A Cowboy's Christmas Promise (6 page)

Cole slapped his hands gently on the stall door. “Damn.”

“I've got it covered. I'm okay to stay.”

“No, you can't. That's ridiculous.”

Hayley perked up. “I could help!”

“Really. I'm good.” Daniel pointed to a small cooler and thermos as he circled the horse toward the stall door. “I've got coffee and Coke. Cole, you've got a night ride going out in half an hour, and a full slate of stuff going on tomorrow.
And
a wedding to get ready for. I can do this.”

Cole shook his head. “I appreciate it, but I don't feel good about it. I'll let you do the next two hours while I'm out on the trail. Then we'll talk.” He pointed at Hayley. “Appreciate your offer to help, but it scares me. You need supervision.”

Hayley rolled her eyes as he headed toward the ranch hands gathering in the corral just outside the barn. “I don't need supervision. Don't listen to him.”

“Sure.”

She leaned back on the wall. “This all-nighter thing is sort of above and beyond, isn't it?”

“No. Not really. Not with everything going on here this week. It's the least I can do.”

“Can't the ranch hands help?”

“Maybe, but Cole and Decker are already short-staffed, and they don't want any of the other guys trying to deal with guests on not enough sleep. That's a prescription for an accident.”

“Is this the kind of thing you do often? Set up your caffeine station and spend the night making yourself dizzy?” She, who closed her office at five o'clock sharp even on the worst days, could hardly imagine this lifestyle.

“Not often, no.” He paused, trying again to steady Apollo's head. “But I've been friends with these guys forever. Plus, I'm the only large-animal vet in this part of the county, so when a horse goes down, it's me or nobody.”

“How many hours a week do you end up working? If that isn't too nosy a question?”

“Too many, usually. I need a partner, but being a horse and cow vet in this neck of the woods is turning out to be a harder sell than I thought.”

“Well, most grads long for the kind of glamorous life I have as a city vet, right?”

He was looking for a partner? Why did that make the baby birds sit up and peep so loudly?

He laughed. “Maybe, but I'd still rather get kicked by a horse than scratched by an overbred tabby.”

Hayley automatically lifted her hand to her neck as she watched him make another slow circle in the stall. The view from behind was just as good as the one from head-on.

She gulped. “It's, um, it's a good thing you don't have vertigo issues.”

He looked over his shoulder, winking. “I'm going to end up with some at this rate.”

“I feel guilty just standing out here while you do all the work. Are you sure there's nothing I can do?”

“Not really, no. But I appreciate you asking.”

“Can I go make you some dinner, maybe? To go with the stomach-rotting beverages you brought?”

He raised his eyebrows. “That depends. Do you like kitchens more than you like crafts?”

“Nope. I do make a mean chicken noodle soup, though.”

“From a can?”

“You betcha.”

Daniel shook his head, smiling. “Well, my boxed mac 'n' cheese is to die for, so I won't judge.”

“But see,
I
don't have to cook. Where I live, there are seventeen different restaurants within four blocks. What do you do for food out here?”

“I eat a lot of mac 'n' cheese.”

“I
can
make other things.” She watched him do another circle. “Do you like peanut butter, for instance?”

“As gourmet as that sounds, I'm good, thanks. I brought food.”

She peered into his open backpack. “You have six granola bars and a banana.”

“Food.” He walked another circle, and she could hear his low voice talking to Apollo. The soft rumble of it did jumpy things to her insides, and she realized she wouldn't mind listening to it for a long, long time.

All night, for instance.

When he came around to face her, she felt her face flush as she tried to erase the thought from her mind. “Tell you what, Hayley. If I get a hankering for chicken noodle soup, I'll let you know. You heading out on the trail ride with Cole?”

Oh, yikes. Was that a dismissal?

“Um, yeah. Maybe. No. I don't know. Probably not.”

Seriously? Could she sound any more like an eighth grader with a desperate crush?

Daniel laughed, low and rumbly and gorgeous. “You always this decisive?”

