Destry was almost a young woman now and Ridge was an excellent father who could probably handle things here just fine by himself.
She leaned her cheek on the handle of the shovel and watched Sadie snoring away. They didn’t need her. Nobody did. She sighed heavily just as Ridge came back alone with a bale on each shoulder.
“That sounds serious. What’s wrong? Having second thoughts about the new vet and his family moving in?”
And third and fourth. She shrugged, picked up a pitchfork and started spreading the straw around. “What’s to have second thoughts about? He needed a place to stay for a few weeks and we have an empty, furnished house just sitting there.”
“Destry will enjoy having other children around the ranch, especially for Christmas.”
“Where is she?”
He grabbed the other pitchfork to help her. “She got distracted by the new barn kittens. She’s up in the loft giving them a little attention.”
Her niece loved animals every bit as much as Caidy had at her age. Maybe she would be a veterinarian someday. “I’m afraid we’re not very good company for her this time of year, are we? Things will be better in January.”
Ridge gave her a long look. “You remember how much Mom loved Christmas. She would hate thinking you would let her and Dad’s deaths ruin the holidays forever.”
“I know.” It wasn’t a new argument between them and right now she wasn’t in the mood, not with this melancholy sidling through her. “Don’t make it sound like I’m the only one. You hate Christmas too.”
“Yeah, well, I think it’s time we both moved forward with our lives. Taft and Trace both have.”
You weren’t there, she wanted to cry out. None of her brothers were. She had been the one hiding under that shelf in the pantry, listening to her mother’s dying gasps and knowing there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.
You weren’t there and you weren’t responsible.
She couldn’t say the words to him. She never could. Instead she spread a little more straw in an area that already had plenty.
“I think it’s time you went back to school.”
She didn’t need this again, today, of all days, when she felt so oddly as if she were teetering on the brink of some major life shift.
“I’m twenty-seven years old, Ridge. I think my school days are past me.”
Her brother’s handsome features twisted into a scowl. “They don’t have to be. Plenty of people finish college when they’re a little older than the traditional student. Sometimes it takes a person a few years to figure out what they want out of life.”
“Have I figured that out yet?” she muttered.
“You won’t while you’re stuck here. I should never have let you come home after your first year of college. I should have made you stick it out. Believe me, I’ve regretted it bitterly, more than I can say. The truth is, after Melinda walked out, I needed you here to help me with Destry. I was lost and floundering, trying to run the ranch and take care of her too.”
He pulled his gloves off and shoved them in his back pocket, then tugged at an earlobe. These words weren’t easy for him, she knew. Of all her brothers, Ridge was the most stoic, hiding his emotions and his thoughts behind the hard steel it took to run a ranch like the River Bow.
“The truth is, I chose the easy path instead of the right one,” he said, regret in his eyes.
“You didn’t choose anything. I did. I wanted to come home. I would have dropped out regardless of whether you needed me here.”
“Not if I hadn’t made it so easy for you to find a soft place to land back home.”
She wasn’t sure if her brothers blamed her for the murders of her parents. She had always been afraid to ask and none of them had ever talked about it.
How could they not blame her on some level? Neither she nor her parents were even supposed to have been home that night. That was the reason an art burglary had turned into a surprise home invasion robbery and then a double murder when her father had tried to stop the thieves.
Caidy would have died with them if her mother hadn’t shoved her into the pantry and ordered her to hide.
Sometimes she felt as if she had been hiding ever since.
“You should be the new veterinarian in town, not some new guy from the coast,” Ridge went on, his voice fierce. “It’s been eating at me ever since this Caldwell showed up. Becoming a vet was all you ever wanted. I know Doc Harris had once hoped you would follow in his footsteps. I can’t help thinking how, if things had gone differently, you could have taken over his practice when he retired.”
He managed to hit exactly on the reason for her restlessness. The straw rustled under her feet as she shifted her boots, releasing its earthy scent. Ben Caldwell was living her dream now. It was hard to admit, especially when she knew she had absolutely no right to be upset.
“I made my choices, Ridge. I don’t regret them. Not for a moment.”
“You need a life of your own. A home, a family. You never even date.”
“Maybe I’ll just run off with the new veterinarian. Then where would you be?”
As soon as the words escaped, she heartily wished she had kept her big mouth shut. Again. What could possibly have possessed her to say such a thing? Ridge lifted an eyebrow and gave her a long, searching look, and she had to hope the heat she could feel in her cheeks wasn’t as bright red as it felt.
“I would be happy for you as long as he’s a good man who treats you well,” Ridge said quietly. For some unaccountable reason, her heart ached sharply. Before she could come up with a response, Destry clambered down the loft ladder. “They’re here! I just saw a couple of cars driving up.”
The heat in her cheeks spread down her neck and over her shoulders. “Great,” she managed to say, trying for a cheerful voice.
“Do you think they’ll have Luke with them?”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
The three of them walked out of the barn into the cold, overcast afternoon just as one SUV pulled up, followed closely by another one. Neither vehicle took the fork in the driveway that led to the foreman’s house. They headed toward the main house, pulling into the circular driveway.
