A Cold Creek Noel

“I’m hungry, Mrs. Michaels. When are we going to eat?” Bored with the game apparently, Jack had wandered back to them.

“I think your father is going to be busy for a while yet. Why don’t you and Ava and I go find something? Perhaps dinner at the café tonight would be fun and we can pick something up for your father for later.”

“Can I have one of the sweet rolls?” he asked, his eyes lighting up as if it were already Christmas morning.

The housekeeper laughed. “We’ll have to see about that. I’d say the café’s business in sweet rolls has tripled since we came to town, thanks to you alone.”

“They are delish,” Caidy agreed, smiling at the very cute boy.

Mrs. Michaels rose to her feet with a creak and a pop of some joint. “It was lovely to meet you, Caidy Bowman.”

“I’m happy to meet you too. And I’ll keep my eye out for a suitable vacation rental.”

“You’ll need to take that up with Dr. Caldwell, but thank you.”

The woman seemed to be efficient, Caidy thought as she watched her herd the children out the door.

The reception room seemed even more bleak and colorless after the trio left. Though it was just past six, the night was already dark on this, one of the shortest days of the year. Caidy fidgeted, leafing aimlessly through her magazine for a few moments longer, then finally closed it with a rustle of pages and tossed it back onto the pile.

Darn it. That was her dog back there. She couldn’t sit out here doing nothing. At the very least she deserved to know what was going on. She gathered her courage, took a deep breath and pushed through the door.

Chapter Two

Ben made the last stitch to close the incision on the puncture wound, his head throbbing and his shoulders tight from the long day that had started with an emergency call to treat an ailing horse at four in the morning.

He would have loved a nice evening with his kids and then a few hours of zone-out time watching basketball on the hotel television set. Even if he had to turn the sound low so he didn’t wake up Jack, the idea sounded heavenly.

The past week had been a rough one, busy and demanding. This was what he wanted, he reminded himself. Even though the workload was heavy, he finally had the chance to build his own practice, to forge new relationships and become part of a community.

“There. That should do it for now.”

“What a mess. After seeing how close that puncture wound was to the liver, I can’t believe he survived,” Joni said.

He didn’t want to admit to his assistant—who, after three weeks, still seemed to approve of the job he was doing—that the dog’s condition was still touch and go.

“I think he’s going to make it,” she went on, ever the optimist. “Unlike that poor Newfoundland earlier.”

All his frustration of earlier in the afternoon came surging back as he began dressing the wound. A tragedy, that was. The beautiful dog had jumped out of the back of a moving pickup truck and been hit by the car driving behind it.

That dog hadn’t been as lucky as Luke here. Her injuries were just too severe and she had died on this very treatment table.

What had really pissed him off had been the attitude of the owner, more concerned at the loss of all the money he had invested in the animal than in the loss of life.

“Neither accident would have happened if not for irresponsible owners.”

Joni, busy cleaning up the inevitable mess he always left behind during a surgery, looked a little surprised at his vehemence.

“I agree when it comes to Artie Palmer. He’s an idiot who should have his privileges to own any animals revoked. But not Caidy Bowman. She’s the last one I would call an irresponsible owner. She trains dogs and horses at the River Bow. Nobody around here does a better job.”

“She didn’t train this one very well, did she, if he was running wild and tangled with a bull?”

“Apparently not.”

He turned at the new voice and found the dog’s owner standing in the doorway from the reception area, her lovely features taut. He swore under his breath. He meant what he said, but he supposed it didn’t need to be said to her.

“I thought I suggested you wait in the other room.”

“A suggestion? Is that what you city vets call that?” She shrugged. “I’m not particularly good at doing as I’m told, Dr. Caldwell.”

Sometime during the process of caring for her dog, Ben had come to the uncomfortable realization that he had acted like a jerk to her. He never insisted owners wait outside the treatment room unless he thought they might have weak stomachs. So why had he changed policy for Caidy Bowman?

Something about her made him a little nervous. He couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but it might have something to do with those impossibly green eyes and the sweet little tilt to her mouth.

“We just finished. I was about to call you back.”

