A Christmas Rescue

by Samantha Chase

“Why?” It was asked so quietly that Bailey wasn’t quite sure he’d even said it.

  With a steadying breath, she looked at him and decided that she might as well be honest. Chances were that she’d never see him again—even in a town as small as Silver Bell Falls.

  “If this weekend had never happened, it would be one thing,” she said, ignoring the tremble in her voice. “But I can’t come back here and pretend that it never happened and go back to the way things were before. I just can’t.”

  He was silent for a moment. “Is this because of the Christmas decorations?”

  If she could, she would smack him in the head for being obtuse. “No, Gavin, it’s not because of the Christmas decorations—even though it doesn’t help the situation.” She paused and collected her thoughts. “I thought we had something—thought we were building toward having a relationship! Maybe it’s crazy since it was just one night, but…I guess I saw this as something good. I even saw a future for us.” Then she did look away and willed herself not to cry in front of him. “But I guess I was wrong.”

  When Gavin didn’t try to correct her, Bailey knew she had her answer.

  “Anyway, I need to go.” Carefully, she stepped around him and opened the door. And because she was a glutton for punishment, she turned and looked at him one more time. “Take care of yourself, Dr. Maguire.”

  Yeah, she needed to put things back on professional ground for her own sanity. When she got home, she’d cry. But for now, if she simply let herself focus on the job aspect of the relationship, she could possibly keep it together.

  Maybe.

  By the time she was in her car and pulling out onto Main Street, all bets were off.

  And all the tears began to fall.

  11

  It was the moment when Bailey walked out the door that Gavin knew he’d look back on and know that was when everything had gone wrong.

  He’d been homeless three times in his life.

  He’d kept himself from forming any kind of relationship with just about everyone he met.

  Hell, he barely spoke to his own mother anymore.

  And up until that moment when Bailey walked out the door of the clinic, Gavin would have sworn he was going to be okay. But he wasn’t. Far from it. Three days later he was still walking around in a bit of a daze and if he thought his staff hated him before, it was blazingly obvious how they felt now.

  And that wasn’t including the curious and disappointed looks he was getting from all the pet parents who came in either.

  Except…even after the looks and the stilted conversations, he had received more invites to Christmas brunches, dinners, and parties than he ever had in his life. Every person who came in this week extended an invitation to him.

  It was maddening.

  “Mrs. Whitman is here with Calliope,” Hannah said stiffly, handing him the dog’s file without even looking at him.

  Yeah, it had been like that ever since she and Amber came in on Monday and realized Bailey wasn’t coming back. By mid-day, Gavin realized they must have spoken to her because although they were mildly indifferent to him in the morning, by lunch they were openly hostile.

  He was smart enough not to comment on it.

  “Thank you,” he murmured and led Mrs. Whitman and her poodle back to the exam room.

  “It’s a shame Bailey isn’t here today,” Mrs. Whitman said as he closed the exam room door behind them. “I was hoping to get her recipe for her raspberry shortbread cookies. She gave me a tin of them last Christmas and I wanted to bake some this year for my family.”

  He smiled and lifted Calliope onto the table.

  Mrs. Whitman looked around the room and frowned. She was an older woman—possibly in her seventies—and Gavin had a feeling she said exactly what was on her mind.

  “It wouldn’t kill you to put up some damn tinsel around here, you know,” she stated with a sniff of disdain. “Every place in Silver Bell Falls looks festive except this place. Even the biggest grinches in town go with the flow and decorate. So what’s your deal, Doc?”

  Taking a minute to remind himself not to be rude, he took Calliope’s vitals before responding. “I don’t particularly have a deal, Mrs. Whitman. I guess I didn’t realize what a big deal decorations were.”

  “Hmph. You’d think in a town called Silver Bell Falls it would be obvious that the holiday is a pretty big deal.”

  “So I’m learning,” he murmured.

  She must not have appreciated his response because she sat down in the lone chair in the room and watched him examine her dog. When he carefully placed the poodle back on the floor, however, Mrs. Whitman finally spoke again. “I know you’re not really new in town, but it seems to me like you don’t have any family here. We always have a big dinner on Christmas Eve—lots of family and cousins we only see once a year, and even more friends—I’d like to add another place setting to the table if you’d like to join us.”

  He’d gotten many invitations this week, but for some reason old Mrs. Whitman’s was the first to make his heart feel tight in his chest. With a curt nod he gruffly replied, “Thank you.” Then he realized that he didn’t want to be alone on Christmas, but he wasn’t sure what exactly that meant. Offering her a small smile, he added, “I appreciate the invitation, and maybe I’ll stop by for dessert, but…”

  She held up a hand to stop him. “I’m sure you’ve gotten a lot of invitations. Every door is open here in Silver Bell on the holidays,” she said and gave him her own smile. “And if you’re out and about, know that mine is open too.”

  Gavin thanked her again and together they walked back to the reception desk where Hannah barely acknowledged him. He gave her the chart and went back to his office, but not before hearing Mrs. Whitman say, “It’s not the same without Bailey here. It seems you’re all in pissy moods today.”

