A Cold Creek Noel

“I’ll throw some cookies in just before they get here so they can have something warm in their little bellies before they go. And I’ll make hot chocolate for the ride, of course.”

“Thanks. Destry will appreciate that, I’m sure.” He finished wiping down the countertop and set the cloth on the sink’s edge. “You won’t consider coming with us?”

By his solemn expression, she knew he was aware just what he asked of her. “I don’t think so.”

“You would really send me off on my own with five or six giggly girls?”

“You can take one of the dogs with you,” she offered with a grin.

He made a face but quickly grew serious again. “It’s been eleven years, Caidy. Taft and Trace have moved on and both have families. Of all of us, you deserve to do the same. I wish you could find a little Christmas joy again.”

“I find plenty of joy the rest of the year. Just not so much in December.”

His mouth tightened, his eyes darkening with familiar sadness. Each of them had struggled in different ways after their parents’ deaths. Ridge had become more stoic and controlled, Taft had gone a little crazy dating all the wild women at the tavern in town and Trace had become a dedicated lawman.

And she was still hiding away here at the River Bow.

“You need to move on,” her brother said. “Maybe it’s time you think about trying school again.”

“Maybe.” She gave a noncommittal answer, too tired to fight with him right now after the ordeal of Luke’s injury and the hours spent in the waiting room of the veterinary clinic. “Hey, thanks again for letting the vet stay in the foreman’s cottage. It shouldn’t be longer than a few weeks.”

Ridge wasn’t fooled for a moment. He knew she was trying to change the subject. For once he didn’t try to call her on it.

“Just think. For a few weeks anyway we’ll have our own veterinarian-in-residence. With your menagerie, that should come in pretty handy.”

She made a face. Given her unwilling reaction to the man, she would rather not have need of his professional services again anytime soon.

* * *

A good four inches of snow fell during the night. It clung to the trees and bowed down the branches, turning the town into an enchanting winter wonderland, especially with the craggy mountains looming in the distance.

Added to the few inches that had fallen the previous evening, that should be plenty for Destry to have a great time with her friends on the sleigh ride the next night, Caidy thought as she drove through the quiet stillness of the unplowed roads on her way to the clinic the next morning.

It wasn’t yet seven. She hadn’t slept well, her dreams a troubled, tangled mess. With worry for Luke uppermost in her mind, she had risen early and finished her chores. Ridge could take care of breakfast for him and Destry when he finished his own chores. Saturday morning pancakes were his specialty.

Even with her restless sleep, she could appreciate the beauty of the morning. Colorful Christmas trees gleamed in the windows of a few houses, and she liked to imagine the children there rushing to plug in the lights the moment they woke up so they could enjoy the display before the sun was fully up.

When she reached Dr. Caldwell’s office, she wasn’t particularly surprised to see the parking lot hadn’t been plowed yet. Like many of the small businesses in Pine Gulch, he probably paid a service to take care of that for him and the plows hadn’t made it here yet.

With four-wheel drive and high clearance, her truck had no problem navigating through the snow. Mindful of helping the plow work around her vehicle, she parked at the edge of the lot, next to a snow-covered Range Rover she assumed must belong to Ben.

As she headed for the building, she worried she might be waking him after a long night of watching over Luke. The sidewalks had been cleared, though. Unless he paid someone else to take care of that chore, she guessed Ben had taken care of the shoveling himself.

She wasn’t surprised to find the front door locked. When Doc Harris was here, she never had to bother with the front door; she could use the side entrance she had used the night before.

Likely that’s where she would find Ben Caldwell. She trudged through the snow, enjoying the brisk cold and the scent of snowy pine. A couple hard raps on the door elicited no response. She checked the door and the knob turned easily in her hand.

After a quick internal debate, she turned the knob and stepped inside. She opened her mouth to call out a greeting but the words vanished somewhere in the vicinity of her tongue—along with any remaining air in her lungs—at the sight of the new veterinarian coming out of the locker room wearing only jeans and toweling off his wet hair.

That dramatic cartoon gulp sounded in her head again. Wow. Double wow. With ice cream on top.

