Season of Wonder

by RaeAnne Thayne

  He was always aware when he was with them that if the two of them hadn’t found each other first, Ruben definitely would have made a move. Andie was the kind of woman he had always thought he wanted—someone soft, warm, compassionate.

  Worlds away from a certain prickly, cool, reserved veterinarian.

  Somebody should probably tell that to his subconscious, which had filled his dreams with all kinds of inappropriate situations involving the woman the night before.

  * * *

  Friday was a long, difficult day. She would have liked to take the day off since the girls were out of school but her time off was limited as a new veterinarian.

  She was lucky enough to have a few good caregivers in her rotation and Gloria, the clinic receptionist and office manager, had a daughter home from college for the holidays who was looking for a little extra cash.

  Dani had hoped to be done by two, her usual schedule on Friday, but a bichon frise with an abdominal obstruction came in right as she was wrapping up for the day and the dog required emergency surgery.

  The surgery had been much more complicated than she had expected and she had ended up calling on Frank to help. She found it demoralizing that she had needed his expertise, yet more evidence she wasn’t up to the challenge of her new vocation, but Frank wouldn’t let her beat herself up.

  “Don’t ever be embarrassed to ask for help.” His eyes—so like his son’s—were warm and kind. “I’ve been in the vet business for more than forty years. Just when I think I’ve seen everything under the sun, something new walks through the door to prove me wrong. You should never hesitate to call me, even after the practice is officially yours.”

  She wasn’t sure that day would ever come—or ever should come. Who was she kidding, to think she had what it took to be a veterinarian? She was a failure. A nothing. Hadn’t she heard that enough when she was growing up?

  As usual when that negative self-talk intruded, she did her best to focus on how fiercely she had worked to get where she was. All the sleepless nights of studying, the hand cramps from propping a textbook in one hand while rocking a crying baby in the other, the many creative ways she had found to stretch a dollar.

  We can do hard things. That was the message she tried to reinforce to her girls. She couldn’t help wondering when it would be her turn to do the easy things.

  By the time she finally made it home just after five, three hours later than she’d planned, she was exhausted.

  “Thank you for staying extra with them,” she told Heidi, Gloria’s youngest daughter.

  “Not a problem. I need the extra cash. I’m saving up to get my belly button pierced.”

  Since the girl had four rows of pierced earrings and a ring in her lip, what was one more puncture wound? “Glad I could add to the pot, then. Have a good evening.”

  “Thanks, Dr. C. Silver’s been in her room most of the afternoon doing homework and Mia is in the family room.”

  “Thanks.”

  After Dani let the babysitter out, she headed to find the easier of her children and found Mia playing quietly with her dolls.

  “Hey, sweetie pie. How did your day go?”

  Mia shrugged, without looking up at her.

  “What’s wrong, honey?”

  “You said we should never lie but you lied.”

  Dani scanned over her day, trying to figure out where she had gone wrong this time.

  “About what?”

  “You said you would be home right after lunch and we could put our Christmas tree up today. Lunch was a long time ago and now it’s almost dark and I bet you’re going to say you’re too tired to put up a Christmas tree.”

  Going through the hassle of putting up a tree was the absolute last thing she wanted to do right now. After the difficult day, her brain was mush and she wanted to collapse on the sofa and sleep for the rest of the evening.

  She had made a promise, though, something she took very seriously.

  She sat on the floor beside her daughter. “I’m sorry, Mia. I did tell you I would be home after lunch but then I had a dog emergency. Sometimes that happens when you’re a veterinarian. We’ve talked about it before, remember? This time the emergency was a little bichon frise who had something stuck in her stomach. She was throwing up and couldn’t eat or poop.”

  Her compassionate youngest child looked distressed at that. “Is she okay?”

  “She is now. Dr. Morales came in and helped me fix things. It will take a day or two, but Princess Snowbear will be back to herself in a few days.”

  Apparently saving a dog’s life warranted a few points in her book, at least where her youngest was concerned. Mia cuddled up to her. “I like Dr. Morales. He’s nice.”

  “He is, indeed.” She would have been in trouble without him during the surgery. What would she do when he finally retired?

  She put that worry away for another day. “How’s your sister been?”

  Mia looked down the hall toward the bedrooms. “I don’t know. She stayed in her room almost all day. Earlier, I asked if she wanted to play with my Shopkins and she told me they’re stupid and I am, too.”

  Apparently at least one of her children had no problem being a snitch. “She shouldn’t have said either of those things. You’re not stupid and neither are your toys, honey.”

  The two girls were separated by seven years, which sometimes seemed such a vast chasm in their relationship. Sometimes Silver could be the sweetest thing to her sister and sometimes she barely tolerated Mia.

  “What did you have for lunch?” Dani asked.

  “Grilled cheese sandwiches, only Heidi left the crusts on and I had to cut them off myself.”

  “That’s a hard day all around. Let’s see what we can do to make the afternoon and evening better. What do you think about calzones for dinner?”

  “I love calzones! Can I help you make them?”

  “You got it, kid. Maybe we can talk Silver into helping us, too.”

