“All right,” she said. “Well, I won’t keep you. You didn’t have to come in off the farm.”
“I was done,” he said.
“I just wanted to say Merry Christmas and thank you.”
He nodded and gave her a brief smile. “Merry Christmas to you too. It was good to see you again.” He moved parallel to her, clearly heading for the hallway, and Bailey launched herself intogear to leave the house. He followed her down the hall, and then quickly reached past her to open the door.
“Thanks for stopping by,” he said.
“If you ever need anything, let me know,” she said, though she had no idea what this man could possibly need from her.
“Are you going up the canyon tonight?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “I’m actually gonna go talk to a friend….” She trailed off, because Lark McClellan was not a friend, and neither was Cash Young.
He wasn’t her cousin. He was her ex’s cousin, and OJ’s cousin.
Bailey sighed. “I’m doing one more interview before the holidays.”
“Sure, because you’re starting that vet clinic.”
“That’s right,” she said. “And Lark McClellan is almost done with her animal science degree. Do you know the McClellans?”
“No, ma’am,” he said.
“Oh, I wasn’t sure how long you’d been in town,” she said. “They’re a lifelong Coral Canyon family.”
“Sure,” he said, but he offered no timeline for when he’d moved to town.
“Well, technically, they’re in Dog Valley,” Bailey said, and she told herself to stop talking. She’d come, she’d thanked him, she’d given him the treat, and the bonus invite to Christmas was simply more humiliation she didn’t need.
“I’m doing that interview this afternoon,” she said. “I’ll head up to the lodge tomorrow afternoon, probably around two. So if you change your mind….” She let the third blasted invite sit there, and then she ducked out to his front porch. “Have a great day, Reeves.”
“You too, Bailey,” he said, and she hurried back to her car and got behind the wheel.
She told herself not to look up to the front door, but she did anyway. Thankfully, Reeves had already gone back inside, and the door already sat closed. “And probably locked,” she muttered to herself.
She turned around in his driveway and trundled back to the highway, thinking she’d made a fool of herself for the second time with this man, but somehow proud of herself for having a prompting and acting on it. Bailey was still learning how to talk to God, how He spoke to her, and rebuilding the path back to Him, and as she turned right to head back to her house, she prayed.
“I don’t know what he needs, Lord, but he’s there all alone for Christmas. He didn’t even have a tree. So if there’s anything that I can do, put the thoughts into my heart and mind and give me the bravery to act upon them.”
At home, Bailey walked into her office, where she had completed employee folders of information on the right-hand side of her desk. She had managed to hire two certified, licensed veterinary technicians, a custodian, and two secretaries.
It was a small staff, and she’d need another doctor and more vet techs if she wanted to grow to the size she’d been in Butte. Lark couldn’t be either, but she had a lot of training with animals, which included pharmaceuticals, cleanliness, reproduction, nutrition, and more. If she could get her on as a veterinary assistant, Bailey could open her clinic as scheduled and keep looking for more certified staff as she grew.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX
Lark set the pan on the burner and stepped back, bending to see how to light the flame. “Cash makes this look so easy,” she muttered, her bad mood swinging wildly through her. She’d hated waking up alone in this house for the past five days—and today, Christmas Day, had soured her even further.
Still, she was determined to have something ready for breakfast when Cash arrived. He’d said he’d be there “that morning” to celebrate the holiday with her privately before they went to his parents’ lakeside mansion to eat dinner and give his gifts to his younger siblings.
She knew how to fry eggs and brown up spam, and she’d gone to town after her interview with Bailey McAllister to get the golden potato rolls Cash loved from the family bakery on Main Street.
He’d wrinkled his nose and chuckled when she’d asked him about the Kraft cheese slices versus real cheese. “Always real cheese, Larky,” he’d whispered just before kissing her again.
He’d come to pick her up for two dates since moving out, and Lark missed the way she saw him all day, and cuddled with himon the couch while they both fell asleep, and yes, hot-tubbing with him.
