by Mia Ross
“Just like that?” When he nodded, she gave him the quick embrace that Josh recalled from his own childhood. “Such a clever young man you are. Thank you for showing me.”
“This one for marble cookies isn’t hard,” he said in a nudging tone. “You could take Bailey and me to the store to get the ingredients, and we’ll help you make it while you’re watching us tonight.”
“What a wonderful idea,” she said as Heather and Bailey came down the stairs from their apartment. “Would you like to help Parker and me try out a new recipe, Bailey?”
The little girl stood on tiptoe to see what all the fuss was about, and her eyes rounded with interest. “Those look really good.”
“Grammy’s will be even better,” Parker assured her confidently. “Just wait and see.”
“Then we’d best get started,” Maggie said briskly, holding out a hand for each of them. “Let’s see if we can finish them before the grown-ups are done with their meeting.”
“Save me some, would ya?” Josh asked, rubbing his stomach.
Parker gave him a sour look, and Maggie laughed. “We’ll make an extra batch, so there will be plenty for all of us. We’ll see you up in Heather’s apartment when you’re finished.”
As she left with her assistant chefs, Erin stood at the counter, shaking her head. “I guess the way to a guy’s heart really is through his stomach.”
“Mine, anyway,” Josh teased, strolling over to open the door. “Cam’s gonna feed us, right?”
“Didn’t you have dinner?” his sister demanded.
“I only had five minutes, so it was shower or eat. I figured people would like it better if I was clean.”
She wrinkled her nose and sailed past him, muttering something unflattering as she went. Grinning, Josh turned his attention to Heather. “And how was your day?”
“Busy, but I’m starting to get the hang of how the center operates.”
He picked up on the hesitation in her voice. “You sound a little nervous, Doc.”
“I am. I don’t know anyone outside of your family, so this could be awful.”
“Or it could be awesome. You never know.”
She gave him the skeptical look that he’d quickly learned was more habit than part of her character. “Are you always so positive?”
“Mostly. Some folks think it’s annoying.”
“Well, I think it’s sweet. I hope you never lose it.”
Beneath the cautionary tone he caught a thread of warmth, and he couldn’t keep back a smile. “I’ll do my best.”
The café stood next to Erin’s shop, and as they walked through the open double doors, they discovered that the committee of a dozen had taken over a corner booth in the main dining room. Cam stood at one end, arms folded while he listened to his wife do what she did best. Take charge.
“So, any ideas, we want to hear them,” she was saying when Josh and Heather came in to stand beside Cam. Erin’s eyes flicked over, and she stood up to put a big sisterly arm around the new girl in town. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet our fabulous new veterinarian, Heather Fitzgerald. We keep her pretty busy at the rescue center, but she and her niece, Bailey, have generously offered to help with our fund-raising effort. Why don’t we go around the table and introduce ourselves?”
She nodded first to the Sheppards, whom Heather had already met. Josh silently thanked his sister for starting off easy to give Heather some confidence before getting to the strangers. Once they were all acquainted, Heather sat next to Erin, and he slid in next to her supportively, which earned him a grateful smile from their guest.
“Now, on to why we’re all here,” Erin continued. “How to generate a bunch of money in a hurry.”
The list began with the usual, including a community yard sale that Josh privately suspected was a way for people to simultaneously get rid of stuff they didn’t want and donate the money to a good cause. None of the suggestions got a lot of support, and he was beginning to wonder if the townsfolk had finally run out of new ideas.
Then, to his surprise, Heather raised her hand halfway, like a kid who wasn’t sure she knew the answer but was willing to take a shot. When Erin nodded at her, Heather took a quiet breath and said, “I’ve been thinking about this, and I came up with something that might be fun. A bachelor dance auction.”
The group rustled with interest, and Erin prompted her to explain.
“When I was in college, my sorority’s house needed a new roof and we didn’t have the money for it. We collaborated with a fraternity to allow their members to be auctioned off for a dance with the highest bidder. It was very popular, and we made a lot of money. They got a percentage of our profits, and we got a new roof.”
“We’ve got plenty of bachelors in town,” Louise Sheppard commented, rattling off several names. Others added more, and Erin scribbled furiously, trying to capture them all.
Josh was enjoying the whole thing until he realized that Heather was eyeballing him. From the calculating look on her face, he figured she had a particular bachelor in mind. Fortunately for him, Erin chose that moment to call for a break, and he stood to escort Heather away from the table for a private word.
“Seriously? Me?”
“You’re a bachelor, aren’t you? Besides, I’ve noticed how the girls in town start drooling whenever they see you. You’d probably bring in a small fortune all by yourself.”
“Well, now, that’s real flattering,” he admitted, grinning at the compliment. “What would I have to do?”
“To make it more of an event, we should let women register for a chance to bid on a dance with their favorite bachelor. It will generate interest and encourage people to attend to see who wins. We can have refreshments and a raffle to bump up the total, but the real draw will be you. All of you,” she clarified quickly.
“One problem, darlin’.” She tilted her head in anticipation. “I don’t dance.”
