Seasons of the Heart

by Susette Williams

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS:

  Falling in Love

  Winter Chill

  Spring Break

  Heated Summer

  Falling in Love

  Seasons of the Heart novella series

  By Susette Williams

  Published by Family Friendly Fiction

  ©2012 by Susette Williams

  Cover Art ©2012 by Nathaniel Williams

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to God for giving me inspiration and the desire to write; my husband, Rob, and my six children (Delilah, Eric, Melissa, Gabrielle, Nehemiah and Nathaniel) for encouraging me and allowing me to pursue a writing career. A special thank you to all of you, the readers, who give me a reason to write and share my stories—Thank You!

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter One

  Golden Glory thrashed in the straw on the dirt floor, a shaft of sunlight illuminating the horse's perked ears and frightened eyes. Katie pulled her T-shirt over her nose to ward off the stench from the day's droppings, which wafted through the too-warm-air of the dilapidated barn.

  “What do you want me to do?” Katie Morgan asked her veterinarian boss, Wade McAlester. She stood behind him in the confined space of the horse’s stall as he checked the position of the foal in its mother’s uterus.

  “Kneel down and speak softly to her. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be too much longer.”

  Straw crunched beneath her feet as she went around to the horse’s head and knelt. Carefully, she pulled off her gloves and laid them aside, not wanting to startle the horse that was already preoccupied with her own discomfort. Katie pulled at the T-shirt that clung to her perspiration-drenched chest.

  “Easy girl. It won’t be long now. Your baby will be here soon." Somewhere in the barn a pig squealed while Katie stroked Golden Glory’s soft blonde mane. "Shh.”

  “She gonna be okay, doc?” Fred Eaker leaned against the wooden stall and frowned. This was his horse, Golden Glory’s first colt.

  Wade's friend didn’t want to lose his prize mare’s foal. “I’ll do everything I can.”

  He’d helped to deliver other animals around Fred’s ranch. It was no wonder the old man had such confidence in him. Fred didn’t care what university Wade went to, just that he could do the job.

  Bringing Katie along was a good thing. It was the only way she was going to get a chance at becoming a veterinarian in this county. Several of the locals had an aversion to students from the college coming around ‘helping’ them out with their livestock. After a couple students tried mock bull fighting with Old Man Jenkin’s bull, quite a few of the locals turned their noses up at the students in general because of their wild behavior.

  Some of the old timers were still funny about having women in this profession, too. Not that he really understood why. Whatever the reason, Wade was determined to help Katie succeed. The more he brought her on his rounds, the more the locals became accustomed to her. It was only a matter of time until she gained their trust. He was sure of it. She’d already worked her way into his heart.

  Golden Glory grunted and her eyes widened in distress. “It’s okay girl. I’ll help you. Easy.”

  Katie stroked the horse’s mane softly, offering words of reassurance as Wade reached in to guide the foal. She didn’t have time to look at Fred who stood erect, anxious in his helplessness or she would have seen his fist clenched while he waited in frustrated anticipation. With all that was going on, Wade noticed. Whenever Katie was near all of his senses went on alert, but he made sure to conceal his feelings safely from her view, as well as others.

  “I can’t… can’t get the other hoof.” Wade’s brow filled with perspiration and his normally soft, brown locks clung to it. His tanned muscles flexed as he strained to guide the colt out of its mother’s womb. “There. I’ve got you now.”

  As the foal slid out, Katie beamed, her eyes shining with admiration. When Wade finished caring for the horse and the foal, he stood and stretched. Katie flung herself into his arms, nearly knocking him off balance.

  “I knew you could do it.” She planted a kiss on his cheek.

  Wade longed to embrace her in his arms. Instead, he forced himself to keep his arms at his sides while she clung to him. The flowery scent of perfume teased his senses and offered a more refreshing smell than the straw and dust in the old barn. He allowed her to hug him a couple moments longer than he should have. “I’m a little too messy to be hugging. Not to mention we have company.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.” Katie released him immediately. “You better go wash up.”

  Wade lowered his gaze, his attention drawn to her snug fitting T-shirt. She smiled innocently and started to look down to see what he was staring at on her shirt when the sound of metal clanking and the muffled curse brought their attention back to Fred.

  Katie smiled at Fred, who only raised his eyebrow in reply.

  “Sorry. Things still seem to be a bit out of place since Martha died. How’s my horse? Think she’ll be okay, doc?”

  “I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Wade said over his shoulder as he washed off with the hose. “She’s a little tired, but she’ll be fine.” He then told Fred what to watch for and instructed him to call if anything out of the ordinary happened.

  Katie observed Fred as he removed his Stetson and wiped his brow with his forearm before replacing his hat. He reminded her of an old-timer out of one of the ageless westerns she’d seen on TV, except he was in color. Her mood became solemn when she thought of him having to go it alone without his wife by his side.

