Holiday in Stone Creek (16 page)

For a modest fee, a child could dangle a long wooden stick with a string on the end of it over a shaky blue crepe-paper wall. After a tug, they'd pull in their line and find an inexpensive toy attached.

Sophie was soon bored, though good-naturedly so. She kept taking the snow globe out of her purse and shaking it to watch the snow swirl around Shiloh and Butterpie.

Tanner bought her a chili dog and a Coke and asked if she was ready to go home. She said she was.

"Ride along?" Tanner asked Olivia.

"I think I'll sit in on a round of bingo," she answered. The ladies from her church were running the game, and they'd been beckoning her to join in from the beginning.

Tanner nodded. "Save the first dance for me," he whispered into her ear. "And the last. And all the ones in between."

Feeling like a teenager at her first prom, Olivia nodded.

"I
T'S WEIRD THAT THAT GUY
knows about Butterpie and Shiloh," Sophie commented, munching on the chili dog as she and Tanner headed for Starcross in the truck. The snow was coming down so thick and fast that Tanner had the windshield wipers on. "A
nice
kind of weird, though."

"It must have been a coincidence, Soph."

"Heaven forbid," Sophie said loftily, "that I might want to believe in one teeny, tiny Christmas
miracle.
"

He thought of the dreams. Sophie as a lonely adult, working too hard, with no life outside her medical practice. A chill rippled down his spine, even though the truck's heater was going full blast. "Believe, Sophie," he said quietly. "Go ahead and believe."

He felt her glance, quick and curious. "What?"

"Maybe I
have
been too serious about things."

"Ya think?" Sophie quipped, but there was a taut thread of hope strung through her words, and it sliced deep into Tanner's heart.

"Look, I've been thinking--how would you like to go to school in Phoenix? There's a good one there, with an equestrian program and excellent security. I was going to wait until Christmas to bring it up, but--"

"I'd rather go to Stone Creek Middle School."

What had he expected her to say? The place was still a boarding school, even if it did have horse facilities. "I know that, Sophie. But I travel a lot and--"

"And Aunt Tessa will be here, so I'd be fine if you were away." Sophie was watching him closely. "What are you so afraid of, Dad?"

He thrust out a sigh. "That you'll be hurt. Your mom--"

"Dad, this is Stone Creek. There aren't any terrorists here. There's nobody to be mad and want to shoot at us because you built some bridge for the U.S. government where the local bomb-brewers didn't
want
a bridge."

Tanner's hands tightened on the steering wheel. He'd had no idea Sophie knew that much. Did she know about the periodic death threats, too? The ones that had prompted him to hire Jack McCall's men-in-black to
guard Briarwood? Hell, he'd even had a detail looking out for Sophie when she was on the horse farm every summer, with Tessa.

"I feel safe here, Dad," Sophie went on gently. "I want you to feel safe, too. But you don't, because Uncle Jack wouldn't be in town if you did."

"How did you know Jack was here? He didn't get in until today."

"I saw him at the carnival with a pretty blond lady who didn't seem to like him," Sophie answered matter-of-factly. "Some kids play 'Where's Waldo?' Thanks to you,
I
play 'Where's Jack?' And I'm
real
good at spotting him."

"He's here on personal business," Tanner said. "Not to trail you."

"What kind of personal business?"

"How would I know? Jack doesn't tell me everything--he's got a private side." A "private side"? The man rappelled down walls of compounds behind enemy lines. He rescued kidnap victims and God knew what else. Tanner didn't have a lot of information about Jack's operation, beyond services rendered on Sophie's behalf at very high fees, and he didn't want to.

He slept better that way, and Jack, the secretive bastard, wouldn't have told him anyhow.

Oh, yeah. He was
way
happier. Except when he dreamed about Dr. Sophie Quinn, ghost of Christmas future, or thought about leaving Stone Creek and probably never seeing Olivia again.

"Soph," he said, skidding a little on the turnoff to Starcross, "when you grow up, are you going to hate me for making you go to boarding school?"

"I could never hate you, Dad." She said the words
with such gentle equanimity that Tanner's throat constricted. "I know you're doing the best you can."

Sigh.

"I thought you'd be happy about Phoenix," he said after a pause. "It's only two hours from here, you know."

"What will that matter, if you're in some country where they want to put your head on a pike because you build things?"

It was a good thing they'd reached the driveway at Starcross; if they'd still been on the highway, Tanner might have run the truck into the ditch. "Is that what you think is going to happen?"