“No. Yes.” She shook her head. “
Merda
. I should go.”

He laughed again. “You could stay and keep me company if you're bored.”

Really?

She tried to suppress her grin as she pushed away from the stall door. “I could do that. I'm good at…company.”

She saw him wipe his hand across his face again, and cringed as she realized he was hiding yet another tolerant smile. “Up to you. I don't want to take you away from the full cowgirl experience, night-ride version.”

Hayley felt her face flame as his words went all double-entendre in her head. She really needed to get a grip. “I, um, I did the night rides last year. Too many divorcees with very, very little self-control.” She shivered.

Daniel laughed. “Cole and Decker would agree with you there.” He turned to face her. “Then you should probably stick here in the barn. It's safer.”

“You're probably right. You sure? I won't be in your way?”

“Not at all. You'll help keep me awake, which will prevent me from getting trampled to death by a colicky stallion.”

“Well, when you put it that way…Okay. I'll go get supplies.”

“What do you need?”

Hayley stopped to think. “Well, actually, I'm not sure. I haven't pulled a colic all-nighter before.”

“All-nighter? I didn't mean—”

“Oh. I thought you—”

“No.”

“…Oh.”

The word landed between them with a dull thud.

“I didn't mean—all night.” Daniel's voice sounded a little strangled to Hayley.

“Oh. I was just going to—to help. You know, keep you alive and all.”

He looked at her, a mystified expression on his face. “I know.”

“Okay. I just—I don't know—didn't want you to think I meant something else.”

“Got it.” He ran his hand over his mouth as he passed her again. Great.

She paused, watching him do another circle. The man already looked like he hadn't slept in days, but did he actually want her to stay and help? Or was his request a pity-invite?

She sighed. “Listen. I came out early for the wedding so I could help. Unfortunately, I have zero qualifications in the domestic department, so I've pretty much failed at all wedding-related assignments Kyla's given me.
This
is an assignment I can handle.”

“I have no doubt.”

“We both know Cole's got a full plate tomorrow, and we also both know that you're going to send him off to bed when he gets back here from the trail. Am I wrong?”

“Nope.”

“You are the master of the short sentence, aren't you?”

“Yup.”

Hayley growled. “All right. I'll pull professional rank on you, then. As a fellow vet, I can't leave you out here all alone all night. I'll stay out of the way unless you need me, and if you don't need me, then I'll just chatter ceaselessly and drive you nuts all night.”

“Sounds like a dream. How could I resist?”

“You really can't.”

Daniel didn't speak for a long moment. Then, “Are you always this—I don't know—”

“Persistent?”

He laughed. “That wasn't exactly the word I had in mind.”

Hayley turned toward the huge door at the end of the stable. “Think of it this way. You'd be helping
me.
I'm dying for some big animal time. Dying for it. I have been looking forward to this vacation for”—she pretended to count on her fingers—“approximately eleven months and two weeks. In that time, I haven't worked with an animal bigger than my head. I
need
this.”

And, as a side bonus, maybe if I stay up all night with you and Apollo, I can claim exhaustion tomorrow and sneak out of centerpiece duty.

“It wouldn't have anything to do with getting you out of arts and crafts tomorrow if you stay up all night?”

Gulp.

“Ooh! Hadn't even thought of that.”

“Right.”

“Am I really that transparent?” She shook her head. “Never mind. Don't answer that. I'll be back in a couple of hours. Any requests from the kitchen?”

“That depends…“

“
Ma's
kitchen.”

“I'll take whatever she's offering.”

Sometime after midnight, Hayley was sitting on a hay bale outside Apollo's stall, legs pulled up to her chest, while Daniel walked the horse in big circles up and down the barn hallway. She had no idea what time it even was at this point. They'd inhaled a plate of Ma's pork roast, mashed potatoes, and green beans hours ago, and had spent the past few hours discussing a study Daniel was dying to enroll in, but just didn't have the bandwidth to take on.

