His Valentine Bride

by Cindy Kirk

  “Fine,” she muttered. She turned and pushed through the doors into the waiting room, seething with frustration.

  After quickly sending a message to Ridge updating him on the situation and reminding her brother he would have to pick his daughter, Destry, up from the bus stop, she plopped onto one of the uncomfortable gray benches and grabbed a magazine off the side table.

  She was leafing through it, barely even registering the headlines in her worry over her dog, when the bells on the door chimed and a little boy of about five burst through, followed a little more slowly by an older girl.

  “Daaad! We’re here!”

  “Hush.” A round, cheerful-looking woman who looked to be in her early sixties followed more slowly. “You know better than that, young man. Your father might be in the middle of a procedure.”

  “Can I go back and find him?” the girl asked.

  “Because Joni isn’t out here either, they must both be busy. He won’t want to be bothered. You two sit down here and I’ll go back to let him know we’re here.”

  “I could go,” the girl said a little sulkily, but she plopped onto the bench across from Caidy. Like father, like daughter, she thought. This was obviously the new vet’s family, and his daughter, at least, seemed to share more than blue eyes with her father.

  “Sit down,” the girl ordered her brother. The boy didn’t quite stick his tongue out at his sister, but it was a close one. Instead, he ignored her—probably a much worse insult, if Caidy remembered her own childhood with three pesky brothers—and wandered over to stand directly in front of Caidy.

  The little boy had a widow’s peak in his brown hair and huge dark-lashed blue eyes. A Caldwell trait, apparently.

  “Hi.” He beamed at her. “I’m Jack Caldwell. My sister’s name is Ava. Who are you?”

  “My name is Caidy,” she answered.

  “My dad’s a dog doctor.”

  “Not just dogs,” the girl corrected. “He’s also a cat doctor. And sometimes even horses and cows.”

  “I know,” Caidy answered. “That’s why I’m here.”

  “Is your dog sick?” Jack asked her.

  “In a way. He was hurt on our ranch. Your dad is working on him now.”

  “He’s really good,” the girl said with obvious pride. “I bet your dog will be just fine.”

  “I hope so.”

  “Our dog was hit by a car once and my dad fixed him and now he’s all better,” Jack said. “Well, except he only has three legs. His name is Tri. My dad says it’s ’cause he always tries hard, even though he only has three legs.”

  Despite her worry, she managed a smile, more than a little charmed by the boy—and by the idea of the taciturn veterinarian showing any hint of sweetness.

  “Tri means three,” Ava informed her in a haughty sort of tone. “You know, like a tricycle has three wheels.”

  “Good to know.”

  Before the children could say anything else, the older woman came back through the door leading out of the treatment room, her features set in a rueful smile.

  “Looks like we’re on our own for dinner, kids. Your dad is busy fixing an injured dog and he’s going to be a while. We’ll just go catch some dinner and then head back to the hotel for homework and bed.”

  “You’re staying at the Cold Creek Inn, aren’t you?” Caidy asked.

  The other woman looked a bit wary as she nodded. “I’m sorry. Have we met?”

  “I’m Caidy Bowman. My sister-in-law Laura runs the inn.”

  “You’re Chief Bowman’s sister?” There was a definite warmth in the woman’s voice now, Caidy noticed wryly. Her charmer of a brother often had that effect on those of the female persuasion, no matter their age.

  “I am. Both Chief Bowmans.” With one brother who was the police chief and the other who headed up the fire department, not much exciting happened in town without someone in her family being in the thick of it.

  “How nice to meet you. I’m Anne Michaels. I’m Dr. Caldwell’s housekeeper. Or I will be when he finally gets into his house. With the maids at the inn cleaning our rooms for us, there’s not much for me to do in that department. Right now I’m just the nanny, I suppose.”

  “Oh?”

  The woman apparently didn’t need any more encouragement than that simple syllable. “Dr. Caldwell is building a house on Cold Creek Road. He was supposed to close on it last week, but the contractor ran into some problems and here we are, still staying at the inn. Which is lovely, don’t get me wrong, but it’s still a hotel. After three weeks, all of us are a little tired of it. And now it looks like we’ll be there until after the New Year. Christmas in a hotel. Can you imagine such a thing?”

  Maybe that explained the man’s grouchiness. She felt a little pang of sympathy, then she remembered how he had basically shoved her out of the treatment area. No, he was probably born with that temperament. He and Festus would get along just fine.

  “It must be very frustrating for all of you.”

  “You don’t know the half of it. Two children in a hotel, even a couple of rooms, for all those weeks is just too much. They need space to run. All children do. Why, in San Jose, the children had a huge backyard, complete with a pool and a swing set that rivaled the equipment at the nearest park.”

