Coming Home for Christmas

by RaeAnne Thayne

  To Luke’s shock, it wasn’t his sister and her husband. It was someone completely unexpected—Billy Sparks, along with his wife and kids.

  His former nemesis stood on the porch, a red-and-green plaid tin in his hands. “Hey,” he said, looking uncomfortable.

  “Hey, Billy. Arlene. Kids. Come in.”

  Bridger immediately headed straight to Jedediah and launched into a play-by-play description of the video game he’d been playing and the skills he’d used to almost conquer the monster.

  Luke wasn’t sure how it had happened, but somehow over the past year, Jedediah and Bridger had become best friends and often hung out together after school, their onetime fistfight completely forgotten.

  Luke couldn’t say he would ever be best friends with Billy, but the two families had come to tolerate each other over the past year.

  “Uh, merry Christmas. Arlene fixed some gingerbread and it’s real good. She, uh...we wanted you to have some.”

  Luke blinked at the unexpected holiday offering. “That’s very kind of you. Thank you.”

  “We loved the candle and the cookies your wife brought over the other day. Billy ate half of them by himself,” Arlene said, which was probably the longest consecutive string of words he’d ever heard from the quiet, rather meek woman.

  “Good to hear.”

  “I’ll be glad when Christmas is over and I can stop being tempted by all these goodies, am I right?” Billy said with a forced-sounding laugh.

  Luke smiled and nodded, though he didn’t necessarily agree. He had loved everything about the season this year, from the treats to the music to the holiday parties. Everything seemed more rich and nuanced when he had Elizabeth by his side.

  “Thank you for this. I’m sure they’re delicious. Would you like to come in?”

  “No. We better run. We’ve got more deliveries to make. Plus, we’re giving out our own award for best holiday decorations. My kids were so tickled last year when you gave us the award, we decided to pass it on and do the same thing for someone else.”

  “That’s great. Thanks for the gingerbread and merry Christmas.”

  “Give our best to your wife.”

  “I’ll do that.”

  Bridger and Jedediah were reluctant to be separated, too busy talking about when they could get together over the holidays, until eventually Billy grabbed his son’s hand and ushered him out the door.

  After closing the door behind the Sparks family, Bridger hurried ahead of him to grab plates and silverware while Luke added the tin of gingerbread to the little collection of neighbor gifts on the counter by the family computer.

  Elizabeth, turkey baster in hand, looked up from the oven, where she was doing something to the roasting pan containing a golden-skinned turkey that made his mouth water.

  “Sorry I couldn’t come to the...door. I have my hands full at the moment. Who was...that?”

  “Billy and Arlene Sparks and their kids. They brought us some homemade gingerbread.”

  “Oh, how nice.” She apparently didn’t find anything unusual in that turn of events, which was completely typical. Elizabeth saw the good in everyone, even Billy Sparks.

  He was so happy to have her here after so many Christmases alone that his heart seemed to overflow with happiness. Unable to resist, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed the soft, warm skin at her neck.

  She leaned back against him for a moment with a little shiver, then gave a flustered laugh. “Your turkey still needs to be basted.”

  “That’s one way to phrase it, I guess.” He couldn’t resist, mostly because he knew it would make her laugh.

  She rolled her eyes, cheeks rosy. “You’re terrible, Luke Hamilton.”

  “That’s not what you said this morning,” he murmured.

  She rolled her eyes again and slid the roasting pan back into the oven. Once she had closed the door, she wrapped her arms around his waist and lifted her mouth to his. Even after a year, he couldn’t get enough of her.

  “Ew. Must we?”

  Luke lifted his gaze from the very enjoyable pastime of kissing his wife in time to see Cassie, nearly eleven and full of attitude, walk into the kitchen with a look of disgust.

  “Yes. We absolutely must,” he answered, giving Elizabeth another loud smack on the mouth that made her smile and made Cassie groan.

  “Can you put your phone away for a few minutes, honey?” Elizabeth said. “I could use your...help with the salad. Our guests will...be here in an hour.”

  Cassie sighed but shoved her phone in her back pocket. “What do you need?” she asked.

  Over the past year, his wife and their daughter had reached a peace of sorts. Their relationship wasn’t quite the easy, uncomplicated one that Elizabeth had with Bridger, and Luke wasn’t sure it ever would be, but Cassie was gradually learning to trust that her mother wasn’t going to disappear from their lives again.

  Now, a year later, they were like many other families. They had squabbles; they made up; they laughed and worked and loved each other.

  “What can I do?” Luke asked.

  “You’re on the...support crew tonight. You can either help Cassie with the...salad or give Bridger a hand setting the table.”

  He would rather stand in this warm kitchen and kiss his wife again but figured that wasn’t one of his options.

  “I don’t need help with the table,” Bridger said. “I’m almost done. Then can I go back and beat the monster?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Because nothing says holiday spirit like smashing a monster to bits.”

