Christmas in Winter Valley

by Jodi Thomas

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  December 17

  Winter Valley

  COOPER FELT SOMEONE poking him. Short little stabs, like a porcupine was bumping against him. All he wanted to do was slide back into the silent blackness, but there was far too much yelling for that to happen.

  “Mr. Holloway, you awake?” a woman yelled, as she patted him so hard it was basically a slap. “I’ve got your leg stabilized, but we need to get you in the house. It’s too cold out here.”

  “Tell me about it,” Coop muttered, but it came out as gibberish. “Go away, porcupine, and let me sleep.” His rant didn’t even sound like words, and he didn’t care.

  “It’s a shack, miss. Not a house,” Tatum said politely. “It don’t even have a bathroom.”

  “Does it have heat?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I know how to build up the fire.”

  “Then help me get him inside. He’s been out in this cold far too long.”

  Cooper managed to open one eye. Seeing a dark coat and a floppy hat, he would have guessed that a man was kneeling near him, but a black braid hung over one shoulder and the voice was definitely female. In truth, she didn’t look much bigger than Tatum. He couldn’t see her face and didn’t really want to.

  She slapped him again. “Mr. Holloway. Stay awake. We’ve got to get you off these rocks.” The next slap came full force.

  Anger outweighed the pain. “I’m hurt, lady. I could have brain damage and you’re only making it worse.” He could have asked what she was doing on his hill overlooking his valley, but self-preservation outweighed curiosity.

  Who knew, maybe the slaps had done him some good. At least his words were making sense.

  “You probably do have brain damage, Mr. Holloway,” the porcupine woman said, as if she thought he was deaf. “No one with any sense would be out walking in slick boots on the side of a snowy ridge, and only the brain-dead would bring a boy up here in this weather.”

  Coop thought of his father. He’d brought one of his sons up here every year since Cooper could remember. “It’s hereditary. A lack of good sense runs in our family on my father’s side. ’Course, my mother couldn’t have been too smart. She married Dad and slept with him at least three times. My brothers and I are proof of that.”

  She wasn’t listening, or maybe he was just talking inside his own head. The sun started to twinkle overhead like a huge star and the icy snow was winking back.

  “Pull your daddy’s boots off,” she said to Tatum. Then she pulled off her coat and put it over Cooper. “We’ve got to get him somewhere warm. He’ll have to help us some, do his part. Stay awake, Mr. Holloway.”

  When he didn’t figure out an answer to her dumb order, she started rattling on to Tatum.

  Cooper groaned. Apparently, she’d given up talking to him directly, and was now giving Tatum orders. That couldn’t be a good sign.

  Cooper stared at the lady’s blue sweater. She appeared to be rather nicely rounded beneath the wool. “I’m not dead.” He smiled. “Hope those nicely rounded things don’t start twinkling.”

  If she heard him, she must have thought he was delusional.

  She was looking at Tatum again. “I don’t think we can carry your daddy. His socks will be less slippery than the boots, but we’ll have to do most of the work, not him. Grab his arm from wrist to elbow and walk close to his left leg. I’ll take his right side.”

  Tatum followed orders.

  Before Cooper could veto the plan, she leaned close. The thought occurred to him that she smelled more like horse than woman. For all he knew she was wild. She must be. Why else would anyone be out here? This was Holloway land. People didn’t just come out here to camp. Maybe Tatum should hang out with her. The kid was probably figuring out that she had more survival skills than he did.

  “Now, Mr. Holloway, I want you to let us pull you up,” she yelled, inches from his face, as if she thought him already bound for the hereafter. “As you stand, put all your weight on your right foot. I made a brace out of boards, so your left leg will be heavy. Try to keep it an inch off the ground. As soon as you can, put your arms around our shoulders and use us as crutches.”

  Cooper didn’t like the idea of walking on ice in his socks, but he didn’t argue. Her plan was better than his, which seemed to be to lie on the rocks until spring.