  And it was true. They all were. Hannah and Amber were mad at him and Gavin realized he was mad at himself too. But what could he possibly do? It wasn’t possible to be the man Bailey wanted him to be. Or the man the whole town wanted him to be. Maybe it was a cliché, but it really was impossible to teach an old dog new tricks. And why was it wrong for him to want people to accept him as he was? Why did he have to change to please anyone?

  Because you’re miserable…

  Okay, there was that, but still. If he could accept the quirky townspeople, why couldn’t they do that for him? And if he could accept Bailey with all her perky chattiness, why couldn’t she do the same for him?

  Because her way makes people smile. Your way fills people with rage.

  Sighing loudly, he slammed his office door closed and out of the corner of his eye he saw Cooper jump. “Sorry, Boy,” he said, walking around his desk to sit down.

  Maybe he should call her and just…talk to her. He could invite her for dinner and see if she was interested in coming back to work.

  He leaned far back in his chair and growled with frustration. Why would she? It wasn’t as if anything had changed since Sunday. If anything, he became a little surlier and now even more people hated him.

  Not the best incentive to win the girl…

  A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts and had him looking up. Amber walked in before he could say anything.

  “Mr. Sherman is here with Whiskers. He thinks she’s pregnant again.” She stood in the doorway almost defiantly. “And it sounds like Lola needs to go out.” Before Gavin could ask if she would assist with Lola, she was gone.

  Message received.

  He was on his own.

  Off in the distance, he heard Lola howl and knew she needed to be tended to first. Unlike Cooper, taking her out was more time-consuming because he had to put her on the leash and walk her around for a bit so she didn’t run off. With a sigh, he stood and wished he could turn back time to Friday and do things differently.

  Hell, he’d do everything differently—starting with not arguing with Bailey and then not letting her go.

  Another howl from Lola r
ang out and he made his way up the stairs wishing he could howl with frustration too and get someone to understand him.

  There were cookies on every surface in her kitchen and dining room and the place smelled like a bakery.

  And she was on her fifteenth cookie of the day.

  “Keep this up and none of your clothes will fit,” Bailey murmured to herself even as she poured herself a glass of milk to go with said cookie.

  The time off with no work meant she was caught up on her holiday baking, and her laundry, and her shopping. Now it was Wednesday night and she was eating cookies for dinner instead of a real meal.

  Something had to give.

  And soon.

  It was pointless to even start looking for another job until after the holidays. No one was going to be hiring this week or next and if she simply walked down Main Street, she’d probably find a couple of leads come January first. Maybe over the next week with all the socializing with friends and neighbors, she’d start putting out feelers for job leads.

  Only…she didn’t want a new job. She wanted her old one back.

  She missed working with Hannah and Amber and talking to them every day. She missed all the animals and seeing so many familiar faces every day and catching up with their lives. But most of all, she missed Gavin. Even though her only experiences with him on the job were generic and borderline detached, there was something comforting about seeing him every day and hoping to get a smile out of him that she missed more than she thought she would.

  Reaching for another cookie, Bailey sat down at her kitchen island and sighed. It was only a matter of days but she couldn’t seem to move on. She longed to talk to him and demand that he hear her—that he just try to give Christmas a chance! Give the townspeople a chance! But most importantly, that he give her—them! —a chance!

  Unfortunately, his rejection really hurt her. She’d been in relationships before and obviously they all ended, but none had left her with such a strong sense of devastation as this weekend fling did. How crazy was that? Right now she wished Gavin were here in her house, marveling at how nice her Christmas tree was, enjoying some of the cookies she baked, and then spending the night making love to her in her bed.

  And there went another cookie.

  Soon she was going to have to start baking again to make up for the deficit her depression was causing. “At least it would kill some more time…”

  Forcing herself to get up and leave the kitchen, Bailey walked into her living room and stared happily at her tree. There were presents piled up under it and she couldn’t wait to pass them out to her family on Christmas Day. It was always so much fun and a bit of controlled chaos especially since her nieces and nephews were born, but it was such a great way to spend the day.

  She stopped there and thought about Gavin’s story about his life growing up and felt a pang of sadness. He’d never known that kind of scenario—he never knew what it was like to be surrounded by people who loved him or to experience the simple joy of opening gifts. Shame filled her as she thought of how privileged she was and how so many were not.

  And that thought had her putting the cookie down and springing into action. Within minutes she was in her car and heading through town to get to Wal-Mart. Once she was there, Bailey loaded up three shopping carts with items and was completely giddy with the idea of making a difference.

  It took a team of four employees plus herself to get everything loaded into her car and when she got home, it took about seven trips back and forth to get it all into the house. Packages covered her living room floor and she found herself carefully walking around them to get to the kitchen because now she needed more than just cookies to sustain her.

  After a hearty sandwich and a few more cookies—yeah, she was going to have to bake some more tomorrow—Bailey made her way back through the living room and began to organize everything. She had purchased a dozen large tote bags and her plan was to fill each of them with a blanket, warm socks, gloves, some hygiene products, emergency rain ponchos, assorted snacks, and bottles of water. While she knew it wasn’t much, hopefully it would be helpful to those in need.