“So let me guess. You don't have to do the all-nighter thing much in your practice.” Daniel's low, rumbly voice made her eyes pop open.

Oops. When had she closed them?

“Not in a really long time, no.”

“You can go to bed, you know. I'm perfectly fine out here.”

She stretched, embarrassed. Here she'd made a case for coming back down to the barn and keeping
him
awake, and now she was the one falling asleep. “No, I'm good. I just need chocolate. And maybe coffee. Yes, coffee.”

She reached for the Thermos and poured a small glug of coffee into a paper cup. She gulped it, then reached for the bag of cookies Ma had sent down with their dinner. “Want a cookie?”

He reached over to snag one on his way by the hay bale. “Thank you.”

Hayley watched as he led the horse a little further down the barn, increasing the diameter of his circles. She inhaled slowly, loving the smell of hay and horses and summer. And Daniel. A breeze crept through the south end doorway and tickled her hair, and she could hear muffled snorts and stomps as the horses floated in and out of sleep.

It was warm and homey, and she realized with a start that this really was Daniel's
office,
of sorts. He didn't have a standing clinic that smelled like alcohol and medicine and wet pooch. He had this—this glorious life treating animals where they lived, in big open barns on big open ranches in big open Montana.

“What are you smiling at?” He came by again. “Got any more cookies?”

She handed another one over. “I was just thinking how different
your
office is from mine.”

“And?”

“I might maybe like yours better.”

“I think I do, too, though I've never done time on the show circuit, so I might be ill-informed.”

“You're probably as informed as you need to be. It's a scary place.”

“You really don't like it, do you? Is it the animals you hate? Or the owners?”

Hayley paused before she answered.

Good question.

“I don't
hate
any of it. Not really. I don't like the emphasis the show world places on perfection, because that leads to these beautiful little disasters that can't walk, can't digest real food, and are practically allergic to themselves.”

She tossed a piece of hay. “And the owners. Omigod, the owners. They are worse than dance moms. Now
that
is something you
definitely
don't have to deal with out here. Can you imagine someone asking you to remove her dog's toenails because they scratch the granite when she's eating her lunch on the counter?”

“Please, no.”

“Exactly five days ago. Little bichon named Fabergé.”

“You didn't—”

“God, no. Of course not.” She laughed when she saw his relieved reaction. “I'm dead serious, though. Little-pet people are…different.”

“Clearly. So what are your options? Can you expand the practice? Get some mutts in?”

“I wish. Unfortunately my schedule is already overbooked, so I can't really take on any more animals at this point. There's no space to add another doc to the clinic, either. It's just a cute little hidey-hole place that you wouldn't be able to find unless you were looking really hard.”

“Sounds like a classic rock-and-a-hard
-place situation.”

“For the near future, yup. My loans are still likely to outlast my life span.”

“Ever thought about leaving the city?”

Hayley looked around her, at the barn lights turned down low, the dust motes gently floating in the pathway of the lights, at the gorgeous man currently taking up too much space in her head.

Not until this week, no.

She cleared her throat. “I don't know. I haven't actually given it a lot of thought.”

“Has Kyla ever tried to tempt you out this way?”

“Every other week, yes.”

But she wasn't nearly as good at it as you apparently are.

He stopped in front of her, and she noticed Apollo's head was hanging lower and he'd stopped fighting the lead. “Want to take a turn with him?”

She fought the urge to jump up, knowing it might scare the horse. “Really? You think he'll be okay with me?” She was equal parts nervous and excited at the chance to handle an animal like Apollo.

“I think so. He's quieted down, and I could use some coffee.” He handed her the rope, and she stood up slowly, hand on Apollo's side.

She gave the rope a small tug and turned the giant horse back down the hallway. He put up a token resistance, but she kept one hand on the lead and one on his shoulder, talking softly. She'd never been this close to a horse this big, and for the first time in a really long time, she actually felt small.

