by T. L. Haddix
Streetlight Graphics Publishing
A division of Streetlight Graphics
Spring Valley
Copyright © 2016 by Tabatha L. Haddix. All rights reserved.
First Edition: September 2016
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Streetlight Graphics Publishing, a division of Streetlight Graphics.
Also by T. L. Haddix
The Firefly Hollow Series:
Firefly Hollow
Butterfly Lane
Dragonfly Creek
Cattail Ridge
Cricket Cove
Stormking Road
Fern Valley
Snapdragon Way
Stardust Valley
Kathy
Spring Valley
The Shadows Collection:
Secrets in the Shadows
Under the Moon’s Shadow
Shadows from the Grave
Hidden in the Shadows
In the Heart’s Shadow
Deception in the Shadows
Seduction in the Shadows
Redemption in the Shadows
Writing as Mallory Love:
Capturing Colleen (Sunset Motel, Book One)
Seducing Samantha (Sunset Motel, Book Two)
You can connect with T.L. on Facebook and her website:
www.tlhaddix.com
www.facebook.com/tlhaddix
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Chapter One
January 1994
Caleb Eugene Walker loved making pretty women cry. Yes, it was the favorite part of his job as a veterinarian. That, breaking the hearts of small children, and kicking puppies. He loved the tear-inducing part of his job so much that every time it happened—which was too often for his liking—he threatened to quit and go shovel horse crap for his father. Usually, those threats were expressed only in his head or muttered in the privacy of the small barn adjacent to his house.
Today? Today he’d come within one hair of calling his boss and turning in his resignation on the spot.
But Walker, as he was known to all but a select few people, had never been a quitter, even though life had thrown him reason after reason to be just that. His adoptive father, Trent Wells, had told him more than once that his stubbornness was a blessing sent from God to keep him on the path forward. His father had also said numerous times, usually in the exasperated tone loving parents used when they’d reached the end of their patience, that Walker’s pure muleheadedness was going to get him in trouble one of these days.
Right now, that obstinate personality, as well as the knowledge that he’d let down a lot of people if he quit, was the only thing holding Walker back. That, a hefty pile of student loan debt, a house that seemed always to be in need of repair, and two horses depending on him for food and shelter.
The pretty woman in question was Brooke Harrison, the veterinary clinic’s receptionist. She was supposed to be attending a birthday party for one of Walker’s sort-of cousins, as was he. Instead, she and her father had come into the clinic emergently with the family dog, who’d been hit by a car. Since Walker was on call, he’d been paged in.
As soon as he saw Belle, he’d known there was nothing he could do to save her. There was too much damage, too many internal injuries. That hadn’t stopped him from trying, though he’d called it quits before doing anything that would prolong her suffering.
The stricken look on Judge Harrison’s face as he gave Walker the authorization to put Belle down and Brooke’s harsh sobs afterward would stay with Walker for a while.
“I’ll clean up here, Gina,” he told the vet tech who’d come in to assist. “You go on home.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.” She eyed him with concern, but they’d known each other long enough that he knew she’d respect his need to be alone. “Don’t stay too late tonight.”
“I won’t.”
Once the clinic was empty, he went to the back to check on all their patients. He was somewhat heartened to see that a cat who’d been very sick just a couple of days ago was continuing to make improvements, but the blow of losing Belle still weighed heavily on his mind.
By the time he’d finished his rounds, handled the cleanup of the emergency room they’d used, and fiddled with some paperwork he’d been needing to address, it was well past four in the afternoon.
He could have gone back to his grandfather’s house for the party, but he’d lost all interest in being around other people. “I’ll grab a sack of burgers on the way home and call it a night.”
Weary and feeling old at just twenty-eight, he locked the clinic up tight and hit the road. The drive home wasn’t long, providing just enough time for him to start to unwind and breathe a little. He used the quiet to go through the mantra he’d learned to use after hard, unkind days. That mantra started and ended with reminding himself where he’d come from and how far he’d gone.
When he was thirteen, his mother had given up on her longstanding plan to marry Walker’s father, Gene Sullivan. After all she’d been through as Gene’s mistress—following him from Kentucky to Illinois to Missouri and then back to Kentucky, staying with him through two failed marriages, having his illegitimate child—she’d finally thrown in the towel. And she’d decided to marry someone else instead, someone who didn’t want a surly teenage stepson
“I have to think about the future, Caleb. I’m getting older, and things aren’t as pretty or as perky as they used to be,” Doris had told him as she drove down the winding road in Laurel County, Kentucky, that would deliver him to Trent Wells. “The goods are getting a little faded, and I have to consider that when I make my decisions. Getting older is hell on women. Don’t you ever doubt it. Since Euell doesn’t want children and I can’t pass up this opportunity to secure my future, this is the only option we have. Besides, you’ll like this place. I grew up next to them, you know, and they’re a good family. You’ll have brothers and sisters, and maybe someday we’ll be together again.”