  By midnight, she was done. All the bags had been assembled and tomorrow she would take them to the shelter and drop them off. Maybe it was just a coincidence that tomorrow was Thursday and the one day a week she now knew Gavin would be there, but…it was when she was going and if he was there, great. And if not, then…maybe she’d linger and wait.

  “Ugh…I’m pathetic,” she moaned and then yawned. “And tired.”

  It was late and now that she had a plan for tomorrow, she was more than a little anxious to be able to put that plan into action.

  Tomorrow would be here soon enough and she’d much rather face it fully rested than dragging her butt. And as she crawled into bed a few minutes later, she fell asleep with a smile on her face for the first time in days.

  12

  Okay, so maybe she was more tired than she thought. Without having to set her alarm, Bailey didn’t wake up until almost ten and by the time she had some breakfast, showered, and loaded up her car, it was lunchtime.

  “Maybe I should eat before I go…”

  That thought was interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone. She gasped with surprise when she saw the clinic’s number pop up on the screen and part of her believed it was Gavin calling because he missed her.

  “Hello?”

  “Oh my gosh, Bailey! Please tell me you’re home right now!” It was Hannah.

  “Um…I am, but I was just getting ready to head out and run some errands. What’s going on?”

  “It’s Lola,” Hannah said frantically. “Dr. Maguire left earlier than usual today for whatever it is he does on Thursdays and he asked me to let Lola out when I let Cooper out.”

  “O-kay…”

  “But she ran off! I tried chasing after her but she was so fast and then Cooper started barking like wild so Amber came out to get him and…” She paused and caught her breath. “I don’t know what to do! Why would Lola run off like that?”

  “Didn’t you put her leash on?” Bailey asked, walking around and collecting her purse and keys before heading out to her car. “Gavin always puts her out on a leash because otherwise she takes off.”

  “I’m sorry, did you just refer to Dr. Maguire as Gavin?” Hannah asked incredulously. “What’s that about?”

  Oh yeah…that. In her phone call with the girls on Monday, she hadn’t mentioned the sexy turn of events. So….

  “Well, you know, after hanging out with him all weekend I stopped calling him Dr. Maguire. No big deal.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Anyway, have you seen Lola since she took off?” she asked, changing the subject back to what was really important.

  “No! Last I saw her she was running up Main Street toward the 347! I don’t know what to do! Amber’s making calls but we have a few more patients to see and I know I don’t want to be the one to tell Dr. Grinch that I lost his dog!”

  “Well, Lola’s not exactly his dog…”

  “But she is his responsibility!” Hannah cried. “And I lost her!”

  “Okay, okay, okay…calm down. I’m getting in my car now and I’ll drive around looking for her. It’s going to be all right!” In her car, Bailey’s heart was pounding hard as she worried about Lola wandering around in the cold temperatures and with so much snow on the ground.

  “Thanks, Bailey! We’ve called around town so everyone’s keeping an eye out for her, but if you can find her and get her back here before Dr. Maguire gets back, you’ll be a real lifesaver.”

  Hanging up, she slowly made her way into town and was careful to keep her eyes peeled for Lola. She drove past the clinic, the diner, the dance studio, and all the Main Street businesses before turning onto route 347. “C’mon, Lola. Where are you?” There was a lot of traffic on the road and the thought of the dog being out here cold and scared was almost too much for Bailey to think about.

  For thirty minutes she
drove up and down and was feeling completely hopeless when Amber called. “We found her!”

  “Oh, thank God!” Bailey replied, her hand going over her heart to calm it down. “I was worried sick driving up and down this road! Is she okay?”

  “She’s cold and a little excitable, but I think she’s okay. Hannah’s drying her off now before letting her go back upstairs to the puppies, who, FYI, are so damn cute! I can’t wait for them to open their eyes and be ready to play! I want one already!”

  Chuckling softly, Bailey said, “I know. Me too.”

  “Listen, why don’t you swing by and have some coffee with us? It’s quiet here right now and we’d love to see you. We miss you!”

  “I miss you guys too, but I’ve got some errands to run and…”

  “Oh, c’mon! You can put that off for a little while, right? Please?”

  How could she say no? Gavin wasn’t going to be there and she really did miss her friends and she’d love to just see for herself that Lola was all right. “Sure, why not? But I really have to take care of this stuff today so I can’t stay too long.”

  “Perfect! Where are you?”

  “I’m about a mile up on 347 so figure I’ll be to you in about five to ten minutes.”

  “Great! See you soon!”

  Traffic was a little slow moving as she drove back toward town and it took the full ten minutes before she pulled into the clinic’s parking lot. Nothing in the tote bags for the shelter was perishable and she knew she wouldn’t be here for long, but she made a mental note not to linger any longer than she had to. She could easily invite Amber and Hannah to come over later for dessert or something and then cursed herself for not thinking to bring cookies for the shelter too.

  “I can swing back by the house after I leave here,” she murmured as she grabbed her purse and climbed from her car. The lot was deserted which was odd for this time of day, but she attributed it to people being out of town because of the upcoming holiday.

  At the door of the clinic, Bailey walked in and immediately froze.