  Bridger giggled and hurried through his chore while Luke went to work with his daughter chopping green onions for the pasta salad.

  While they worked, Elizabeth and Cassie sang along to the Christmas music playing through the whole-house speakers he had installed when he built the place, and Luke couldn’t help thinking about how all their lives had changed over the past year.

  Not everything had been perfect. Elizabeth had needed surgery on her leg in the springtime that had led to a painful and difficult recovery and left her forced to mostly supervise the landscaping of the house, which had broken her heart. Just as she was getting back to herself, she’d suffered a bad seizure in August that had terrified all of them.

  Despite the challenges, he wouldn’t trade any of it. Having her here, sharing the experience of raising their children and building a life together in this house beside the lake, still seemed like the very best miracle.

  “What are you smiling about?” Cassie asked him.

  “I’m happy. That’s all. It’s Christmas, I’m with my favorite people in my world, and we’re about to enjoy a great meal with family we love. What’s not to smile about?”

  “You’re so goofy,” his daughter said, though he was pretty sure she was working hard to hide her own smile.

  He glanced over at Elizabeth, his wife, his miracle. She was smiling, too, her eyes soft as she watched them, and Luke was quite certain his heart couldn’t contain any more joy.

  * * *

  Keep reading for a sneak peek at New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne’s heartwarming Haven Point romance, Season of Wonder.

  Now available in mass-market paperback!

  Dani Capelli and her two daughters are facing their first Christmas in Haven Point, wondering if leaving New York was a mistake. But Ruben Morales—the son of Dani’s new boss—is determined to give them a season of wonder!

  New York Times bestselling author

  RAEANNE THAYNE

  brings readers the magic of Christmas with

  SEASON OF WONDER

  It’s a long way from New York to Idaho...but could they have found a home at last?

  A single mother from the big city finds love and the home she’s always longed for with a small-town sheriff.

  * * *
>
  “[Thayne] engages the reader’s heart and emotions, inspiring hope and the belief that miracles are possible.”

  —Debbie Macomber, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  * * *

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  Season of Wonder

  by RaeAnne Thayne

  Chapter One

  “This is totally lame. Why do we have to stay here and wait for you? We can walk home in, like, ten minutes.”

  Daniela Capelli drew in a deep breath and prayed for patience, something she seemed to be doing with increasing frequency these days when it came to her thirteen-year-old daughter. “It’s starting to snow and already almost dark.”

  Silver rolled her eyes, something she did with increasing frequency these days. “So what? A little snow won’t kill us. I would hardly even call that snow. We had way bigger storms than this back in Boston. Remember that big blizzard a few years ago, when school was closed for, like, a week?”

  “I remember,” her younger daughter, Mia, said, looking up from her coloring book at Dani’s desk at the Haven Point Veterinary Clinic. “I stayed home from preschool and I watched Anna and Elsa a thousand times, until you said your eardrums would explode if I played it one more time.”

  Dani could hear a bark from the front office that likely signaled the arrival of her next client and knew she didn’t have time to stand here arguing with an obstinate teenager.

  “Mia can’t walk as fast as you can. You’ll end up frustrated with her and you’ll both be freezing before you make it home,” she pointed out.

  “So she can stay here and wait for you while I walk home. I just told Chelsea we could FaceTime about the new dress she bought for the Christmas dance there and she can only do it for another hour before her dad comes to pick her up for his visitation.”

  “Why can’t you FaceTime here? I only have two more patients to see. I’ll be done in less than an hour. Then we can all go home together. You can hang out in the waiting room with Mia, where the Wi-Fi signal is better.”

  Silver gave a huge put-upon sigh but picked up her backpack and stalked out of Dani’s office toward the waiting room.

  “Can I turn on the TV out there?” Mia asked as she gathered her papers and crayons. “I like the dog shows.”

  The veterinary clinic showed calming clips of animals on a big flat-screen TV set low to the ground for their clientele.

  “After Silver’s done with her phone call, okay?”

  “She’ll take forever,” Mia predicted with a gloomy look. “She always does when she’s talking to Chelsea.”

  Dani fought to hide a smile. “Thanks for your patience, sweetie, with her and with me. Finish your math worksheet while you’re here. Then when we get home, you can watch what you want.”

  Both the Haven Point elementary and middle schools were within walking distance of the clinic, and it had become a habit for Silver to walk to the elementary school and then walk with Mia here to the clinic to spend a few hours until they could all go home together.

  Of late, Silver had started to complain that she didn’t want to pick her sister up at the elementary school every day, that she would rather they both just took their respective school buses home, where Silver could watch her sister without having to hang out at the boring veterinary clinic.

  But then, Silver complained about nearly everything these days.

  It was probably a good idea, but Dani wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger on having the girls alone every day after school. Maybe they would try it out after Christmas vacation.

  This working professional/single mother gig was hard, she thought as she ushered Mia to the waiting room. Then again, in most ways it was much easier than the veterinary student/single mother gig had been.