His chest was broad and well-defined with solid muscle and a little line of hair arrowed down to disappear in the waistband of his Levi’s, where he hadn’t yet fastened the top button.

Awareness bloomed inside her, as bright and vivid as the always unexpected crocuses that popped up through the snow along the fenceline of the River Bow every spring.

Her toes tingled and her heartbeat kicked up a notch and she wanted to stand here for the next few years and just stare.

He continued toweling his hair, oblivious to her, biceps flexing with the motion, and she completely forgot about the reason she had come. Suddenly he dropped the towel and saw her standing there.

His pupils widened and for a long moment, he returned her stare. Tension seethed between them, writhing and alive. Her insides trembled and every thought in her head seemed scrambled and incoherent.

Finally he cleared his throat. “Oh. Hi. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Sorry.” Her voice sounded raspy and she quickly cleared it, mortified that he had caught her gaping at him like Destry and her friends at a Justin Bieber concert. “I knocked and was just checking the door and it opened and...there you were.”

Could she sound any more stupid? Good grief. She wanted to slink away through the door and bury her face in a pile of snow somewhere. Anybody might think she’d never seen a gorgeous, half-naked man before.

“I just... I can go and come back, uh, later.”

“Why?” He grabbed a clean scrub top and she couldn’t seem to look away as he pulled it over that delicious chest, her gaze fixed on the disappearance of that little strip of hair trailing down his abdomen.

Despite his towel job, his hair was still wet and sticking up in spikes. He made an effort to smooth it down but only ended up making it look more tousled and sexy.

She wanted to gulp again, feeling very much like some ridiculous maiden aunt.

Which she was.

“I shouldn’t have come so early. I was just...concerned about how you made it through the night.”

He shrugged, though she thought she noticed a little spark of something in the depths of his blue eyes. “Not too badly. Luke slept most of the night. I imagine he’s going to be ready for a walk around the yard soon.”

That must have been why he had cleared away the snow around the sidewalk. She had wondered why that had been a priority, especially because he had told her the clinic would be closed that day.

She fought the little burst of warmth in her chest. Get a grip, she told herself. She wasn’t interested in some prickly veterinarian who jumped to conclusions and made snap judgments about people before he knew the facts.

Even if he did have a flat stomach she wanted to trail her fingers along...

She blushed and looked away. Her dog. That’s why she was here—to check on Luke. Not to engage in completely inappropriate fantasies about a man who would be living just a stone’s throw away from her.

“I can take him out if you’re sure he’s up to it.”

“We made one trip out in the night. He seemed to handle it okay. Let’s try again.”

She headed to the crate where Luke lay. As if sensing her presence, his eyes opened and he tried to wag his tail, which just about broke her heart. “Shhh. Easy. Easy. There’s my boy. How’s my favorite guy?”

The dog’s black tail flapped again on the soft blankets inside the crate. He tried to scramble up, then subsided again with a whimper.

“He’s due for pain meds again. I was planning to try to slip a pill in some peanut butter.”

She unlatched the door of the crate and reached in to rub his chin. “I hope you didn’t keep Dr. Caldwell up all night.”

“Not too bad.” Ben hadn’t shaved yet and the dark shadow along his jawline gave him a rugged, rather disreputable air. He probably wouldn’t appreciate her pointing that out—and he definitely wouldn’t be interested in knowing about her unwilling attraction to him.

“We had a few rough moments.” He paused, giving her a careful look. “To tell the truth, I wasn’t completely convinced he would make it through the night. He’s a tough little guy.”

“It helps to have a good vet,” she said. Even Doc Harris wouldn’t have stayed all night. It was a hard admission, but honesty compelled her to face it. As much as she loved the old veterinarian, she had noticed he sometimes had a bit of a cavalier attitude about the seriousness of some cases.

Apparently that wasn’t the case with Dr. Caldwell.

“Sometimes all the veterinarian skills in the world aren’t enough. I guess you would know that, as an animal lover.”

