would ring. He wasn’t too nervous about handling the team on his own because he’d been practicing. The worst was the trip he took with a couple newlyweds, so wrapped up in each other they barely listened as he pointed out features of the landscape, an ice waterfall down a mountainside cliff, several deer bounding through a far pasture. Instead, thinking he couldn’t hear them, they murmured together about their dreams of the future, the children they would have, the home they wanted to save up for.
Adam had spent the last six months without any dreams. People usually had the next goal they wanted to achieve, and he’d gotten in the habit of never thinking beyond today. He’d thought he was too damaged for a family life, but he remembered Zach’s rocks, and how he’d made sure to send them home to the boy from his father. That was a family connection he’d help make even when he was at his bleakest. Maybe there was hope for him after all.
Back at the house, the dreamy young couple strolled hand in hand to their car, and there was another parked alongside it. A man was getting out, as if waiting for his return.
“Adam Desantis? Is that you?” He came forward, hand outstretched.
Adam met him halfway to shake, knowing he looked familiar. He wore a bulky parka and jeans. His brown hair receding a bit above his temples might have made him look older but for his freckled, cheerful face.
And then the name clicked. “Deer, good to see you.”
Howie Deering Junior reddened, then glanced behind him as if to cover it up. “Haven’t heard that nickname in years. My wife will laugh. I’m not quite as fast as I used to be.”
A short, chubby woman with a toddler by her side was taking a baby out of a car seat.
Adam suddenly felt old. “Two kids, Deer? Has that much time passed?”
“I started young, I know,” Howie said. “While you were off being a macho soldier, I settled into the family real-estate business. Tame stuff, I know you’d say.”
“Tame sounds good to me.”
“Give me a sec.” Howie hustled to his wife’s side and took the toddler’s hand, then said to his wife, “Tara, I’d like you to meet an old classmate of mine, Adam Desantis. He just got out of the Marines.”
Adam didn’t bother to offer his hand to shake—hers were burdened with a wide-eyed baby who looked unable to walk yet. Tara had freckles like her husband, but bright red curly hair that the toddler had obviously inherited. His hat was falling off of his head, and he soon tossed his mittens, too.
“Howie!” Tara scolded the little boy.
Adam glanced at the older Howie, who spread his hands wide and grinned.
“My mom would have killed me if I didn’t use the family name.”
When Howie III had his hat and mittens on again, Tara smiled at Adam. “Nice to meet you. I heard you call Howie ‘Deer.’ So you were on the football team with him?”
Adam nodded. “We were both on offense, though he was much faster.”
Howie glanced at Adam ruefully. “I bet it’s the other way around now.”
Tara blushed. “With the kids, it’s so hard to find time to exercise. We both work and feel guilty for taking any time for ourselves.”
“That’s why we brought them for a sleigh ride today,” Howie added. “A nice family outing.”
“Then let’s get started,” Adam said.
Adam actually enjoyed the ride. Howie and his wife appreciated all the little tidbits he told them about the ranch and the town. They, in turn, explained it in simpler language to their son. The baby was so good, never making a peep, just staring wide-eyed. The toddler was thrilled when several deer bounded across their path.
When they arrived back in the yard, and Tara was putting the kids back in the car as it warmed up, Howie came back to Adam.
“You doing anything tonight?” Howie asked.
“Nope,” he said, glad to feel interested again.
“There’s a pool tournament I’ve entered at Tony’s Tavern. Very informal, nothing big. You’ll see lots of people you know. You could stop by. It starts at seven.”
“Thanks, I’ll see you there.”
After a day of skiing, Brooke stopped at Monica’s, who insisted she come to the pool tournament at Tony’s and look for men. How could Brooke say she had her own already? So after Monica put long ringlets of curls in her hair, she donned her evening makeup and a tight little dress with high leather boots.
Brooke quickly