by Lori Wilde
“Mom says she does that. Juliet’s got narcolepsy. She can fall asleep standing up at her food dish.”
“No kidding? Dogs get narcolepsy?” Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Who knew? Juliet’s unique.”
At the sound of her name, Juliet woke from her nap and hopped to her feet, her tail wagging so fast Caleb feared she’d fall right over.
“She looks pretty healthy now,” he said.
“I’m sure she’ll be fine now that we know it was a click beetle, but I’ll take her to the house so I can keep a close eye on her. This isn’t the first time a dog ate a bug at our shelter. I’m sure it won’t be the last. It happens.”
“I ate a bug once,” Caleb blurted, surprising himself with his confession.
“What? On purpose? Like eating gourmet insects?”
He laughed at her horrified expression. “Not on purpose. When I was eight and on a camping trip with the Boy Scouts, a bug flew into my mouth.”
Ava brought a hand to her throat and made gagging noises.
“Hey, stuff happens.”
Grinning, Ava leaned away from him. “Ick.”
He nodded slowly. “Yep, I agree now—ick. But it gave me a cool rep with the rest of the Scout pack. They even gave me a nickname.”
“Dare I ask?” She laughed and patted him on the arm.
“You sure you want to know?”
“Why not?”
“It might turn you off of me for good.”
“How bad can it be?”
“Fly Slayer.”
“Eww!”
“C’mon, baby, pucker up. Wanna kiss the Fly Slayer?”
Laughing, she put a palm to his chest to hold him at bay. “I am not interested in kissing the Fly Slayer. Now, Caleb Sutton is a whole other matter.”
“You wouldn’t let Juliet kiss you with her bug lips. Why the change of heart?” he teased.
“Your bug incident was twenty years ago. I trust you’ve brushed your teeth since then.”
“I’ve even got peppermints.” He pulled two pieces of candy from his pocket. “Want one?”
“Sure.” She took the peppermint from him, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.
He did the same, sucking on the candy.
She chomped hers.
He’d forgotten how impatient she was, always in a hurry to get to the good stuff while Caleb believed half the fun was in the anticipation.
“C’mon,” she said. “I’ll walk you to your truck.” To Devon, she said, “Keep an eye on Juliet for me, please.”
The young man took the Chihuahua and Ava led Caleb outside.
At his truck, he paused and looked down at her.
She pursed her lips.
This peppermint-flavored kiss was even better than the one before. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.
Her lips sent his entire body to tingling. How he wanted to keep kissing her for endless hours until their lips turned cracked and raw, but they’d agreed to take things slowly, because long-distance relationships were tricky, and he was a man who prided himself on sticking to his guns.
With as much self-control as he could muster, he broke the kiss. “I gonna head on out. Text or call me if you need anything.”
“Thanks for lunch and helping me pass out the posters and for your clear-eyed thinking in the click beetle crisis. It was nice having you here. You’ve got a calming energy.”
“I don’t know about that,” he mused.
“I do. I’ve been alone for so long I’d forgotten how nice it was to have a sidekick.”
“Is that what I am?” He searched her face and saw a longing in her eyes that matched his own.
“I hope you’re my friend.”
“I am,” he said. “Always.”
She leaned in for one more quick kiss. “Bye-bye, Fly Slayer.”
“I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?”
“Not on your life,” she teased.
“See if I tell you any more of my deep, dark secrets.”
“As if you have any.”
“Don’t laugh,” he said. “You’ve been away for ten years. You have no idea what I’ve been up to behind your back.” Then, with a quick kiss on her cheek and a wink, he closed the door behind him and drove away.
It wasn’t until he got home that Caleb realized he’d forgotten to use the orange paint to spray off a parking area for her in the field.
Chapter 8
On Monday morning, Ava was partway up the ladder at Caleb’s house when he walked out of the barn, headed for his tractor.
He stopped and sank his hands onto his hips, widening his stance.
She waved at him, unsurprised when he abandoned his mission to head her way. He looked grumpy, but she had to admit, even scowling, he was handsome as all get-out.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Surprise! We’re decorating,” she said, nodding toward the string of Christmas lights in her hands. “What are you doing?”
Two men wandered from the barn behind Caleb. Ava assumed they were his ranch hands, Phil and Mort. She glanced down at Devon, who was holding the ladder for her. Today, his hair was pulled back in a tidy man-bun.
“You remember Devon.” She nodded.
“Hi,” Caleb said to Devon. To Ava, he said, “That’s dangerous.”
“Robert brought the ladder,” she said with a blithe smile.
“What’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?” Caleb’s scowl deepened.
“Huh?” Confused, Devon scratched his head.
“Keep your hands on the ladder at all times, kid.” Caleb grabbed hold of the ladder. “That’s precious cargo on those rungs.”
Aww! That was a sweet thing to say.
“Robert’s a house painter, so he buys top quality ladders,” Ava explained. “Nothing to worry about.”
“You should have scaffolding.”
“Oh, Robert brought that too.” She pointed to a white panel truck parked in his driveway, where Robert, a close friend of her parents, was unloading scaffolding. His wife Lisa was there, too, taking bags of Christmas decorations from the back seat. “That’s his wife, Lisa.”
