The Prodigal's Christmas Reunion

“Hired…” Her gaze dropped to the medical kit he’d set down in the straw.

Lucas watched the myriad emotions topple like dominoes in a pair of eyes the color of warm gingerbread. Confusion. Disbelief. Denial.

“I’m here to help,” Lucas said curtly. Being this close to Erin had opened a floodgate to his past and it was his way of trying to put a cap on the memories flooding in. “But if you’d rather wait for Tweed—”

“No. I just wasn’t…” Erin averted her gaze. “Go ahead and do whatever you need to do.”

Lucas opened the med kit and began to prep for an exam. “She belongs to you?”

Erin nodded. “I didn’t realize Diamond was pregnant when I rescued her from the auction.”

Diamond. It figured. Only Erin Fields would see potential in an animal as battered and broken as this one. The number of scars crisscrossing the washboard ribs hinted at invisible ones below the surface.

Lucas worked quickly, aware that the woman beside him was watching every movement. He tried to keep his expression neutral, but she must have seen something there. Erin had always been good at reading him. Sometimes too good.

She leaned forward. “How is she?”

“In distress.” Diamond’s ears twitched at the sound of his voice, but she didn’t even bother to lift her head. Lucas silently weighed his options.

“What can I do?”

“Keep her calm.”

Erin had always been good at that, too. How many times had she listened to him as he vented about his mother’s unreasonable expectations for his future plans? Taken his hand to absorb his volatile emotions, her lips moving in a silent prayer on his behalf? Been there for him without asking for anything in return?

Don’t leave like this…

Lucas ruthlessly shook off the memory of the last night they’d spoken. A hundred miles down the road he’d realized that Erin had done the right thing when she’d refused to run away with him. He hadn’t been fit to be a good husband back then.

Any more than he was fit to be a father now.

He turned to reach for a syringe only to find that Erin had anticipated his need. Their fingers brushed together and Lucas couldn’t help but notice she wasn’t wearing a ring. The realization that Erin wasn’t married sent equal measures of relief and terror skittering through him.

“Talk to her.” Lucas’s voice came out sharper than he’d intended. “She’s not going to like this.”

Erin scooted closer to the horse and spoke to her in the same gentle, soothing voice she’d once used on him.

Lucas worked in silence for the next few minutes, administering a sedative to relax the horse while he performed a brief but enlightening internal exam.

He stood up after it was over and tried to ignore the pain that rattled down his spine, a subtle but persistent reminder of a conversation he’d had with a cranky bull the year before.

Erin looked up at him. “The foal is breech, isn’t it?”

Lucas didn’t miss the catch in her voice and he gave a curt nod, mentally bracing himself for the inevitable—telling her there was a good chance she would lose both the mare and the foal.

Lucas took a step toward her, shrinking the space between them. He could see the faint spray of ginger-colored freckles on her nose. The eyelashes spiked with unshed tears.

Something twisted in his gut. His sigh came out in a puff of frost. “Erin—”

“Don’t say it,” she said fiercely.

“You might have to choose,” Lucas pushed.

“All right.” Erin’s chin lifted, warning him that she was willing to push back. “I choose both.”

Lucas stared at her in disbelief. The girl he’d known in high school hadn’t been a fighter. It was one of the things Lucas had accused her of the night he’d asked her to run away with him.

“When it comes right down to it, you’re a coward, Erin. Your problem is that you have all these plans, all these big dreams, but you aren’t willing to fight for them.”

“And your problem is that you want to fight everything and everybody,” Erin had said, her voice cracking under the weight of his accusation. “You think if you leave Clayton, you’ll leave behind your grief and all the regrets over your relationship with your dad—”

“Don’t bring my dad into this.”

“Why not? You do it all the time. Every minute of every day. But if you leave Clayton like this, it’s all going to follow you until you give it to God—”

“Leave Him out of it, too.”

“Oh, Lucas…”

“Lucas?” Erin stood up. The top of her head was level with his shoulder but she didn’t back down. “I’ll help. Just tell me what I need to do.”

“Leave.” He didn’t want her to witness what might happen. Or see him fail.

“Give me something else to do.”