“Oh, come on,” she scoffed with a laugh. “You must’ve managed to do a little of it at your prom, or at a family wedding or something.”
“Nope. I know my strengths, and that ain’t one of ’em.”
She took a few moments to absorb his revelation, then gave him one of those feminine looks any guy worth his salt knew meant trouble. “What if I taught you? Then would you agree to be part of the auction?”
“Are you nuts? My feet are twice the size of yours. I’d probably crush every one of your toes in the first ten minutes.”
“It’s not that hard to learn a basic waltz. You count to three and make your steps match the music. It’s not like you have to be able to do the tango or anything complicated like that.” Her smile deepening, she went in for the kill. “Let’s be honest. Any girl who’s bidding on a dance with you is going to be much more interested in flirting with you than in how well you dance.”
“So you’re gonna dangle me out there like a big ol’ piece of meat at the zoo, is that it?”
“For charity,” she reminded him with a sly smile. “To rebuild the playground for the kids in time for summer vacation. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the money you bring in puts us over the top.”
“Well, since you put it like that, how could I say no?”
* * *
What a difference a few days can make, Heather thought as she pulled into the clinic’s parking lot the following Friday morning. She and Bailey had been in their new home almost two weeks now, and they’d gradually settled into a routine that seemed to work for them. Thanks to the kind residents of Oaks Crossing—especially the Kinleys—Bailey was finally beginning to show signs of overcoming the tragedy that had yanked her father out of her life so abruptly.
Because she was less worried about her niece, Heather was coming to terms with her own grief, and it felt like things were on the upswing for both of them. One
of the best moments came when she walked through the clinic’s front door with a very welcome guest.
“No way!” Sierra cheered, hurrying around the tall counter to greet her. “Is this the same kitten?”
After some long nights and plenty of TLC, it was hard to recognize the bedraggled foundling in the fluffy, playful creature Annabelle had become. Blinking against the fluorescent lights, she gazed up at the vet tech with wide eyes that had changed into a brilliant blue that Heather knew would be their permanent color. Offering up a dainty meow, she cocked her head in a pose so adorable, Heather was fairly certain that the little darling could win a prize just about anywhere.
“Oh, look at you,” Bekah crooned, reaching out to take her. Pulling her in close, the mom-to-be sighed as the kitten playfully pawed her cheek. “What a sweetheart you are.”
“I thought she might like to come and get acquainted with her littermates,” Heather explained in a professional manner that clearly wasn’t fooling either of them. Giving in, she laughed. “Okay, I thought it would be fun if we could all have a turn playing with her. Happy?”
“I knew there was a good heart in there the second I met you,” Sierra announced.
“You sound surprised by that.”
“Well,” the young woman hedged, then seemed to decide it was time to fess up. “Your résumé was really impressive, and during your online interview with Erin that I sat in on, you seemed kind of—”
After a moment, Heather prodded, “Kind of what? It’s okay to be honest with me, Sierra. I can take it.”
“Chilly,” Bekah answered for her, quickly adding, “but then we met you and it was obvious that we just had a bad connection that day. Satellite images can be tricky sometimes, and we don’t get the best reception here in the hills.”
“Unfortunately, that’s not the first time I’ve heard that from someone,” Heather confided with a frown. “My mom always says it’s my light hair and eyes that make me look icy when people first meet me.”
“Sure,” Sierra agreed immediately, nodding. “That’s it.”
“But after talking to you for five seconds, folks know otherwise,” Bekah chimed in with a smile.
She appreciated their attempts to make her feel better, and she tried to brush off their errant first opinion of her by picking up the clipboard that held their updated schedule for the day. In truth, their revelation pricked her ego more than she’d like to admit. But since there was nothing she could do about people’s views of her, she decided it was best to move on.
“Anyway,” she began in an upbeat tone as she glanced over the handwritten sheet, “is there anything going on today that I need to know about?”
As if in response, the roar of a tractor interrupted their morning briefing. The sudden racket scared Annabelle, and she cowered against Bekah, trying to dig into the sleeve of her T-shirt in search of a safe place to hide.
“Oh, that’s right,” Sierra commented with a laugh. “Josh is bringing some hay in for the baby barn this morning.”
Heather had gotten a full tour of the various sections of the rescue center, but she hadn’t had the time to fully explore the area the staff had given such an appealing nickname. Glancing around, she said, “It looks like you have things under control out here. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get a better look at how you do things for the wild ones.”
“No problem,” Sierra replied. “While you’re there, check out the otter family that came in last night. A mama with three babies—they’re adorable.”
“Otters don’t spend much of their time on dry land. How do you manage to keep them in a barn?”
“Oh, we’re pretty resourceful around here. Go find out for yourself.”
Intrigued by the cryptic answer, Heather tucked a dozing Annabelle against her shoulder and walked down the hallway that led to the adjacent barn. There, she found young critters ranging from an orphaned skunk to a pair of fox kits that one of the day care teachers had found curled up in a corner of her garden shed.