  “Is that where you’re from, then? California?”

  Anne Michaels nodded and Caidy thought she saw a note of wistfulness in the woman’s eyes that didn’t bode well for the chances of Dr. Caldwell’s housekeeper-slash-nanny sticking around in Pine Gulch.

  Anne watched the children, who were paying them no heed as they played a game on an electronic device Ava had pulled out of her backpack.

  “Yes. I’m from California, born and bred. Not Dr. Caldwell. He’s from back East. Chicago way. But he left everything without a backward look to head west for veterinary school at UC-Davis and that’s where he met the late Mrs. Caldwell. They hired me to help out around the house when she was pregnant with little Jack there and I’ve been with them ever since. Those poor children needed me more than ever after their mother died. Dr. Caldwell too. That was a terrible time, I tell you.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “When he decided to move here to Idaho, he gave me the option of leaving his employment with a glowing recommendation, but I just couldn’t do it. I love those children, you know?”

  Caidy could relate. She loved her niece Destry as fiercely as if the girl were her own. Stepping in to help raise her after her mother walked out on Ridge and their daughter had created a powerful bond between them as unshakable as the Tetons.

  “I’m sure you do.”

  Anne Michaels gave a rueful shake of her head. “Look at me, going on to a perfect stranger. Staying at that hotel all these weeks is making me batty!”

  “Perhaps you could find a temporary rental situation until the house is finished,” she suggested.

  “That’s what I wanted to do but Ben doesn’t think we can find anyone willing to rent us a place for only a few weeks, especially over the holidays.”

  Caidy thought of the foreman’s cottage, empty for the past six months since the young married couple Ridge had hired to help around the ranch had moved on to take a job at a Texas ranch.

  It was furnished with three bedrooms and would probably fit the Caldwells’ needs perfectly, but she was hesitant to mention it. She didn’t like the man. Why on earth would she want him living only a quarter mile away?

  “I could ask around for you if you’d like. We have a few vacation rentals in town that might be available. At least it might give you a little breathing space over the holidays until the house is finished.”

  “How kind you are!” Mrs. Michaels exclaimed.

  A fine guilt pinched at her. If she were truly kind, she would immediately offer the foreman’s cottage.

  “Everyone here in Pine Gulch has been so nice and welcoming to us,” the woman went on.

  “I hope you feel at home here.”

  Again
that wistfulness drifted across the woman’s features like an autumn leaf tossed by the breeze, but she blinked it away. “I’m guessing the dog Dr. Caldwell is working on back there is yours, then.”

  Caidy nodded. “He had a run-in with a bull. When you pit a forty-pound dog against a ton of beef, the bull usually wins.”

  She should be back there with him. Darn it. If she were better at handling confrontations, she would have told Dr. Arrogant that she wasn’t going anywhere. Instead, she was sitting out here fretting.

  “He’s a wonderful veterinarian, my dear. I’m sure your pet will be better before you know it.”

  The border collies at the River Bow Ranch weren’t exactly pets—they were a vital part of the workload. Except for Sadie, anyway, who was too old to work the cattle anymore. She didn’t bother to correct the woman, nor did she express any of her own doubts about the new veterinarian’s competence.

  “I’m hungry, Mrs. Michaels. When are we going to eat?” Bored with the game apparently, Jack had wandered back to them.

  “I think your father is going to be busy for a while yet. Why don’t you and Ava and I go find something? Perhaps dinner at the café tonight would be fun and we can pick something up for your father for later.”

  “Can I have one of the sweet rolls?” he asked, his eyes lighting up as if it were already Christmas morning.

  The housekeeper laughed. “We’ll have to see about that. I’d say the café’s business in sweet rolls has tripled since we came to town, thanks to you alone.”

  “They are delish,” Caidy agreed, smiling at the very cute boy.

  Mrs. Michaels rose to her feet with a creak and a pop of some joint. “It was lovely to meet you, Caidy Bowman.”

  “I’m happy to meet you too. And I’ll keep my eye out for a suitable vacation rental.”

  “You’ll need to take that up with Dr. Caldwell, but thank you.”

  The woman seemed to be efficient, Caidy thought as she watched her herd the children out the door.

  The reception room seemed even more bleak and colorless after the trio left. Though it was just past six, the night was already dark on this, one of the shortest days of the year. Caidy fidgeted, leafing aimlessly through her magazine for a few moments longer, then finally closed it with a rustle of pages and tossed it back onto the pile.

  Darn it. That was her dog back there. She couldn’t sit out here doing nothing. At the very least she deserved to know what was going on. She gathered her courage, took a deep breath and pushed through the door.

  ISBN: 9781460303689

  Copyright © 2013 by Cynthia Rutledge

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