Ben climbed out as she, Ridge and Destry approached the vehicles. Her stomach did that ridiculous little jumpy thing again. She had forgotten in the past few hours just how gorgeous the man was. The memory she had been trying without success to forget flooded back into her head in excruciating detail—of walking into the clinic that morning and finding him wet and hard-muscled as he came out of the shower.
She thought of what she had said to her brother. Maybe I’ll just run off with the new veterinarian, and then where would you be?
The bigger question was, where would she be? She could easily see herself making a fool over this man and she had to do her very best to make sure that didn’t happen, especially when she couldn’t logically find a way to avoid him, when she trained dogs for a living and he was the town’s only veterinarian.
He waved at them all and held a hand out to Ridge. “Hi. You must be Caidy’s brother.”
“Right. I’m Ridge Bowman. This is my daughter, Destry. I guess you know our Caidy. Nice to meet you. Welcome to the River Bow.”
“Thank you.”
The two of them shook hands and then, much to the girl’s astonished delight, Ben shook hands with Destry too. She grinned at him, braids flying under her cowboy hat as she turned the handshake into a vigorous exercise.
Ben gave Caidy a friendly sort of smile—much warmer than any he’d given her so far. Her cheeks flamed and she didn’t miss Ridge’s careful look at the two of them. Drat her big mouth. She should never have said what she did earlier in the barn. Knowing her brother, now he was never going to let her forget it.
“I really appreciate you opening the house for us like this.”
Ridge shrugged. “Why not? It’s empty. With apologies to my sister-in-law, children ought to be in a house at Christmastime if t
hey can.”
“A little breathing room will certainly make the holidays more comfortable for all of us,” he answered. “I’ve got someone else back here who’s anxious to be on the River Bow.”
He headed to the back of the SUV and reached to open the hatch.
“You really think Luke is ready to be home?” she asked.
“He should be. He was moving on his own and seemed far more comfortable this afternoon than earlier. He’s a fighter, this one. You’ll still have to keep a sharp eye on him, but there’s no reason he can’t be home for that. It’ll save you a little on the clinic bill.”
All of them converged on the rear of the vehicle. Sure enough, Luke was resting in a travel crate. When he saw her, he whimpered and whined. Ben unlatched the door and the dog’s nails scrabbled on the plastic floor of the crate as he tried to stand.
“Easy,” Ben said, and his calm voice did the trick. Luke subsided again.
“Hey, Lukey. Hey, buddy.” Destry rubbed her cheek against the dog’s and scratched under his ears. “You poor thing. Look at that big bandage.”
“Hi, Destry. I’m sorry your dog got hurt.”
Destry smiled into the backseat, where both Ava and Jack were watching the proceedings with interest.
“Me too. But he’s not really my dog. He’s one of my aunt Caidy’s. I like cats most of all.”
“I like cats too,” Ava said.
“Not me,” Jack answered cheerfully. “I like dogs. This is our dog. His name is Tri.”
The dog yipped in answer to his name and Caidy had to smile at the adorable little thing, some kind of chihuahua.
“Can he walk?” Ridge was asking as he studied the injured dog in the crate.
Ben nodded. “He can, but it won’t be comfortable for him for a while now. Probably better if we let him take it easy. Do you mind helping me carry him inside?”
“No problem,” Ridge said. The two of them carried the crate with Luke inside. Caidy wondered if she should stay with the children or take them inside. Before she could make a decision, Mrs. Michaels joined them from the other vehicle. “You probably want to go help settle your dog, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she said quickly. “Why don’t you all come inside?”
“I think we’ll be better off staying put. I’m sure Dr. Caldwell won’t be long and the children are anxious to start settling into the house.”
She followed the low murmur of men’s voices and found them in the kitchen, setting the crate down in the small area she had arranged earlier, in hopes for this very moment.
“Caidy likes to keep her patients right here in the kitchen,” Ridge was saying. “This way her bedroom, right down the hall, is close enough to keep an eye on them.”
“It’s close to the back door for easy trips outside. That’s the important thing,” she said.
“This works. I like the enclosure,” he said. Years ago, she had purchased a small baby play yard that worked well when she was treating an animal whose physical activity needed to be limited.
“Come on out,” Ben coaxed the dog. Luke didn’t seem to want to move but with their encouragement and Dr. Caldwell helping him along, he rose slowly and hobbled out of the crate, then headed immediately for the soft bed of old blankets she had fashioned in the enclosure.
“What sort of special instructions do I need?”
“Our biggest fear right now is infection. We need to keep the injuries as clean as possible, especially that puncture wound from the bull.”
“You don’t have to worry about anything,” Ridge said. “Caidy’s an expert. She used to work at the clinic with Dr. Harris.”
“So I hear.”
“She should have become a veterinarian,” Ridge went on. “It’s all she ever wanted to do.”
Apparently blabbermouth syndrome ran in the family.
“Is that right?” Ben said, giving her a curious look. She could tell he was wondering why she hadn’t pursued her dreams. What was so wrong about a person’s life changing direction?
“Yes. I also wanted to be a ballerina when I was eight. And a famous movie star when I was eleven.”
And a singer. She decided not to mention she had once wanted to sing professionally. That was another dream she had pushed aside.
