. “No rushing, young lady. You go drink your hot cocoa and then get on upstairs. We’ll have plenty of time to decorate, don’t you worry. It’s only the beginning of December.”

“True, but my new goal is decorating tonight.” Samantha nodded emphatically. “You should pick out the Christmas movies while I’m doing my homework.”

“I’ll pick out some options, and you can help me make the final choices,” Hazel said. “How’s that?”

“Perfect!” Samantha bustled about making herself a cup of rich hot cocoa. “I think we should watch an old one and a new one. I love old movies, but it’s always nice to watch a Christmas movie that’s in color.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Hazel began to hum a Christmas carol as she finished unpacking all of the lovely things they’d bought that day. They’d spent their morning ice skating, and then after getting lunch at The Lighthouse Grill, the Owens’ family restaurant, they’d gone shopping for Christmas items. It had been a wonderful day but a long one, and Hazel felt tired and ready to settle down on the couch for a while.

Samantha was soon in the living room drinking her hot cocoa, and a few moments later she let out a shout of, “It’s snowing!”

“Yay!” Hazel called back. No matter how old she got, she loved the sight of snow tumbling down from the sky. She paused in her work and looked out the kitchen windows, watching the beautiful sight. It was dark outside, but the snow could be seen falling past the Christmas lights of the surrounding houses. Hazel took a deep breath and sighed happily, thinking to herself that this Christmas was going to be the best one she’d had in a long time.

Ever since she and Samantha’s father had gotten a divorce, Hazel had been single. For the most part, she hadn’t minded too much, but the holidays had always felt somewhat melancholy for her. She’d sometimes felt as though something was missing from her life, as though she couldn’t be completely happy unless she had a man to go through life with her.

This year, however, she felt completely content. She’d been spending time nurturing herself and learning that she didn’t need another person to make her life feel complete. She was looking forward to enjoying the holidays with her new sense of contentment.

I guess it’s good that everything happened the way it did , she thought as she began to tidy up the shopping bags. Even though it made me so sad at the time.

She sighed, still feeling disappointed when she thought about how she might have almost had a relationship but then missed her chance. Recently, she’d wanted to tell Jacob Dorsey, Rosewood Beach’s local handyman, that she was interested in him. She’d gathered her courage and had her confession of interest all planned out, and she’d even packed up a gift basket to give him. Just before she’d told him about her feelings, however, she’d learned that he’d started dating another woman who lived in a nearby town.

She’d been crushed, but the heartache had led her toward taking better care of herself. She hadn’t wanted to try dating someone else, since all of her attempted relationships in past years had led to disappointment one way or another, so she’d focused her energies on healing from her hurt over Jacob and treating herself with kindness.

As hard as that situation had been for her, it had shown her that she still had so much to be thankful for in her life. She had her wonderful daughter Samantha, and her wonderful family members, all of whom lived close by in Rosewood Beach. Together, they were a community that supported and encouraged each other, and Hazel knew she wouldn’t trade her beautiful, close-knit family for anything.

She thought about how things had been before their father, Frank Owens, had passed away. Julia and Alexis had been living in New York and L.A., respectively, and she’d missed them a great deal. Although nothing could make up for the loss of her dad, who she’d loved very much, she was grateful that after his passing her sisters had come to live in Rosewood Beach, Connecticut. In many ways, their family felt more complete than it had in years, and being able to go to her family for support over the highs and lows of life was something that she treasured.

The most important person in her life was decidedly Samantha. Her sweet pre-teen daughter was always a source of joy in her life, even when she did things that made her mother nervous, like wanting to go to a school dance with a boy.

Hazel started to put away some of the things that she and Samantha had bought, and then she brought the rest of the items into the living room, since they would use them later that night to decorate the house. She set them down on the coffee table carefully and exchanged a grin with Samantha.

“What a great haul.” Samantha downed the rest of her hot cocoa. “Those little berries are the cutest.”

“They’re antiques,” Hazel said. “They’re probably hand-painted. We’ll have to make sure to take very good care of them.”

“Don’t worry, I will. My breaking things days are over.”

