“Tonight?” He pulled her closer, stealing the briefest kiss—sweet and quick. “Don’t say no.”
“Gracie?” The mudroom door popped open. “Ready when you are?”
“Just meet us out front, Bianca,” Marshall said. Then, when she was gone, he gave Gracie an expectant look. “I have to go into Craving Clean later. You’re working?”
“I can be done around four,” she said. “My night manager can close.”
“Perfect. I’ll get you then. We can walk around town, have an early dinner, and come back here to decorate my tree. I’ll bring it down from the attic while you get Bianca and Olivia to the lodge. Sound like a plan?”
“It’s a…”
“A date,” he finished, stealing one more kiss. “First of many.”
She sure hoped so.
Copper’s hooves made that steady, soothing crunch that Elise Hale loved to hear the most. The sound of this horse’s steps across the hay of Snowberry’s stable, headed to the paddock with Elise on his back, was music to her ears.
The horse’s flaxen mane fluttered against a rich reddish brown coat, while his warm breaths puffed clouds into the crisp mountain air. Elise sat tall in the saddle, confident in how her body fit in the curved leather and secure harness that would keep her from falling if she suddenly started to slide to one side or the other.
Her gloved hands kept a loose grip on the reins as she grinned down at her friend and future sister-in-law. Of course, Nicole was beaming. Every time she got Elise on this horse, Nicole was happy.
And so was Elise. The only way it could be better would be to get on this horse alone and ride without an escort. But that was never to be, so she basked contentedly in what she had—some freedom and access to a horse.
In fact, there were few places on Earth where Elise felt more content and at home than on this horse. Maybe in the teaching barn at the Great Basin Veterinary Institute, where shewas starting her second year of graduate school. Or around the dinner table with her family—that was always a happy place.
But riding Copper—a thrill that Nicole had made possible last Christmas and continued all through the year—was definitely her greatest joy.
“Can you believe it’s been a whole year?” Elise asked as she thought about it. “I still remember the first time you—and your dad, Red, and Cam—got me up on this king and my life changed.”
Nicole looked up at her, dark eyes dancing as she no doubt remembered how they’d dragged the rig and rolled Elise to her first taste of heaven in fourteen long years. Before the car accident that put her in a wheelchair, Elise had been a superstar competitive rider.
“Your life changed in more ways than one,” Nicole said. “That was the day you told me about your dreams to be a vet.”
Another thing that wouldn’t have happened without Nicole Kessler, who’d risked her romance with Cameron to push for Elise’s independence.
“And you made those dreams come true.” Elise sighed, awash with affection and appreciation. So much so that she had to fight the urge to put a hand on Nicole’s shoulder, but she never let go of the western saddle’s horn with her non-rein hand.
A paraplegic couldn’t be too careful. The seat may have become as comfortable as her normal ride, and under it she had a secure but invisible harness, but one slip could be a lot more dangerous than falling from her wheelchair.
“You’re the one making your dreams come true, E,” Nicole replied, using the simple nickname that Elise’s brother had hung on her when she was about three. “You’re absolutely killing it at Great Basin, not that I’m surprised.”
“Oh, speaking of school, I forgot to tell you I accepted the ultimate extra-curricular challenge. They have a hard timefinding volunteers for the Live Nativity at the institute because it’s between semesters. So…yours truly was selected—and by that, I mean no one else volunteered—as the program manager this year.”
“Really? A Live Nativity? Like with real animals?”
“Well, we are a veterinary school. It’s on Christmas Eve, right on the campus quad. Real people playing Mary, Joseph, and baby J, and—the big draw at GBVI—actual sheep, a donkey, and one particularly dramatic goat who thinks he’s an understudy for Jesus and tries to get in the manger. Wise men, too, but no camels.”
“I bet kids love that,” Nicole said as they stepped through the wide barn doors to the paddock that Elise would circle on Copper for as long as she could. “We’ll have to make a family outing and take Benny. Are you in it?”
She snorted. “No wheelchairs in Bethlehem at the time. My job is to coordinate actors, the set, costumes, and props—which is mostly done by email and a few meetings—and to supervise the care of the animals.”
“That sounds like a big job.”
“It’s manageable. Since the event takes place after the semester has ended, a lot of the faculty and students are gone, so…they scraped the bottom of the barrel and got ‘Hale on Wheels.’”
Nicole cracked up at the nickname Elise’s classmates had given her. “I’m so glad you have friends and a rich life, E.”
Didshe have a rich life, Elise wondered as she sat tall and proud on Copper while Nicole opened the paddock gate. She certainly had a fine circle of friends, a true purpose, and a bright future as a vet.