“I suppose you’re anxious to move into the house. The key is inside on the kitchen table. All the information, like the phone number to the house and the address, are on a paper I’ve also left for you there.”
“Thanks.”
One thing she had never anticipated doing with her life was being a landlord to an entirely too sexy veterinarian. Yet here she was. “Call if you have any problems or can’t figure out any of the appliances.”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine. Make sure you let me know if you have any problems with Luke. Here. Let me leave my cell number.”
He pulled a business card out of the inside pocket of his coat and left it on the kitchen counter. “If he starts to run a fever or has any other unusual symptoms that concern you, I want you to call me. Day or night.”
She doubted she ever would. Even after all her years of working with Doc Harris, she hadn’t felt comfortable calling the old veterinarian in the middle of the night.
“Thank you,” she answered.
“I’d better head out. The kids are anxious to start decorating their tree.”
“Oh. That reminds me. Destry and I dug through our old Christmas things earlier and found a few things we’re not using. You’re welcome to them.”
She picked up the box off the kitchen table and handed it to him. He looked a little disconcerted but then smiled.
“Thank you. I’m sure Mrs. Michaels and the children will find great use for them.”
“Not you?”
“I’m sure I’ll be roped into helping, like it or not.” He looked more resigned than truly reluctant.
“If you’d like, I can carry it out for you while you two get the crate.”
“That would be great. Thanks.” He smiled at her and she felt those ridiculous flutters again.
“He seems nice,” Ridge said after they had loaded the crate and the ornaments and stood on the porch watching the two SUVs head back down the driveway toward the foreman’s house.
She thought of how abrupt and harsh he had been the evening before at the clinic. Nice wouldn’t have been the word she used to describe Ben Caldwell then, but now she was beginning to wonder.
“I guess,” she answered in what she hoped was a noncommittal voice.
Ridge gave her a sidelong look. “You might want to think about showing a little more enthusiasm if you plan to run off with the man. At least to him. Occasionally a guy needs a little encouragement.”
She rolled her eyes but quickly hurried into the house before Ridge could notice the blush she felt heating her cheeks. She suddenly had a very strong feeling she would have to work hard at being casual and uninterested in order to keep Ridge—and probably the rest of the Bowmans—from trying to do a little matchmaking for Christmas.
* * *
A woman’s body was a mysterious thing, full of secret hollows and soft, delectable curves.
He was in heaven, warm, sweetly scented heaven. Ben trailed his fingers over the woman in his arms, his hands exploring all those hidden delights. He wanted to stay here forever with his face buried in skin that smelled sweetly of vanilla and rain-washed wildflowers and his hands finding new and exciting terrain to discover.
His body was rock-hard and he pressed against her heat, tangling his fingers in acres of dark, silky hair. She smiled at him out of that sinfully delicious mouth that sent his imagination into overdrive, and her green eyes were bright as springtime. He groaned, his hunger at fever pitch, and kissed her.
Her mouth was as warm and welcoming as the rest of her and when she danced her tongue along his, he groaned and gripped her hands, kissing her with all the pent-up need aching inside him.
“Yes. Kiss me,” she murmured in that lilting, musical
voice. “Just like that, Ben. Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.”
All he could think about was burying himself inside. He shifted and prepared to do just that, his body taut and ready, when a phone trilled close to his ear.
He froze...and woke up from the first sexy dream he’d had in ages.
He could still see Caidy Bowman, tangled around him, her body soft and warm, but when he blinked she disappeared.
The phone trilled again and a quick glance at the alarm read 3:00 a.m. Nobody called at this hour unless it was an emergency. He grabbed for it, ignoring the lingering arousal of his body that had no chance in hell of being satisfied by an actual female right now.
“Hello?” he growled.
“I shouldn’t have called. I’m sorry.” Hearing Caidy Bowman’s voice in his ear after he had just heard her in his dreams, pleading with him for more, was so disorienting that for a moment he couldn’t process the shift.
“Hello? Are you there?” she asked. The urgency and, yes, fright in her voice pushed away the last clinging tendrils of his sultry dream.
“I’m here. Sorry.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached for the jeans he’d left there the night before. “What’s wrong? Luke?”
“Yes. He’s not... Something’s wrong. I wouldn’t have called you, except...I don’t think it’s good. He’s struggling to breathe. I thought it might be an infection, but I haven’t seen any signs of a fever or anything. I lifted both dressings and they looked clean.”
He growled and flipped on the bedside light, then scrubbed at his face to rub the last tendrils of that blasted dream away.
“Give me five minutes.”
“Is there something I can do so you don’t have to come up here?”
“Probably not. Five minutes.”
As he threw on a T-shirt and his jacket, a hundred possibilities raced through his head, very few of them leading to a good outcome. He quickly scribbled a note for Mrs. Michaels and stuck it on her door, though by now she was used to him dashing out in the middle of the night.
Snow lightly gleamed in his headlights as he drove up to the ranch house. He saw lights in the kitchen and pulled as close as he could to the side door on the circular driveway, then hurried up the snow-covered walkway, his emergency kit in his hand.
A Cold Creek Noel Page 6