"I worry about it all the time. I'm human, you know."

"You're way too smart to be human. You're an alien from the Planet Practical."

She laughed, but there wasn't much humor in the sound. "I watch CNN all the time when you're out of the country," she confessed. "Sometimes really bad things happen to contractors working overseas."

Tanner pulled the truck up close to the house. He was anxious to get back to Olivia, but not so anxious that he'd leave Sophie in the middle of a conversation like this one. "What if I promised not to work outside the U.S.A., Soph? Ever again?"

The look of reluctant hope on the face Sophie turned to Tanner nearly broke him down. "You'd do that?"

"I'd do that, shorty."

She flung herself across the console, after springing the seat belt, and threw both arms around his neck, hugging him hard. He felt her tears against his cheek, where their faces touched. "Can I tell Aunt Tessa?" she sniffled.

"Yes," he said gruffly, holding on to her. Wish
ing she'd always be twelve, safe with him and Tessa at Starcross Ranch, and never become a relationship-challenged adult working eighteen-hour days out of loneliness as much as ambition.

It would be his fault if Sophie's life turned out that way. He'd been the one to set the bad example.

"I love you, Soph," he said.

She gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek and pulled away. "Love you, too, Dad," she replied, turning to get out of the truck.

He walked her inside the house, torn between wanting to stay home and wanting to be with Olivia.

Tessa had the tree lights on, and she and the puppies were cozied up together on the couch, watching a Christmas movie on TV.

"Dad is never going to work outside the country again!" Sophie shouted gleefully, bounding into the room like a storm trooper.

"Is that so?" Tessa asked, smiling, her gaze pensive as she studied Tanner. Was that skepticism he saw in her eyes?

"Dad's going back to dance the night away with Olivia," Sophie announced happily. "How about some hot chocolate, Aunt Tessa? I know how to make it."

"Good idea," Tessa said.

Sophie said a quick goodbye to Tanner as she passed him on her way to the kitchen.

"I hope you're going to keep your word," Tessa told him when Sophie was safely out of earshot.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"It's tempting, all that money. All those adrenaline rushes."

"I can resist temptation."

Tessa grinned. "Except where Olivia O'Ballivan is concerned, I suspect. Go ahead and 'dance the night away.' I'll take good care of Sophie, and if the place is overrun by revenge-seeking foreign extremists, I'll be sure and give you a call."

Tanner chuckled. Something inside him let go suddenly, something that had held on for dear life ever since that awful day on a street thousands of miles away, when Kat had died in his arms. "I
have
been a little paranoid, haven't I?" he asked.

"A little?" Tessa teased.

"There's a lady waiting at the bingo table," he told his sister. "Gotta go."

"See you tomorrow," Tessa said knowingly.

He let that one pass, waggling his fingers in farewell.

"Later, Soph!" he called.

And then he left the house, sprinting for his truck.

"I
NEED TO GET OUT
of these pants before I kill myself," Olivia confided several hours later, when they'd both worn out the soles of their shoes dancing to the lodge orchestra's Christmas retrospective.

Tanner laughed. "Far be it from me to interfere," he said. Then he tilted his head back and looked up. "Is that mistletoe?"

"No," Olivia said. "It's three plastic Christmas balls hanging from a ribbon."

"Have you no imagination? No vision?"

"I can imagine myself in something a lot more comfortable than my sister's clothes," she told him. "I really hate to face it, but I'm going to have to
shop.
"

"A woman who hates shopping," Tanner commented. "Will you marry me, Olivia O'Ballivan?"

It was a joke, and Olivia knew that as well as he did, but an odd, shivery little silence fell between them just the same. She seemed to draw away from him a little, even though he was holding her close as they swayed to the music.

"Let's get out of here," he said. Not exactly a mood enhancer, he reflected ruefully, but it was an honest sentiment.

She nodded. The pulse was beating at the base of her throat again.

The snow hadn't let up--it was worse, if anything--and Tanner drove slowly back over the same course he'd followed with Sophie earlier that evening.

"Seriously," he began, picking up the conversation they'd had on the dance floor as though there had been no interval between then and now, "do you plan on getting married? Someday, I mean? Having kids and everything?"

Olivia gnawed on her lower lip for a long moment. "Someday, maybe," she said at last.

"What kind of guy would you be looking for?"

