Page 126 of The Holiday Gift

Her eyes darkened with sympathy. “Oh, no. I’m so sorry. What a blessing that you had your grandparents to help you through it.”

He gave a rough laugh. “My grandparents were extremely wealthy and important people in Chicago social circles but they didn’t want to be saddled with the obligation of raising the children of an out-of-control daughter they had cut off years earlier. They probably would have chucked us into the foster care system if they weren’t afraid of how it would look to their acquaintances. Sometimes I wish they had done just that. They didn’t have the patience for two small children.”

“Then it’s even more wonderful that you work so hard to give your children such a great Christmas,” she said promptly. “You’ve become the father you never had.”

Her faith in him was humbling. At her words, he felt this shifting and settling inside his heart.

This wasn’t simply attraction. He was in love with her. The realization settled over him like autumn leaves falling to earth, like that snow drifting against the windows.

How hadthathappened?

Perhaps during that sleigh ride, when he had seen her holding her sweet niece Maya on her lap, or when she had come to the door the other night, flour on her cheek from making three pizzas for a houseful of children. Or maybe that first night at the clinic, when she had knelt beside her injured dog and hummed away the animal’s anxiety.

Oblivious to his sudden staggering epiphany, she tied an elaborate bow on the gift she was wrapping and snipped the ends. “There. That should be the last one.”

Through his dazed shock, he managed to turn his attention to the pile of presents. Somehow he, Mrs. Michaels and Caidy had managed to pull off another Christmas.

She was right. He was a good father—not because he could provide them a pile of gifts but because he loved them, because he was doing his best to provide a safe, friendly place for them to grow, because he treated them with patience and respect instead of cold tolerance.

“Thank you.” The words seemed inadequate for all she had done for him this holiday season.

She smiled and rose from the kitchen table. She stretched her arms over her head to work all the kinks out from being huddled over a table for nearly an hour, and it took all his strength not to leap across the table and devour her.

“Just imagining their faces on Christmas morning is enough thanks for me. You’ve got a couple of really adorable kids there, Ben.”

“I do.” His voice sounded strangled and she gave him an odd look but shrugged into her coat. He knew he should help her, but right now he didn’t trust himself to be that close to her.

“Good night.”

As she started for the door, he came to his senses. “I forgot you walked down here. Let me grab my coat and I’ll walk you back to your house.”

“That’s not necessary.”

It was to him. In answer, he pulled his coat down from the hook and drew it on while she watched him with a disgruntled expression.

“I’ve been walking this lane my whole life. I’m fine. You shouldn’t leave the children.”

“I’ll be gone five minutes, with the house in view the whole time.”

She sighed. “You’re a stubborn man, Dr. Caldwell.”

He could be. He supposed it was stubbornness that had kept him from admitting the truth to himself—that he was falling for her. As they walked out into the light snow, Tri hopping along ahead of them, he was struck again by the peace that seemed to enfold him when he was with her.

She smiled at the little dog’s valiant efforts to stay in front as leader of the pack, then lifted her face to let snowflakes kiss her cheeks. Tenderness, sweet and healing, seemed to wash through him. He wanted to protect her, to make her smile—to, as she had said earlier, lift her burdens if she would let him.

His marriage hadn’t quite been that way. He had loved Brooke but as he walked beside Caidy, he couldn’t help thinking that in many ways it had been an immature sort of love. They had met when he had been in veterinary school and she had been doing undergraduate work in public relations.

For some reason he still didn’t quite comprehend, she had immediately decided she wanted him, in that determined way she had, and he hadn’t done much to change the course she set out for both of them.

He had come to love her, of course, though his love had been intertwined with gratitude that she would take a lonely, solitary man and give him a family and a place to belong.

He thought he would never fall in love again. When Brooke died, he thought his world was over. It had taken all these months and years for him to feel as though he could even think about moving forward with his life.

Here he was, though, crazy in love with Caidy Bowman and it scared the hell out of him. Could he risk his heart, his soul, all over again?

And why was he even thinking about this? Yes, Caidy responded to his kisses, but she had spent her adult life pushing away any relationship beyond her family. She might not even be interested in anything more with him. Why would she be? He didn’t have that much to offer in the relationship department. He was surly and impatient, with a couple of energetic kids to boot.

“I wonder if I can ask you a favor,” she said after they were nearly to the barn. “If you have time this week, could you take a look at my Sadie? I’m worried about her. She’s not been acting like herself.”

---