That was her big worry right now with Sadie. Her old border collie, the very first dog who had been only hers, was thirteen. In border collie terms, that was ancient. As much as she loved her, Caidy knew she wouldn’t be around forever.

“Luke seems alert now. That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”

He joined her in petting the dog. Their fingers accidentally touched and she didn’t miss the way he quickly lifted his hands. “You can call him Lucky Luke.”

“My brother and his family already have a dog named Lucky Lou,” she said with a smile. “He survived being hit by a car.”

“Your brother?”

She rolled her eyes. “No, but there was a time plenty of the scorned women of Pine Gulch would have gladly tried to run him down. No, Lou. He was a stray, a little corgi-beagle mix who used to wander around our ranch. I was trying to lure him in so I could find his owner, but he was pretty skittish. Then one afternoon he didn’t move fast enough and some speeder hit him. He’s doing great now and is extremely spoiled by Taft’s kids.”

Stepchildren, actually, but Maya and Alex had quickly been absorbed into the Bowman clan.

“Well, you can add this one to your collection of lucky pups.”

“When can I take him home?”

“Maybe later today, as long as he remains stable.”

“That would be great. Thank you for everything.”

He shrugged. “It’s my job.”

She owed him now. It was an uncomfortable realization—she didn’t like being beholden to anyone, especially not very attractive veterinarians.

In this case, she could even the playing field a little bit. “I talked to Ridge last night. He says you and your family are more than welcome to move into the foreman’s cottage until your house is finished.”

“Did he?” he asked, his expression pleased and more than a little relieved. “That would make the holidays much more comfortable all the way around.”

“You may want to come out to the ranch and take a look at the place before you agree. We’ve kept it up well, but it could probably use a remodel one of these days.”

“Three bedrooms, you said?”

“Yes. And Ridge suggested we work something out with rent in trade for vet services, if you’re agreeable. I’ll still probably owe you my firstborn but maybe not my second.”

He smiled—not a huge smile but a genuine one. Her stomach flip-flopped again and she remembered that moment when she had walked into the clinic and found him half-dressed.

What in heaven’s name had come over her? She did not react to men this way. She just didn’t. Oh, she dated once in a while. She wasn’t a complete hermit, contrary to what her brothers teased her about. She enjoyed the occasional dinner or movie out, but she usually worked hard to keep things casual and fun. The few times a guy had tried to push for more, she had felt panicky and pressured and had done her best to discourage him.

She couldn’t remember having such an instant and powerful reaction to a man, this immediate curl of desire. She certainly wasn’t used to this jittery, off-balance feeling, as if she were teetering in the loft door of the barn, gearing up to jump into the big pile of hay below.

Ridiculous. She wasn’t even sure she liked Ben Caldwell yet. She certainly wasn’t ready to jump into any pile of hay with him, literally or figuratively.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” he answered. “If it has three bedrooms and a halfway decent kitchen for Mrs. Michaels, I don’t care about much else.”

She drew in a breath and subtly shifted to ease her shoulder away from his. “For all you know, it might be a hovel. You would be surprised at the living conditions some ranchers force on their workers.”

“I would like to think you wouldn’t have suggested it if you didn’t think it would work for my family.”

“That’s trusting of you. You don’t know anything about me. For all you know, maybe I make it a habit of bilking unsuspecting newcomers out of their rent money.”

“Since we’re talking about trading veterinary services for rent, that’s not an issue, is it? But if you insist, I guess I could stop by your ranch later this morning after Joni comes in to relieve me. She’s coming in around ten.”

“That should work. I should have just enough time to rush back there and hide all the mousetraps and roach motels.”

This time he laughed outright, as she had intended. It was a full, rich sound that shimmied down her spine as if he’d pressed his lips there.

This was a gigantic mistake. Why had she ever opened her big, stupid mouth about the foreman’s cottage in the first place? The last thing she needed on the ranch right now was a gorgeous man with a sexy chest and a delicious laugh.

“Should I help you take Luke outside before I go?”

He seemed to know she was doing her best to change the subject. “No. I can handle it.”