Lisa waved a hand. “Hi, Caleb, we’ve met before. I work at the office in the feed store.”
“Good to see you, Lisa.” He waved back.
Robert stopped unloading the scaffolding and came around to shake Caleb’s hand. “I told Ava that I’d hang the lights on the eves, but she insisted I let her do it. You know what it’s like to get caught in Ava’s wake. When she sets her mind to something, you might as well surrender. It’s going to happen.”
Caleb looked back at her.
Ava notched up her chin and shot him a challenging stare. She knew where this was going, and she wanted to end it before it started. “Are you about to say something sexist, Sutton?”
“Is it sexist of me to want your pretty neck intact?”
She appreciated his concern, but she was more than capable of hanging lights on the house. “I hung the ones on the shelter all by myself. I can hang these lights on your house with half a dozen helpers.”
“Half a dozen? I only count three.”
“Mom and Dad are on the way, and they’re bringing another one of our volunteers with them.”
“It’s my house, Miller.” He growled. “I get a say in what goes on at my own house.”
“If you’d decorated it yourself to begin with, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Everyone looked at Caleb to see how he’d respond, and she’d give him credit. He knew when to give up on an argument.
“All right.” He snorted and threw his hands into the air. “Just don’t fall.”
“Gee, what novel advice. Why didn’t I think of that?”
With a gentle tug on the string of lights she was holding, she climbed another rung up the ladder. Caleb’s ranch house was sprawling, but it was only one story, so attaching the lights was easy-peasy.
; She’d almost finished hanging the first strand when she noticed they had already added more strings. Glancing down, she saw Caleb had nudged Devon out of the way and he was now holding the ladder.
Ava met his gaze and laughed.
He winked at her conspiratorially and she had to admit, he was one handsome cowboy.
Her parents drove up just then with Skeeter, a skinny twenty-year-old woman who was studying to be a vet and volunteered at the shelter to get experience. There were more greetings as they all rolled up their sleeves and got to work. With the ten of them pitching in—Phil and Mort included—they had the decorating finished in no time.
“Who wants refreshments?” Caleb asked when they’d packed the ladder and scaffolding back in Robert’s truck. “I can’t promise much, but I’m sure I can whip up something.”
“Oh,” Ava said. “We brought food with us. I promised a decorating party and I deliver.”
Robert offered everyone cold drinks from his ice chest, while Ava and Lisa unloaded the food and took it into the house. Ava asked Phil to fire up the grill and within forty-five minutes they had a lunch spread of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, deviled eggs, and baked beans spread out in Caleb’s snazzy new kitchen.
“You never cease to amaze me.” Caleb shook his head, grabbing a paper plate as she set out pickles and onion slices.
“Why’s that?”
“For someone who doesn’t like to plan ahead, you did a pretty darn good job of an impromptu get-together.”
“Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Sutton. See? Spontaneity doesn’t always equal scatterbrained.”
“I never said it did.”
“But you thought it.”
“So you’re a mind reader now? Something you picked up overseas?”
“I’ll never tell.” She returned his wink and stuck out her tongue.
“Watch out,” he said. “I might consider that temptation.”
She felt her cheeks flush, enjoying their flirtation. Still, she knew better than to rush into anything. They had agreed to take things slowly, which was the safe, intelligent approach since her future was up in the air, and by gosh, she was sticking to it.
Too bad she’d never taken the safe, intelligent road.
“What a fun morning,” Marjorie said to Caleb as she walked over to the recycle bin carrying an assortment of paper plates and cups. “It reminds me of old times when your mother was still here, and you and Ava were dating in high school. Thank you for letting us take part.”
“I should thank you.” Caleb looked up from where he was cleaning the barbecue grill and met Marjorie’s gaze head-on.
He hadn’t expected today to turn out this way, but decorating had been a blast, thanks to Ava and her lively attitude. Plus, his house looked amazing. The place hadn’t been decorated since his mother moved away, and it was great to see it all decked out again.
“I wish your mom and Chet could have been here with us,” Marjorie said. “You should send her some pictures and let her see how pretty the place looks. She would love it.”
“Good idea. I think I will.”
Marjorie was right. His mother would love to see the house decorated and to know friends orchestrated the whole thing. Mom often teased him about being too introverted and too proud to ask for help. She was fond of saying, “No cowboy is an island, Caleb.”
He searched for Ava and found her loading up her vehicle, and his heart skipped a beat. Spending time with her had him entertaining some pretty intense thoughts.
Marjorie picked up her glass of lemonade and perched on the picnic table next to the barbeque grill. Caleb kept his head down, scraping at the residue left from the hamburger meat and hot dogs.
The car’s rear hatch door slammed closed and Caleb glanced up just in time to get a magnificent view of Ava’s backside. The jeans fit her fanny as if tailor-made. Ava straightened, turned, and caught him staring.
A slow, knowing grin spread across her gorgeous face and she gave a little wave.
Dang it!
He went back to the grill.
Marjorie cleared her throat pointedly.
Caleb met her gaze.
Her eyes lit with a matchmaking light. She drew her jacket more tightly around her as the wind kicked up. “Ava tells me you two are dating again but are taking it slow.”