  When they entered the comfortable waiting room—with its bright colors, pet-friendly benches and big fish tank—Mia faltered for a moment, then sidestepped behind Dani’s back.

  She saw instantly what had caused her daughter’s nervous reaction. Funny. Dani felt the same way. She wanted to hide behind somebody, too.

  The receptionist had given her the files with the dogs’ names that were coming in for a checkup but hadn’t mentioned their human was Ruben Morales. Her gorgeous next-door neighbor.

  Dani’s palms instantly itched and her stomach felt as if she’d accidentally swallowed a flock of butterflies.

  “Deputy Morales,” she said, then paused, hating the slightly breathless note in her voice.

  What was it about the man that always made her so freaking nervous?

  He was big, yes, at least six feet tall, with wide shoulders, tough muscles and a firm, don’t-mess-with-me jawline.

  It wasn’t just that. Even without his uniform, the man exuded authority and power, which instantly raised her hackles and left her uneasy, something she found both frustrating and annoying about herself.

  No matter how far she had come, how hard she had worked to make a life for her and her girls, she still sometimes felt like the troublesome foster kid from Queens, always on the defensive.

  She had done her best to avoid him in the months they had been in Haven Point, but that was next to impossible when they lived so close to each other—and when she was the intern in his father’s veterinary practice, with the hope that she might be able to purchase it at the end of the year.

  “Hey, Doc,” he said, flashing her an easy smile she didn’t trust for a moment. It never quite reached his dark, long-lashed eyes, at least where she was concerned.

  While she might be uncomfortable around Ruben Morales, his dogs were another story.

  He held the leashes of both of them, a big, muscular Belgian shepherd and an incongruously paired little Chi-poo, and she reached down to pet both of them. They sniffed her and wagged happily, the big dog’s tail nearly knocking over his small friend.

  That was the thing she loved most about dogs. They were uncomplicated and generous with their affection, for the most part. They never looked at people with that subtle hint of suspicion, as if trying to uncover all their secrets.

  “I wasn’t expecting you,” she admitted.

  “Oh? I made an appointment. The boys both need checkups. Yukon needs his regular hip and eye check and Ollie is due for his shots.”

  She gave the dogs one more pat before she straightened and faced him, hoping his sharp cop eyes couldn’t notice evidence of her accelerated pulse.

  “Your father is still here every Monday and Friday afternoons. Maybe you should reschedule with him,” she suggested. It was a faint hope, but a girl had to try.

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Maybe because he’s your father and knows your dogs?”

  “Dad is an excellent veterinarian. Agreed. But he’s also semiretired and wants to be fully retired this time next year. As long as you plan to stick around in Haven Point, we will have to switch vets and start seeing you eventually. I figured we might as well start now.”

  He was checking her out. Not her her, but her skills as a veterinarian.

  The implication was clear. She had been here three months, and it had become obvious during that time in their few interactions that Ruben Morales was extremely protective of his family. He had been polite enough when they had met previously, but always with a certain guardedness, as if he was afraid she planned to take the good name his h
ardworking father had built up over the years for the Haven Point Veterinary Clinic and drag it through the sludge at the bottom of Lake Haven.

  Dani pushed away her instinctive prickly defensiveness, bred out of all those years in foster care when she felt as if she had no one else to count on—compounded by the difficult years after she married Tommy and had Silver, when she really had no one else in her corner.

  She couldn’t afford to offend Ruben. She didn’t need his protective wariness to turn into full-on suspicion. With a little digging, Ruben could uncover things about her and her past that would ruin everything for her and her girls here.

  She forced a professional smile. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s go back to a room and take a look at these guys. Girls, I’ll be done shortly. Silver, keep an eye on your sister.”

  Her oldest nodded without looking up from her phone, and with an inward sigh, Dani led the way to the largest of the exam rooms.

  She stood at the door as he entered the room with the two dogs, then joined him inside and closed it behind her.

  The large room seemed to shrink unnaturally and she paused inside for a moment, flustered and wishing she could escape. Dani gave herself a mental shake. She was a doctor of veterinary medicine, not a teenage girl. She could handle being in the same room with the one man in Haven Point who left her breathless and unsteady.

  All she had to do was focus on the reason he was here in the first place. His dogs.

  She knelt to their level. “Hey there, guys. Who wants to go first?”

  The Malinois—often confused for a German shepherd but smaller and with a shorter coat—wagged his tail again while his smaller counterpoint sniffed around her shoes, probably picking up the scents of all the other dogs she had seen that day.

  “Ollie, I guess you’re the winner today.”

  He yipped, his big ears that stuck straight out from his face quivering with excitement.

  He was the funniest-looking dog, quirky and unique, with wisps of fur in odd places, spindly legs and a narrow Chihuahua face. She found him unbearably cute. With that face, she wouldn’t ever be able to say no to him if he were hers.