She smiled, until she saw that he was serious. The realization, like the pulse, was visible. "Well, he'd have to love animals, and be okay with my getting called out on veterinary emergencies at all hours of the day and night. It would be nice if he could cook, since I'm in the remedial culinary group." She paused, watching him. "And the sex would have to be very, very good."

He laughed again. "Is there an audition?"

"As a matter of fact, there is," she said. "Tonight."

Heat rushed through Tanner. If she kept talking like that, the windshield would fog up, making visibility even worse.

When they arrived at Olivia's place Ginger greeted them at the door, wanting to go outside.

He'd have to love animals...

Tanner took Ginger out and waited in the freezing cold until she'd done what she had to do.

Olivia was waiting when he got back inside. "Hungry?" she asked.

It would be nice if he could cook....

Was she testing him?

"I could whip up an omelet," he offered.

She crossed to him, put her arms around his neck. "Later," she said.

And the sex would have to be very, very good.

Five minutes later, after some heavy kissing, he was helping her out of the palazzo pants. And everything
else
she was wearing.

H
E'D GONE AND FALLEN
in love, Tanner realized, staring up at the ceiling as the first light of dawn crept across it. Olivia, sleeping in the curve of his arm, naked and soft, snuggled closer.

He loved her.

When had it happened? The first time they met, in his barn? Thanksgiving afternoon, before, during or after the kind of sex he'd never expected to have again? Or last night, at the dance?

Did it matter?

It was irrevocable. A no-going-back kind of thing.

He stirred to look at the clock on the bedside stand. Almost eight--Sophie would be up and on her way to school on the bus, well aware that dear old Dad hadn't come home last night.

What had Tessa told her?

He spoke Olivia's name.

She sighed and cuddled up closer.

"Doc," he said, more forcefully. "It's morning."

She bolted upright, looked at the clock. Shot out of bed. Realizing she was naked, she pulled on a pink robe. Her cheeks were the same color. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"You
know
what I'm doing here," he pointed out, in no hurry to get out of the warm bed.

"That was last night," she said, shoving a hand through her hair.

"Was I supposed to sneak out before sunrise? If I was, you didn't mention it."

Her color heightened. "What will Sophie think?"

"She's probably praying we'll get married, so she'll have a mom. She wants to grow up in Stone Creek."

To his surprise, Olivia's eyes filled with tears.

"Hey," he said, flinging back the covers and going to her, and the cold be damned. "What's the matter, Doc?" he asked, taking her into his arms.

"I love you," she sobbed into his bare shoulder. "That's what's wrong!"

He held her away, just far enough to look into her upturned face. "No, Doc," he murmured. "That's what's
right.
"

"What?"

"I love you, too," he said. "And it's cold out here. Can I share that bathrobe?"

She laughed and tried to stretch the sides of it around him. Her face felt wet against his chest. "This all happened so fast," she said. Then she tilted her head back and looked up at him again. "Are you sure? It wasn't just--just the sex?"

"The sex was world-class," he replied, kissing the top of her head. "But it's a lot more than that. The way you tried to cheer Butterpie up. That goofy reindeer you rescued, and the fact that you ran a background check on his owner. The old Suburban, and your grandfather's jacket, and that pitiful-looking little Christmas tree."

"What happens now?"

"We have sex again?"

She punched him, but she was grinning, all wet faced
and happy. And his butt was freezing, since the robe didn't cover it. "Not that. Tomorrow. Next week. Next month..."

"We date. We sleep together, whenever we get the chance." He caught his hand under her chin and gently lifted. "We rename the ranch and renovate the house."

"Rename the ranch?"

"You said it once. 'Starcross' isn't a happy name. What do you want to call it, Doc?"

She wriggled against him. "How about 'Star
fire
Ranch'?" she asked.

"Works for me," he said, about to kiss her. Steer her back to bed. Hell, they were both late--might as well make it count.

"Wait," she said, pulling back. Her eyes were huge and blue and if he fell into them, he'd drown. And count himself lucky for it. "What about Sophie? Does she get to stay in Stone Creek?"

"She stays," Tanner said, after heaving a sigh.

"We'll keep her safe, Tanner," Olivia said. "Together."

He nodded.

And they went back to bed, though the lovemaking came a long time later.

Tanner told Olivia all about Kat, and how she'd died, and how he'd blamed himself and feared for Sophie.

And Olivia told him about her mother, and how she'd left the family. How her father had died, and her grandfather had carried on after that as best he could. How it was when animals talked to her.

