Page 85 of The Holiday Gift

“Do you think they’ll have Luke with them?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

The three of them walked out of the barn into the cold, overcast afternoon just as one SUV pulled up, followed closely by another one. Neither vehicle took the fork in the driveway that led to the foreman’s house. They headed toward the main house, pulling into the circular driveway.

Ben climbed out as she, Ridge and Destry approached the vehicles. Her stomach did that ridiculous little jumpy thing again. She had forgotten in the past few hours just how gorgeous the man was. The memory she had been trying without success to forget flooded back into her head in excruciating detail—of walking into the clinic that morning and finding him wet and hard-muscled as he came out of the shower.

She thought of what she had said to her brother.Maybe I’ll just run off with the new veterinarian, and then where would you be?

The bigger question was, where wouldshebe? She could easily see herself making a fool over this man and she had to do her very best to make sure that didn’t happen, especially when she couldn’t logically find a way to avoid him, when she trained dogs for a living and he was the town’s only veterinarian.

He waved at them all and held a hand out to Ridge. “Hi. You must be Caidy’s brother.”

“Right. I’m Ridge Bowman. This is my daughter, Destry. I guess you know our Caidy. Nice to meet you. Welcome to the River Bow.”

“Thank you.”

The two of them shook hands and then, much to the girl’s astonished delight, Ben shook hands with Destry too. She grinned at him, braids flying under her cowboy hat as she turned the handshake into a vigorous exercise.

Ben gave Caidy a friendly sort of smile—much warmer than any he’d given her so far. Her cheeks flamed and she didn’t miss Ridge’s careful look at the two of them. Drat her big mouth. She should never have said what she did earlier in the barn. Knowing her brother, now he was never going to let her forget it.

“I really appreciate you opening the house for us like this.”

Ridge shrugged. “Why not? It’s empty. With apologies to my sister-in-law, children ought to be in a house at Christmastime if they can.”

“A little breathing room will certainly make the holidays more comfortable for all of us,” he answered. “I’ve got someone else back here who’s anxious to be on the River Bow.”

He headed to the back of the SUV and reached to open the hatch.

“You really think Luke is ready to be home?” she asked.

“He should be. He was moving on his own and seemed far more comfortable this afternoon than earlier. He’s a fighter, this one. You’ll still have to keep a sharp eye on him, but there’s no reason he can’t be home for that. It’ll save you a little on the clinic bill.”

All of them converged on the rear of the vehicle. Sure enough, Luke was resting in a travel crate. When he saw her, he whimpered and whined. Ben unlatched the door and the dog’s nails scrabbled on the plastic floor of the crate as he tried to stand.

“Easy,” Ben said, and his calm voice did the trick. Luke subsided again.

“Hey, Lukey. Hey, buddy.” Destry rubbed her cheek against the dog’s and scratched under his ears. “You poor thing. Look at that big bandage.”

“Hi, Destry. I’m sorry your dog got hurt.”

Destry smiled into the backseat, where both Ava and Jack were watching the proceedings with interest.

“Me too. But he’s not really my dog. He’s one of my aunt Caidy’s. I like cats most of all.”

“I like cats too,” Ava said.

“Not me,” Jack answered cheerfully. “I like dogs. This is our dog. His name is Tri.”

The dog yipped in answer to his name and Caidy had to smile at the adorable little thing, some kind of chihuahua.

“Can he walk?” Ridge was asking as he studied the injured dog in the crate.

Ben nodded. “He can, but it won’t be comfortable for him for a while now. Probably better if we let him take it easy. Do you mind helping me carry him inside?”

“No problem,” Ridge said. The two of them carried the crate with Luke inside. Caidy wondered if she should stay with the children or take them inside. Before she could make a decision, Mrs. Michaels joined them from the other vehicle. “You probably want to go help settle your dog, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she said quickly. “Why don’t you all come inside?”

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