Despite her words, Walker hadn’t thought she’d actually leave him, not for good. Euell wasn’t the first man his mother had left his father for. She’d never stayed with any of them longer than a few weeks, usually only until Gene was back in town or they’d made up over whatever spat they’d had. Walker was used to being left on someone’s doorstep here or there for a short time. If he was lucky, he knew and liked the people. If not, well, he’d learned to keep his head down and bide his time.
He’d never met this Wells family, had only heard of them a time or two when his mother would reminisce with friends from Laurel County about old times. Most of the things he’d heard led him to believe they were wealthy and had a tendency to look down their noses at people who didn’t have as much as them. That was how his mother seemed to feel, anyhow.
So he wasn’t sure why she was planning to drop him off at one of their houses. She’d said she’d gone to school with Trent, who was grown with a family of his
own. A family that probably wouldn’t take kindly to adding Walker to their numbers.
Resigned that his life was going to be utter misery for the next few weeks, Walker didn’t protest. It was the middle of winter—a bitterly cold snap, at that—and so long as he was able to stay warm and reasonably well fed, he figured he’d be coming out ahead.
Plus, he was big enough now that if anyone in the family tried anything sketchy with him, he could actually fight them off. That had only happened once before, when he was eight, and all things considered, he’d been quite lucky. The wife had discovered her husband’s proclivities and thrown a bloody conniption fit that had Doris running back to Missouri before the man could do too much damage to Walker.
At least that was what Walker told himself. Sometimes he felt so damaged by what had happened he was sure the pain showed all over his body, not just in the scars on his thighs and buttocks the man’s cigarette stubs had left. Never mind the things that had been done that hadn’t left physical scars.
However, instead of the sneering, rich snobs he’d expected, Trent and his family had been warm and welcoming. Yes, they had nice houses and a lot of land, but they worked from dawn to dusk on those holdings. They were a raucous bunch, and without a moment’s hesitation—aside from a few scuffles with Trent’s son Theo, who was close to Walker in age—they’d welcomed him with open arms. From the first day Doris had landed him on Trent’s doorstep with barely a “hello, how are you, must be on my way,” they’d made Walker feel as though he was one of the family.
Trent had told Walker some years later that he’d known as soon as they’d met that Walker would be staying with them permanently, so there was no point in pretending he wasn’t.
Thanks to being unable to track Doris down for more than five minutes, Trent and his wife, Cora, hadn’t been able to formally adopt Walker, but they had deep connections in the local legal system that they were willing to use if the need arose, and they made sure Walker believed that. They’d understood that he needed the security of knowing his mother couldn’t just show up and take him away from the people he’d quickly come to love as his own family, and they’d done what was necessary to make that happen.
He still woke some nights in a cold sweat, afraid he’d dreamed it all. If he’d stayed with his mother, God only knew where he’d be now. Certainly not a college graduate with a degree in veterinary medicine, establishing himself as a reputable vet in the town he called home. He rubbed at his chest as he remembered that unstable time before he’d found his place with the Wellses. It felt like a lifetime ago, and in so many ways, it had been.
“But for the grace of God,” he whispered as he passed Trent’s house, tooting the horn as was his habit, just to say hello.
After a quick stop at the house to change clothes and drop off the fast food he’d picked up, Walker headed for the barn where Hoof and Mane were stabled. His lips moved into a quick smile as he greeted the horses, thinking for the thousandth time how ridiculous their names were. But Trent’s granddaughter, Theo’s daughter Lesia, had nicknamed them when Walker had rescued them from an elderly owner unable to care for them, and Hoof and Mane had stuck.
Spending time with the horses helped him come to grips with how awful the day had been. It also gave him time to dwell on the fact that his cousin Amelia had set him up with Brooke. Walker wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that.
It wasn’t that he didn’t find Brooke attractive. To the contrary, he found her tremendously appealing in several ways. But she was the daughter of a judge, a respected and even beloved member of the local community. Though Walker had been mostly raised by Trent and Cora and thought of them as the parents of his heart, Judge Harrison would never accept Walker as a serious contender for Brooke’s hand and heart. Not when that same Judge Harrison had sentenced Walker’s father to twenty years in prison for being a paid arsonist.
Two years earlier, Gene Sullivan had been caught setting fires for one of his old employers. During the course of the lengthy investigation, it had come out that the fire in the feedlot wasn’t the first one Gene had set. In fact, he’d had quite a lucrative career as a torch-for-hire. The entire community was rocked when the investigation uncovered that several local businessmen had used Gene’s services, and some of that shock had turned to a wariness that tainted Walker’s mostly spotless reputation. If he’d not been so closely connected with the Wells family, he’d have been lucky to be able to get a job digging ditches, much less working as a vet.
He chuckled humorlessly as he patted the chestnut mare’s neck. “Life in a small town, Mane. Beats the big city, but it gets a little claustrophobic sometimes.”