  Mia looked doubtful but followed her down the hall. The doorbell rang before they reached Silver’s bedroom door.

  “Who’s that?” Mia asked, looking nervous.

  “I don’t know. We’ll have to answer it to see.”

  She looked through the peephole and saw a big, solid chest dressed in a brown sheriff’s uniform. As she opened the door for Ruben Morales, she told herself it was only her exhaustion that had her feeling a little light-headed.

  “Deputy Morales. Hello.”

  He smiled, looking big and dark and absolutely delicious—something she was furious with herself for noticing.

  “Afternoon. I was on my way home but thought I should stop here first to let Silver know about the conversation I had with the graffiti specialist for the county and what it’s going to take to clean up her artwork from last night.”

  Just once, couldn’t she see the man when she wasn’t exhausted and rumpled and feeling as if she’d been dragged behind his big boat for an hour?

  “Come in,” she said, holding the door for him. “I’ve only been home from the clinic for a few moments myself and haven’t had a chance to talk to her yet. I’ll grab her.”

  “Thanks. Hi there, Mia.”

  He smiled at her suddenly shy six-year-old, who somehow managed to give him a nervous smile in return. Dani stood there awkwardly for a long moment, then finally gave herself a mental head-slap and hurried down the hall. She expected Mia to follow her, but instead the girl opted to remain behind with Ruben.

  “I told you I’m doing homework, Mia. What do you want?” Silver called out when Dani knocked on her door.

  She could feel her shoulders tighten in response. If thirteen was this tough, how on earth was she going to survive the rest of the teenage years? she wondered for the bazillionth time.

  “It’s not Mia. It’s me,” Dani said, pushing open the do
or.

  She found Silver on her bed, a notebook propped on pillows in front of her. No doubt she was writing in her journal, detailing how miserable her life was. Silver closed it quickly and while she didn’t hide it under her bed, she looked as if she wanted to.

  Dani released a breath. “Deputy Morales is here to speak with you.”

  For just an instant, Silver’s mouth trembled with nerves. She looked down at the closed notebook in front of her and fiddled with her pen.

  “I’m, um, in the middle of something here. I don’t want to lose my train of thought. Can you just find out what he wants?”

  “What he wants is to speak with you. Come on, honey. Might as well get it over with, right?”

  “I guess.” Silver sighed and climbed off her bed. She slipped the notebook into the drawer of her bedside table, wiped her hands down her jeans as if they were as sweaty as Dani’s, then moved to the doorway.

  When they returned to the living room, she found Ruben on the sofa with their dog, Winky, on his lap. Mia was showing him her vast collection of dolls and their wardrobe that Dani could swear was more fashionable than her own.

  “What’s this one’s name?”

  “That’s Pia. She’s my favorite. See, her hair is curly just like mine and her eyes are brown like mine. You have brown eyes, too.”

  “Yes I do.”

  “I named her Pia because it rhymes with Mia.”

  “Perfect. So if I had a doll, maybe I would have to name him Gruben.”

  Mia giggled, her shyness apparently all but gone, and Dani felt something hard and tight around her heart begin to crack apart a little.

  No. She wouldn’t let herself be drawn to him. She made disastrous decisions in the men department and right now she couldn’t afford another mistake.

  “I have three outfits for her but this green dress is my favorite. You can get clothes to match your dolls if you want. I asked Santa for a green dress, too, but I don’t know if I’ll get it. Silver says it’s too expensive and my mom has stupid loans.”

  “Does she?”

  “I did not. I said she has student loans,” Silver corrected.

  “Though they’re certainly stupid, too,” Dani admitted.

  Ruben looked up and flashed them both a smile that made her feel light-headed again.

  “I’m sure they are. It can’t be easy.”

  At the understanding in his voice, Dani was appalled to feel tears well up. She couldn’t count the sleepless nights she’d had over the last thirteen years, worrying whether she would be able to provide for her daughters.

  “It can be an adventure,” she admitted. “It helps that your dad has kindly let us have this place rent-free.”

  “Dad’s good about things like that,” he said, then looked around her to where Silver was lurking.

  “Hey, Silver. How’s it going?”

  She shrugged. “Fine. My mom said you wanted to talk to me. I’ve got a ton of homework, so...”

  In other words, get on with it. Silver didn’t say the words but she might as well have. Dani tried not to cringe at her rudeness.

  “Right. Good for you, doing your homework on a Friday afternoon.”

  “Like I have a choice. I’m grounded from just about everything else.”

  “Look on the bright side. With all the studying you’ll get, your next report card will be great.”

  “And if she keeps it up, maybe she’ll get a scholarship when she’s ready to go to college and won’t need those stupid student loans,” Dani said.

  “Excellent point.”

  “Did you say you spoke with a graffiti cleanup specialist?”

  “Yes.” He rose and it seemed to Dani that all the oxygen in the room seemed to seep away. “There’s a guy in the road department who takes care of that kind of trouble whenever any Lake Haven County property is vandalized. He’s considered our expert. I took the spray can of paint to him and told him what kind of things you’d tagged with it and he’s given me a couple of solvents that should work on my boat. For the other places, as I suspected, he says a new coat of paint will be cheaper and easier.”