When the deepest, most private things had been said, and only then, they made love.

O
N THE MORNING OF
Christmas Eve, Olivia stood in a hospital corridor, peering through a little window at the main reason she'd been afraid to get married, long before she met Tanner Quinn.

He waited downstairs, in the lobby. She had to do this alone, but it was better than nice to know he was there.

Olivia closed her eyes for a moment, rested her forehead against the glass.

Restless, unhappy, Delia had left a husband and four children behind one blue-skyed summer day. Just gotten on a bus and boogied.

Olivia's worst fear, one she'd successfully sublimated for as long as she could remember, was that the same heartless streak might be buried somewhere in
her,
as well. That it might surface suddenly, causing her to abandon people and animals who loved and trusted her.

It was a crazy idea--she knew that. She was the steady type, brave, thrifty, loyal and true.

But then, Delia had seemed that way, too. She'd read Ashley and Melissa bedtime stories and listened to their prayers, played hide-and-seek with them while she was hanging freshly laundered sheets in the backyard, let Olivia wear clear nail polish even over her dad's protests. She'd taken all four of them to afternoon movies, sometimes even on school days, where they shared a big bucket of popcorn. She'd helped Brad with his homework practically every night.

And then she'd left.

Without a word of warning she'd simply vanished.

Why?

Olivia opened her eyes.

The woman visible through that window didn't look
as though she could answer that question or any other. She'd retreated inside herself, according to her doctors, and she might not come out again.

It happened with people who had abused alcohol and drugs over a long period of time, the doctors had said.

Olivia drew a deep breath, pushed open the door and went in.

Everyone had a dragon to fight. This was hers.

Delia looked too small to have caused so much trouble and heartache, and too broken. Huddled in a chair next to a tabletop Christmas tree decorated with paper chains and nothing else, she looked at Olivia with mild interest, then looked away again.

Olivia crossed to her, touched her thin shoulder.

She flinched away. Though she didn't speak, the look in her eyes said,
Leave me alone.

"It's me, Mom," she said. "Olivia."

Delia simply stared, giving no sign of recognition.

Olivia dropped to a crouch beside her mother's chair. "I guess I'll never know why you left us," she said moderately, "and maybe it doesn't matter now. We turned out well, all of us."

Delia's vacant eyes were a soft, faded blue, like worn denim, or a fragile spring sky. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, she nodded.

Tears burned Olivia's eyes. "I'm in love, Mom," she said. "His name is Tanner. Tanner Quinn, and he has a twelve-year-old daughter, Sophie. I--I want to be a good stepmother to Sophie, and I guess, in some strange way, I needed to see you to know I could do this. That I could really be a wife and a mother--"

Delia didn't speak. She didn't cry or embrace her
daughter or ask for a second chance. In short, there was no miracle.

And yet Olivia felt strangely light inside, as though there had been.

"Anyway, I'm planning to come back and see you as often as I can." She stood up straight again, opened her purse. Took out a small wrapped package. It was a bulb in a prepared planter, guaranteed to bloom even in the dead of winter. She'd wanted to bring perfume--one of her memories of Delia was that she'd loved smelling good--but that was on the hospital's forbidden gift list, because of the alcohol content. "Merry Christmas, Mom."

I'm not you.

She laid the parcel in Delia's lap, bent to kiss the top of her head and left.

Downstairs, Tanner drew her into a hug. Kissed her temple. "You gonna be okay, Doc?" he asked.

"Better than okay," she answered, smiling up at him. "Oh, much, much better than okay."

A
T SIX O'CLOCK STRAIGHT UP
, Kris Kringle officially closed the tree lot. He'd sold every one--nothing left now but needles and twine. The plastic reindeer and the hired Santa were gone, but the sleigh was still there.

He looked up and down the street.

Folks were inside their warm lighted houses and their churches now, as they should be on Christmas Eve. When he was sure nobody was looking, he gave a soft whistle.

The reindeer came--all except Rodney, that is. Took their usual places in front of the sleigh, waiting to be hitched up.

He frowned. Where was that deer?

The clippity-clop of small hooves sounded behind him on the pavement. He turned, and there was Rodney, coming toward him out of that snowy darkness, ready to take his first flight. The donkey had filled in willingly at the tree-lighting, but this was the real deal--and everybody knew donkeys couldn't fly.

"Ready?" he asked, bending over Rodney and stroking his silvery back.