“I’m glad I finally disregarded your strongly worded suggestion, then. May I?”

He gestured agreement and she approached the table, where the dog was still working off the effects of the anesthesia.

“There’s my brave boy. Oh, Luke.” She smoothed a hand over the dog’s head. The dog’s eyes opened slightly then closed again and his breathing slowed, as if he could rest comfortably now, knowing she was near.

“It will probably take another half hour or so for the rest of the anesthesia to wear off and then we’ll have to keep him here, at least overnight.”

“Will someone stay with him?”

At his practice in San Jose, he and a technician would alternate stopping in every few hours through the night when they had very ill dogs staying at the clinic, but he hadn’t had time yet to get fully staffed.

He nodded, watching his plans for a nice steak dinner and a basketball game in the hotel room go up in smoke. He had become pretty used to the cot in his office lately. Whatever would he do without Mrs. Michaels?

“Someone will be here with him. Don’t worry about that.”

A look of surprise flickered in her eyes. He couldn’t figure out why for a moment, until he realized she was reacting to his soft tone. He really must have been a jackass to her.

“I’m sorry about...earlier.” Apologies didn’t come easily. He could probably thank his stiff, humorless grandfather for that, but this one seemed necessary. “About not letting you come in during the treatment, I mean. I should have. And about what I said just now. I’m usually not so...harsh. It’s been a particularly hard day and I’m afraid I may have been taking it out on you.”

She blinked a little but concealed her emotions behind an impassive look. For some reason, that made him feel even more like an idiot, a sensation he didn’t like at all.

“You were able to save his leg. I thought for sure you would have to amputate.”

“He wouldn’t be much use as a ranch dog, then, would he?”

Her look was as cool as the December night. “Probably not. Isn’t it a good thing that’s not the only thing that matters to me?”

So she wasn’t like his previous client, who hadn’t cared about his injured dog—only dollars and cents.

“I was able to pin the leg for now, but there’s no guarantee it will heal properly. We still might have to take it. He was lucky, if you want the truth. Insanely lucky. I don’t know how he made it through a run-in with a bull in one piece. His injuries could have been much worse.”

“What about where he was gored?”

“The bull missed all vital organs. The puncture wound is only a couple inches deep. I guess the bull wasn’t that serious.”

“You would think otherwise if you had been there. He definitely was seeing red. After I pulled the dog out, he rammed the fence so hard he knocked one of the poles out of its foundation.”

She pulled the dog out? Crazy woman, to mess with a bull on a rampage. What was she thinking?

“Looks like he’s coming around,” he said, not about to enter that particular fray.

The dog whimpered and Caidy Bowman leaned down, her dark hair almost a match to the dog’s coat. “Hey there. You’re in a fix now, aren’t you, Luke-my-boy. You’ll be all right. I know it hurts now and you’re confused and scared but Dr. Caldwell fixed you up and before you know it you’ll be running around the ranch with King and Sadie and all the others.”

Though he had paperwork to complete, he couldn’t seem to wrench himself away. He stood watching her interact with the dog and winced to himself at how quickly he had misjudged her. By the gentleness of her tone and the comforting way she smoothed a hand over his fur, it was obvious the woman cared about her animal and was not inexperienced with injuries.

Next time maybe he wouldn’t be quick to make surly comments when he was having a miserable day.

She smelled delicious, like vanilla splashed on wildflowers. The scent of her drifted to him, a bright counterpoint to the sometimes unpleasant smells of a busy veterinary clinic.

It was an unsettling discovery. He didn’t want to notice anything about her. Not the sweet way she smelled or the elegant curve of her neck or how, when she tucked her hair behind her ear, she unveiled a tiny beauty mark just below the lobe...

He caught the direction of his thoughts and shut them down, appalled at himself. He forced himself to move away and block the sound of her low voice crooning to the dog.

He had almost forgotten about his technician until she came out of the employee changing room, shoving her arms through the sleeves of her parka. “Do you mind if I go? I’m sorry. It’s just past six-thirty and I’m supposed to be at my Bible study Christmas party in half an hour and I still have to run home and pick up my cookies for the swap.”

