One Tough Christmas Cookie (The Reindeer Wrangler Ranch Christmas Romance Book 1)

by Lucy McConnell

  The rehab facility had a fake tree out front, all lit up even though it was barely five o’clock. The sun had been down for fifteen minutes already, which made her feel even more behind schedule. To make matters worse, she hadn’t been able to get a hold of Caleb while she’d driven. Usually, when he didn’t answer, it meant he was in the workout arena. She hoped things were going well for him.

  He’d said Rudy was up to 23 laps a day. When she’d asked what was normal for a reindeer, he’d shrugged and said they could go for hundreds of miles. The ones in the field didn’t seem too intent on putting miles behind them, though. They mostly stood together and bellowed at random.

  Faith made her way to Dad’s room and knocked on the open door as she stepped inside. Dad was in his chair, the small table sat next to him and he had a deck of cards laid out. Dad had joked that she needed to understand his pain, so they were eating in tonight—whatever meal was provided by the facility. He was still bucking for an early release, and she was still digging her heels in that he stay the whole time. They’d come to an uneasy truce not to talk about it anymore.

  “Are we playing reindeer poker or rummy?” She draped her coat over the chair and sat down.

  Dad smiled. “Rummy. I saw the way you took those Nichollas boys for all their candy.”

  She laughed. “Hardly. But I was well on my way when we started dinner.” She picked up the deck and shuffled, dealing their first hand.

  Dad leaned over, looking at her. “You seem upset.”

  She sighed, noting the tension in her neck and back. “Mom called.”

  “Say no more.” He leaned back as if she’d brandished a poisonous snake at him.

  Did either of her parents have a mature bone in their body? Really!

  “I was thinking …” Dad changed the subject. “Next month, when the longhorn herds start to calve, we would invest in one of those side-by-sides. It might make getting around a bit easier.”

  Faith’s hands hovered over the cards. “That’s the first time you’ve said anything about working together after Christmas. What are you thinking?”

  Dad frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I need to know specifics before I decide if staying is what I want.”

  Dad’s frown turned into a full scowl. “You live here now.”

  “No.” She carefully set down the deck and the words. “I came to help while you recovered. No one’s said anything about moving here.” Least of all you, she added silently.

  “I just did.” Dad folded his arms. “It only makes sense. You don’t belong in that city clinic—you belong out here.”

  Faith blinked, insulted that he didn’t think she belonged in her own business. “I built that city clinic from nothing. It’s not an investment I can just toss away.” Although now that she thought about it, she hadn’t checked in with them in days … maybe a week.

  “You’re happier here.”

  “What does happiness have to do with it? It’s my job.”

  “Your happiness has everything to do with it.”

  “What if I asked you to move closer to me? Would you do it?”

  “No. This is my home, and the reindeer need me.”

  An old wound cried out and forced Faith to take a look at it. She gritted her teeth. I am not my mother. I am not my mother, she repeated in her head. “Dad, I need you. I want you to be a part of my life.”

  “Great.” He swiped his cards off the table and began sorting his hand. “Then it’s settled.”

  “Nothing’s settled.” Faith tossed her cards face down. “You’re asking me to uproot my life to move here but won’t do the same thing for me—doesn’t that seem a bit hypocritical?”

  Dad’s lips formed a thin line. “It would, from your perspective. I can see that. But if you knew what I knew, you wouldn’t ask it of me.”

  Irritation at her irrational parents bubbled over. “Then tell me. What would open my mind and make everything suddenly seem clear?”

  Dad opened his mouth once and then shut it quickly. “I can’t tell you.”

  Fed up with the game, Faith stood and yanked her coat off the chair. “Then I’m leaving. I told Mom you were being honest with me and we were healing old hurts. Well, you just created a new one—congratulations.”

  “Faith, wait!” Dad called after her as she quick-stepped down the hall and out to the frigid North Dakota winter. Hugging herself, she climbed into the still-warm cab of the truck and fired up the engine.

