Christmas In Snowflake Canyon. RaeAnne Thayne

to open my own design firm.”

      “Then you really are perfect.”

      “I’ll do my best. I saw some really beautiful lights in Paris. They had these little twinkly snowflakes and each one was unique. They were stunning. You don’t have anything like that, do you?”

      Charlotte pressed her lips together to keep in the smile he could see forming there. “We didn’t buy our lights in Paris this year,” she said with a dryness he wasn’t sure Gen would catch. “You’ll have to be content with the cheap ones from the big box store.”

      “I suppose we can make those work,” she answered.

      “You’ll have to, I’m afraid.”

      “What about the trees?”

      “Also from a big box store. But they’re all prelit, which is a big plus.”

      “We’ll make it wonderful. You’ll see. Won’t we, Dylan?”

      “Wonderful,” he repeated. Why did he suddenly feel as if he’d been dragged by a couple of high-school cheerleaders to help decorate for a homecoming dance?

      He could really use a beer right about now.

      “Aren’t you supposed to be working?” he asked Charlotte, mostly to change the subject from snowflakes and Christmas trees. “Who’s running Sugar Rush while you’re here bossing around the reprobate help?”

      Her haughty look rivaled anything Genevieve Beaumont might deliver.

      “I have a staff, you know. They’re very qualified to run the place without me.”

      “Even at Christmas, the busiest time of year?”

      “Even then. I took today and Monday off so I can help Eden and Spence get everything ready for the group coming in next week.”

      She glowed whenever she talked about the things she loved: their family, her gourmet candy store in town, A Warrior’s Hope...and Spencer Gregory and his daughter, Peyton.

      He still wasn’t sure how he felt about Spence and Charlotte together. When they were growing up, the man had been one of his closest friends. They had gone on camping trips together, played ball, even double-dated a time or two.

      Their lives had taken very different paths in the years since Spence’s mom used to work at Pop’s café, Dylan’s to the military and Spence’s to a life of fame and riches—and eventual scandal—in Major League Baseball. Dylan still wasn’t convinced the guy was good enough for his baby sister but it was obvious the two were crazy in love.

      “I hope this doesn’t sound rude,” Genevieve said, “but I have to say it. You look completely amazing.”

      Charlotte looked startled. “Thank you. Why would that be rude?”

      “Just because...you know. How you were before.”

      Charlotte had always been amazing, as far as Dylan was concerned. Kind and funny and generous. Trust Genevieve not to be able to see past a few extra pounds.

      “I just think it’s fantastic. It must have been so difficult to lose all that weight when you spend all day surrounded by all those empty calories at your store,” she went on. “How did you do it?”

      Charlotte looked a little disconcerted by the blunt question. “Willpower, I suppose.” Her gaze flickered to Dylan then back to Gen.

      “The truth is, when Dylan almost died last year, I realized how off track my own life had become. While he lay in a hospital bed fighting to survive, I realized my own unhealthy habits were slowly killing me. I had been given the precious gift of life and I was wasting it. Dylan’s challenges had been thrust upon him, but I was choosing mine every day. It was pretty sobering.”

      How had this become about him? Dylan shifted, wishing he could still tell his sister to shut up—though even when they were kids, if Pop had heard him, he would have had to scrub dishes at the café for a week.

      He didn’t like to think about that miserable time when antibiotic-resistant infections had ravaged his system and left him as weak as a baby—and he especially didn’t like Charlotte giving Genevieve one more reason to see him as an object of pity.

      He jumped up. “I’m going to start hauling some of these boxes down to the cabins.”

      “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Charlotte said. “I can grab a couple of the guys who work at the recreation center to help.”