by Lori Wilde
“Hold that pose.” Ava scurried to her camera and snapped a round of shots.
A peek through the viewing pane showed her just how adorable Juliet looked. There was a splendid home in Juliet’s future; Ava could feel it.
“Hey!” Abby said. “I just had a terrific idea. What if Kringle Kritters Rescue threw a big adoption party so that the pets could have new homes for the holiday?”
Dr. Chloe made a face. “I hate to toss water on your suggestion, sweet pea, but pushing pet adoption for Christmas can lead to impulsive adoption and that worries me. People who adopt need to prepare for a long commitment.”
“We could set parameters in place to reduce spur-of-the-moment adoptions.” Ava snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it. We could have a foster-to-adopt program so that people can be sure it’s the right move for them before fully committing. Would that ease some of your concerns?”
Chloe nodded. “You might be onto something.”
“Let’s do it,” Ava said, gung-ho to get started and find these sweet pets a forever home.
“Do you think your parents would be up for it on short notice?” Chloe asked.
That question gave her pause. While her mother’s note said Dad’s trip to the specialist was not a big deal, what if there was something wrong? Uneasy, she bit her bottom lip. “I’m home for the holidays. I could run the event with a little help from you guys.”
“Ooh, ooh.” Abby clapped her hands and jumped up and down. You could call it Home for the Holidays!”
“I like the way you think,” Ava told the ten-year-old. “We could post the pictures we just took on the Kringle Kritters’ website and write cute stories about each of the dogs. We could make individual posters for them all and put them in the stores and shops around town.”
“That’s a lot of work in a short amount of time,” Caleb mumbled. “Are you sure you’re up for it?”
Ava swung around to meet his intense gaze. He’d been so quiet that she’d almost forgotten he was there. “I am.”
He snorted.
“What’s that sound about?”
“Nothing.”
“It’s something or you wouldn’t have done it. What’s on your mind, Sutton?”
“It’s just that you have a tendency to get caught in the moment's excitement, but when the going gets tough…” He trailed off and shook his head.
Ouch. That comment stung, but she understood how he might see things that way.
“I’ve got this.” To prove it, Ava rolled up her sleeve and flexed her bicep like Wonder Woman. The event could be a tremendous hit, and with her parents’ shelter almost at capacity, it would be nice to find homes for some of the rescues.
“I wanna help!” Abby said.
“Count me in.” Chloe gave a thumbs-up.
Ava turned to look at the laconic cowboy brushing Waldo into a fine furry fellow. “Caleb? You in?”
He glanced up from where he’d crouched beside the stray. He had the most amazing eyes and Ava felt her heart flip into her throat.
Caleb’s eyes were pale gray and paired with his coal-black hair, it was a devastating combo. He really was the poster boy for tall, dark, and handsome fantasy man. And even ten years later, she still wasn’t immune.
She didn’t know if she would ever be.
“Yeah, I’ll help,” he said, but his tone was flat. Perfunctory.
He was going to help because he was a good person. He would help because he felt it was the right thing to do, and Caleb Sutton always tried to do the right thing. Even if he didn’t want to. Even if he’d rather do anything else. Caleb was that kind of guy. He’d help because he was dependable.
She could work with that.
“Cool,” she said, taking Waldo’s leash and walking him over to have his picture taken with Santa. On the way, she shot one last parting glance at Caleb.
He was frowning, which oddly made him look even more attractive, and picking up the balls of loose dog hair he’d brushed off Waldo.
Yep, she definitely could work with dependable. It might take some time—and some concerted effort—but she would get Caleb to forgive her.
After ten years of trotting the globe, she realized the most important thing in the world was goodwill and good people.
And despite their differences, Caleb was one of the best she’d ever met.
Chapter 2
Would this day never end?
Once Caleb finished helping at the animal clinic, he drove the dogs back to Kringle Kritters Rescue. The only bright spot? He’d left Ava—and the complicated feelings she’d stirred in him—in his rearview mirror.