  “Okay.”

  To Dani’s relief, Silver seemed to lose a little of her attitude at the sharp reminder of her own actions and mistakes.

  “I’m not scheduled for a shift tomorrow, so I figured it would be a good time to get started, especially since we’re supposed to have unusually warm weather. Bob, the expert at the county, said we’re better off jumping quickly on some of this cleanup. It will be easier now than if you wait a week or so, when the weather is colder.”

  “I don’t know,” Silver said. “Like I said, I have a lot of homework.”

  “She’ll be there,” Dani said firmly. “What time?”

  “Why don’t we say ten? We can start at my place and work our way to the neighbors after that. Oh, and bring a sack lunch.”

  “Seriously? This is going to take all day?”

  “Maybe even longer. That’s the problem with some poor choices. Cleaning up after yourself takes about ten times longer than the act itself.”

  Silver looked discouraged, as if she were scouting in her mind for some way out of the hole she had dug for herself.

  “She’ll be there,” Dani repeated.

  “Great. We’re supposed to have a good day. Dress in layers. It might be chilly in the morning, then warm enough for shirtsleeves by the afternoon. With any luck, you can be done by dinnertime.”

  Silver’s sigh was heavy. “Fine. I’ll be there. Can I go now?”

  Dani made a shooing motion with her hand and Silver escaped quickly.

  “Thank you.” Dani had to say it. “You’ve been much more understanding than I think I would have been in your shoes.”

  “I was thirteen myself once. I told you, I made plenty of my own stupid choices.”

  “You said that, but I still have a hard time believing it. You don’t strike me as the troublemaker type.”

  When it came to graffiti, anyway. She could imagine him making all kinds of other trouble for the women of Haven Point.

  “You might be surprised.”

  Mia was tugging on her jacket and it took Dani a moment to register it. “What is it, honey?” she asked.

  “I can help Silver clean up,” Mia said. Her features were so earnest, Dani felt that suspicious burning behind her eyes again.

  “That is a very kind offer.” Ruben smiled down at her girl with such sweetness it made Dani’s heart ache, for reasons she didn’t quite understand.

  “Families stick together, no matter what,” Mia informed him. “We help each other. That’s what Mama says.”

  He glanced at Dani with that same warmth, which she knew she didn’t deserve.

  “I couldn’t agree more, Miss Mia.”

  Dani did, too. While she wanted Silver to learn hard lessons about the consequences to her actions, she had thought all along that she would do what she could to help Silver clean up the graffiti, for her neighbors’ sakes as much as her daughter’s.

  “That’s a very good idea, sweetie. Yes. Mia and I can help with the cleanup. We’ll come with you and Silver tomorrow, as the clinic is closed. We can meet you next door at ten with our work clothes on.”

  “Great. We’ll make a party of it.”

  “Not too much of a party. Silver doesn’t need fun, she needs consequences for her actions.”

  “A subdued party, then. It will be fun for us, but not nearly as fun for her.”

  He winked at Mia, who giggled with no trace of the shyness she had showed fifteen minutes earlier when he rang the doorbell.

  How did he do it, win her over so easily?

  Dani supposed it didn’t matter. The only important thing, she thought as she let him out of the house, was to constantly be on guard and try her best to make sur
e he didn’t win her over.

  5

  Ruben was in deep, deep trouble.

  He was fiercely attracted to his neighbor. Something about Dani’s complicated mix of vulnerability and chin-up defiance struck a chord deep inside, some place no one else had ever touched.

  He didn’t want to be attracted to her. She wasn’t at all his type. He had always believed he preferred soft, sweet, gentle women—someone like Andie, someone giving and kind, not prickly and defensive.

  He might tell himself that all day but it didn’t change the fact that he found himself in this unlikely position where he couldn’t stop thinking about her, dreaming about her, wondering about her.

  What difference did that make? he asked himself as he finished gathering the supplies they would need to clean up his boat and waited for them to arrive.

  Yeah, he was attracted to her, in a way he couldn’t remember being to another woman, but that didn’t mean he had to do anything about it.

  They would be spending most of the day cleaning up graffiti. That’s all. He only had to survive several hours in her company without making a fool of himself over her.

  Maybe by the end of the day they would emerge as friends. Something told him Dani Capelli needed all the friends she could find.

  As usual, his dogs were the first to inform him he had visitors. Ollie went on alert, his ears cocked for just a moment before he rocketed to the front door, Yukon close behind him.

  They made it there about fifteen seconds before the doorbell rang.

  Friends, he reminded himself. That didn’t stop his heartbeat from kicking up a notch as he opened the door.

  “Hi, policeman,” Mia said, greeting him with her shy smile that stole his heart every time.

  “Hi there, Miss Mia. Hi, Silver. Dani.”

  The other two females at his door didn’t look nearly as happy to see him as the little girl was, but Ruben decided not to take it personally.