  Dad acted like he had some big secret. Whatever. She didn’t want to be toyed with anymore. All she really wanted was to fall into Caleb’s arms, where the world made sense and no one was mad at her. She started up the truck and headed out to Reindeer Wrangler Ranch. Even if Caleb was busy training, she’d talk to Dunder. The reindeer had more sense in him than both her parents combined.

  She tried to call Caleb to see if he was available, but he didn’t answer. Great. At least she knew she could find him in the workout arena. She pressed on the gas and took the truck up to top snow-packed-roads speed. She couldn’t get to Caleb fast enough.

  Chapter 31

  Faith

  The more she thought about the parental hand she’d been dealt, the more upset Faith became. Why was it Caleb’s parents could manage to stay married and civil and hers were a couple of candy canes short of a stuffed stocking?

  She made it out to the ranch, ready to launch herself into a tirade about her bad luck and let Caleb soothe her troubles away with a couple dozen kisses. The lights were in on the barn and this was the usual time for him to get done, so she headed that way.

  Stepping inside, she called out a “hello.” No one answered back, so she went all the way in, happy to warm up for a moment. The walk from the truck to the barn had chilled her to the bones. She rubbed her arms, noting the lack of human noises. “Might as well check on Dunder.”

  As if he’d heard his name, she heard a deep grunt for an answer.

  “I could use someone who is happy to see me.” She opened his stall, but Dunder wasn’t in there. “I could have sworn …”

  She heard the grunt again, only this time it sounded like it was coming from above her.

  Glancing up, she fell back against the stall wall at the sight of Dunder and Sparkle standing on the barn beams. “How did you …?” She glanced at the door she’d left partially open and darted for it, pulling it tight to make sure no one got out. That was one of the first lessons she’d learned—shut the gate, shut the door, shut the cage. “Okay, Forest? Jack?” she yelled. “I don’t know what kind of prank you’re pulling, but it isn’t funny. They could get hurt.” She pointed to the two reindeer.

  Sparkle shook her head as if she took offense to the idea that she couldn’t be in the rafters. Prancing in the air, she hopped off the beam and swooped around the barn.

  “Gah!” Faith threw her hands over her eyes, expecting to hear a splat or a clatter. Neither came. When she peeked through her fingers, she found Dunder gliding to the floor. “Umm. That was …” Her head spun, and she couldn’t find words to continue. It was the moment with Rudy upside down in his kennel all over again. She rubbed her eyes, certain they were playing tricks on her. It was a long drive out to the ranch, and she hadn’t been paying attention. She was tired—worn out, really—from working all day and then dealing with her parents.

  “I’m going to find Caleb,” she told Dunder. She backed up, groping behind her for the knob. When she fell backwards out the door, she slammed it shut.

  “No way. No way. No way,” she chanted as she sprinted to the indoor arena. “I am not crazy.” She pushed through the door and stopped in her tracks. Rudy flew from one side of the arena to the other, making sharp turns.

  Caleb was on a stand like a circus master, calling out instructions. “Good. Now land on the roof.”

  Rudy approached the steeply pitched mock roof and landed on the ridge, taking two steps forward.

  “That was good. But you’ve got to get it dow
n to one step; you’re not supposed to wake the kids up,” Caleb called.

  Rudy flew to him and hovered while Caleb scratched behind his ears.

  Faith stared—and things began to click into place. Like how she and Caleb spent most of their spare time at her place. How she was only allowed at the ranch when invited or called ahead. How she’d never been shown the workout arena. How someone always went into the barn before she did.

  Holy smokes—reindeer could fly.

  Her knees buckled and she grabbed the wall for support.

  Reindeer. Fly.

  Click, click, click went the puzzle pieces.

  Her father knew it.

  Caleb knew it.

  And neither of them had told her.

  “What the heck!” she yelled across the open building.

