A Cold Creek Noel (The Cowboys of Cold Creek)
Read A Cold Creek Noel (The Cowboys of Cold Creek) Online
Authors: RaeAnne Thayne
A SEASON FOR LOVE…
Caidy Bowman had been the apple of her family’s eye—until a
devastating tragedy forced her to hide from the world. She was used to devoting
her time to the animals on her family’s ranch. Then widower Ben Caldwell and his
two adorable children arrived in Pine Gulch, and suddenly, Caidy wanted more
than a life in the shadows….
As the town’s new vet, Ben needed a place to stay for the
holidays—and for his family to heal from their own loss. He absolutely wasn’t
looking for love again! But Caidy Bowman’s sparkling green eyes and sweet smile
touched Ben’s broken heart, giving him hope for a new future. Their future—if he
could convince the beautiful cowgirl that Christmas was a time for new
beginnings….
“My head is telling me it’s a completely ridiculous idea to
kiss you again.”
Caidy gazed at him for a long, silent moment, her eyes huge
and her lips slightly parted. “And does your heart have other ideas? I hope
so.”
“The kids—” Ben said, rather ridiculously.
“—are busy watching a show and paying absolutely no mind to
us in here,” she finished.
He took a step forward, almost against his will. “This thing
between us is crazy.”
“Completely insane,” she agreed.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Probably the same thing that’s wrong with me,” she murmured,
her voice husky and low. She took a step forward, as well, until she was only a
breath away, until he was intoxicated by the scent of her, fresh and clean and
lovely.
He had to kiss her. It seemed as inevitable as the sunrise
over the mountains.
Dear Reader,
I have to admit, I love Christmas music. I have a huge
collection and sometimes start listening to my favorites as early as October
(and sometimes in March and April when I’m writing a December book!). The
familiar melodies instantly set a mood of quiet peace in my home.
Caidy Bowman loves Christmas music also, though the songs in
her heart have been silent since a tragedy in her past. Since the moment I came
up with the idea for the Bowman siblings, Caidy has been the character whose
story I’ve been most excited to write. Caidy lost both parents when she was
young. Worse, she has blamed herself all these years for setting off the events
that led to their deaths. Since then, she has given up her own dreams in order
to help her family—until a new veterinarian moves into the Cold Creek area with
his children. I loved writing Caidy’s and Ben’s story! They are two people who
very much deserve to find a little comfort and joy and I was thrilled to give
them a happy ending.
Wishing for a joyous holiday season for you and a wonderful
new year!
All my best,
RaeAnne
A Cold Creek Noel
RaeAnne Thayne
Books by RaeAnne Thayne
HQN Books
Blac
kberry
Summer
Woodrose Mountain
Sweet Laurel Falls
Harlequin Special Edition
**
Christmas in Cold Creek
#2149
**
A Cold Creek Reunion
#2179
**
A Cold Creek Noel
#2228
Silhouette Special Edition
**
Light the Stars
#1748
**
Dancing in the Moonlight
#1757
**
Dalton’s Undoing
#1764
†
The Daddy Makeover
#1857
†
His Second-Chance Family
#1874
~A Merger…or Marriage?
#1903
†
A Soldier’s Secret
#1918
**The Cowboy’s Christmas Miracle
#1933
§
Fortune’s Woman
#1970
**
A Cold Creek Homecoming
#1996
**
A Cold Creek Holiday
#2013
**
A Cold Creek Secret
#2025
**
A Cold Creek Baby
#2071
‡
A Thunder Canyon Christmas
#2083
Harlequin Books
Special Edition Bonus Story:
The
Anniversary Party—
Chapter One
Silhouette Romantic Suspense
The Wrangler and the
Runaway Mom
#960
Saving
Grace
#995
Renegade
Father
#1062
*
The Valentine Two-Step
#1133
*
Taming Jesse James
#1139
*
Cassidy Harte and
the Comeback Kid
#1144
The Quiet Storm
#1218
Freefall
#1239
Nowhere to Hide
#1264
††
Nothing to Lose
#1321
††
Never Too Late
#1364
The Interpreter
#1380
High-Risk Affair
#1448
Shelter from the
Storm
#1467
High-Stakes
Honeymoon
#1475
*Outlaw Hartes
††The
Searchers
**The Cowboys of Cold Creek
†The Women of
Brambleberry House
~The
Wilder Family
§Fortunes of
Texas: Return to Red
Rock
‡Montana
Mavericks: Thunder Canyon Cowboys
Other titles by this author available in ebook
format.
