“I live here,” he replied.
Something in the formality of his tone had her lifting her gaze. Upon further inspection, his hair was a shade lighter than Jack’s. “Sorry, Caleb! I thought you were…” she trailed off, not sure how to explain her response to his twin.
Caleb laughed easily. “Don’t worry; I’m used to it.”
Faith came around the corner of the porch, a vet bag slung over one shoulder and hanging low against her hip. She wore tall boots over her pants with fur cuffs, a sweater, and then a coat hanging open. “You made it!” Her face lit up at the sight of Natasha. “Let’s go. I just dropped the baby off with Mitzi, and the sun is going down.”
Caleb shut the door behind him, and Natasha followed the two of them to a truck. Mitzi slid in next to her husband, casually resting her hand on his leg.
Natasha tried not to let her gaze linger on the two of them. Caleb looked so much like Jack that her thoughts swirled around him like a blizzard.
“How do you like being on the ranch so far?” Caleb asked.
“It’s great.” She looked out the window at the open fields. “Reminds me of home in a lot of ways.”
“Where are you from?” asked Faith.
“Harvest Ranch, Virginia. It’s a ranching community. Growing faster than we’d all like, but most people moving in are kids who grew up and decided to return home. They know how to do Christmas right.” She hugged herself, thinking about the Christmas tree lighting in the city park and the singalong and oh, so many more memories that had filled her childhood with joy.
The joy Jack was trying to bring to Raelynn.
Darn it all, even memories of her hometown brought the wrangler to mind. Would she ever not think about him? Or was she destined to spend the next 70-plus years of her life haunted by his cobalt eyes?
They stopped at a gate, and Caleb jumped out to open it. Faith waited until he shut the door behind him before she turned on Natasha. “This is none of my business, and you’re welcome to tell me to buzz off…”
Natasha raised her eyebrows in question, encouraging her to go on. Faith was not the type of person to gossip, but she was a friend. Someone you could confide in who would keep your secrets.
“Whatis going on with you and Jack?” Her eyes were full of eagerness and her mouth curved up in a giant smile. She obviously cared about Jack and liked Natasha enough to hope there was a spark between them.
Honestly, marrying into this family would not be a hardship. Natasha pushed that thought away as fast as it came.
“Nothing,” she replied so insistently it sounded like a false denial, even to her. She rolled her eyes. “He likes to flirt with me, but he flirts with everyone, so it’s not like that’s anything special.” She rubbed her lips together. “I wish he’d stop.”
“Why?” Faith asked, incredulous. “Jack is a great guy. And he’s good-looking, which I’m not just saying because I married his twin.” She elbowed Natasha.
Natasha grit her teeth. She respected Faith; being a vet in a rural area was hard work and not glamorous—even if she managed to look gorgeous in flannel and jeans. It wasn’t even the fact that Faith was asking her about Jack that brought up Natasha’s defenses—it was that she made Natasha look at her feelings, and she didn’t want to acknowledge them. If she ignored the way he made her heart sing like Michael Bublé belting out “All I want for Christmas is You,” then she didn’t have to do anything about it, and Jack’s adorable half-smile wouldn’t mean a thing in her life.
“I’ll be gone by Christmas Day. There’s no reason to get involved.”
“Oh.” Faith faced forward. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Probably because you’re not the one going.” Natasha elbowed her back, working to keep things light between them. It was natural for Faith to feel protective of her family, and Natasha wouldn’t hold it against her one bit.
Caleb pulled open the driver’s door and a gust of stiff wind drifted snow into the cab. He slid in and gripped the wheel. “Did you give her the warning?” He drove through the gate.
“Warning?” Natasha’s eyes went wide. Was Faith supposed to warn her off, Jack? Was that what this was about?
Caleb parked inside the gate and hopped out to shut it behind them.
Faith rolled her eyes. “He’s so nervous about the video.” She clutched her vet back to her chest. “This is a unique herd of reindeer. There’s nothing like them on earth—I guarantee it.”
So it wasn’t a warning about Jack. Natasha switched mental gears. She clicked back into the part of her brain that had rolled over different ideas for the video.
Faith continued, “We expose each reindeer to humans right after birth. The momma reindeer will come into the barn to deliver. They like to be near us because they know we can help if something goes wrong.”
“Does it?” Natasha opened the camera on her phone. She wanted to get some of this discussion on video.
Faith waved the camera off, the universal sign that what they were talking about was off the record. “Because they are so comfortable with us, we get a unique glimpse into their personalities.”