  Slowly, one step at a time, they made it to the cabin. It wasn’t easy, but they got him to the bunk. Cooper felt like he’d climbed Mount Everest, but all the woman and Tatum did was complain about how hard the trip had been on them.

  Coop eased back on the hard bed and tried to find a spot on his body that didn’t hurt.

  Tatum added wood to the fire.

  The woman seemed to be taking inventory of the place, like she was a Realtor and had the worst listing ever.

  Studying her, he couldn’t find much to admire. Short. About his age. No makeup. Baggy pants. Hiking boots laced to her knees. Blue wool sweater with bumps in the right places. Nice round breasts.

  Coop took a deep breath and decided he had to live because if he died he’d go straight to hell for what he was thinking.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  December 17

  HAYLEY WESTLAND STARED down at Cooper Holloway. All six feet of him. He was dirty, bloody and looked like he hadn’t shaved in days. Surprisingly, he was exactly what she’d expected. Her grandfather had given her the map to this place overlooking Winter Valley and had described its owner as one-half wild and the other half crazy. This had to be the right man.

  She’d heard about the youngest Holloway all her life. Her grandfather, whom she called Pops, used to tell stories about him growing up as untamed as a bobcat on one of the biggest ranches in Texas. Whenever he gave one of his don’t-ever-do-this talks, Cooper was usually the bad example.

  Until she’d reached her teens, she’d thought that he was some kind of myth, like Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill.

  Now, looking at him all bruised and broken, he didn’t seem like a legend. She might be a vet, but since he was half-wild, he could fit in her jurisdiction boundaries of patient. His vitals were strong, but even if they hadn’t been, no ambulance would make it up that hill. She’d spent hours cleaning his wounds and washing away blood.

  Apparently, she was the only cavalry coming to the rescue, and he was a one-man battlefield.

  Hayley would do what she could for his leg and tape up a few places on his head with homemade butterfly patches, but he needed X-rays, a hospital, a specialist, antibiotics and a tetanus shot.

  In full disclosure, she was a very new veterinarian. She had her diploma on the wall of her office and a partnership with Pops. He said he’d take a year, working less and less, helping her get to know her way around, then he planned to go fishing and only come back to check in now and then.

  It seemed a simple plan, but last week he’d called in sick. He’d complained of a terrible cold and asked her to take his calls. She’d said yes before she’d known one call would have her hiking up the tallest hill overlooking Winter Valley.

  But that was yesterday’s problem. Today Hayley had a real emergency on her hands, and she wished Pops was beside her. A dozen things could be going wrong with Cooper, and without X-rays, she couldn’t be sure she was doing the right thing.

  The winter sun would be setting soon and there was no way she’d find her way back to her Jeep, drive to the pass entrance and manage to get back by dark.

  They’d have to stay the night. Warm and safe. She’d have to do what she could to keep him warm.

  No bones sticking out. That was a good sign. He was bleeding from scrapes on both hands, one knee and several places on his chest. He had cuts on his face and his bottom lip. If he’d been in the emergency room, Cooper would have had a specialist working on him. But up here, miles from nowhere, all he had was her, a vet with no supplies to help a human
.

  “Is he going to live?” the sandy-headed boy whispered. Tears were running unchecked down his face, and he was shivering in the crisp air. “You got to tell me, lady. I was starting to like him. It’s all my fault he’s going to die. I’m a death carrier.”

  Hayley put her hand on the kid’s shoulder. As they’d half carried, half dragged Cooper inside, he’d told her his name was Tatum and that Cooper was not his father. “He’s going to live if I have anything to do with it, but whatever happens, you didn’t cause it. Holloway stepped out on an icy slope. That’s his fault, not yours. If he’d rolled a few feet closer to the edge, he wouldn’t have stopped until he’d hit water at the bottom of the valley.”

  Tatum didn’t look like he believed a word, but he made no argument.

  She tried for the fourth time to get a signal on her cell. She had to do more and think fast. “At first light can you saddle one of the horses in the corral and ride for help?”

