Love Finds You in Frost Minnesota by Judy Baer

hand. He was studying the velvety petals ready to unfold.
    “I didn’t realize you had a boyfriend, Merry. I’m sorry I walked in like that.” He seemed annoyed.
    “He’s not my boyfriend. Whatever Kip thinks or says, he’s got it wrong.”
    “You should give the guy a break, Merry. It would be a privilege to date a woman like you.”
    He left her standing there, gaping after him.

Chapter Nine
    • • • • • • • • • • • •
    Jack paced back and forth across the floor of his room asking himself why he said what he did.
    Because she had gotten under his skin, that’s why. She was smart, happy, content. She wasn’t needy or dependent but completely self-sufficient. And she was one of the loveliest women he’d ever met. With that blonde hair and those wide green eyes she was . . . angelic.
    But where was she when he’d really needed an angel? Jack wondered. All those years of guilt and regret . . . and now she appears?
    Nothing had made sense to him since he was twelve years old. Why start now? he thought bitterly.
    Restless and not knowing what to do with himself, he flopped onto the bed and stared at the ornate ceiling fan light. For a man who’d cultivated a dispassionate, wary, guarded life, he was certainly letting his feelings run away with him. His long-gone relatives were driving him crazy. In fact, all of Frost was driving him insane. Frost and the woman downstairs . . .
    When he’d seen her sitting at the table holding hands with that Kip fellow, he’d felt a surge of possessiveness he’d never before experienced. He was actually jealous! That was an emotion he’d left behind years ago—hadn’t he?
    Hours later, he awoke from a dream sweating. He sat straight up in bed, blinking back the saltiness that had slid into his eyes. He swung his legs over the bed, went to the bathroom sink, and threw cold water on his face until he was fully awake and the nightmare slithered back into his subconscious. It would raise its ugly head again later, no doubt, but not tonight.
    It took him a long time to get back to sleep. It was the first time since he’d been in Frost that he’d had the recurrent dream that haunted him.
    At 6:00 AM he could stay in bed no longer, even on a Sunday morning. Between his reaction to Merry and to the dream, he needed to move around, to erase thought and turn it into action.
    Merry was at the kitchen table when he entered. Jack could tell she’d been crying. She rubbed at her eyes and gave him a watery smile.
    “Coffee’s ready,” she volunteered.
    He poured his own and sat down. “What’s wrong?” He was surprised at how it hurt to see her this way.
    “Don’t mind me. I just get . . . sad . . . sometimes.”
    “Sad at Christmas? I thought it was your favorite time of year.”
    “It is now, but it wasn’t always so. Some of my loneliest times were the holidays. I can’t get Greta out of my mind. Poor little kid. Homeless at Christmas? How sad!”
    “Then why don’t you invite her family to spend Christmas here? I thought that’s what you liked to do.” He reached for a scone and began to munch on it. He was startled when Merry bolted out of her chair and flung her arms around his neck. She smelled of peppermint and sugar cookies.
    “Of course! It certainly has to be better than a shelter.” A frown creased her features. “You wouldn’t mind, would you? I do have more than one room I use for the B-and-B. I doubt they’d bother you.”
    “I hope I’ll be out of here by then.”
    “You have to stay through Christmas!” she insisted, her eyes bright with anticipation, tears gone. “You don’t have other plans. What’s a day or two more this time of year? Besides, it will be fun.”
    Then, as Merry was sometimes given to do, she changed subjects midstream.
    “Do you want to go to church with me? It starts at nine.”
    “I don’t usually go to church during December,” he admitted. “Too much . . .”
    “. . . Christmas?”
    “Sounds