“Did somebody mention bourbon? Rocks. No water, please.”

By the time she returned with his drink, Ezra had the fire blazing.

“Here you go. Sorry about the jelly jar. Good thing I didn’t get rid of all the Roses’ kitchen stuff.”

Ezra sipped his drink. “Good bourbon tastes great no matter how you serve it.” He smiled at her over the rim of his glass. “Especially with present company.”

Ivy felt herself blushing again but smiled back, then took a sip of her own drink. Jelly jars, she decided, weren’t all that bad.

He stood with his back to the fireplace, looking around the empty room. “I guess you city girls go for the minimalist look?”

“Not really. The moving company called this morning with the ‘not-so-good news’ that all my furniture was destroyed. In a fender bender. In Tuscaloosa.”

“For real?”

“Yeah. The other not-so-good news is that although I have insurance, I’ll have to wait for their claims adjuster to file the paperwork before I can replace what I lost. And who knows how long that will take?”

“That sucks big-time,” Ezra said.

“Especially since I gave away a whole houseful of perfectly good stuff just a week ago.”

“I could check with the thrift store. It’s not like they have a big turnover there. Maybe you could, like, borrow the farmhouse furniture back, until you can buy stuff you really want,” he offered.

“Oh, I couldn’t put you to that kind of trouble…” she started. And then she remembered what Lawrence Jones had said earlier in the week. About it never being too late to make new friends.

“Actually, that would be wonderful,” she said. “Sleeping on a bare mattress on the floor is getting old, and I’d really love to have a chair to pull up to the fire on nights like this.”

“Consider it done,” Ezra said. “I’ll call Jake in the morning. He owes me a favor.”

Ivy hesitated, then leaned in and kissed his beard-stubbled cheek. He gently placed his hand on the small of her back, so she lingered there, inhaling the scent of woodsmoke and soap.

A moment later, Phoebe burst through the front door, grinning from ear to ear, and Ivy hurriedly pulled away from Ezra.

“You guys! Come outside and look.”

“What’s going on?” Ivy asked as Punkin ran out onto the front porch.

“You’ll see.” Phoebe jogged around the side of the farmhouse and out of sight.

It was full dark now, and it felt like the temperature had dropped by twenty degrees. Ivy wrapped her arms around her chest and shivered, and Ezra slid his arm around her shoulders.

“Ready?” Phoebe called.

“Hurry up! It’s freezing out here,” Ivy hollered.

“One. Two. Three!”

The porch and all the bushes and trees surrounding the house were suddenly awash in the glow of thousands of twinkling white lights.

Phoebe reappeared, looking immensely pleased with herself.

“Isn’t it glorious?” she asked.

“Awesome!” Ezra said. He didn’t remove his arm from Ivy’s shoulder, and she didn’t shrug away from him.