  Caleb whipped around, and Rudy backed up—still in midair.

  Fueled by the sense of betrayal from the two men in her life she should have been able to trust, Faith rushed forward. “He flies.” She shoved her finger in Rudy’s direction. “Dunder flies—and Sparkle. And you didn’t tell me.” Her arms went rigid by her side.

  Caleb climbed off the platform. He watched her carefully. “Yes—they fly.”

  “You’re only tell me that because the proof is doing circles around you.”

  Caleb grabbed Rudy’s lead rope and tugged him to the ground. “You’re not making this easier,” he told the reindeer.

  “He was upside down that morning. Wasn’t he?”

  Caleb swallowed and nodded.

  Faith threw her arms up. “You’ve been lying to me since the day we met.”

  “Now hold on—” Caleb held up a palm. “It’s not something we tell the whole world.”

  Faith’s anger surged like a tidal wave. “Neither is all the stuff I told you about my past, Caleb. I thought we shared things.”

  “Would you have believed me?” he asked low, his navy-blue eyes full of questions and begging her to understand.

  She opened her mouth, but the answer stuck. The truth was, she might not have. Even if he’d told her last night, she would have thought he was joking. She might have played along, but she wouldn’t have actually believed him. “That’s beside the point.”

  “No. It’s the whole point.” His tone was even, not like her parents who yelled at the first sign of a disagreement. Like she was doing.

  She swallowed and worked to tame her anger. “I let you into my life and into my heart. You should have shared this with me.”

  “You’re leaving. Faith, the reindeer have to be protected from the outside world. There are precious few who know they can fly—please understand.”

  She blinked back the tears that wanted to fall. The whole day piled upon her, and she heard everything from her mother’s warning that the reindeer would always be more important than her to the betrayal from Dad, who’d never told her Santa was real. Finally, there was the feeling that she should have been more to Caleb. “If your kisses meant half of what you claimed they did, then telling me wouldn’t have been a problem.”

  She turned on her heel and hurried out. Swiping at her tears, she made a plan. It was clear she couldn’t stay here. No one trusted her enough to tell her that reindeer could fly, so she wasn’t really one of them. Dad tried to claim otherwise, but his plea for her to stay was as empty as his house. If he’d believed in her, he would have done things differently.

  With all this pain, she couldn’t spend one more night in his house, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near where Caleb was going to be. He was supposed to be one of the good guys, but he’d held back as much as her dad. If that was the kind of man that Reindeer Wrangler Ranch turned out, then she didn’t want to be a part of it.

  It was time to go back to her normal life. It was time to go to Grafton.

  Chapter 32

  Caleb

  “Nutcrackers!” Caleb rushed Rudy to the barn and pushed him through the door. He couldn’t leave the reindeer in the arena without supervision, and he couldn’t chase after Faith with a flying reindeer following him like a Macey’s Day Parade balloon. He shut the door tight—they didn’t need another Snowflake issue flying around town—and ran for the parking area. By the time he got there, all he could make out were her taillights.

  “Shoot.” He threw his hat in the snow.

  “What’s eatin’ you?” asked Jack.

  “Faith knows.” Caleb snatched his hat off the ground. “She knows, and she’s ticked off that I didn’t tell her. I feel like I’ve been caught with another woman.”

  Jack laughed and then schooled his features. “Sorry. What are you going to do?”

  Caleb blew out a breath. “I’m going to chase her down.” He headed for his truck.

  “Whoa!” Jack grabbed his arm. “Do you think that’s a good idea? She just found out that reindeer can fly—and she’s mad. That’s a lot to process in one night.”

  Caleb filled his chest with air, letting it expand past all the tightness Faith yelling at him had caused. What had she said about her dad? There were so many layers to this that he was buried in them. “She was pretty angry.”

  “Exactly. And what do we do with angry reindeer?” Jack spoke slowly as if leading Caleb along.

  “We let them cool off.”

  “Right.”