Was that a glimmer of humor in her eyes? Lucas couldn’t be sure but the warmth of it momentarily chased the chill away, if not the doubts.

“Diamond is strong,” Erin whispered. “She’s going to get through this.”

There was a time when Erin had believed the same thing about him.

Before he’d walked away.

Erin tried to keep her thoughts centered on delivering the foal and her eyes off Lucas.

He worked with a calm efficiency that astonished her. As a teenager, Lucas had reminded Erin of a caged mountain lion. Filled with restless energy. Eyes fixed on some point in the horizon that no one else could see.

She didn’t know this man. The one with the patient hands and soothing voice. It had taken Diamond several months to trust Erin enough to accept a treat from her hand, but in the space of five minutes Lucas had gained the mare’s trust.

She still couldn’t believe that he’d gone to college. Become a veterinarian.

Her dream…

“Erin?” Lucas’s voice tugged at her.

She realized he’d caught her staring and blushed. “Sorry. What did you say?”

“The foal turned.” In spite of the temperature outside, beads of sweat dotted Lucas’s forehead. “I think we can let Mom take it from here.”

Five minutes later, Diamond delivered a tiny, jet-black replica of herself.

Erin closed her eyes.

“Thank you, God,” she murmured.

When she opened them again, she found Lucas staring at her, a wry expression on his face.

“Are you going to send Him the bill, too?”

Erin couldn’t prevent a smile. And to her absolute amazement, Lucas smiled back. A faint quirk of his lips that carved out the dimple in his left cheek, a trait passed on from Clayton to Clayton like a family legacy.

Lucas hated it. Erin, however, had referred to it as the “Clayton brand” and teased him about it.

Pressed her lips against it.

Swallowing hard, she turned her attention to Diamond, severing the fragile connection that had sprung up between them. “There’s a bucket of water and a clean towel in the tack room if you want to wash up.”

“Thanks.” The smile had disappeared.

Two polite strangers. That’s what the years of silence had accomplished.

It’s what Lucas had wanted, Erin reminded herself.

Diamond’s soft whicker was a welcome distraction. The mare was nuzzling her newborn foal, who lifted its head in response to the attention.

Caught up in the wonder of the moment, Erin watched the two interact until Lucas returned and began to collect his medical supplies.

“Everything looks good but I’d keep a close eye on her for the next twenty-four hours.” He turned to her, his gaze once again distant. “I’ll give you my cell number in case there’s a problem.”

Erin caught her lower lip between her teeth. She didn’t want his phone number. Didn’t want to see him again and deal with the stampede of emotions those denim-blue eyes triggered.

“That’s not necessary. I’ll call Tweed if I have any questions. He’s treated Diamond since I brought her home.”

“Tweed…” Lucas hesitated. “He’s planning to retire around the first of the year. Until then, he wants to stay in the clinic and limit his practice to pets.”

Erin sucked in a breath, hoping that didn’t mean what she thought it meant.

“I’m taking over the large animal side of his practice.”

That’s what she’d thought it meant.

“You’re staying in Clayton?” Erin tried to keep her voice steady.

“It looks that way. For a year.” Lucas didn’t sound happy about it, either.

So the rumors she’d heard about George Sr.’s will had been true. Until now, she hadn’t quite believed it.

“Yoo-hoo! Is anyone home?” A feminine voice floated through the barn.

“We’re in here,” Lucas called back.

A few seconds later, Mei Clayton appeared in the doorway, holding the hand of an adorable preschool-age boy. A bright red snowsuit enveloped his thin frame but instead of a stocking cap, a cowboy hat was perched on his head. A battered black Stetson that looked a lot like the one Lucas used to wear.

He smiled shyly, pressed his cheek against Mei’s leg and pointed to the foal. “Thatsa baby horse.”

Erin couldn’t help but smile back. “Babysitting today?”

Lucas and Mei exchanged a look that Erin couldn’t decipher.

“This is Max,” Mei said.

“Hey, Max.” Erin experienced the familiar pang that happened whenever a cute little kid came into the café. Someday. “I’m Erin. It’s nice to meet you. Do you like horses?”

“I like trucks better,” Max declared.

Erin winked at Mei. “We’ll have to work on that.”

“What’s up, sis?” Lucas shrugged his coat on. His sister slanted an apologetic look in his direction.