Her hands shook a little bit as she walked, but she tried to heed Daniel's advice and not let Apollo know she was nervous. She could do this. She
wanted
to do this. She was capable of stepping up her perky-pet game and helping take care of this horse, right? And then Daniel would see that she had some country vet skills, too.

She stopped dead at the end of the barn.

Why did she care what Daniel thought, anyway?

Daniel sipped his coffee and took Hayley's place on the hay bales while he watched her carefully. So far, so good. Apollo wasn't giving her any trouble, but the poor horse was so tired that he had probably hardly noticed the change of handlers.

Despite her lack of experience, Hayley managed the giant horse with a steady, sure hand. She walked evenly, keeping him moving while allowing him to choose the speed. And what was he hearing? Was she
singing
to him?

As she got closer, he could make out notes, but no recognizable tune. Then she started to make the turn nearest to him, and he recognized a lullaby from a CD the girls had loved when they were younger.

“What are you singing?”

She looked surprised, like she hadn't realized she
was
singing.

“Um. I'm not sure. It's something I used to sing to”—she stopped, and he noticed her expression change—“I used to sing it all the time.”

He nodded at the horse. “He likes it. Keep singing.”

“I can't, now that you're listening.” She headed down the hallway again, and he closed his eyes, enjoying a blessed moment of relaxation. Damn, these nights were going to kill him. Sure, he could have told Cole and Decker they needed to handle things on their own. But Gracie and Bryn were on their weekly overnight with his mom, and he'd finished up his other calls, so in reality, he had the time to help.

Plus, with the wedding only days away, he knew that energy and patience were in short supply at Whisper Creek. They were full up with guests they had to entertain, and having a horse go colicky just wasn't in the plans.

Hayley's voice floated toward him in his half daze. “Be careful. If you fall asleep, I might just get right on Apollo and disappear into the night.”

“I wouldn't do that. He might never bring you back.”

“It would make a great story, though. And Cole and Decker are pretty much waiting for me to create a story, so I'd be fulfilling expectations, right?”

“Apollo's way more likely to land you in the hospital than give you a relaxing midnight ride.”

“Rats. We've been specifically instructed to avoid the hospital. Otherwise I'd be totally game.” Hayley looked at her watch. “Wow. It's four o'clock in the morning. I haven't been up this late since…I don't know when.”

“So Boston actually sleeps at night?”

“Those of us old enough to know better do. I did my time on the late-night circuit. Now I'm older and wiser and all that stuff.” She paused, and he let his eyes close for a second. Just a second. Gracie'd been having nightmares again, which meant any sleep he'd gotten for the past week had been chopped into brief chunks between the dreams.

He swore it was only half a second before her voice popped his eyes open again. “So I know I'm all fierce and brave and was dying to help out here, but could you maybe please not go to sleep yet? This horse is scary-huge.”

Daniel pushed himself up and shook his feet to get his blood pumping.
What was he thinking?
Hayley specialized in small animals, and Apollo was a far cry from small. “I'm sorry, Hayley. Really.” He reached out for the rope. “Here. I'll take him back.”

Instead of handing the lead to him, she kept hold and turned the horse toward the other end of the barn again. “No, I'm fine. I am. I can keep him walking. Just maybe stay awake with me, okay? Talk or something.”

“Okay. Absolutely. Good.” He sat back down and poured another cup of coffee from the Thermos. “What should we talk about?”

“Umm, how about Obamacare? Have any opinions?”

“Ha. I'm not talking politics at four in the morning on no sleep.”

“Probably wise. Okay, how about television? Do you have a favorite show?”

“No time to watch, usually. I just catch bits and pieces of everything. How about you?”

“I'm embarrassingly hooked on
Nashville's Next Idol,
that country singing competition one.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Seriously? I did not see that coming.”

“Would
Extreme Couponing
have been less of a surprise?”

“Yes, actually.” Daniel laughed. “I didn't peg you for a country music fan.”

“Is my Stetson too crisp? Giving me away as a city girl?”

Among other things, yes.
“Of course not. You practically scream country.”

“Have you ever watched the show?”