Heather took her time wandering through, admiring the clever enclosures that kept each species safely corralled away from the rest but gave them enough space to roam around. Inside a walled-off spot that had once been a horse’s stall, she found their newest arrivals and couldn’t resist going inside for a closer look.
There, lounging on her back in a bright yellow kiddie pool, a sleek brown otter was floating with three dozing pups sprawled across her stomach. Mama’s front left paw was wrapped in a splint and bandage, and there were telltale stains from the antiseptic that had been used to clean a neatly stitched gash on her jaw. Her wary eyes glittered like obsidian, and it didn’t take much imagination to understand that she was assessing whether or not Heather posed a threat to her brood.
“You’re all right, Mama,” she murmured gently. “No one here is going to hurt you or your babies.”
The otter’s whiskers caught the light while her nose twitched, as if she was considering what Heather had told her. Then, apparently satisfied, she closed her eyes and resumed her napping.
A low chuckle rumbled behind her. “Cute, huh?”
“Very.” Turning, Heather met Josh’s warm blue eyes on the other side of the wooden partition. “I’m wondering how they ended up here, though.”
“When the weather’s so nice, folks are outdoors a lot. A guy found this crew next to his favorite fishing hole, and the mother looked like she’d gone a round or two with something nasty. So he scooped up the whole clan and brought ’em here. Our wildlife rehabber figures they’ll be ready to go back to where they came from in a couple of weeks.”
“That’s wonderful,” Heather said, smiling as Annabelle stretched out with a yawning meow before curling into a sleepy ball again. “Everyone here does such good work.”
Grinning, Josh ran a finger over the kitten’s forehead. “So do you. From the way she looks now, you’d never guess she was so bad off when she first came in.”
“I guess we make a good team.” As soon as she said it, Heather realized those words could easily be misinterpreted and hastened to add, “I mean, the staff and me. I didn’t expect to feel this comfortable in a new place so quickly. It’s nice.”
“It sure is.”
Something else twinkled in his eyes, and she wondered if there was more that he wanted to say to her. She waited for him to continue, but when he didn’t, she jumped in to fill the awkward silence. “So, I hear you’re bringing in some hay for us?”
“Yeah. I was checking on my new cornfield, then started baling and remembered that the feed barn was getting low last time I was here. I dropped most of it off there and brought the rest down so I don’t have to make an emergency run later on.”
“How’s your special corn doing?”
“Better than I expected. Prices are holding steady for now, so the end result looks promising. I told Mike about it yesterday, and he was impressed.”
“Good for you.” Then what he’d said about his schedule sank in, and she asked, “You were in the fields earlier this morning, when it was dark?” He nodded as if hours of extra work were no big deal to him. “How do you see what you’re doing?”
“Well, now,” he replied in an exaggerated drawl, “a few years back they came up with these newfangled things called headlights. They do the job, and then some.”
Before she knew what she was doing, Heather rolled her eyes and made a face that she hadn’t used since she was about ten years old. It was childish and unprofessional, and she immediately regretted it. “Josh, I’m sorry. That was rude.”
“No, it was funny,” he corrected her with a grin. “I didn’t know you had that kind of sass in you, so it was a cool surprise.”
Cool surprise? Had he really just complimented her for acting like a brat? Raised to behave properly no matter the circumstances, she wasn’t sure what to
make of his reaction. Then again, the Kinleys had all struck her as casual, friendly people who tolerated a wide range of personalities, from reserved Mike to assertive Erin to the unapologetic smart aleck Drew.
Clearly, Josh had learned a different way of living than she had, which probably explained his grounded, easygoing attitude. Her strict upbringing and ambitious goals had made her who she was, and she was proud of what she’d accomplished. But now that she’d met someone from a background so markedly different from her own, she couldn’t help wondering if in being so driven, she’d been missing out on something just as important.
She’d adored Bailey from the moment she was born, but now their relationship had a deeper significance for both of them. They’d always been family, but now they were a family, albeit a small one. Since this was new territory for Heather, she figured it couldn’t hurt to learn a thing or two from a large, loving group like the Kinleys.
“Heather?”
When her brain looped back to the present, she realized that Josh had been waiting for her to say something. “Hmm?”
“I meant that as a good thing,” he confided with a sheepish look. “You might not’ve taken it that way, though. If you didn’t, I apologize.”
His forlorn expression made her think of a big, overzealous dog who was dreading a scolding for jumping up and ruining her dress. “No, you were fine. I’ve just never heard anyone say that about me, so I wasn’t sure how to respond. You like sassy women?”
She hadn’t meant to add that last part out loud, and she cringed at how it sounded. Then, to her astonishment, he laughed.
“Are you kidding? Have you met the ladies in my family? Loads of spunk, every last one of ’em. Even Abby.”
That was a dodge if ever she’d heard one, and she tilted her head in a chiding gesture. “You didn’t exactly answer my question.”
Grinning now, he rested his elbows on the wall between them and leaned in close enough for her to catch the scent of straw and sunshine this charming country boy carried with him everywhere he went. “Yeah, I like sassy women. There aren’t enough of you in the world, far as I’m concerned.”
