Holiday in Stone Creek (14 page)

"I'm sorry," Olivia told him, and she meant it. She remembered how broken up her dad had been after Delia skipped out. Knew only too well how
she
would feel when Tanner left Stone Creek for good.

"Can I plug in your Christmas tree?" Sophie asked.

"Sure," Olivia said.

Sophie disappeared again.

Tanner and Olivia looked at each other in silence.

Mercifully, the pizza delivery guy broke the spell by honking his car horn from the driveway.

Tanner grinned and started for the door.

"My turn to provide supper," Olivia said, easing past him.

When she came back with the goods, snow-speckled and wishing she'd taken the time to put on her coat, Tanner was setting the table.

Ginger roused herself long enough to sniff the air. Pizza was one of her favorites, although Olivia never gave her more than a few bites.

Supper was almost magical--they might have been a family, Tanner and Olivia and Sophie, talking around the table as they ate in the warm, cozy kitchen.

Sophie snuck a few morsels to Ginger, and Olivia pretended not to see.

Because Tanner's truck had been picked up and driven to Starcross, Olivia gave her neighbors a ride home when the time came. She waited until they'd both gone inside, after waving from the porch, and watched as the tree lights sprang to life in the front window.

Sophie's doing, she supposed.

On the way back to her place, because she still wanted to cry, Olivia called Ashley's house again.

"She's fine, mother hen," Melissa told her. "I talked her into having some soup a little while ago, and a cup of tea, too. She says she'll be her old self again after a bubble bath."

Olivia's relief was so great that she didn't ask if anybody had noticed Ginger's escape. Nor, of course, did she announce that she was in love.

"I can't seem to find the dog, though," Melissa said. "It's a big house. She must be here somewhere."

"She's home," Olivia said.

"You picked her up?"

"She walked."

"Oh, God, Livie, I'm sorry--she must have slipped out through Ashley's pet door in the laundry room--"

"Ginger's fine," Olivia assured her worried sister.

"Thank God," Melissa replied. "Why do you suppose she put in a pet door--Ashley, I mean--when she doesn't have a
pet?
"

"Maybe she wants one."

"I could stop by the shelter and adopt a kitten for her or something."

"Don't you dare," Olivia said. "Adopting an animal is a commitment, and Ashley has to make that decision on her own."

"Okay, Dr. Dolittle," Melissa teased. "
Okay.
Spare me the responsible pet owner lecture, all right? I was just thinking out loud."

"Why don't
you
adopt a dog or a cat?"

"I'm allergic, remember?" Melissa answered, giving a sneeze right on cue. It was the first sign of Melissa's hypochondria that Olivia had seen in recent days.

"Right," Olivia replied.

By then the snow was coming down so thick and fast, she could barely see her driveway.
Please God,
she prayed silently,
no emergencies tonight.

She and Melissa swapped goodbyes, and she ended the call.

A nice hot bubble bath didn't sound half-bad, she thought when the cold air hit her as she got out of the Suburban. Maybe she'd light a few candles, put on her snuggly robe after the bath, make cocoa and watch something Christmasy and sentimental on TV.

Talk herself out of loving a no-strings-attached kind of man.

Ginger got up when she came in, ate a few kibbles and immediately headed for the back door.

So much for getting warm.

Olivia went outside with the dog.

"It's not as if I plan to run away, you know,"
Ginger remarked.

Through the storm, Olivia could just make out the lights over at Starcross. The sight comforted her and, at the same time, made her feel oddly isolated.

"I wouldn't have thought you'd try to walk all the way home from Stone Creek," Olivia scolded. "Ginger, it's at least five miles."

"I made it, didn't I?"
Having completed her outside enterprise, Ginger headed for the back porch, stopping to shake off the snow before going on into the kitchen.

Olivia tromped in after her, hugging herself. Shut the door and locked it.

"I'm taking a bubble bath," she said. "Don't bother me unless you're bleeding or the place catches fire."

Ginger took hold of her dog bed with her teeth and hauled it into the living room, in front of the tree. In the softer light, Charlie Brown looked almost--well--
bushy.
Downright festive, even.

She'd unplugged the bubble lights before leaving to take Tanner and Sophie home. Now she bent to plug them in again, waited until the colorful liquid in the little glass vials began to bubble cheerfully.