“You seem to have forgotten about that mug you broke last week.”

Samantha pretended to be offended. “Can I help it that my elbow has a will of its own? That mug had no business resting on the edge of the counter like that.”

Hazel chuckled. “Fair enough. I probably would have knocked it over too—if I’d been dancing around the kitchen like a pirate.”

Samantha bowed. “Well, sounds like it’s time for me to make my exit. My cocoa is all gone, and I’m getting accused of breaking things.”

Hazel shook her head and kissed Samantha on the cheek. “Oh, shush. You go have fun finishing your homework.”

“I’ll try.” The pre-teen grinned. “See you later.”

“See you later, honey! Call me if you need help with anything.”

“I will!”

Samantha scampered up the stairs, and Hazel paused to look at the falling snow again. She smiled as she decided to light a fire in the fireplace—she loved the smell of woodsmoke and the cheerful warmth of a crackling fire. In a few minutes, she’d gotten a respectable fire going in the fireplace, and she went into the kitchen to make herself a glass of mulled wine.

She heated up some red wine, mixing in spices that soon made the kitchen smell incredible. When it was ready, she poured it into a glass mug, and then she plopped a couple of orange slices inside it. She took a deep breath of the warm aroma, smiling because it always made her think of Christmas.

When she’d been a little girl, she’d smelled the mulled wine that her parents and grandparents had drunk and wanted to be able to drink it. Being finally allowed to drink mulled wine at Christmastime had been one of her favorite parts of growing up. The beverage tasted every bit as delicious as she’d always imagined it would.

She carried her steaming mug back into the living room and curled up on the couch in front of the fire. She closed her eyes, smelling the rich scent of the fire mingling with the aroma of her drink and listening to the sound of the fireplace crackling and popping. Outside, the wind made soft whooshing sounds, and although she couldn’t hear the snow falling, it seemed to add a sense of hushed tranquility to her surroundings.

She let out a long, contented sigh and wiggled a soft blanket onto her lap. Her eyes traced over the familiar corners of the cozy room, and she smiled as she thought about all of the cheerful Christmas decorations that she and Samantha were about to fill it with. Some of them were homemade and they’d had them for years, and others were new, like the ones they’d just bought on their day out.

It’s going to be a wonderful Christmas, she thought, taking a sip of her warm, soothing drink. I feel so fortunate indeed.

She closed her eyes, listening to the sound of a car passing on the road, playing Christmas carols on the radio. She leaned her head back and let herself relax as she took a moment to herself before the rest of her festive day.

Jacob Dorsey stepped back from the staircase he’d been working on and nodded in satisfaction. He was in the furnished basement of Cedric Turner, the owner of the local general store, Turner’s Hardware. Cedric had been a kind of mentor to Jacob all his life, always encouraging him in his craft as a handyman, and it meant a great deal to him to do a good job on the project that Cedric had given him.

I couldn’t have done it any better, he thought with a smile. Those new rungs and railing look stellar.

Cedric has commissioned him to rebuild and stain the staircase in his basement, since he and his wife had already renovated the rest of the basement and were planning on having their children and grandchildren stay in the guest rooms downstairs that Christmas. Jacob had carefully turned a plain, rickety old staircase into a beautiful new one that had curved railings and was stained a lovely dark mahogany color.

Since he didn’t want to step on the staircase while it was still drying, he left the basement through the old cellar doors and made his way through the snow to the front of Cedric’s big old house. The Turners lived in a home that had once been considered a mansion in Rosewood Beach, and they’d kept it in fantastic condition. The big old house was as sturdy as it was charming—especially now that it had a brand-new staircase in the basement.

He knocked on the front door, and a few moments later it was opened by Cedric’s smiling wife, Janet.

“Coming in the long way, huh?” she teased as Jacob came back inside, stomping the snow carefully off his boots on the doormat.

“Yup.” He grinned at her. Janet was kind, and the way her curly gray hair tumbled around her shoulders reminded him of his grandmother. “It’s all done. Wait until it’s all dry, and then you two can go downstairs and take a look at it. It turned out really well.”