Double dang it.
“That’s the plan.” It surprised Caleb that Ava had discussed their relationship with her mother, although he wasn’t sure why that startled him. Ava and her mother got along well. No reason for her not to share what was going on in her life.
“Good idea,” she said. “You want to make sure it’ll stick this time before getting deeply involved.”
Personally, he wasn’t used to discussing his private life with people and he was uncomfortable discussing Ava behind her back.
“I’d hate to see you get hurt all over again.”
“It’ll be fine. We’ve discussed a long-distance relationship and we’re hoping to make it work.”
“But how? I mean honestly?”
That brought him up short.
Marjorie’s gaze fixed on her daughter and she got a faraway look in her eyes. “I just don’t know. She’s currently out of a job and she doesn’t seem in any hurry to find another one, but at heart she’s a go-getter and there’s nothing much to go get around here.”
“That she is,” Caleb murmured. He admired Ava’s enterprising nature. Ironic that one of her best qualities was the same thing that had taken her away from him.
“I wonder if she’ll ever satisfy her need to challenge herself and explore,” Marjorie mused.
“You’re saying I should abandon all hope for an eventual future with her?”
Marjorie locked eyes with Caleb. “I’m saying if you’re waiting for her to change, you’ll be waiting a long time.”
Caleb didn’t want to change her. He liked her just as she was, but was that enough?
You could always roam with her. She asked you to come along the first time. But that meant selling the ranch, giving up the one thing that had grounded him in his youth after his dad died. And what would he do with himself if he went with her? Ranching was all he knew.
And remodeling. You could buy houses and flip them.
“Ava is her own person,” Marjorie mused. “She’s always followed her own path in life. Even as a little girl, she was headstrong. I wanted her to wear dresses and frilly things. She insisted on jeans and sneakers.”
“You ready to go, honeybunch?” Ted ambled from the house, settling his baseball cap on his head. “The dogs are gonna wonder where we’ve gotten off to.”
“Yes.” Marjorie got up. “I was just telling Caleb how much we appreciated him letting us help decorate his place. Now he’s not the only house in Kringle without lights.”
“That’s overstating a bit.” Ted chuckled and gave his wife a kiss on the cheek. “There’s one or two other grinches in Kringle.”
“I’m not a grinch,” Caleb protested.
“No.” Marjorie beamed. “Not anymore.”
Thanks to go-getter Ava, he thought and closed the lid of the cleaned grill.
Ted laced his arm through his wife’s and led her to their vehicle.
“Bye-bye, Caleb,” Marjorie said with a jaunty wave, as if she hadn’t just stirred up a whirlwind of doubt inside him.
Thanks bunches, Marjorie. Drop a bomb and then just walk away.
Caleb blew out a deep breath and felt like cursing. He might not be the brightest cowpoke in the posse, but he knew a warning shot when he heard one. Ava’s own mother worried that her daughter would break his heart again.
Ava was beautiful and fun, perky and smart. He knew why he kept falling in love with her.
Who you kidding, Sutton? You never fell out of love with her.
Stunned by the truth, he felt helpless as he wandered over to join Ava beside her parents’ vehicle where they stood chatting. It was getting late and everyone was preparing to l
eave.
“We were just talking about the parade,” Ava said, including him in the conversation. The Christmas parade was on Friday, and then Home for the Holidays was the day after.
“Are you all set for Home for the Holidays?” he asked.
“For what it’s worth, we covered the entire town with posters.” Ted grinned.
“Fingers crossed.” Marjorie held up her crossed fingers.
“I bet a mob shows up to adopt. It’s gotten a lot of publicity. We even got mentioned on the local TV affiliate.” Ted slipped an arm around his wife’s waist and drew her closer.
Caleb looked at Ava. “Are you set?”
“Yep.”
He wanted to believe she was right, but he still worried about the small shelter’s ability to handle a vast crowd. Ava might like to go with the flow, but he’d have felt better if she had a clear-cut plan.
“You’ll get overrun,” he mumbled.
She grinned. “Worrywart. We’ll be fine. Several people have already stopped by to adopt early. Everything will be fine. Trust the universe for once, Caleb.”
Caleb rolled his eyes.
“What? You’ve never heard the expression, ‘Let go and let God’?”
“I’m thinking about the verse that goes, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’”
Ava drew back her shoulders and thrust out her chin. “I am helping myself.”
“Oh, really? Do you have signage directing people where to go? Are there extra volunteers scheduled? You need to organize your affairs. Things can go wrong.”
“Maybe you need to trust me.” Ava’s smile faded. “I know what I’m doing, Caleb. Everything is going to be okay.”
“She’s got it under control,” Ted soothed. “Ava’s baking this cake; let’s get out of her kitchen.”
Okay, fine. None of the Millers worried about her lack of preparation. Why was he?
He knew if he kept talking he was going to say something he’d regret, so with a quick goodbye and thank yous to Ava and her family, he headed into the barn.
Ava was a spontaneous person, and when they’d been young, he liked that about her. She was so different from him, so full of life and joy. But now, years later, her spontaneity made him nervous.