  “Take it easy, Fred. Give us a call if you need anything.” Katie patted the foal that was nuzzled close to its mother.

  Fred tipped his hat in farewell. Wade held the door of his truck open for Katie to get in. A moment later, he climbed in beside her and they waved goodbye to Fred as they drove away and headed back to Katie’s house.

  Her brown eyes absorbed Wade’s features. Razor stubble lined his firm jaw. Not that he smelled delightful at the moment, none-the-less, he was an attractive man. Katie looked around the interior of his truck. If the saying, cleanliness is next to Godliness was true, then Wade walked with God. She'd never known anyone to be so neat.

  “What’s on your mind? Thinking about your test?” Wade glanced at her.

  “No. Well, yes. That’s been on my mind too, but I was curious about something else.”

  Wade stole another peek at Katie while he drove. His heart clenched at the frown on her face. What could trouble his beautiful twenty-two year old helper? When her normal sparkling green eyes lit up, his heart woul
d practically stop. Now, they were a deep, intent brown. “What’s bothering you, Katie?”

  “Nothing’s bothering me. I’m just curious. How come you haven’t gotten married yet?”

  Wade gulped. “What?”

  “Marriage. How come you’ve never tied the knot with anyone?” Katie stared at him in curious fascination. "A man whose thirty should be married by now."

  Wade thought about how to answer her. Why wasn’t he married? This still wasn’t the right time to address that with her, but he would… one day. “When the time is right, God will reveal the right woman to me.”

  “So, you’re waiting on God? Haven’t you tried helping Him a bit?”

  Wade chuckled. “Like how?”

  “Like maybe going out on a date.”

  His eyebrows raised as his heart skipped a beat and he gripped the steering wheel tighter. “Well, of course I’ve thought about dating.”

  “Really?” she asked. “Then would you mind if I fixed you up with a friend?”

  Wade frowned. He didn't want to date her friends, he wanted to date her. But given that she was interning at his vet clinic, it didn't seem appropriate to ask her until she was no longer working for him.

  “She’s really nice and very pretty," Katie said. "Her name is Margaret Stephens and she goes to college with me. She also plans on becoming a model.”

  He focused on the road. “I didn’t know they had modeling at your University. Isn’t Missouri a bit far from the normal modeling strips?”

  “Well, a little,” she conceded. “She’s getting a degree. She mentioned something about having a career to fall back on. That’s a good sign. It means she’s responsible.”

  “Are you trying to sell her to me?”

  Katie sighed. He didn’t deserve to spend his life alone. If he wasn’t going to take matters into his own hands, then she was going to help him. “It’s not that. I thought most guys your age were married by now. I’d hate to see you grow old and spend the rest of your life alone.”

  He gritted his teeth. “Thanks for your vote of confidence. I think I can find my own dates.”

  Katie laid her hand gently on his arm. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m just concerned. You’re a wonderful man and a great friend. You deserve to be happy.”

  If they hadn’t arrived at her place just then, he would have pursued the subject further. Why couldn’t she see that he was happy? Only one thing could make him happier and it wasn’t dating the model, whatever her name was. “I’m going to go home and shower. I’ll be back to help you study in an hour.”

  Katie sighed. “All right.”

  ♥ ♥ ♥

  Less than an hour later, Wade stood on Katie’s front porch, showered and refreshed. He steadied the pizza box in one hand as he rang her doorbell with the other.

  Katie answered the door in a pair of gray sweats and a University of Missouri T-shirt. Damp raven strands of hair lightly soaked the shoulders of her shirt. “I see you took a shower, too.”

  “Yeah, thought I’d get comfortable. What’s this? Mm. It smells delicious. You didn’t have to bring dinner, but thanks.” Katie grinned, retrieved the box from his outstretched hand and headed for the kitchen. “Ooh, sausage. My favorite. You really shouldn’t have. You keep bringing me food every time you come over to help me and I’m going to gain five pounds.”

  “You can afford it,” Wade replied, as he eyed her slim figure. It took an effort to raise his eyes to her face as she turned and gave him an indignant look.

  “I can’t afford to gain weight and you can’t afford to keep spoiling me.”

  He chuckled. “You could always cook for me instead.”

  Katie blushed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about your being hungry. But see, this goes to show you, you could use a wife.”

  He didn’t dispute that, but he didn’t like where he thought this conversation might be headed again. If only she had eyes for him. However, the fear of pushing her away kept him quiet. He had to be patient.

  Lord, help her to have eyes for me and if not… help me to learn how to deal with it.

  “You make a great lasagna. I think I could stomach your cooking again,” he teased. Apparently it helped to distract her because she grabbed a dish towel and flung it at him.