The dog kennels were in a small steel and concrete building just a few yards from the Millers’ modest home. They built the house from light-red bricks and the roof was deep black. Out front was a large wooden sign with the shelter’s name and their logo. Ava had designed that logo back in high school. He’d been there the day she’d come up with it.
The sign, he noted, could use a fresh coat of paint.
The temperature was in the low fifties, so it was cool enough and far more manageable to unload his truck one dog at a time.
He opened the smallest portable kennel nestled in the extended cab, picked up little Juliet, and carried her into the shelter.
The sounds of crazed barking greeted him along with the sight of a real Christmas tree decorated with pet-themed items—doggie treats, bells, bows, chew toys—that put the scent of pine in the air.
“Hey, there.” Ted, in red-and-green suspenders, faded blue jeans, a plaid, long-sleeved shirt, and a Panama hat strolled over. Ted was a thin man with a full head of bushy white hair and eyebrows to match.
“How’d it go at the doctor?” Caleb asked.
“Fine, fine. Just getting older.” Ted popped his suspenders and grinned. “It’s no big deal beyond having to drive to Fort Worth to see the specialist.”
Caleb didn’t want to pry into Ted’s personal business, so he changed the subject. “Hey, I’ve got a bone to pick with the two of you.”
“What’s up?” Ted asked.
Trying not to frown and give away just how much Ted’s daughter had affected him, Caleb cleared his throat. “Why didn’t you tell me Ava was taking pictures at the clinic today?”
Ted didn’t meet Caleb’s gaze. “Is that a fact?”
“You know it is.” It annoyed Caleb that the Millers were playing games with him. “You should have told me. I had no idea she was home for the holidays already. Usually she doesn’t arrive until the week of Christmas.”
Ted shrugged casually. “She’s a grown woman. We don’t keep tabs on her.”
“All you had to do was say, hey, Caleb, Ava’s in town for Christmas and she’s taking pet pictures at the clinic. I could have prepared myself.”
“You’re right, we should have told you,” said Marjorie.
“Yes.” Caleb was determined not to sound petulant, but someone who was merely setting good boundaries. “You should’ve.”
“I know seeing Ava is hard on you.” Marjorie clucked her tongue.
He waved a hand, appreciating the Millers’ concern. But it had been ten years, and he wasn’t still carrying a torch for their only child. “Water, bridge, I’m over it. What happened between Ava and me is ancient history.”
“Whew!” Ted ran the back of his hand over his forehead as if wiping off sweat. “You have no idea how good it feels to hear you say that.”
“You mean a lot to us, Caleb. Never forget that.” Marjorie got up and came around the desk to join them.
Like her husband, Marjorie was in her early sixties and also had a head full of flowing white hair that she pulled back from her forehead with a whimsical butterfly barrette more suited for a schoolgirl than someone her age, but gave her a carefree, youthful air. It was clear where Ava had gotten her quirky sense of style.
“How’d this little gal do?” Marjorie asked, taking Juliet from Caleb. “We just took her in yesterday morning.”
“She trembled a lot, but Abby Owens was there, and they hit it off big-time,” Caleb said.
“Juliet’s a little skittish.” Marjorie made kissing noises at the Chihuahua, who wagged her tail wildly, lapping up the love.
“I’ll bring in the rest of the dogs,” Caleb said,
He couldn’t stay irritated with the Millers. They were agreeable people who did a terrific job helping homeless animals. They also were his friends and they loved their daughter, even though they didn’t agree with some of the things she did.
Like dumping Caleb right before the wedding.
Gritting his teeth at the memory, he gathered the leashes of the other dogs, clipped them to their collars and after some finagling, managed to get the animals inside the shelter. One by one, Ted and Marjorie took the dogs from him and lead them to the kennels. Each time the door opened, more crazed barking ensued.
Once they’d penned the dogs, Marjorie and Ted returned to the intake area.