RAEANNE THAYNE
finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah mountains,
where she lives with her husband and three children. Her books have won numerous
honors, including RITA® Award nominations from Romance Writers of America and a
Career Achievement Award from
RT Book Reviews.
RaeAnne loves to hear from readers and can be contacted through her website,
www.raeannethayne.com
.
To Tennis and Kjersten Watkins, with love. We can’t wait to see
what life has in store for the two of you!
Chapter One
“C
ome on, Luke. Come on, buddy. Hang in
there.”
Her wipers beat back the sleet and snow as Caidy Bowman drove
through the streets of Pine Gulch, Idaho, on a stormy December afternoon. Only a
few inches had fallen but the roads were still dangerous, slick as spit. For
only a moment, she risked lifting one hand off the steering wheel of her truck
and patting the furry shape whimpering on the seat beside her.
“We’re almost there. We’ll get you fixed up, I swear it. Just
hang on, bud. A few more minutes. That’s all.”
The young border collie looked at her with a trust she didn’t
deserve in his black eyes and she frowned, her guilt as bitter and salty as the
solution the snowplows had put down on the roads.
Luke’s injuries were
her
fault. She
should have been watching him. She knew the half-grown pup had a curious streak
a mile wide—and a tendency not to listen to her when he had an itch to
investigate something.
She was working on that obedience issue and they had made good
strides the past few weeks, but one moment of inattention could be disastrous,
as the past hour had amply demonstrated. She didn’t know if it was arrogance on
her part, thinking her training of him was enough, or just irresponsibility.
Either way, she should have kept him far away from Festus’s pen. The bull was
ornery as a rattlesnake on a hot skillet and didn’t take kindly to curious young
border collies nosing around his turf.
Alerted by Luke’s barking and then the bull’s angry snort, she
had raced to old Festus’s pen just in time to watch Luke jig the wrong way and
the bull stomp down hard on his haunches with a sickening crunch of bone.
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel and she cursed under
her breath as the last light before the vet’s office turned yellow when she was
still too far away to gun through it. She was almost tempted to keep going. Even
if she were nabbed for running a red light by Pine Gulch’s finest, she could
probably talk her way out of a ticket, considering her brother was the police
chief and would certainly understand this was an emergency. If she were pulled
over, though, it would mean an inevitable delay and she just didn’t have time
for that.
The light finally changed and she took off fast, the back tires
fishtailing on the icy road. She would just have to trust the salt bags she
carried for traction in the bed of the pickup would do the job. Even the
four-wheel drive of the truck was useless against black ice.
Finally, she reached the small square building that held the
Pine Gulch Veterinary Clinic and pulled the pickup to the side doors where she
knew it was only a short transfer inside to the treatment area.
She briefly considered carrying him in by herself, but it had
taken the careful efforts of both her and her brother Ridge to slide a blanket
under Luke and lift him into the seat of her pickup. They could bring out the
stretcher and cart, she decided.
She rubbed Luke’s white neck. “I’m going to go get some help,
okay? You just hold tight.”
He made a small whimper of pain and she bit down hard on her
lip as her insides clenched with fear. She loved the little guy, even if he was
nosy as a crow and even smarter, which was probably why his stubbornness was
such a frustration.
He trusted her to take care of him and she refused to let him
die.
She hurried to the front door, barely noticing the wind-driven
sleet that gouged at her even under her Stetson.
Warm air washed over her when she opened the door, familiar
with the scent of animals and antiseptic mixed in a stomach-churning sort of way
with new paint.
“Hey, Caidy.” A woman in green scrubs rushed to the door. “You
made good time from the River Bow.”
“Hi, Joni. I may have broken a few traffic laws, but this is an
emergency.”
“After you called, I warned Ben you were on your way and what
the situation was. He’s been getting ready for you. I’ll let him know you’ve
arrived.”
Caidy waited, feeling the weight of each second ticking away.