  Caleb hunched forward. Everything inside of him told him to go after Faith, to make this right. But Jack was the levelheaded one at the moment. “Okay. I’ll give her the night to sleep it off.”

  “Good idea.” Jack side-hugged him.

  Caleb headed back to the barn, needing to put the reindeer up for the night. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was making a huge mistake, even if logic told him otherwise.

  Chapter 33

  Faith

  Faith blinked back the tears that pricked her eyes and made her throat close off. The Grafton clinic had welcomed her with a warm puff of air that smelled like disinfectant and animals. Her partner, Johnathan, had been shocked to see her walk through the doors this morning. If she was an employee, she would have felt sheepish just showing up, but she was part-owner and her own boss, so she’d gotten to work.

  By lunch, they were ahead enough that she felt good sending the other vet home. “Go on—I’ve got this, and if an emergency comes in, I’ll call you.”

  Johnathan shoved his arms into his coat. “I appreciate the time off, but it’s not a big deal. We had a system down while you were gone.”

  She felt the jab that she wasn’t needed. Well, too bad for Johnathan that she’d paid for half this place and he couldn’t tell her to leave. Pasting on a smile, she shooed him out the door and went back to work.

  Johnathan’s system became clear as she found the supply closet reorganized and the staff bringing patients through in a different order of events. Instead of her meeting with them first and discussing the issue, the vet techs took vitals and entered the info into the computer. She was supposed to look at the info before going in to see the patient. More than once, she’d shown up in a room without a clue as to what she was there to treat. The owners weren’t that happy with her, and she wasn’t all that thrilled with the changes either. Irritation seemed to be her welcome-home party.

  Add to that the heartbreak of losing both Caleb, her dad, and a family Christmas all in one, and she was one broken fingernail away from a complete sob fest.

  No matter how she looked at it, no one needed her or trusted her enough to bring her into their world—not even her partner, who’d made all these changes while she’d been away.

  She swiped at an errant tear. This was her lot in life. The sooner she accepted it, the better off she’d be. Except that there was this voice, or feeling, that came from the same place the music had touched during the sing-along that told her not to believe all that.

  She wished it was louder, so it could drown out the negative thoughts she had. But it was a whisper and just as hard to grab on to.

  A huge part of her ached to be in Caleb�
�s arms. To hold fast to his shirt while he claimed her lips and told her everything was going to be okay—that she was his world.

  But that wasn’t going to happen. She hadn’t stopped in to tell Dad that she was gone. Instead, she’d sent him a text that said, I found out your secret. You should have told me. I’m going back to Grafton.

  He’d sent her a dozen texts, none of which she’d read. It didn’t matter what anyone said now, because they should have said so much before.

  She swiped her cheeks clean and made her way into exam room 1. She couldn’t fix her own life, but she could help this dog get better for Christmas.

  Chapter 34

  Caleb

  Caleb felt like his skin was on fire as he and Mom walked through the rehab center to help Doc pack up and move home Christmas Eve morning. Faith was sure to be here, and he wasn’t sure what he’d say to her. Apologize a hundred times over, of course, beg her forgiveness and then beg her to stay. It wasn’t a particularly long list of things to do, but it covered the basics.

  Faith had a history with the ranch; that much she’d told him when she’d opened up about her parents. He’d wounded her in the most personal way, and if he’d given it an ounce of thought, he would have been compelled to tell her before she’d found out for herself.

  They entered Doc’s room to find him sitting on the made bed, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt and his cowboy hat. His bags were packed and placed at the foot of his bed.

  “Where’s Faith?” Caleb blurted.

  Mom put her hand on his arm and gave her head a little shake.

  Caleb wasn’t about to be shushed. “Doc, where’s Faith?” He crossed the room and crouched in front of the gray-haired man, who hadn’t lifted his head off his chest. “She found out about the reindeer the other night and was mad,” he explained. “I need to talk to her.”