“No help today?” Caleb asked, more from common courtesy than any genuine desire to know their staffing issues.
“Len’s dad broke his leg and he went home to San Antonio to see him,” Marjorie said, referring to the young man who usually walked the dogs daily and did the grooming. “And Charlotte had already asked for the holidays off because she and her husband are taking a belated honeymoon.”
Charlotte was in her mid-fifties and married to a local farmer. She answered the phone and kept the books. And she’d been with the Millers from the inception of Kringle Kritters Rescue thirty years earlier.
“Huh?” Caleb stared at her. “Like a second honeymoon? Charlotte and Jim got married when dirt was invented.”
Ted chuckled. “Marj and I thought the same thing, but Charlotte said they never had a real honeymoon, so now that their kids are grown and gone, they went on a cruise and called it their honeymoon. They even booked the honeymoon suite with a big fancy balcony and everything.”
“We never had a real honeymoon,” Marjorie murmured. “Maybe one day we could take a cruise.”
It seemed a little strange to Caleb to go on a honeymoon thirty years after the wedding, but hey, what did he know about long-lasting marriages?
“I guess better late than never,” he said, aware that both Ted and Marjorie were watching him. Tension lay in the room, as thick as the barking from the kennels. Anytime weddings, marriage, or honeymoons came up whenever he was around the Millers, things got stiff.
Might as well deal with it. Taking the bull by the horns, Caleb inhaled deeply and tackled the dreaded subject.
“Sooo…” He exhaled a hiss of air. “Ava’s back.”
Ted nodded, slow and deliberate, as if the motion took a great deal of concentration. “Yep. She’s in between jobs.”
Marjorie placed one hand on Caleb’s arm and looked up into his face with a pitying expression. “To tell you the truth, she surprised us. We had no idea she was coming home this early. She just walked in the front door last night after texting us from the airport that she was on the way. I supposed we were so stunned to see her, and what with Ted’s doctor’s appointment in Fort Worth this morning, we didn’t think about telling you.”
Caleb wasn’t buying it, but he let Marjorie have her excuse and didn’t press.
“Not that we aren’t thrilled she’s come home,” Ted added quickly. “It’s great to have Ava back in the nest anytime.”
“She’s staying with you?” Usually, when Ava came back to town, she booked a room at the Kringle Inn because her parents’ house was small and she didn’t want to inconvenience them.
Ted and Marjorie exchanged uneasy glances, and Caleb knew something was up. He braced himself, curling his fingers into fists. “What?”
“It’s just that, um…” Ted trailed off, lifting his hat to scratch his head and looking over at his wife.
That left Caleb wondering if the older man’s mind was slipping or if he simply didn’t know how to break bad news.
“Um.” Ted lifted his hat again to thread his hand through his thick thatch of hair.
“Yes?” Caleb’s entire body tightened with tension.
“Do we tell him now?” Marjorie asked her husband. “Or should we wait until after the holidays?”
“No,” Caleb said. “You don’t get to do that. You can’t infer there’s bad news and then clam up about it.”
“He’s right,” Ted told his wife. “He deserves to know.”
“Are you sure you don’t want an ignorance-is-bliss Christmas?” From the look on Marjorie’s face, Caleb had a feeling he was absolutely not going to like what she said next.
“Please, just tell me.”
Ted blew out his breath. “We’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell Ava. We want her to have one last holiday in the house she grew up in.”
This did not sound good. Did he really want to know? If it was bad news, how could he not tell Ava?
Cowboy up, Sutton. They looked as if they desperately needed to share their news with someone.
“I won’t tell Ava anything you share with me in confidence,” he promised.
Ted and Marjorie looked at each other.
“Do you want to tell him?” Ted asked his wife.
“It’s your news to tell.”
Even before the words were out of Ted’s mouth, Caleb knew what he would say.