He fitted the harnesses gently, having had years of practice. Climbed into the sleigh and took up the reins. They'd have to stop off at home, so he could change into his traveling clothes and, of course, fetch the first bag of gifts.

First stop, he decided: Olivia O'Ballivan's house. She'd been so kind to that little tree--next year at this time, he knew, it would be growing tall and strong on the grounds of the new shelter, glowing with colored lights.

Yes, sir. He'd deliver her present first.

That woman needed a new coffeepot.

C
HRISTMAS
E
VE
,
THE WEATHER
was crisp and clear with the promise of snow, and Olivia felt renewed as she watched Tanner's respectably muddy extended-cab truck coming up the driveway. They were all invited to Stone Creek Ranch for the evening--she and Tanner, Tessa and Sophie--and she knew it would be like old times, when Big John was alive. He'd always roped in half the countryside to share in the celebration.

Her heart soared a little when she heard Tanner's footsteps on the back porch, followed by his knock.

She opened the door, looked up at him with shining eyes.

He took in her red velvet skirt and matching crepe sweater with an appreciative grin, looking pretty darn handsome himself in jeans, a white shirt and his black leather jacket.

"Olivia O'Ballivan," he said with a twinkling grin. "You
shopped.
"

"I sure did," she replied happily. "That big box of presents you passed on the porch is further proof. How about loading it up for me, cowboy?"

Tanner bent to greet Ginger, who could barely contain her glee at his arrival. "Anything for you, ma'am," Tanner drawled, still admiring Olivia's Christmas getup. "Tessa and Sophie went on ahead in Tessa's rig," he added, to explain their absence. "I told them we'd be right behind them."

He straightened, and Ginger went back to her bed.

"She's not going with us?" Tanner asked, referring, of course, to the dog.

"She claims she's expecting a visitor," Olivia said.

Tanner's grin quirked one corner of his kissable mouth. "Well, then," he said, making no move to leave the kitchen
or
load up the box of presents.

"What?" Olivia asked, shrugging into her good coat.

"I have something for you," Tanner said, and for all his worldliness, he looked and sounded shy. "But I'm wondering if it's too soon."

Olivia's heartbeat quickened. She waited, watching him, hardly daring to breathe.

It couldn't be. They'd only just agreed that they loved each other....

Finally Tanner gave a decisive, almost rueful sigh, crossed to her, laid his hands on her shoulders and gently pressed her into one of the chairs at the kitchen table.
Then, just like in an old movie, or a romantic story, he dropped to one knee.

"Will you marry me, Olivia O'Ballivan?" he asked. "When you're darn good and ready and the time is right?"

"Say yes,"
Ginger said from the dog bed.

As if Olivia needed any canine input. "Yes," she said with soft certainty. "When we're
both
darn good and ready, and we
agree
that the time is right."

Eyes shining with love, and what looked like relief--had he really thought she might refuse?--Tanner reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a small white velvet box. An engagement ring glittered inside, as dazzling as a captured star.

"I love you," Tanner said. "But if you don't want to wear this right away, I'll understand."

Because she couldn't speak, Olivia simply extended her left hand. Tears of joy blurred her vision, making the diamond in her engagement ring seem even bigger and brighter than it was.

Tanner slid it gently onto her finger, and it fit perfectly, gleaming there.

Olivia laughed, sniffled. "To think I got you a bathrobe!" she blubbered.

Tanner laughed, too, and stood, pulling Olivia to her feet, drawing her into his arms and sealing the bargain with a long, slow kiss.

"We'd better get going," he said with throaty reluctance when it was over.

Olivia nodded.

Tanner went to lug the box of gifts to the truck, while Olivia lingered to unplug Charlie Brown's bubbling lights.

"You're sure you won't come along?" she asked Ginger, pausing in the kitchen.

"I'll just settle my brains for a long winter's nap,"
Ginger said, muzzle on forepaws, gazing up at Olivia with luminous brown eyes.
"Don't be surprised if Rodney's gone when you get to the ranch. It's Christmas Eve, and he has work to do."

"I'll miss him," Olivia said, reaching for her purse.

But Ginger was already asleep, perhaps with visions of rawhide sugarplums dancing in her head.

Stone Creek Ranch was lit up when Olivia and Tanner arrived, and the yard was crowded with cars and trucks.

"There's something I need to do in the barn," Olivia told Tanner as he wedged the rig into one of the few available parking spaces. "Meet you inside?"