She nodded. “I’ll see you in a bit, okay?” she said, rubbing the dog’s head again. “You need to stay here just a little longer and then you can come home.”

Luke whined as if he knew she were going to leave. It was tough but she shut the crate door again.

“You know he’ll probably never be a working dog now. I set the bones as well as I could, but he’ll never be fast enough or strong enough to do what he used to.”

“We’re not so cruel that we’ll make him sing for his supper, Dr. Caldwell. We’ll still find a place for him on the River Bow, whether he can work the cattle or not. We have plenty of other animals who live on in comfortable retirement.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” he answered.

She firmly ignored his disreputable smile and the jumping nerves it set off in her stomach.

“Thanks again for everything. I guess I’ll see you later.”

She headed to the door, but to her dismay, he beat her to it and held it open, leaving her no choice but to brush past him on her way out. She ignored the little shiver of awareness, just as she had ignored all the others.

She could do this, she told herself. It would only be for a few weeks and she likely would see far more of his housekeeper and children than she would Ben, especially if he consistently maintained these sorts of hours.

Chapter Four

“But I like staying at the hotel. We have Alex and Maya to play with there and someone makes breakfast for us every day. It’s kind of like Eloise at the Plaza.”

Ben swallowed a laugh, certain his bristly nine-year-old daughter wouldn’t appreciate it. If there was one thing Ava hated worse than eating her brussels sprouts, it was being the object of someone else’s amusement.

Still, as lovely as the twenty-four room Cold Creek Inn was, the place was nothing like the grand hotel in New York City portrayed in the series of books Ava adored.

“It has been fun,” he conceded, “but wouldn’t you like to have a little more room to play?”

“In the middle of nowhere with a bunch of cows and horses? No. Not really.”

He sighed, not unfamiliar with Ava’s condescending attitude. He knew just where it came from—her maternal grandparents.

Ava wasn’t thrilled to be separated from his late wife’s parents. She loved the Marshalls and tried to spend as much time as she could with them. For the past two years, since Brooke’s death, Robert and Janet had filled Ava’s head with subtle digs and sly innuendo in an ongoing campaign to undermine her relationship with her father.

The Marshalls wanted nothing more than to take over guardianship of the children any way they could.

He blamed himself for the most part. Right after Brooke’s death, he had been too lost and grief-stricken to see the fissures they were carving in his relationship with his children. The first time he figured it out had been about six months ago. After an overnight stay, Jack had refused to give him a hug.

It had taken several days and much prodding on his part, but the boy had finally tearfully confessed that Grandmother Marshall told him he killed dogs and cats nobody wanted—a completely unfair accusation because he was working at a no-kill shelter at the time.

He had done his best to keep distance between them after that, but the Marshalls were insidious in their efforts to drive a wedge between them and had even gone to court seeking regular visitation with their grandchildren.

He knew he couldn’t keep them away forever, but he had decided his first priority must be strengthening the bond between him and his children, and eventually he had decided his only option was to resettle elsewhere to make the interactions between them more difficult.

“It’s only for a few weeks, until our house is finished,” he said now to Ava. “Haven’t you missed Mrs. Michaels’s delicious dinners?”

“I have,” Jack opined from his booster seat next to his sister. “I looove the way she makes mac and cheese.”

Ben’s mouth watered as he thought of the caramelized onions she scattered across her gooey macaroni and cheese.

“If we move into this new place, that will be the first thing I ask her to make,” he promised Jack and was rewarded with a huge grin.

“It hasn’t been bad going for dinner at the diner or having stuff from the microwave in the hotel room,” Ava insisted. “I haven’t minded one single bit.”

He sighed. Her constant contrariness was beginning to grate on every nerve.

“What about Christmas? Do you really want to spend Christmas Eve in the hotel, where we don’t even have our own tree in our rooms?”

She didn’t immediately answer and he could see her trying to come up with something to combat that. Before she could, he pursued his advantage. “Let’s just check it out. If we all hate it, we can stay at the hotel through the holidays. With any luck, our new house will be done by early January.”