The new vet had only been in town a few weeks and already he had made changes to
the clinic. Maybe she was just being contrary, but she had liked things better
when Doc Harris ran the place. The whole reception area looked different. The
cheerful yellow walls had been painted over with a boring white and the
weathered, comfortable, old eighties-era couch and chairs were gone, replaced by
modern benches covered in a slate vinyl that probably deflected anything a
veterinarian’s patients could leak on it. A display of Christmas gifts
appropriate for pets, including a massive stocking filled to the top with toys
and a giant rawhide bone that looked as if it came from a dinosaur, hung in one
corner.
Most significant, the reception area used to sit out in the
open but it was now stuck behind a solid half wall topped with a glass
partition.
It made sense to modernize from an efficiency point of view,
but she had found the comfortably worn look of the office before more
appealing.
Not that she cared about any of that right now, with Luke lying
out in her truck, cold and hurt and probably afraid.
She shifted impatiently. Where was the man? Trimming his
blasted nails? Only a few moments had passed but every second delay was too
much. Just when she was about call out to Joni to see what was taking so long,
the door into the treatment area opened and the new vet appeared.
“Where’s the dog?” he asked abruptly, and she had only a vague
impression of a frowning dark-haired man in blue scrubs.
“Still out in my truck.”
He narrowed his gaze. “Why? I can’t treat him out there.”
She wanted to take that giant rawhide bone out of that stocking
and bean him with it. “Yes, I’m aware of that,” she said, fighting down her
frustration. “I didn’t want to move him. I’m afraid something might be
broken.”
“I thought he was gored.”
She wasn’t sure what, exactly, she had said in that frantic
call to let Joni know she was on her way.
“He did end up on the business end of a bull at some point. I’m
not sure if that was before or after that bull stepped on him.”
His mouth tightened. “A young dog has no business running wild
in the same vicinity as a dangerous bull.”
His criticism stung far too close to her own guilt for comfort.
“We’re a working ranch at the River Bow, Dr. Caldwell. Accidents like this can
happen.”
“They shouldn’t,” he snapped before turning around and heading
back through the treatment area. She followed him, heartily wishing for Doc
Harris right now. The grizzled old vet had taken care of every dog she had ever
owned, from her very first border collie and best friend, Sadie, whom she still
had.
Doc Harris was her friend and mentor. If he had been here, he
would have wrapped her in a warm hug that smelled of liniment and cherry Life
Savers and promised her everything would be all right.
Dr. Ben Caldwell was nothing like Dr. Harris. He was abrasive
and arrogant and she already heartily disliked him.
His eyes narrowed with surprise and displeasure when he saw she
had followed him from the waiting room to the clinic area.
“This way is quicker,” she explained. “I’m parked by the side
door. I thought it would be easier to transport him on the stretcher from
there.”
He didn’t say anything, only charged through the side door she
indicated. She trotted after him, wondering how the Pine Gulch animal kingdom
would get along without the kindness and compassion Dr. Harris had been renowned
for.
Without waiting for her, he opened the door of the truck. As
she watched, it was as if a different man had suddenly taken over. His harsh,
set features seemed to ease and even the stiff set of his shoulders relaxed.
“Hello there,” he crooned from the open vehicle door to the
dog. “You’ve got yourself into a mess, haven’t you?”
Even through his pain, Luke responded to the gentle-sounding
stranger by trying hard to wag his tail. There was no room for both of them on
the passenger side, so she went around to the driver’s side and opened that
door, intent on helping to lift the dog from there. By the time she made it that
short distance, Dr. Caldwell had already slipped a transfer sheet under the dog
and was gripping the edges.
His hands were big, she noticed, with a little light area of
skin where a wedding ring once had been.
She knew a little about him from the gossip around town. It was
hard to miss it when he was currently staying at the Cold Creek Inn—owned and
operated by her sister-in-law Laura, married to Caidy’s brother Taft.
Though Laura usually didn’t gossip about her guests, over
dinner last week her other brother, Trace—who made it his business as police
chief to find out about everyone moving into Pine Gulch—had interrogated her so
skillfully, Laura probably didn’t realize what she had revealed.
From that conversation, Caidy had learned Ben Caldwell had two
children, a girl and a boy, ages nine and five, respectively, and he had been a
widower for two years.
