Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
NICK
"Dad?"
Nick Stone was a man that most shied away from. He was almost six foot six and a few hundred pounds of muscle and bone. People gave him a wide berth and didn't always meet his eyes.
His daughter's dance teacher was one of those people. At first.
He could have left it alone, but his daughter loved dancing, it didn't matter what kind of dancing.
She wanted to learn it. So, he made more than his normal effort when it came to her dancing.
That meant reaching out and trying to get people to relax around him so it wouldn't put a crimp in his daughter's education.
His daughter didn't have such reservations around him.
She was currently crowding into his space and looked at him with the kind of self-possessed self-assurance that came easily to his daughter, Katherine.
"Yes, Katie?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "I have a favor to ask you."
He turned in his chair and looked at his darling daughter.
He wasn't used to her sounding so... unsure of herself.
And he didn't like it.
"You know that if I can do it, I will, sweetie. What's going on?"
She was still in her dance clothes, a cardigan loosely wrapped around her body.
He recognized it as her mother's and the pang that he felt in his chest was marked, but it didn't ache like it once had.
Katie's mom had passed on almost five years before but there were still traces of her in their home to go with the memories that they held onto in their hearts.
"Today at our rehearsal Miss Novak said that her mother, who always puts together the Sugarplum Tea that we have after our performances broke some bones in her foot and can't do it this year."
Nick gave his daughter a side-eye look. She knew his limits in the kitchen.
There was no way that she would think that he could help with-
"I was wondering if you could ask Miss Baker if she'd consider helping us organize it."
Miss Baker, he mused.
She meant Miss Baker, the woman who'd bought the house next door about six months before.
Miss Baker who he'd been kind of watching for the last six months, Miss Baker.
Miss Ruth Baker who looked like a dream.
And he could say that with complete conviction because Ruth had been a constant in his dreams for the last six months.
"Dad?"
Crap!
He shook himself free of his musings and gave his daughter a self-conscious smile, glad beyond belief that she probably had no idea how much he'd been thinking about Ruth since she moved in next door.
"You want me to ask her to help?"
"Yeah."
Katie folded her arms across her middle, a gesture he knew well.
She was the picture of her mother sometimes and Elizabeth had a habit of wrapping her arms around herself like that when she was worried about something.
"You know that Miss Baker is likely really busy."
Okay, he didn't know exactly what she did from day to day, his observational skills stopped just shy of psychic, mind reading powers.
"Yeah, I know." Her gaze dropped down toward the floor and the corners of her mouth turned down as well.
"But it's one of our biggest money makers for the dance company and I hate to say it, but among all of us apprentices, none of us have moms who are any good at cooking.
Most of the apprentices have cooks and cleaners at their homes, but those ladies all have lives outside of the homes and I'm the only one who doesn't have a mom at home at all, and I don't think you would have the time to organize something like this. "
Wow.
Katie had just dumped a whole bunch of words into his lap.
She hadn't paused or floundered when she'd talked about her mom, or rather a lack of one, there was that, but she was also completely right about him not having the time to organize anything other than their already sparse social life outside of the house.
He worked.
Katie did her thing.
They didn't exactly go out and have fun just for fun.
There just wasn't any way that he could add something else to his plate.
"Katie-"
"Look, dad," she bit into her bottom lip, and he made sure to give her his full attention.
"I know that she'll probably say no, but I need to at least say that I asked her.
I don't have a lot of women in my life." Her expression changed and she looked a little sheepish.
"Sorry, dad. I'm not complaining. I love you and Uncle XX and Uncle YY. "
Nick bit into the inside of his cheek.
He felt like he was going to fail his daughter at this moment. Something he'd worked so hard not to do.
"You don't even need to ask, dad. I can go over and do it. I just want you to say it's okay to go and ask."
"Sure."
Shit.
The word came out before he even knew that he was going to say something.
There was no warning and that's what shook him the most.
Since he found out that Elizabeth was pregnant, he'd made a decision to be focused. To be 'on' or 'in the moment.' To be deliberate in his actions.
And here he was blurting out an answer that he knew he wasn't prepared for.
"Katie-"
"Thanks, dad!" He was up on his feet, but she was already on her way out the door and headed over to the Baker house.