“I know I promised to watch Max this afternoon, but the high-school secretary called and asked if I would be available to attend an emergency parent-teacher conference after school. You didn’t answer your cell so I called Tweed to track you down.”

“That’s okay.” The affectionate smile Lucas gave her told Erin the siblings still shared a close bond. “I’m finished here.”

Max broke away from Mei. And to Erin’s astonishment, he headed straight for Lucas.

Her gaze bounced from Lucas’s sister to the boy, who’d wrapped both arms around Lucas’s knees and was clinging to him like a burr on a wool sock.

Lucas looked so uncomfortable with the attention that Erin had to stifle a smile.

“So, who does this little cowboy belong to?” She directed the question at Mei but it was Lucas who answered.

“He belongs to me.”

Chapter Three

Lucas saw the flash of hurt in Erin’s eyes before she could disguise it.

“I see,” she murmured.

Lucas doubted that. How could she? Even he wasn’t sure how he’d ended up with custody of someone else’s child.

He could almost guess what she was thinking. He was the guy who avoided family obligations like a disease. Sure, he’d been willing to marry Erin, but Lucas had come to realize that the proposal had been offered out of selfishness. He’d claimed he didn’t want to lose her, but what he hadn’t wanted to lose was the sense of peace she had brought to his life.

Which made him that guy.

The guy who had no business taking on the responsibility of a wife. Or a child.

“Oh, before I forget, here’s the Realtor’s number.” Mei fished a business card out of her coat pocket and handed it to him. “I ran into Bev yesterday afternoon and mentioned that you’re anxious to find something.”

Anxious to move out of his childhood home, Lucas thought. The last few days hadn’t been easy. Mei had done her best to ease the tension between him and their mother, but Lisette made no attempt to hide her disappointment in him. Something Lucas should have been used to by now.

Not only did his mother barely interact with Max, she’d refused to care for him when Lucas went out on a call. Mei babysat when she was available, but Lucas knew he couldn’t count on her generosity much longer. When his sister wasn’t substitute teaching at the high school, she was spending time with Jack McCord, the local search-and-rescue worker who had crossed state lines to bring him and Max to safety.

Lucas still couldn’t wrap his mind around that relationship. Mei and Jack, Charley Clayton’s stepson, had been at odds in high school but now they claimed to be in love. There seemed to be a lot of that going around, now that he thought about it.

So he wasn’t going to think about it.

“Thanks, Mei. I’ll try to give her a call after Max goes to bed tonight.”

Max frowned. “Don’t wanna go to bed.”

“You have to learn to spell things,” Mei whispered to Lucas.

“Spell things?”

“You know. B-e-d.” Mei closed one eye in a saucy wink and blew Max a kiss before breezing out the door. “Bye, partner. Bye, Erin.”

“Bye.” Erin’s smile, when aimed at his sister, was relaxed and genuine.

Lucas couldn’t help but feel a little envious.

There’d been a time when they were completely at ease in each other’s company. Now, she could barely look at him.

“I’ll drop a check off tomorrow.” Erin’s gaze drifted to Max again.

“No hurry—” Lucas found himself talking to her back. He took Max by the hand and followed Erin out of the barn. “I’ll swing by in a few days to check on Diamond. Is there someone around here during the day?”

“I’m usually at the café.” Erin veered toward the shoveled pathway leading to the house.

“I know that, but the owners won’t mind if I stop by, right?”

She whirled around and sent a spray of snow over the tops of his boots. “What do you mean, the owners?”

Now it was his turn to be confused. “The people who board Diamond for you.”

“I don’t board her here. I live here.”

Frowning, Lucas peered at the two-story eyesore with the dingy white clapboard siding, crooked shutters and a wraparound porch that sagged like an unbuckled belt around its middle. The small outbuildings and barn were in a similar state of disrepair.

“What happened to your house in town?”

Erin looked away. “I sold it after Mom died.”

Lucas felt his stomach turn inside out. Erin’s mother had battled diabetes for years, but no one had bothered to mention that she’d passed away. When had it happened? And why had Erin stayed in Clayton?

She’d been as anxious as he was to leave their hometown, her goal to become a large animal vet. Lucas’s goal had been to break every household rule his parents established.

