“I should’ve seen.” He cupped her head in his hand. “I should have seen all along. And you are the truth.” He pressed his mouth against hers. “You’re my truth. I just didn’t let myself see it. You’re my wife, Greer. For all the right reasons, you’re my wife.” He pulled in a shaky breath. “So just get better and come home with me and Layla. You can work any damn job you want. Just...don’t give up on me. Don’t give up on our family.”
Her eyes opened again and she stared up at him. “I thought you gave up on me,” she whispered.
“Not in this lifetime,” he promised thickly. He pressed another shaking kiss to her lips, and her hand lifted, closing around his neck.
“Don’t leave me.”
He shook his head, but her eyes had closed again. He lowered the rail on the side of the bed. Carefully, gingerly, with the same caution he’d felt when he’d first taken Layla all those months ago, he moved her an inch. Two. Just enough that he could slide onto the edge of the hospital bed with her. It was crowded. He had to curl one arm awkwardly above her just to be sure that he wouldn’t jostle her. Jostle their baby. But he managed.
“I love you, Greer.”
She exhaled. Turned her head toward him. “Love...you...” Her fingers brushed his cheek. “No more great...divide.”
A soft sound escaped him. “No more great divide,” he promised. “Never again.”
And then he closed his eyes, cradling his life against him.
And they both slept.
Epilogue
“Welcome home, Mrs. Wilson.”
Greer smiled up at Ryder as he carried her across the threshold of their house. It was an interesting experience. He carried her. She carried Layla. “We could’ve walked, you know. The doctors said the baby was okay. So long as I don’t try running a marathon, we’re all good.”
“I know.” He shouldered the door closed behind him. “But then I wouldn’t have this opportunity to impress my ladies with my manliness as we made the trek through the deep, freezing snow.”
Greer pressed her cheek against his chest and looked at their daughter. “Daddy’s very silly today. Two snowflakes. That’s what we trekked through.”
Layla’s green eyes were bright. “Dadda!”
Ryder’s dimple appeared. “Daddy’s very happy today,” he corrected. He carried the two of them right through the house and deposited them carefully on the couch. He peeled off his coat and pitched it aside, then sat down beside them, his fingers twining through Greer’s. “It’s Christmas Day and I’ve got the very best presents. Because Mommy’s home.”
“Mama!”
Greer went still. “Did she just—”
“She did. Who’s Mama, Short-Stuff?”
“Mama.” Layla patted Greer’s cheek and pressed a wet kiss on it. Then she patted Ryder’s face, kissing his clean-shaven jaw. “Dadda.”
She clambered off Greer’s lap and ran over to the oddly decorated Christmas tree. She started tearing into the wrapped presents beneath it. “Sus-suhs,” she chanted.
“She’s gonna demolish them all,” Ryder commented.
“Probably.” Greer slid her fingers through his and pulled his hand over the baby nestled inside her. “I wouldn’t be too concerned. Most of them are hers, anyway. Between you and me and Adelaide, we might have gone a little overboard with the gifts.”
“It’s our first Christmas together. Overboard is expected.”
“Now you sound like Vivian.”
He grinned. “She rescheduled that party of hers for tomorrow night, you know. Just like that.” He snapped his fingers.
“The advantages of outrageous wealth.”
“Mama.” Layla toddled back to the couch, her fists filled with the shreds of Christmas wrapping paper. She dropped it on Greer’s lap.
“For me?”
Bright-eyed, Layla returned to the tree and started back in on the presents.
“We could go over to your parents’, you know. Everyone’s there. Hoping to see you.”
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Maybe later. Right now...right now, everything I never even knew I wanted is right here.”
His eyes smiled into hers. “Merry Christmas, Layla’s mommy.”
She smiled back. He thought he’d gotten the best gift. But she knew better. They’d all gotten the best gift. And she was going to treasure it for now and for always.
“Merry Christmas, Layla’s daddy.”
* * * * *
Make sure you didn’t miss the other two stories
starring Templeton triplets Maddie and Ali!
Yuletide Baby Bargain
Show Me a Hero
Part of New York Times bestselling author
Allison Leigh’s
Return to the Double C miniseries.
Available from Harlequin Special Edition.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Season of Wonder by RaeAnne Thayne.
Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!
Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards
http://www.harlequin.com/myrewards.html?mt=loyalty&cmpid=EBOOBPBPA201602010003
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Special Edition story.
You know that romance is for life. Harlequin Special Edition stories show that every chapter in a relationship has its challenges and delights and that love can be renewed with each turn of the page.
Enjoy six new stories from Harlequin Special Edition every month!
Visit Harlequin.com to find your next great read.
Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!
Other ways to keep in touch:
Harlequin.com/newsletters
Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks
Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks
HarlequinBlog.com
Join Harlequin My Rewards and reward the book lover in you!
Earn points for every Harlequin print and ebook you buy, wherever and whenever you shop.
