Love Finds You in Frost Minnesota by Judy Baer Page B

She pulled away and averted her eyes.
    “Good. I’ll count on you then. Tomorrow night after you come back from Blue Earth.”
    She quickly escaped the kitchen, but she felt Jack’s gaze boring into her back.
    * * * * *
    Now why had he gone and done that? Jack gripped the steering wheel of his rental car as he drove toward Blue Earth. The road was icy, and the last thing he needed was to go into the ditch. Everything he was finding out at the courthouse was giving him fits, and he didn’t need more trouble.
    But he’d already generated more trouble. He’d agreed to go on a sleigh ride, of all things. Why had he . . . ?
    It wasn’t hard to figure out the answer. He’d said yes because he wanted to get a good look at Merry’s friend Jeff.
    She’d dropped Jeff’s name enough times in casual conversation to make him curious. He felt oddly protective of her, this woman who wore her heart on her sleeve and would give everything she had if she thought someone needed it. She’d treated him far better than he’d deserved those first couple days he was in Frost. He appreciated that more than she could know.
    It was really going to happen, this sleigh ride, Jack observed as he arrived at Merry’s Christmas Boutique at six the next evening. There were two huge Percheron horses hooked to something that looked like a large open box on runners. It was filled with soft mounds of loose hay and piles of cozy blankets.
    The regal-looking horses stood at least nineteen hands high and had to weigh a ton or more each. Their large, prominent eyes seemed to take in everything, and they stood surprisingly still considering the excitement around them.
    Greta was particularly rambunctious, running alongside the horses from their noses to their tails and then back again. Her mother was trying to convince the little girl to stand still but to no avail. Abby and her husband, Charley, were chatting with Pastor Ed Nordstrom and his wife, Betty. Merry, dressed in a green down coat and red Santa’s hat, carried thermoses and plastic containers full of food to the rig. She handed the parcels up to a ruggedly good-looking man with three days’ worth of grizzled stubble, short and slightly tousled hair, and a wide white grin—especially when he smiled down at Merry. He wore jeans and a thick buffalo plaid jacket. On the wagon seat lay a fur hat—flaps and all—and a pair of thick gloves.
    Nothing to criticize there, Jack realized. This guy was perfect for the role he was playing tonight. He was the rugged horseman, impervious to cold and snow and obviously smitten with Merry. She, however, seemed oblivious to Jeff’s flirtatious smiles.
    Jack was overdressed in his suit jacket and highly polished shoes. He waved at the group and ducked into the house to change clothes. The night was getting cold fast.
    “Come meet Greta and her parents,” Merry ordered when he returned. “You know Abby and Charley and remember Pastor Ed and Betty from church.” She made introductions and pointed at Jeff, who was up on the seat. “These horses are Jeff’s gorgeous girls. Aren’t they something?” She pointed to the horses, which Jack noticed had large red bows fastened to the tops of their tails.
    Merry counted off her list on her fingers. “Cocoa, graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate . . .”
    “We’re going to have s’mores?” Greta screeched with delight.
    “And tuna sandwiches with chips to eat while we ride. Oh yes, and music.” She produced an old battery-operated radio that looked as though it should have been put in the garbage twenty-five years earlier.
    Jack tried to stay out of the way of the merrymakers—who were enjoying this adventure far more than he—by burrowing into a mound of hay inside the rim of bales Jeff had placed around the perimeter of the sleigh.
    He might have succeeded in going unnoticed had not Greta chosen him to be her new best friend.
    * * * * *
    Greta had cornered Jack, Merry noticed. Good for her. Let