Did Erin realize she had been instrumental in his choice of a career? Every retired, broken-down ranch horse within a twenty-five mile radius of Clayton had received her loving attention and he’d been right there beside her, currycomb in hand.

His willingness to work with the animals had caught the attention of the local vet on the ranch he’d worked in Georgia.

“You have a way with these critters, Clayton,” the doc had said. “Ever think of making a living at it?”

Until that moment, Lucas hadn’t. But he’d taken the words to heart—and didn’t mention that his “way with critters” had been encouraged by a slender girl with big brown eyes and a luminous smile.

He pulled his thoughts back in line. Looking back had the power to make a man stumble.

“I’m sorry.” The words sounded inadequate but they were the best Lucas could do.

“So am I,” Erin said softly.

“So you bought a…” Lucas searched for the right word. One that wouldn’t offend her. “A…house…out here.”

A shadow of a smile touched Erin’s lips. She’d read his mind. Again. “I’m planning to fix up the place a little at a time and add a few more stalls so I can rescue more horses like Diamond. I think the place has potential.”

Lucas didn’t have the heart to tell her that she was wrong. The same way she’d been wrong about him.

“I can help. I gottsa hammer,” Max announced.

“Really?” Erin reached out and tapped a finger against the tip of his wind-kissed button nose. “You’ll have to show it to me sometime.”

Max looked troubled and Lucas knew what was coming next.

Sure enough, tears welled up in the hazel eyes. “Hammer’s at home.”

And home, no matter how rough it had been, was a place that existed only in Max’s memory now.

A familiar feeling of helplessness once again threatened to swamp Lucas, reminding him that he was in way over his head. He didn’t know what to do about the fresh pain in Max’s eyes…or the shadows that still lingered in Erin’s from the loss of her mother.

Maybe because he’d never figured out how to deal with his own grief.

Losing his father in the car accident that had also claimed the life of his uncle, George Jr., had changed him. Outwardly, no one could see the damage. On the inside, it was a different story. Like tempered glass, Lucas absorbed the impact of the blow but hadn’t been able to stop the tiny cracks from spreading below the surface. Sometimes he felt as if they’d changed the very structure of his soul.

“Wanna go home,” Max choked out.

“We’re setting up camp together, remember? You’ll have your own room and a shelf full of toys.”

It was bribery, plain and simple. The parenting books would disapprove, but it was the best Lucas could do.

Glancing at Erin, he braced himself for the reproach he probably deserved.

The compassion in the golden-brown eyes rocked him to the core.

“You’re looking for a place of your own?” she ventured.

“Mom isn’t used to little kids in the house anymore.” Especially a little kid who woke up in the night, caught in the throes of a waking nightmare.

“There’s a place just down the road for sale,” Erin said, almost reluctantly. “The couple who lives there wants to relocate to Florida to be closer to their daughter.”

Lucas didn’t bother to tell her that he was interested in a house he could rent, not buy. Buying a house meant putting down roots and he was only in Clayton for a year. He silently corrected himself. Eleven months and three weeks.

“I didn’t notice a For Sale sign on the way here.”

“There isn’t one yet.” Erin pushed her hands into her coat pockets. “I heard it’s going on the market this weekend.”

The only place Lucas remembered seeing was a log cabin set back from the road a ways. Small and cozy and surrounded by a yard large enough to appeal to an active boy.

But way too close to Erin.

Seven years ago she’d been both confidante and conscience. His best friend and his first love.

After the way they’d parted, Lucas wasn’t sure what they were anymore. But there was one thing he did know.

The thought of staying in Clayton for a year wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the thought of being Erin Fields’s closest neighbor.

“How long does it take for a guy to get a cup of coffee around this place?”

Erin’s back teeth ground together.

Vincent Clayton had sauntered in five minutes before closing time, leaving a trail of mud and slush across her freshly mopped floor before taking a seat at the farthest table from the kitchen.

He loved to do that.

Erin found herself wishing that she hadn’t sent Gerald and Jerome Hicks home early. Business had been slow so she’d convinced the two cooks that she could handle any last-minute customers and shooed them out the door.

