“Of course I know that. I was, too. I wished she hadn’t asked me to choose?—”
“And she wished you’d chosen her.”
Jack winced. “I know, Red. She told me today she forgave me, and I guess it’s…fine.”
“Oh, she probably did forgive you. Ten years’ll do that to you. But it isn’t fine.” Red gave him a hard look. “She never really gotfineafter you left.”
Jack’s hands tightened on the reins. “Shedivorcedme, remember?”
“Like it was yesterday,” Red replied. “I always thought she jumped the gun a bit on that one, but you know Cindy. She’s a fixer. Sometimes her solutions are dumber than the problem. But when she’s not happy with something, she’s gonna change it, like it or not. Can’t stop her. Nicole, too. But, whoa, the cost was high. You missed a lot, Jack. Birthdays. Snowstorms. Flat tires. Real life.”
Jack’s eyes shuttered as he sighed, his exhale making a little puff of fog in the crisp wintery air. “I’m sorry, Red, for whatever that’s worth. Being back here has made me realize just how much of a…”
Red waited, inching closer, wondering what he was going to say.
“How much of a mistake I made.” The admission came rushing out, his words picking up speed like the sleigh when Copper trotted down a small hill.
Red rubbed a hand over his face, blinking against the wind that stung his eyes—well, something stung them.
“Jack,” he said on a gruff whisper. “I held a grudge. I’ll own up to it. You were like a son to me. I was proud of you. Proud you loved my daughter, proud of the family you two made. Then it was all over.”
Jack didn’t defend himself.
Red looked over again. “But I get it. Took me eighty years to figure it out, but sometimes a man screws up for what he thinks is the right reason. Doesn’t mean he wanted to hurt anyone. Just means he was trying to find his own way.”
Jack swallowed, pulling the reins gently as if he was the one trying to find his way.
“You could always stay,” Red said plainly.
Jack whipped around. “Here?”
“We need a young man at this place.”
“Young?” Jack laughed. “I’m sixty.”
“We’ll, I’m eighty-two and Benny’s ten. You could fill the hole.”
Jack was quiet just long enough for Red to know he was actually thinking about it, and the amount of hope that gave him should be illegal.
Finally, Jack shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”
“Sure it is,” Red said. “The true mark of a man isn’t never messing up. It’s being able to admit when he has. And fixing it.”
“After ten years?”
Red shrugged. “Time’s all you got, son. I say make things right, while there’s still time. Tell people you love them when they’re right in front of you. ’Cause one day…” He swallowed a lump in his throat, running a hand through the thick of his beard, thinking of Cora, of course. But also, his parents, and George, his other son-in-law. “They’re not right in front of you anymore.”
Jack turned for a moment, giving Red an expression that he could tell was genuine sympathy. “You’ve lost some good people in your life, Red.”
“But I had ’em, and that’s what counts.” Red cleared his throat, adjusting against the sleigh seat, which was killing his old back. “Cora’s here in spirit, I think. And I see her in my girls, all the time.”
As they reached Pinecone Ridge, Copper slowed, and Jack expertly turned him at the wide part of the path. “Let’s head back,” he said, “before they send a search party for us.”
Red chuckled at that, closing his eyes and lifting his old face to the sun as they plodded along. What needed to be said had been said, and Red could relax and enjoy the ride.
When they neared the lodge, he felt Jack tense as he elbowed Red to be sure he was awake.
“Hey, Red. You awake?”