Why on earth he had suddenly pulled up stakes to settle in a
quiet town like Pine Gulch was a mystery to everyone. In her experience, people
who came to this little corner of Idaho in the shadow of the Tetons were either
looking for something or running away.
None of that was her business, she reminded herself. The only
thing she cared about was the way he treated her dogs. Judging by how carefully
he moved his hands over Luke’s injuries, he appeared competent and even kind, at
least to animals—something she generally considered a far more important
character indicator than how a man treated other people.
“Okay, Luke. Just lie still, there’s a good boy.” He spoke in a
low, calm voice. “We’re going to move you now. Easy. Easy.”
He handed the stretcher across the cab to her and then reached
for the transfer sheet. “I’m going to lift him slightly and then you can slide
the board under him. Slowly. Yes. That’s it.”
She had plenty of experience transferring injured animals.
Years of experience. It bothered her to be treated as if she didn’t know the
first thing about this kind of emergency care, but now didn’t seem the time to
correct him.
Together they carried the stretcher into the emergency
treatment room and set the dog gingerly down on the exam table.
She didn’t like the pain in Luke’s eyes. It reminded her a lot
of how Lucky, her brother Taft’s little beagle cross, had looked right after the
car accident that had nearly killed him.
Now Lucky was happy as a pig in clover, she reminded herself.
He lived with Taft and Laura and their two children at Taft’s house near the
mouth of Cold Creek Canyon and thought he ruled the universe. If Lucky could
survive his brush with death, she couldn’t see any reason for Luke to do
otherwise.
“That’s a nasty puncture wound. At least an inch or two deep.
I’m surprised it’s not deeper.”
That could be because she had managed to pull Luke to safety
before Festus could finish taking his bad mood out on a helpless dog.
“What about the leg? Can you save it?”
“I’m going to have to x-ray before I can answer that. How far
are you prepared to go for his care?”
It took her a moment to realize what he was asking in his blunt
way. A difficult part of life as a vet was the knowledge that, although a vet
might have the power to treat an animal successfully, sometimes the owner’s
ability—or willingness, for that matter—to pay was the ultimate decision
maker.
“Whatever is necessary,” she answered stiffly. “I don’t care
about the cost. Just do what you have to do.”
He nodded, his attention still on her dog, and she wanted to
think his hard expression thawed slightly, like a tiny crackle of ice on the
edge of a much deeper lake.
“Regardless of what the X-ray shows, his treatment is going to
take a few hours. You can go. Leave your number with Joni and I’ll have her call
you when I know more.”
“No. I’ll wait.”
That surprise in his blue eyes annoyed the heck out of her. Did
he think she would just abandon her dog here with a stranger for a couple of
hours while she went off to have her hair done?
“Your choice.”
“I can help you back here. I’ve...had some training and I often
helped Doc Harris. I actually worked here when I was a teenager.”
If her life had gone a little more according to plan,
she
might have been the one taking over Doc Harris’s
clinic, though she hoped she wouldn’t be as surly and unlikable as this new
veterinarian.
“That won’t be necessary.” Dr. Caldwell dismissed all her hopes
and dreams and volunteer work at the clinic as if they meant nothing. “Joni and
I can handle it. If you insist on waiting, you can go ahead and have a seat in
the waiting room.”
What a jerk. She could push the matter. She
was
paying for the treatment here, after all. If she
wanted to stay with her dog, there was nothing Dr. Ben No-Bedside-Manner
Caldwell could do about it. But she didn’t want to waste time and possibly
jeopardize Luke’s treatment.
“Fine,” she muttered. She turned and pushed through the doors
into the waiting room, seething with frustration.
After quickly sending a message to Ridge updating him on the
situation and reminding her brother he would have to pick his daughter, Destry,
up from the bus stop, she plopped onto one of the uncomfortable gray benches and
grabbed a magazine off the side table.
She was leafing through it, barely even registering the
headlines in her worry over her dog, when the bells on the door chimed and a
little boy of about five burst through, followed a little more slowly by an
older girl.
“Daaad! We’re here!”
“Hush.” A round, cheerful-looking woman who looked to be in her
early sixties followed more slowly. “You know better than that, young man. Your
father might be in the middle of a procedure.”