  “Humph. Stomach my cooking? See if I cook for you again." Katie grabbed two plates from the cabinet. "We’d better get busy. I can’t afford to fail Anatomy.”

  They both filled their plates. Wade followed Katie into the living room, each taking a seat on opposite ends of her faded blue and white plaid couch. Hand-made crafts adorned beige walls. Behind them, hung a wooden plaque with two cows cramped together on a swing. ‘Moo-ve Over’. He smiled to himself. It never failed, every time he came close to the couch, he couldn’t help reading it. He thought of sitting closer to her. After all, he'd be taking the cow's advice. But as usual, he resisted the temptation.

  Across the room hung a wooden shelf occupied with a ceramic cow he’d given her for Christmas. Its leg and tail hung lazily over the side of the shelf. After Katie inherited her grandmother’s home, she had decorated it with touches of country charm. He didn’t mind all the craft sales she’d dragged him to, it had always given him ideas of what she liked and what he could buy her to make her smile and hug his neck. Warmth filled him as he thought of her in his arms.

  He felt comfortable here. It was more than the furnishings that made him feel at home. It was her. She filled the empty space in his heart and the lonely hours he would have spent doing nothing of great importance to kill time between work and bed. She made his life almost complete. The only thing that could make it better would be coming home to her, night after night.

  It wasn’t the fear of her laughing at him if he confessed his undying love. He feared he’d lose her friendship. It had been at least a year ago that she told him she couldn’t afford to entertain the thought of dating anyone. School was too important to her and she had no intentions of becoming entangled with any man and putting aside her goals for a family. A degree first, then there would be time for a husband and a family. With that proclamation, he’d decided to wait. Patiently if possible.

  An hour rapidly turned into two as they delved into Katie’s textbook and notes. Yawning, she stretched in order to relieve her aching muscles before she continued. “Let’s see, the infraorbital canal is mounted on a septum that partly divides the cavity into something or other.”

  Wade’s brows rose in amusement. “Divides the cavity into something or other? You mean, like into a rostral maxillary sinus laterally, and a ventral conchal sinus medially?”

  Katie laughed. “Yeah, that something. Why can’t it be something simple like the head bones connected to the neck bone?”

  As Katie broke into song, he couldn’t resist tracing his fingers down the trail on her back, from head bone, to neck bone, to her spine. She shivered and giggled in response to his caress. Without warning, she reached over and began to tickle him. Not that he was ticklish; he jumped because her touch gave him a heady feeling. There was only one anatomy he wanted to study. Hers.

  The flowery cologne she wore had to be exotic because it was driving him wild. He grabbed her around the waist and held her to him in hopes of stopping her tantalizing assault. Finally, her body stilled in his arms, their gazes locked momentarily before his traveled down to rest on a pair of sensuous ruby-red lips. She laughed and he watched as her mouth parted, almost inviting him to investigate intimately. He was so fascinated with his conquest, he barely heard her holler.

  “Uncle. Uncle.” She laughed and pressed her hands against his chest.

  “Uncle?” Wade snapped back into reality, confused as to why she would call him uncle.

  “I give. Uncle. You win.” She pushed herself to a standing position, laughing merrily as if they were kids wrestling together.

  Would she ever see him as more than a big brother figure? Or a friend? Would she ever want to get to know him as a man? A man
whose sole desire was to see her happy. He loved to see her eyes sparkle when she laughed or somber when she turned serious. If she had eyes for him.

  “It’s getting late. I think we should call it a night.” Wade stood and headed for the door, not dwelling on the look of surprise that registered on her face.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve kept you late enough helping me." Katie held the screen door open. "Thank you. I’d never get through half my classes without your help. Are you picking me up in the morning?” She waited for his response.

  Not even bothering to turn around, he called over his shoulder, “I’ll be here.”

  He didn't let Katie hear his whispered, “As always.”

  Chapter Two

  One whiff outside of Katie’s front door gave Wade an idea as to what was cooking inside. He inhaled once more before ringing the doorbell. He had planned to take Katie out for breakfast. Instead, it looked like he was in for a semi-pleasant surprise.

  Katie’s welcoming smile was a bonus to any morning. He opened the screen door while she held onto the wooden door, allowing him entry. “Smells wonderful.”

  “You like my perfume?” she asked.

  “I was referring to breakfast.” Wade leaned close to her neck, her hair tickling his nose. The fragrance of her cologne awakened his senses as he inhaled its flowery scent. “You smell wonderful, too.”

  “Behave. Breakfast will be ready soon.” Katie pushed him away and laughed before she left him to close the door.

  He followed her into the small kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot on the counter. Steam rose from the mug and with it the scent of rich chocolate. He smiled to himself before he took a sip. “So, what’s for breakfast?" Wade glanced at the stove. "Mm. Fried eggs, biscuits, and gravy. My favorite.”