“No. Get out of here. I’m sorry I kept you late.”

“Wasn’t your fault.”

“Blame my curious dog,” Caidy said with an apologetic smile that didn’t mask the concern in her eyes.

Joni shrugged. “Accidents happen, especially on a ranch.”

Ben felt another twist of guilt. She was right. Even the most careful pet owner couldn’t prevent everything.

“Thanks, Ben. You both have a good night,” Joni said.

“I’ll walk you out,” he said.

She rolled her eyes—this was an argument they had been having since he arrived. His clinic in San Jose hadn’t been in the best part of the city and he would always make sure the women who worked for him made it safely to their cars in the parking lot.

It was probably an old-fashioned habit, but when he had been in vet school, a fellow student and friend had been assaulted on the way to her car after a late-night class and had ended up dropping out of school.

The cold air outside the clinic blew a little bit of energy into him. The snow of earlier had slowed to just a few flurries. The few houses around his clinic blinked their cheerful holiday lights and he regretted again that he hadn’t strung a few strands in the window of the clinic.

Joni’s SUV was covered in snow and he helped her brush it off.

“Thank you, Dr. Caldwell,” Joni said with a smile. “You’re the only employer I’ve ever had who scrapes my windows.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you right now,” he said truthfully. “I just don’t want you getting into an accident on the way home.”

“Thanks. Have a good night. Call me if you need me to spell you during the night.”

He nodded and waved her off, then returned to the office invigorated from the cold air. He pulled open the door and caught the incongruous notes of a soft melody.

Caidy was humming, he realized. He paused to listen and it took just a moment for him to recognize the tune as “Greensleeves.” He was afraid to move, not wanting to intrude on the moment. The notes seemed to seep through him, sweet and pure and somehow peaceful amid the harsh lights and complicated equipment of the clinic.

Judging by her humming, he would guess Caidy Bowman had a lovely voice.

He didn’t think he had made a sound, but she somehow sensed him anyway. She looked up and a delicate pink flush washed over her cheeks. “Sorry. You must think I’m ridiculous, humming to a dog. He started to get agitated and...it seemed to calm him.”

No surprise there. The melody had done the same to him. “Looks like he’s sleeping again. I can take things from here if you need to go.”

She looked uncertain. “I could stay. My brother and niece can handle chores tonight for the rest of my animals.”

“We’ve got this covered. Don’t worry. He’ll be well taken care of, Ms. Bowman.”

“Just Caidy. Please. No one calls me Ms. anything.”

“Caidy, then.”

“Is someone coming to relieve you?”

“I’m not fully staffed yet and Joni has her party tonight and then her husband and kids to get back to. No big deal. I have a cot in my office. I should be fine. When we have overnight emergency cases, I make do there.”

He had again succeeded in surprising her, he saw.

“What about your children?” she asked.

“They’ll be fine with Mrs. Michaels. It’s only for a night.”

“I... Thank you.”

“You’ll have a hefty bill for overnight care,” he warned.

“I expected it. I worked here a decade ago and know how much things used to cost—and I’ve seen those charges go up in the years since.” She paused. “I hate to leave him.”

“He’ll be fine. Don’t worry. Come on. I’ll walk you out.”

“Is that a service you provide for every female who comes through your office?”

Close enough. “I need to lock up anyway.”

She gathered her coat and shrugged into it, and then he led her back the way he had just come. The moon was filtering through the clouds, painting lovely patterns of pale light on the new snow.

Caidy Bowman drove a well-used late-model pickup truck with a king cab that was covered in mud. Bales of hay were stacked two high in the back.

“Be careful. The roads are likely to be slick after the snows of earlier.”

“I’ve been driving these roads since before I turned sixteen. I can handle a little snow.”

“I’m sure you can. I just don’t want you to be the next one in need of stitching.”

“Not much chance of that, but thank you for your concern. And for all you’ve done today. I’m sorry you won’t see much of your children.”

