Page 23 of Wounded Christmas Wolf
Jace looked slightly embarrassed. “He looked cold.”
Holly felt her innards melt into sweet goo. “Where was he? I forgot to keep track of him while I was helping the Stoyanovs just now.”
“Out behind the shed. He was shivering, and I didn’t expect he’d let me pick him up, but he jumped right into my arms.” Jace looked down at the top of the dog’s head as Cupcake’s nose poked out of his jacket. “I didn’t used to think much of little dogs, to be honest, but this one’s really sweet.”
“A lot of little dogs are sweet.” Holly and her sisters had had a number of dogs over the years, very nearly one dog persister for most of their childhood and teen years, of all sizes and shapes. “But you’re not totally wrong, a lot of them are one-person dogs and don’t warm up to strangers quickly. Cupcake is different; he seems to be very friendly.”
“How long have you had him?”
Holly’s lips twitched. “Two days.”
She gave the dog’s head a little pat. Cupcake licked her fingers, but seemed perfectly content to remain where he was.
And remain there he did. Jace extracted him when he needed to do something with a Christmas tree, but otherwise carried the dog tucked into his jacket, keeping Cupcake warm even though Jace himself was shivering as the temperature started to drop in the late hours of the afternoon.
“You need a better coat,” Holly said.
“Tell me about it.”
“I can find you something in the attic, I’m sure. Maybe one of Dad’s old coats, or something belonging to one of my sisters’ old boyfriends.” That reminded her of Rob again, but she knew none of Rob’s things were at the ranch, at least not anymore. Even when they dated in high school, he’d rarely come over. Her dad had hated him, which would have been more of an effective warning sign if her dad hadn’t been the stereotypical shotgun dad about all his daughters’ boyfriends. However, the fact that Rob hadn’t been willing to stand up to him to spend time around her probablywasa warning sign, in retrospect.
She had hoped to walk down to the house and poke around in the attic to grab a coat for him before the end of the workday. But the tree farm was abruptly slammed in the last hour before closing, and when they finally put out the CLOSED sign and hung up the chain across the driveway, Holly realized that she was more than ready to collapse for a while.
“What now?” Jace asked.
“Now we put things under cover for the night, and I guess I’ll get started on dinner.” The sound of power tools from the barn had stopped, and she realized that she wasn’t sure where her dad was, then noticed the farm truck was missing. So he’d gone to run an errand. Holly tried not to sigh inwardly. She wished he would maybe talk to her once in a while, but that wasn’t the Colonel’s way, and she knew him well enough to be aware of it.
“What’s wrong?”
She hadn’t meant any of that to show on her face. “Nothing.”
“Do you want help cooking?”
“No, I want my dog back,” she said, but she was smiling.
Jace snorted and untucked Cupcake from inside his coat. Even sheltered, Cupcake had been out here a long time, and she felt around the dog’s legs and ears with her fingertips. But he was fine, everything warm and pink, no sign of incipient frostbite or discomfort.
“He really likes you,” she said, setting Cupcake down to frisk ahead of them with Rocket.
Jace shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “I get along pretty well with dogs. I mean apart from the ...” He hesitated. “You know. The shifter thing.”
Holly looked at him in open puzzlement. “Why?”
“Animals don’t like shifters.”
“Oh,” she said. “I didn’t know. Ours always seemed fine with it.”
Jace just grunted. Great, now she’d closed him up again and she wasn’t even sure why.
Frustrated, she withdrew too.
In the yard in front of the farmhouse, Jace hesitated. “I mean it, about helping with cooking.”
“No thanks,” Holly said. She wanted some time alone,away from the confusing mix of feelings that Jace produced in her. “Just be back down here by six.”
“All right.” He hesitated, then turned away.
Holly couldn’t help pausing to watch him trudge up the driveway to the Christmas village. Not looking back, of course.