“I’m sure it’s beautiful. Thank you so much for staying this late to finish it.”

Cedric walked into the front entryway, a big smile visible underneath his handlebar mustache. “You finished it, eh, son?”

Jacob accepted the bear-sized handshake that Cedric offered him. “I did. It’s a beauty.”

“Can’t wait to look at it. And here, before I forget—” Cedric reached into his pocket and pulled out a check, folded in half. “I added a little Christmas bonus in there. You’ve done such a great job on so many projects in this house over the years, I wanted to throw in a little something extra.”

“Oh, thank you, Cedric.” Jacob smiled fondly at the older man, still having to resist his old habit of calling him “sir.” “I appreciate that.”

“We appreciate you,” Janet said warmly. She handed Jacob a bag of homemade cinnamon rolls. “Take these home. I know you like cinnamon.”

“Cinnamon rolls? Fantastic.” Jacob grinned at her. “Thank you both.”

The three of them exchanged a few more friendly words, and then Jacob excused himself and made his way out into the falling snow.

He didn’t live far from the Turners, and he would have walked to their house from his if it weren’t for the fact that he stored his tools in his truck. Because of the snow, he had a cover over the bed of it, but he was able to access all his tools easily because he stored them near the back.

He got into his truck, rubbing his hands together while he waited for the engine to heat up.

I should really get some gloves , he thought. If I had a wife, she’d remind me about those kinds of things.

He sighed, but in the next moment he smiled quietly to himself. He was still young, and he had hopes that he would find someone to settle down with soon enough. He had to admit to himself, though, that sometimes he yearned for the kind of companionship that he knew marriage would bring.

He drove home through the lightly falling snowflakes and parked his truck inside his garage. His stomach grumbled as he walked from the garage to his back door, and he wondered what he was going to make himself for dinner.

His house was quiet and empty when he stepped inside, and after stomping snow off his boots, he turned the heat up and turned on the lights in the kitchen. He thought about when he’d first bought his house. He’d been so proud of it, and he’d spent a great deal of his free time fixing it up, feeling as though it was his own personal castle.

Now, he felt as though there was something missing. He hadn’t minded living alone for the first few years, but now he felt a kind of ache for something more.

I guess it was being in that relationship for a while , he thought with a sigh. It made me start thinking about what it might be like to have a partner long-term.

His ex-girlfriend was a sweet person, and he didn’t bear any hard feelings toward her, but it had soon become clear to both of them that their lives could never mesh well. She had been career-focused and a little too much of a neat freak—something that Jacob, who was often dirty after work, didn’t fit well with. She’d felt that she was too busy for a relationship, and he’d felt that he needed someone a little more down to earth. He also felt that he wanted someone who was ready to have a fun time, since his ex-girlfriend had tended to be serious-minded and hadn’t often felt that she had the time to do fun, spontaneous things.

He made himself a pot of macaroni and cheese, adding slices of Italian sausage to it. It was a bachelor’s dinner, he thought to himself with a chuckle, but one that was quick to make and he enjoyed it. He made it often, since he usually came home hungry and unwilling to cook something that took a while to prepare—not that he was much of a cook anyway.

He sat down at the kitchen table and began to eat his meal. He thought about the staircase that he’d finished for the Turners, and he found himself wanting to tell someone about how well it had turned out. He’d taken pictures of it with his phone, and he wished that there was someone sitting across from him at the kitchen table so that he could show them the pictures of the excellent work he’d done.

He sighed, thinking how bittersweet it was that he was surrounded by so many great folks in Rosewood Beach, but he didn’t have anyone special to talk to about his work, or the funny conversations he had with his customers. He loved the work that he did, and it often gave him stories to tell. He wished that he had someone he could talk to about work right away, instead of having to wait until the next guys’ night at the bowling alley where he was sure to see all his friends in one place.

I have such a great life, he thought. And I’m surrounded by wonderful people. I just wish I had someone special who I could talk to about everything.

He smiled quietly to himself, reflecting that he was still a very lucky man, even without a partner. And besides, he didn’t know what was going to happen. Maybe someone special would come into his life sooner than he expected.