Ted took a deep breath, held it for several seconds, and then said on a long exhale, “I have melanoma skin cancer.” He rushed to add, “But it’s okay. They caught it early. I don’t even have to have chemo. They’ll just remove it and the cure rate at this stage is almost one hundred percent.”
Caleb placed a hand to his chest. “Thank the Lord.”
“Ted is going to be fine,” Marjorie said. “But this scare has changed the way we look at things.”
“While we love running the rescue…” Ted hooked both thumbs around his suspenders. “We realized we haven’t really had much of a life outside of taking care of animals and raising Ava. Since she’s grown and gone and shows no signs of settling down and giving us grandkids or taking over the shelter, we’ve decided it’s time for us to live a little.”
“You’ve been thinking about this for a while,” Caleb said.
“About a year,” Marjorie nodded. “Ted’s diagnosis just cinched the deal.”
“We’re going to close the shelter and sell the house,” Ted said.
“And we’ve already rented a house in town. It has a big backyard and it’s close to the grocery store.” Marjorie took hold of her husband’s hand.
“Wow,” Caleb said. “This is all happening so fast. I don’t know what to say.”
“Be happy for us.” Marjorie’s smile was bittersweet. “While letting go of the place is a big deal, we’re very excited about the future.”
“And damn happy I got such a gentle wake-up call,” Ted added. “It could have been so much worse.”
Before Caleb could find the appropriate response to this life-altering news, a fresh cacophony of barking erupted from the kennels.
“I wonder what that’s about,” Ted mumbled, heading for the door with Marjorie and Caleb at his heels.
Before Ted could open it, Ava walked into the room.
“Yikes, they sure are noisy.” Ava grinned, shrugged, and did a comical dancing two-step that had once endeared her to Caleb. She was still wearing the silly candy cane costume and carrying her camera equipment. “I shouldn’t have come in through the back door. You’d think I was a burglar or something. I guess they don’t remember me.”
How can they remember you? You show up here three times a year at most.
“Oh!” Ava’s eyes widened as she took him in. “It’s you.”
“Yeah, it’s me.” His tone came out flinty and clipped. Not what he intended.
Ava looked as if she wanted to back up, fly through the kennels, and stir up the dogs again in hopes the barking would drown out everything.
“I’ve got to prep Bulle
t’s food.” Marjorie took a step toward the front door. “That old bulldog has severe allergies and dental issues. Chloe gave me a special formula to cook for him.”
“I’ll help,” Ted said, gingerly following in his wife’s footsteps.
They shut the door behind them, leaving Caleb alone with Ava. He didn’t know why he didn’t just leave. Nothing was holding him here beyond Ava’s beseeching eyes.
What would be her response when she discovered her father had cancer and her parents were closing the shelter and selling her girlhood home? Would she, too, have an epiphany and want to come home to be near her parents? Or would she continue in her wanderlust ways?
Bigger question, why did he care?
Honestly, it was none of his concern. While the Millers were fantastic neighbors and he had great affection for them, his world wouldn’t change much. New neighbors would move in, and life would go on.
And yet, Ted’s news rattled him. He viewed the Millers as a permanent fixture in his life and he’d almost become their son-in-law. He’d known them for fourteen years and assumed he’d know them for many more.
Now, everything was up in the air.
“How you doing, peanut?” he asked, his heartstrings tugging for Ava.
She gave him a weird look. “I should ask you that question. You look as if you’ve just come from a funeral.”
“No problems in my sphere.”
Narrowing her eyes, she regarded him with suspicion. “I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”
He cast around for a decent reason to cloak his feelings. He’d promised Ted and Marjorie he wouldn’t tell Ava what was going on, but if he didn’t get control over his emotions, she’d ferret out that something was afoot. Despite her flighty nature, Ava was pretty perceptive, and Caleb was a rotten liar.
“You sure volunteered to put together a massive adoption event on short notice,” he said. “I don’t know how you’re going to pull it off.”
“What do you mean? I’ve been working at this shelter my entire life. Fundraising is in my DNA. I—”