Help me be patient, Lord. Erin sent up the silent prayer as she made her way to Vincent’s table. He smiled at her, his casual pose as deceptive as that of a rattlesnake coiled up in the sun.

She didn’t trust him for a second. This particular snake was always ready—and willing—to strike.

Erin suppressed a shudder as she filled his coffee cup. “Sorry for the delay,” she said automatically. “I had to put on a fresh pot.”

Instead of looking at the menu, Vincent’s gaze swept around the empty dining room. “I guess it’s just you and me, isn’t it, Red?”

“What would you like?”

The sudden glint in the shifty blue eyes made Erin regret the way she’d worded the question. “Now that’s an interesting question,” he drawled. “Could be that I want the same thing my cousin wants.”

“Leave Zach and Kylie alone,” Erin warned. “They’re happy.”

“Who said I was talking about Zach?”

Erin sensed the rage simmering just below the surface of his smile and knew if she followed it to its source, it would lead her to the one family member who had always been Vincent’s greatest rival.

Lucas.

It was hard to believe the two men were related. They didn’t resemble each other in looks or personality. Whereas Lucas had frequently been blamed for his role in things he’d never even taken part in, his cousin had somehow managed to come out smelling like the proverbial rose.

Even now, Vincent had no qualms about using his father Pauley’s title as part-time mayor to throw his weight around.

“It’s late. What would you like to order?” Erin somehow managed to keep her voice steady.

“I heard he brought a kid back with him. Wonder how long that’ll last?” Vincent leaned back, hooking the heels of his snow-covered boots over the rung of the wooden chair beneath the table.

Erin stiffened. “I imagine it will last awhile. Max is his son.”

“His son?” Vincent hooted. “That kid ain’t got a drop of Clayton blood in his veins. Lucas took him in like a stray pup after the boy’s daddy died.”

Erin fought to hide her reaction.

When Lucas had said that Max belonged to him, Erin had searched for a resemblance between the two, some trait passed on from father to son, but had come to the conclusion that the boy must favor his mother.

Vincent’s claim would explain why Lucas had looked so uncomfortable when Max had clung to him in her barn that day.

Bits and pieces of rumors that Erin had heard over the past few months began to fall into place.

The sudden silences and worried looks she’d seen pass between the Clayton family had led her to believe that Lucas was refusing to come back and fulfill the terms of his grandfather’s will.

Now she wondered if the delay hadn’t had something to do with Max.

“Lucas says he’s going to legally adopt the kid, but that won’t happen,” Vincent went on. “We both know that Lucas was never what you’d call a ‘family man.’”

Erin had had her fill of the man’s poison. “He came back, didn’t he?”

The triumphant look in Vincent’s eyes told her that she’d made a mistake. It didn’t matter if he’d been bluffing or if he had somehow known about her and Lucas all along. She’d stuck up for Lucas—the way she always had. If Vincent’s plan was to force Erin into admitting that her feelings for Lucas hadn’t changed, she’d just delivered the answer. Gift-wrapped and ready to use against her.

“But he won’t stay long.” Vincent shook his head in mock sympathy. “Not for old man Clayton’s money or his land. Lucas ain’t wired that way and everybody with a lick of sense knows it.”

His tone implied that Erin Fields didn’t fall into the “people with a lick of sense” category.

“If you don’t want anything, I’m going to close up for the night.”

Vincent’s hand shot out, his fingers curling around her wrist. “I want what’s mine and Lucas isn’t going to cheat me out of it.”

Erin and Vincent might have played in the same sandbox once upon a time, but that didn’t prevent her knees from locking up in fear as the pressure tightened.

She sucked in a breath. “Let go.”

Vincent released her and sprang to his feet. “Mark my words. A lot can happen in a year.” The gleam in his eyes was more intimidating than the grip of his hand had been. “He won’t stick it out.”

“People change.”

“Some do…and some don’t.” Vincent leaned in close, enveloping her in a cloud of pungent cologne. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be getting any ideas about a happily-ever-after with my cousin. You weren’t enough to make Lucas stay back then, Erin, and you won’t be enough for him now.”

He sauntered to the door and the moment it snapped shut behind him, Erin was there, fumbling with the lock. She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her forehead against the frosted glass.