  Tatum shook his head. “I watched Coop saddle up, but I don’t think I can do it. I’m not even sure where the ranch house is. I came into the valley by following the stream. Coop says I’m a trespasser on his land, but he didn’t say anything about having a house other than this one. I thought he was the first person I ever met poorer than my grandma.”

  “If you can’t ride, you’ll have to be the one to stay with him. I’ll ride down to the pass and call someone to come help as soon as I get a signal.” She tried to smile and look like everything was going to be fine. “I’m a doctor, Tatum. A horse doctor. My grandfather comes up here every year to help with the mustangs. But he’s getting old, so I took his place this year. I had a map, but if I hadn’t heard your signal shot, it would have taken me longer to find you. If Cooper had stayed out much longer, he might have frozen, so you may have saved his life.”

  The kid seemed to relax a bit as she talked.

  “My grandfather said he’d sent up all the supplies I’d need with Cooper, so I decided to park my Jeep down the hill and walk up. It’d take me an hour to walk back, but on horseback I’d make it in less than half the time. You think Cooper would mind if I borrowed his horse?”

  “I don’t think he’d care if you took the black mare. The other horse is Hector, and Coop talks to him like he’s one of the family.”

  “I’m not surprised. I’ll saddle the mare as soon as I have enough light at dawn.”

  She touched Tatum’s shoulder. “Can you stay right beside him until I get back? Keep him warm. Give him water if he asks and a few swallows of whiskey if he’s in pain. As long as he doesn’t move his broken leg, he should be fine.”

  Glancing at Cooper, she fought the urge to shake him and ask what kind of idiot came up here without a stocked first-aid kit. One flask of whiskey and a few Band-Aids were not sufficient supplies. Maybe the cowboy thought he was invincible.

  Tatum’s blue eyes filled with fear. “He won’t go cold on me, will he? He won’t die?”

  “No,” she answered. “I’ll be back as fast as I can. He may be in pain, but Cooper Holloway won’t die. My grandfather says he’s too stubborn.”

  Tatum nodded once. “I’m like that. I’m stubborn. We’re part of the wolf people, me and Coop. We can survive in the wild.” He looked up and set his jaw as if he was a grown man. “We howl good-night to the wind. We don’t wear socks that match, and we eat our beans right out of the can.”

  The boy didn’t say another word, but he didn’t sleep. Like her, he waited.

  At first light Hayley grabbed her coat. “I’ll be back as fast as I can. Now, remember, keep it warm in here and keep him calm.”

  Within minutes she was heading down the hill on one of the best cutting horses she’d ever ridden. The black mare sensed her commands. Once they hit level ground, she felt like they were flying over the snowy pastures.

  She’d parked her Jeep a mile up from the pass entrance. A car might have had trouble making it that far, but her Jeep was part mule.

  After what seemed like an hour, she rode past the Jeep and down toward the pass. Two huge rock formations formed the only entrance into the hills that surrounded Winter Valley. A boy might be able to walk in from the north if the water was low in the river, but her pops said he doubted an ATV could make it. The hills were spotted with snow, and she wished she had the time to stop and enjoy the view.

  Whoever had driven the mustangs into the valley must have known the lay of the land. With plenty of grass and water, the horses weren’t ever likely to leave this hideaway.

  As soon as she got through the pass, she heard the ping of her cell phone and stopped.

  On her way onto Maverick property earlier in the day, she’d stopped and met Elliot Holloway. He’d been polite but distant. One of those men so absorbed in his work he didn’t really relate to anyone. It’d been early, but the ranch was alive and Elliot already appeared to be working.

  He had insisted that she enter not just the headquarters’ phone number into her cell, but his own cell number, as well. To her surprise, he seemed far more worried that she’d get lost than something might happen to Cooper. He’d asked her twice if she needed his foreman to take her in. She’d assured him her grandfather had drawn a detailed map. Pops had told her if she did get lost, simply climb to the highest ridge and look down. She’d see the roof of Cooper’s shack.