The heavy wooden door closed with a click, leaving him to look through the glass pane in the door as his daughter walked down the path to the gate that separated the two homes.
Nick's teeth ground together as he drew in a breath.
When they'd bought the house a year after he'd married Elizabeth, she'd thought that the gate was cute and quaint.
That feeling for her was enhanced as they got to know the old married couple that lived in the neighboring home. Timothy and Faith Baxter had lived a long life in that home and they both enjoyed speaking with Elizabeth.
Faith would bake and hand over freshly baked goods as they spoke at the property line. Elizabeth would mend the clothes that the older couple didn’t want to throw out.
Timothy would invite them over for a meal if he was out in the backyard grilling. And Nick would take care of their yard and cut back their hedges and trees when it was needed.
Now, he felt stuck behind his door as his darling daughter put her hand on the gate latch and released it. She swept through the gate and paused to look back over her shoulder at him and waggled her fingers.
Nick knew that she was just reassuring him.
Lord knows he'd been anxious about having her out of sight after Elizabeth had passed, but the girl who was walking up the side steps of the Baker house was a wonder.
She had strength and bravado that others thought were traits she'd learned from him. Not exactly. Not lately.
Katie was the hope and focus of his world.
Shaking his head at his own hesitation, something caught his eye across the way.
The light visible through the glass pane in the door dimmed a little.
His first instinct was that the lights had turned off, but then he saw Ruth's face behind the glass.
She was smiling from ear to ear as she opened the door and gestured for Katie to step into her house.
Nick grimaced when he realized that he could have been there right beside his daughter. He could be walking into Ruth's house right at that moment.
Instead, he was stuck in his house, feeling like a complete idiot.
Just great.
RUTH
Ruth Baker heard the knock on her side door and that caught her interest right away.
It wasn't all that unusual to have folks coming up to her front door from time to time. She'd made herself available to the people in the neighborhood and enjoyed meeting people. So she was happy to talk when people were in a mood.
People unlike her neighbor, Nick Stone.
He lived next door with his daughter, Katie. She was a joy and the complete 180 of her father.
The knock on her side door was going to be Katie.
Nick would never come to see her.
Not that she'd turn him away.
He might be a grumpy gus, but he was handsome and very easy to look at. She just couldn't seem to understand why he was so hard to get to know.
Ruth could see a bun through the frosted glass of her door and knew she'd been right.
Opening the door with a broad smile on her face, Ruth gestured for Katie to come inside. "Hello, sweetie! Come on in!"
Katie looked over her shoulder at her home. "I... I'm not sure."
"Sweetie. It's cold outside and you're wearing your leotard and tights. Come in so you don't catch a cold."
She stepped into the house and Ruth smiled when Katie's shoulders dropped, and her lower lip stopped quivering.
"There, that's got to be a little bit better."
Katie gave her a big grin. "Much better."
Ruth smiled at the typical teen exaggerated tone. Ah... those were the days.
Days that Ruth was glad were past.
Far in the past.
A timer dinged in one of her ovens and Ruth smiled at Katie as if they were sharing a secret. "Want to be a taste tester for me?"
A finely arched brow raised up in response. "Seriously?"
Ruth pulled on her mitts and grinned at her. "I never joke about food."
Katie clapped her hands together. "Then, yes!"
The oven door opened with a soft woosh of sound and the heat that rolled out of it felt like a hot, steamy facial.
Ruth almost chuckled because she wouldn't mind a facial appointment, but she didn't have the time.
"Ohhh, that smells ah-mazing!" Katie was almost levitating with excitement.
"Christmas Crinkle Cookies." Ruth leaned in and smelled the cookies. "Peppermint in this batch."
She lowered the baking tray and set it down on the counter on the raised rack. "What do you think?"
Katie looked over the tray as if she was examining a map for a battle plan.
"I really like the look of them. It's like.
.." She bit into her bottom lip in a gesture that Ruth recognized as a mirror image of her father's pensive expression.
It was harder to see on Nick as his full beard hid some of his features, but Katie really was like her father in so many ways.
"Oh... it's like snow! The white tops look like a layer of snow cracking as flowers start pushing through."