“The clinic is closed tomorrow. I can spend the whole day with them. I suppose we’ll have to go look for a temporary furnished house somewhere or I’m going to have a mutiny on my hands from Mrs. Michaels, which would be a nightmare.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it again, and he had the distinct impression she was waging some internal debate. Her gaze shifted to the door they had just exited through and back to him, then she drew in a breath.

“We have an empty foreman’s cottage on the River Bow where you could stay.”

The words spilled out of her, almost as if she had been trying to hold them back. He barely noticed, stunned by the offer.

“It’s nothing fancy but it’s fully furnished,” she went on quickly. “It does only have three bedrooms, but if you took one and Mrs. Michaels took the other, the children could share.”

“Whoa. Hold on. How do you know Mrs. Michaels? And who told you we might be looking for a place?”

“We met in the waiting room earlier. I knew you were staying at the inn because my sister-in-law Laura runs it.”

If not for that moment of sweetness when he had found her humming a soothing song to her dog, he would have had a tough time believing the warm and welcoming innkeeper could be any relation to this prickly woman.

“Anyway, your housekeeper mentioned you might be looking for a place. I, uh, immediately thought of the foreman’s cottage on our ranch. Nobody’s using it right now, though I do try to stop in once a week or so to keep the dust down. Like I said, it’s not much.”

“We could manage. Are you certain?”

“I’ll have to ask my brother first. Though all four of us share ownership of the ranch, Ridge is really the one in charge. I don’t think he’ll say no, though. Why would he?”

He didn’t understand this woman. He had been extraordinarily rude to her, yet she was offering to help solve all his domestic problems in one fell swoop.

“I’m astonished, Ms. Bowman. Er, Caidy. Why would you make such an offer to a complete stranger?”

“You saved my dog,” she said simply. “Besides that, I liked Mrs. Michaels and I gather she’s had enough of hotel living. And how will St. Nick find your children in a hotel, as lovely as the Cold Creek Inn might be these days? They should have a proper house for the holidays, where they can play.”

“I agree. That was the plan all along, but circumstances haven’t exactly cooperated.”

He had planned to spend the entire next day looking around for somewhere that better met their needs. He never expected the answer would fall right in his lap. A less cynical man might even call it a Christmas miracle.

“I still have to talk to Ridge. I can let you know his answer in the morning when I come to check on Luke.”

“Thank you.”

She gave him a hesitant smile just as the moonlight shifted. The light combined with her smile managed to transform her features from pretty to extraordinarily beautiful.

“Good night. Thank you again for your hard work.”

“You’re welcome.”

He watched her drive away, her headlights cutting through the darkness. When he had agreed to buy James Harris’s practice, he had been seeking a quiet, easy community to raise his family, a place where they could settle in and become part of things.

Pine Gulch had already provided a few more surprises than he expected—and he suddenly suspected Caidy Bowman might be one more.

Chapter Three

“You say the new vet only needs a place to stay for a few weeks?”

Caidy nodded at her oldest brother, who stood at the sink loading his and Destry’s supper dishes into the dishwasher. “That’s my understanding. He’s building a new house on Cold Creek Road. I’m guessing it’s in that new development near Taft’s place. Apparently, it was supposed to be finished before he took the job, but it’s behind schedule. Now it won’t be ready until after Christmas.”

“That’s a nice area. Heck of a view. I imagine his house is probably a good sight better than our foreman’s cottage.”

“They’re at the inn now. I got the impression the children and the housekeeper might be going a little stir-crazy there.”

Ridge straightened and gave her a look she recognized well. It was his patented What were you thinking? look. He was ten years older than she was and she loved him dearly. He had stepped in after their parents died and had raised her for the last few years of high school and she would never be able to repay him for being her rock, even when his own marriage was faltering. He was tough and hard on the outside and sweet as could be underneath all the layers.

He still drove her crazy sometimes.

“You ever stop to think that Laura might not be too thrilled if you go around finding other lodging arrangements for her paying guests?”

“I called her already and she was cool with it. I know it’s lost business, but all I had to do was paint the mental picture of Alex and Maya cooped up in a couple of hotel rooms for weeks on end—including through Christmas—and she had complete sympathy for Dr. Caldwell and his housekeeper. She thought it was a great idea.”

