Silver & Pine

As Christmas draws near in 1940, the bay window at Hope Cottage remains dark. Wendy Sommer is too busy caring for the people of Pine Hollow to put up a tree, much less consider what the holidays could still hold for her.

At thirty-nine, Wendy has built a purposeful life around work that matters. Years ago, she raised her niece when loss fractured their family. Now Lucy is grown, and Wendy fills the quiet with house calls, patients, and those who need her.

But Lucy has other ideas for Hope Cottage. She arranges for a freshly cut pine to arrive at Wendy's door and insists the old house deserves to glow again. The tree is only the beginning. Soon Wendy's aunt Gigi recruits her to help with the town's treasured holiday program, drawing her deeper into a season she had nearly let pass her by.

As the scent of evergreen drifts through the cottage and long-forgotten traditions return, so do memories and feelings Wendy thought she'd safely tucked away. Then a Minnesota blizzard turns everyone's plans upside down, opening doors across Pine Hollow and planting the seed for a holiday home tour that could become a new town tradition. Through it all, Archie Braten's steady presence quietly changes the way Wendy sees parts of her past.

For the first time in years, she wonders whether the full life she has shaped for herself might still have room for something new.

Come home to Christmas at Silvermist Lake with Silver & Pine, part of an interconnected novella collection where family ties and holiday traditions carry across the generations.