Turn your points into FREE BOOKS of your choice
OR
EXCLUSIVE GIFTS from your favorite authors or series.
Click here to join for FREE
Or visit us online to register at
www.HarlequinMyRewards.com
Harlequin My Rewards is a free program (no fees) without any commitments or obligations.
SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM
Keep reading for a sneak peek at New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne’s next
heartwarming Haven Point romance,
Season of Wonder,
available October 2018 from HQN Books!
Dani Capelli and her daughters are
facing their first Christmas in Haven Point.
But Ruben Morales—the son of Dani’s new boss—is determined to give them a season of wonder!
Season of Wonder
by RaeAnne Thayne
1
“This is totally lame. Why do we have to stay here and wait for you? We can walk home in, like, ten minutes.”
Daniela Capelli drew in a deep breath and prayed for patience, something she seemed to be doing with increasing frequency these days when it came to her thirteen-year-old daughter. “It’s starting to snow and already almost dark.”
Silver rolled her eyes, something she did with increasing frequency these days. “So what? A little snow won’t kill us. I would hardly even call that snow. We had way bigger storms than this back in Boston. Remember that big blizzard a few years ago, when school was closed for, like, a week?”
“I remember,” her younger daughter, Mia, said, looking up from her coloring book at Dani’s desk at the Haven Point Veterinary Clinic. “I stayed home from preschool and I watched Anna and Elsa a thou
sand times, until you said your eardrums would explode if I played it one more time.”
Dani could hear a bark from the front office that likely signaled the arrival of her next client and knew she didn’t have time to stand here arguing with an obstinate teenager.
“Mia can’t walk as fast as you can. You’ll end up frustrated with her and you’ll both be freezing before you make it home,” she pointed out.
“So she can stay here and wait for you while I walk home. I just told Chelsea we could FaceTime about the new dress she bought for the Christmas dance there and she can only do it for another hour before her dad comes to pick her up for his visitation.”
“Why can’t you FaceTime here? I only have two more patients to see. I’ll be done in less than an hour, then we can all go home together. You can hang out in the waiting room with Mia, where the Wi-Fi signal is better.”
Silver gave a huge put-upon sigh but picked up her backpack and stalked out of Dani’s office toward the waiting room.
“Can I turn on the TV out there?” Mia asked as she gathered her papers and crayons. “I like the dog shows.”
The veterinary clinic showed calming clips of animals on a big flat-screen TV set low to the ground for their clientele.
“After Silver’s done with her phone call, okay?”
“She’ll take forever,” Mia predicted with a gloomy look. “She always does when she’s talking to Chelsea.”
Dani fought to hide a smile. “Thanks for your patience, sweetie, with her and with me. Finish your math worksheet while you’re here, then when we get home, you can watch what you want.”
Both the Haven Point elementary and middle schools were within walking distance of the clinic and it had become a habit for Silver to walk to the elementary school and then walk with Mia here to the clinic to spend a few hours until they could all go home together.
Of late, Silver had started to complain that she didn’t want to pick her sister up at the elementary school every day, that she would rather they both just took their respective school buses home, where Silver could watch her sister without having to hang out at the boring veterinary clinic.
But then, Silver complained about nearly everything these days.
It was probably a good idea, but Dani wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger on having the girls alone every day after school. Maybe they would try it out after Christmas vacation.
This working professional/single mother gig was hard, she thought as she ushered Mia to the waiting room. Then again, in most ways it was much easier than the veterinary student/single mother gig had been.
When they entered the comfortable waiting room—with its bright colors, pet-friendly benches and big fish tank—Mia faltered for a moment, then sidestepped behind Dani’s back.
She saw instantly what had caused her daughter’s nervous reaction. Funny. Dani felt the same way. She wanted to hide behind somebody, too.
The receptionist had given her the files with the dogs’ names that were coming in for a checkup but hadn’t mentioned their human was Ruben Morales. Her gorgeous next-door neighbor.
Dani’s palms instantly itched and her stomach felt as if she’d accidentally swallowed a flock of butterflies.
“Deputy Morales,” she said, then paused, hating the slightly breathless note in her voice.
What was it about the man that always made her so freaking nervous?
He was big, yes, at least six feet tall, with wide shoulders, tough muscles and a firm, don’t-mess-with-me jawline.
It wasn’t just that. Even without his uniform, the man exuded authority and power, which instantly raised her hackles and left her uneasy, something she found both frustrating and annoying about herself.
No matter how far she had come, how hard she had worked to make a life for her and her girls, she still sometimes felt like the troublesome foster kid from Queens, always on the defensive.
She had done her best to avoid him in the months they had been in Haven Point, but that was next to impossible when they lived so close to each other—and when she was the intern in his father’s veterinary practice, with the hope that she might be able to purchase it at the end of the year.