She didn’t bother telling her brother that Taft’s wife had also dropped a couple of matchmaking hints a mile wide about how gorgeous the new vet was. He was kind to animals and he loved his kids. What more did she need? Laura had implied.

Ridge didn’t need to know that. Much as she loved both of her sisters-in-law and considered Laura and Becca perfect for each respective twin, she didn’t need her brothers joining in and trying to look around for prospective partners for her. The very idea of what they might come up with gave her chills.

After one of his long, thoughtful pauses, Ridge finally nodded. “Can’t see any harm in Dr. Caldwell and his family moving in for a few weeks. The house is only sitting there empty. I can run the tractor down the lane to make sure it’s cleared up for them. It might need the cobwebs swept and a little airing out.”

“I’ll take care of everything tomorrow after I check on Luke.”

So it was settled, then. She had to fight the urge to give a giant, cartoon-style gulp. What had she just gotten herself into? She didn’t want the man here.

Okay, he had been a little less like a jackass toward the end of her visit to the clinic with Luke, but that didn’t mean she was obligated to invite him to move in down the road, for Pete’s sake.

She still wasn’t quite sure what had motivated her offer. Maybe that little spark of compassion in his blue eyes when he had tended to Luke with that surprising gentleness. Or maybe it was simply that she couldn’t resist his cute son’s charm.

Whatever the reason, they would only be there a few weeks. She likely wouldn’t even see the man, especially as it appeared he spent most of his time at the veterinary clinic. And she could be comfortable knowing she had done her good deed for the day. Wasn’t Christmas the perfect time for a little welcoming generosity?

“What did you think of his doctoring?” Ridge asked.

She thought of Luke and his carefully bandaged injuries. “He’s not Doc Harris but I suppose he’ll do.”

Ridge chuckled. “You’ll never think anybody is as good as Doc Harris. The two of you have taken care of a lot of animals together.”

She had loved working at the vet clinic when she was in high school. It was just about the only thing that had kept her going after her parents died, those quiet moments when she would be holding a sick or injured animal and feeling some measure of peace.

“He’s a good man. Dr. Caldwell has some pretty big boots to fill,” she answered.

“From rumors I’ve been hearing around town, he’s doing a good job of it so far.”

She didn’t want to talk about the veterinarian anymore. It was bad enough she couldn’t seem to think about anything else since she had left the clinic.

“What were you saying to Destry after I started clearing the dishes? I heard something about the wagon,” Caidy said.

He glanced through the open doorway into the dining room, where Destry was bent over the table working on a homework assignment about holiday traditions in Europe.

“Des asked me if she could invite Gabi and a couple of their other friends over for a wagon ride Sunday night. She suggested caroling to the neighbors.”

She never should have shared with Destry her memories of doing that very thing with their parents when she and the boys were young. “What did you tell her?”

He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. She could tell by his expression that he had given in. Ridge might be a hard man when it came to their cattle and the ranch, but when it came to his daughter he was soft as new taffy.

“You’re a good father, Ridge.”

“She loves Christmas,” he finally said. “What can I do?”

The rest of them weren’t quite as fond of the holidays as Des but they put on a good show for her sake. Since their parents’ murders just a few days before Christmas eleven years ago, the holidays seemed to dredge up difficult emotions.

Becca and Laura had worked some kind of sparkly holiday magic over Trace and Taft. This year the twins seemed to be more into the spirit of Christmas than she’d ever seen them. They had both volunteered to cut trees for everyone. They had even gone a little overboard, cutting a few extras for neighbors and friends.

She and Ridge didn’t share their enthusiasm, though they both went through the motions every year. Caidy even had all her Christmas presents wrapped and the actual holiday was still more than a week away. No more last-minute panics for her this year.

“What time are they coming?”

“I told her to make arrangements for about seven. I figured we would be done with Sunday dinner by then.”

Though Taft and Trace both lived closer to town, her brothers usually brought their families out to the ranch every week. With the hectic pace of their lives protecting and serving the good people of Pine Gulch, it was sometimes the only chance she had to see them all week.