“Will I have to ride the bus to school for the last week of school before Christmas vacation?”

He hadn’t thought that far ahead. He supposed he should have considered the logistics before considering this option. “You can if you want to. Or we can try to arrange our schedules so I can take you to school on my way to the clinic.”

“I wouldn’t want to ride a bus. It’s probably totally gross.”

That was another lovely gift from his late wife’s parents, thank you very little. Janet Marshall had done her best to turn his daughter into a paranoid germaphobe.

“You can always use hand sanitizer.” This had become his common refrain, used to combat her objections for everything from eating in a public restaurant to sitting on Santa’s lap at the mall.

She sniffed but didn’t have a response for that. Much to his relief, she let the subject go and subsided into one of her aggrieved silences. He had a feeling Ava was going to drive him crazy before she made it to the other side of puberty.

A few moments later, he pulled into a side road with a log arch over it that said River Bow Ranch. Pines and aspens lined the drive. Though it was well plowed, he was still grateful for his four-wheel drive as he headed up a slight hill toward the main log ranch house he could see sprawling in the distance.

Not far from the house, the drive forked. About a city block down it, he saw a smaller clapboard home with two small eaves above a wide front porch.

He couldn’t help thinking it looked like something off of one of the Christmas cards the clinic had received, a charming little house nestled in the snow-topped pines, with split rail fencing on the pastures that lined the road leading up to it.

“Can we ride the horses while we’re here?” Jack asked, gazing with excitement at a group of about six or seven that stood in the snow eating a few bales of alfalfa that looked as though they had recently been dropped into the pasture.

“Probably not. We’re only renting a house, not the whole ranch.”

Ava looked out the window at the horses too, and he didn’t miss the sudden light in her eyes. She loved horses, just like most nine-year-old girls.

But even the presence of some beautiful horseflesh wasn’t enough. “You said we were only looking at it and if we didn’t like it, we didn’t have to stay,” she said in an accusatory tone.

Oh, she made him tired sometimes.

“Yes. That’s what I said.”

“I like it,” Jack offered with his unassailable kindergarten logic. “They have dogs and horses and cows.”

A couple of collies that looked very much like the one currently resting in his clinic watched them from the front porch of the main house as he pulled into the circular drive in front.

Before he could figure out what to do next, the door opened and Caidy Bowman trotted down the porch steps, pulling on a parka. She must have been watching for them, he thought. The long driveway would certainly give advance notice of anybody approaching.

She wore her dark hair in a braid down her back, topped with a tan Stetson. She looked rather sweet and uncomplicated, but somehow he knew the reality of Caidy Bowman was more tangled than her deceptively simple appearance would indicate.

He opened his door and climbed out as she approached his vehicle.

“The house is just there.” She gestured toward the small farmhouse in the trees. “Why don’t you drive closer so you don’t have to walk through the snow? Ridge plowed it out with the tractor this morning so you shouldn’t have any trouble. I’ll just meet you there.”

“Why?” He went around the vehicle and opened the passenger door. “Get in. We can ride together.”

For some reason she looked reluctant at that idea, but after a weird little pause, she finally came to where he was standing and jumped up into the vehicle. He closed the door behind her before she could change her mind.

The first thing he noticed after he was once more behind the wheel was the scent of her filling the interior. Though it was a cold and overcast December day, his car suddenly smelled of vanilla and rain-washed wildflowers on a mountain meadow somewhere.

He was aware of a completely inappropriate desire to inhale that scent deep inside him, to sit here in his car with his children in the backseat and just savor the sweetness.

Get a grip, Caldwell, he told himself. So she smelled good. He could walk into any perfume counter in town and probably get the same little kick in his gut.

Still, he was suddenly fiercely glad his house would be finished in only a few weeks. Much longer than that and he was afraid he would develop a serious thing for this prickly woman who smelled like a wild garden.

“Welcome to the River Bow Ranch.”

He almost thanked her before he realized she was looking in the backseat and talking to his children. She wore a genuine smile, probably the first one he had seen on her, and she looked like a bright, beautiful ray of sunshine on an overcast day.