“Hey, Doc,” he said, flashing her an easy smile she didn’t trust for a moment. It never quite reached his dark, long-lashed eyes, at least where she was concerned.
While she might be uncomfortable around Ruben Morales, his dogs were another story.
He held the leashes of both of them, a big, muscular Belgian shepherd and an incongruously paired little Chi-poo and she reached down to pet both of them. They sniffed her and wagged happily, the big dog’s tail nearly knocking over his small friend.
That was the thing she loved most about dogs. They were uncomplicated and generous with their affection, for the most part. They never looked at people with that subtle hint of suspicion, as if trying to uncover all their secrets.
“I wasn’t expecting you,” she admitted.
“Oh? I made an appointment. The boys both need checkups. Yukon needs his regular hip and eye check and Ollie is due for his shots.”
She gave the dogs one more pat before she straightened and faced him, hoping his sharp cop eyes couldn’t notice evidence of her accelerated pulse.
“Your father is still here every Monday and Friday afternoons. Maybe you should reschedule with him,” she suggested. It was a faint hope, but a girl had to try.
“Why would I do that?”
“Maybe because he’s your father and knows your dogs?”
“Dad is an excellent veterinarian. Agreed. But he’s also semiretired and wants to be fully retired this time next year. As long as you plan to stick around in Haven Point, we will have to switch vets and start seeing you eventually. I figured we might as well start now.”
He was checking her out. Not her her, but her skills as a veterinarian.
The implication was clear. She had been here three months, and it had become obvious during that time in their few interactions that Ruben Morales was extremely protective of his family. He had been polite enough when they had met previously, but always with a certain guardedness, as if he was afraid she planned to take the good name his hardworking father had built up over the years for the Haven Point Veterinary Clinic and drag it through the sludge at the bottom of Lake Haven.
Dani pushed away her instinctive prickly defensiveness, bred out of all those years in foster care when she felt as if she had no one else to count on—compounded by the difficult years after she’d married Tommy and had Silver, when she really had no one else in her corner.
She couldn’t afford to offend Ruben. She didn’t need his protective wariness to turn into full-on suspicion. With a little digging, Ruben could uncover things about her and her past that would ruin everything for her and her girls here.
She forced a professional smile. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s go back to a room and take a look at these guys. Girls, I’ll be done shortly. Silver, keep an eye on your sister.”
Her oldest nodded without looking up from her phone and with an inward sigh, Dani led the way to the largest of the exam rooms.
She stood at the door as he entered the room with the two dogs, then joined him inside and closed the door behind her.
The large room seemed to shrink unnaturally and she paused inside for a moment, flustered and wishing she could escape. Dani gave herself a mental shake. She was a doctor of veterinary medicine, not a teenage girl. She could handle being in the same room with the one man in Haven Point who left her breathless and unsteady.
All she had to do was focus on the reason he was here in the first place. His dogs.
She knelt to their level. “Hey there, guys. Who wants to go first?”
The Malinois—often confused for a German shepherd but smaller and with a shorter coat—wagged his tail again while his smaller counterpoint sniffed
around her shoes, probably picking up the scents of all the other dogs she had seen that day.
“Ollie, I guess you’re the winner today.”
He yipped, his big ears that stuck straight out from his face quivering with excitement.
He was the funniest looking dog, quirky and unique, with wisps of fur in odd places, spindly legs and a narrow Chihuahua face. She found him unbearably cute. With that face, she wouldn’t ever be able to say no to him if he were hers.
“Can I give him a treat?” She always tried to ask permission first from her clients’ humans.
“Only if you want him to be your best friend for life,” Ruben said.
Despite her nerves, his deadpan voice sparked a smile, which widened when she gave the little dog one of the treats she always carried in the pocket of her lab coat and he slurped it up in one bite, then sat with a resigned sort of patience during the examination.
She was aware of Ruben watching her as she carefully examined the dog, but Dani did her best not to let his scrutiny fluster her.
She knew what she was doing, she reminded herself. She had worked so hard to be here, sacrificing all her time, energy and resources of the last decade to nothing else but her girls and her studies.
“Everything looks good,” she said after checking out the dog and finding nothing unusual. “He seems like a healthy little guy. It says here he’s about six or seven. So you haven’t had him from birth?”
“No. Only about two years. He was a stray I picked up off the side of the road between here and Shelter Springs when I was on patrol one day. He was in a bad way, half-starved, fur matted. I think he’d been on his own for a while. As small as he is, it’s a wonder he wasn’t picked off by a coyote or even one of the bigger hawks. He just needed a little TLC.”
“You couldn’t find his owner?”
“We ran ads and Dad checked with all his contacts at shelters and veterinary clinics from here to Boise, with no luck. I had been fostering him while we looked, and to be honest, I kind of lost my heart to the little guy and by then Yukon adored him so we decided to keep him.”
The Rancher's Christmas Promise Page 19