And lonely, if he was honest with himself. That loneliness was something Walker had resigned himself to after a couple of disastrous relationships in his early twenties. He’d had a wonderful example, set by Trent and Cora, as to what a marriage should be, but he also had his mother’s example that he’d been burned by—literally. After trying to settle down somewhat with two very wrong women, he’d decided he was better off not setting himself up for more disappointment.
“Some things really are in the blood, Hoof.”
He made sure the horses were bedded down for the night, then he headed in to get cleaned up and get some food. All the while, he tried to shake the sadness that had settled on him like a worn coat.
“It’s just that you know Brooke, and she’s a friend. You know how much she and the judge doted on that dog, and you saw how hurt they were to lose her. That’s all it is.”
That was all he’d let it be, Cupid-inclined cousins be damned.
Chapter Two
By nine o’clock, Brooke Harrison was starting to get something of a grip on her grief. Her father, on the other hand, was simply distraught. He was trying to hide how upset he was, but Brooke was a daddy’s girl, and she knew the man well. She also knew he was itching to get out, most likely to visit his supersecret girlfriend. The one no one was supposed to know about, but since it was a small town, everyone did. The townsfolk just liked and respected him too much to tease him.
“How can I help, Dad?” She sat on the arm of the couch beside him and rubbed his shoulders. “Tell me what to do.”
“I don’t know that anything can help, sweetheart.” He sighed. “I might take a drive, go see an old friend. Will you be all right here by yourself?”
She pressed her lips together to keep from smiling, not wanting to offend him. She liked Dr. Jeanette Bruce, who was her personal doctor and one of the top OB/GYNs in the region, and the last thing she wanted to do was interfere. “I’ll be fine. I was thinking about visiting a friend myself.” She stood and went to the window that overlooked the backyard, though she couldn’t see anything beyond where the light fell from inside the house.
“A friend, you say?” The judge’s tone was shrewd, and his reflection in the window showed a face full of speculation. “Anyone I know?”
Trying to keep her movement casual, she crossed her arms as she shrugged. “Just a friend. I might stay here and try to read. I don’t know. Think you’ll be back tonight or…?”
Arlen joined her at the window, hands clasped behind his back. “I was thinking not. But if you need me, you can always call.”
Brooke leaned into him. “I’ll be fine, Dad.”
He hugged her. “Just be careful. If your ‘friend’ is who I think he is, he’s as skittish as a feral cat.”
Astounded, she stared after him as he left the room. “I beg your pardon?”
“Dr. Walker, isn’t it?” he called from the hall.
Face feeling as hot as the surface of the sun, she followed him to the door. “I don’t—he isn’t—we’re not…” She finally gave up with a groan. She’d had feelings for Caleb pretty well since the first day she’d met him at the veterinary clinic, and there was no use pretending otherwise. “He’d probably die from mortification if I just turned u
p on his doorstep. Amelia, not Caleb, asked me to the party tonight. He didn’t even know I was supposed to be there. We just work together.”
Arlen chuckled, jingling his keys. “Your mother just ‘showed up’ at my apartment one night. Nine months later, we had your brother. Make sure you’re protected if you do go.”
“Daddy!”
While her mouth was open with shock, he kissed her forehead. “Love you, sweetheart.”
“You too. Drive safe,” she said, watching as he went down the walk, a hand tossed up to show her he’d heard her. After closing the door, she slumped against it with a reluctant laugh then muttered, “Where do you think I got the idea?”
But her amusement didn’t last. The house was too empty, too quiet without Belle.
The dog, an unlikely mix of basset hound and German shepherd, had been her mother’s. Betty Harrison had treated the dog almost as a fourth child, and Belle had supported Betty through unsuccessful cancer treatments in a way that only a beloved animal can. In the six years since Betty’s death, Arlen and Brooke had doted on the dog, needing the connection she provided to Betty. In a way, losing Belle felt like losing the last part of Betty, and that was the aspect Brooke was having the hardest time dealing with.
But enough of that. She had to get her mind away from that path.
Looking down at the soft, fuzzy pajamas she wore, she laughed. “You can’t go out like this. Not if you’re bent on seduction.”
Whether she went to Caleb Walker’s house or not, she knew she couldn’t stand to be home alone tonight. And if she did get a wild, brave hair and decide to show up at Caleb’s, she needed to be wearing something that might make him less likely to turn her away. Feeling as nervous as that feral cat her father had mentioned, she headed upstairs.
When she’d met Amelia Campbell at the vet clinic a couple of weeks back, Brooke had hated the other woman on sight. After all, she was petite and blond and stunning, everything Brooke felt like she wasn’t, and Amelia had an infectious laugh that other people stopped to listen to. Additionally, Amelia had asked for Caleb by his given name, which Brooke knew only a few people used, so right away she’d been aware that Amelia had a connection to him.