  When she tapped Elliot’s number, he answered on the first ring. “Lost?” was all he said. “Hope you didn’t have to sleep in your Jeep last night.”

  “No,” she answered just as formally. “Your brother had an accident.”

  She heard what sounded like a chair tumbling, then boots storming across a tile floor. Elliot was already on his way.

  “Details!” he snapped.

  “Broken leg. Possible concussion. Three cuts on his head and one on his hand. Bruises and scrapes from a ten-foot fall on rocks. I think he’s stable, but the boy and I can’t get him down the hill, and my Jeep wouldn’t transfer him comfortably.”

  “What boy? What do you mean ‘possible’ concussion? You’re a doctor. You should know. Is he talking out of his head? Oh, never mind, he does that on a regular day. I’m on my way. Do I need to call an ambulance?”

  Now Elliot sounded like he was running across gravel.

  Hayley reminded herself to keep calm. She was a professional. “I’m a vet, Mr. Holloway. Cooper brought up supplies to treat horses, not humans. I’m dealing with the patient as best as I can. You can have an ambulance meet us at the headquarters. He’ll need to be transferred to a hospital, but I think we’ll get him off the mountain faster, easier, with a truck and enough people to carry him through the trees on a stretcher.”

  “One moment, Doc, hang on,” Elliot said.

  Hayley could hear him yelling, “Creed, load up a bail of hay in Cooper’s pickup. Throw in as many blankets as you can grab. Pete, pull that old stretcher from the barn. It’s behind where we keep the extra saddles. Creed and I are heading up to bring Cooper down off the hill. He’s hurt.”

  She swore it sounded like an army moving around on the other end of the phone. “I’m on my way, Doc. I’ll be at the pass as fast as I can. We’ll hike up from there.”

  The racket on Elliot’s end was loud, so she shouted her answer. “Meet me at the cabin, not the pass, and bring straps for the stretcher. I’m going back to help the boy keep Cooper calm until you arrive.”

  She disconnected just as she heard him yell again, “What boy?”

  Swinging onto the mare, she rode back toward the cabin. This journey was harder and took longer, but the horse again seemed to feel her panic. All she’d wanted to do was to come up for a day or two and help out with the mustangs. She’d thought the mission would take her mind off the troubles that seemed to have followed her home from college.

  She’d think about that another day. Right now she had all she could handle. This was rough country, a
nd it would take all her energy to handle this crisis.

  She reminded herself that it was the wild horses that had brought her. When this was over, she’d still have them to work with. Then she’d be in her element. It wasn’t just the unknown, but was also the unpredictability of something untamed that she loved. It was the kinship she felt. To work with horses that had little or no dealings with humans was exciting. She had to be careful—no, she knew it was more than that. She had to be totally alive when she moved among them. There was no room for worries, no room for anything except helping a wild being survive.

  Hayley shook her head. That kind of total concentration had worked for her before. It was working now with trying to treat Cooper. She hadn’t worried about her own life since she’d heard Tatum’s gunshot. She hadn’t slept a minute last night and now she had to get him off the mountain before something happened and he died.

  Maybe, for her survival, all she had to do was worry about someone else.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  December 18

  ELLIOT WENT BACK to the house to grab his heavy boots and a coat. He didn’t have a clear picture of what he would find up at the shack, but he needed to be prepared. His little brother lived life in a full-out run, and trips to the emergency room were not unusual, but every time Coop got hurt, Elliot played the same what-if game in his mind.

  He didn’t have much family left, and he didn’t know if he could face losing a brother. Griffin could handle it if death visited them again at the ranch; after all, he had Sunlan and the baby. Grif had always been a rock. But Elliot had no one except his brothers. He told himself he didn’t have time to keep up with friends, but in truth, he’d grown comfortable with his small circle of family around.

  He’d decided he liked it that way, but deep down, he simply couldn’t face being hurt again. He’d loved one woman with all his heart, and she hadn’t loved him enough to stay around.

  Maybe he just didn’t have enough heart left to try loving again.