One Winter's Night: The Twelve Dates of Christmas / Frozen Heart, Melting Kiss / A Cadence Creek Christmas. SUSAN MEIER

      He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’d thought about taking him on a carriage ride, but, luckily, he got tired and we went home.”

      “You have a son?”

      He shrugged, not able to tell her Blake had died, if only because he knew he couldn’t handle the pain remembering his son’s death would bring.

      But he also felt oddly free that he’d spoken about his little boy. Because everyone was so silent about him, sometimes it felt as if he’d never existed. “Yeah.”

      She caught his gaze, examined his face and said, “You and his mother aren’t together?”

      He shook his head. “No. We were essentially strangers who created a child.” He winced. “We sound like terrible people. We weren’t.”