She immediately thought of Big John, but tonight the memory of her grandfather didn't hurt. She smiled, remembering what a big deal he'd always made over Christmas, spending money he probably didn't have,
taking them all up into the timber country to look for just the right tree, sitting proud and straight-backed in the audience at each new production of
Our Town.
In retrospect, she knew he'd been trying to make up for the losses in their lives--hers, Brad's, Ashley's and Melissa's.

The year Brad was in the play, Ashley had cried all the way home to the ranch. Big John had carried her into the house and demanded to know what the "waterworks" were all about.

"All those dead people sitting in folding chairs!" Ashley had wailed. "Is Daddy someplace like that, all in shadow, sitting in a folding chair?"

Big John's face had been a study in manfully controlled emotion. "No, honey," he'd said gruffly, there in the kitchen at Stone Creek Ranch, while Brad and Olivia and Melissa peeled out of their coats. "
Our Town
is just a story. Your daddy isn't sitting around in a folding chair, and you can take that to the bank. He's too busy riding horses, I figure. The way I figure it, they've got some mighty good trails up there in heaven, and there aren't any shadows to speak of, either."

Ashley's eyes had widened almost to saucer size, but she'd stopped crying. "How do you know, Big John?" she'd asked, gazing up at him. "Is it in the Bible?"

Brad, a pretty typical teenager, had given a snort at that.

Big John had quelled him with a look. "No," he told Ashley, resting a hand on her shoulder. "It probably isn't in the Bible. But there are some things that just make sense. How many cowboys would want to go to heaven if there weren't any horses to ride?"

Ashley had brightened at the question. In her child's mind, the argument made sense.

Blinking, Olivia returned to the present moment.

"Time for that hot bath I promised myself," she told Ginger.

"I wouldn't mind one either,"
Ginger said.

And so it was that Olivia bathed the dog first, toweled her off and then scrubbed out the tub for her own turn.

When she finished, she put on flannel pajamas and her favorite bathrobe and padded out to the living room.

Ginger had the TV on, watching
Animal Planet.

"How did you do that?" Olivia asked. There were some things that strained even an animal communicator's credulity.

"If you step on the remote just right, it happens,"
Ginger replied.

"Oh, good grief," Olivia said, glancing in Charlie Brown's direction.

"I wouldn't have thought he could look that good,"
Ginger observed, following Olivia's gaze.

She reclaimed the remote. Checked the channel guide.

"We're watching
The Bishop's Wife,
" she told Ginger.

Ginger didn't protest. She liked Cary Grant, too.

"After it's over,"
the dog said,
"we can talk about how you're in love with Tanner."

"I
DON'T WANT TO TALK
about it," Ashley said, for the fourth or fifth time, the next morning when Olivia stopped by her house on the way to the clinic, Ginger in tow. Melissa had already gone to work.

Olivia was still in love, but she was adjusting.

"Fair enough," she replied. Ashley looked almost like her old self, and she was expecting paying guests later in the day. Rolling out piecrusts in preparation for some serious baking.

Some people drank when they were upset. Others chain-smoked.

Ashley baked.

"Tell me about the guests," Olivia said, trying to snitch a piece of pie dough and getting her hand slapped for her trouble.

"They're long-term," Ashley answered, rolling harder, so the flour flew. Some of it was in her hair, and a lot more decorated her holly-sprigged chef's apron. "Tanner Quinn called and booked the rooms. He said he needed space for four people, and he'd vouch for their character because they all work for him."

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "I see," she said, considering another attempt at the pie dough and doing a pretty good job of hiding the fact that Tanner's name made the floor tremble under her feet.

"Don't even think about it," Ashley said, sounding like her old self.
Almost
her old self, anyway. She was still pretty ragged around the edges, but if she didn't want to talk about their mother just yet, Olivia would respect that.

Even if it killed her.

"Nice of him," she said. "Tanner, I mean. He could have put the crew up at the Sundowner Motel, or over in Indian Rock."

Ashley pounded at the pie dough and rolled vigorously again. It looked like a good upper-arm workout. "All I know is they're paying top dollar, and they'll be
here until next spring. Merry Christmas to me. For a few months, anyway, I won't need any more 'loans' from Brad to keep the business going."

Olivia didn't miss the slight edge in her sister's voice. "Ash," she said. "This will get easier. I promise it will."

"I should have listened to you."

"But you didn't, and that's okay. You're a grown woman, with a perfect right to make your own decisions."

"She's
horrible,
Liv."

"Let it go, Ash."

"Do you know why she was on probation? For shop-lifting, and writing bad checks, and--and God knows what else."

"Brad said you were miffed because he wouldn't bail her out."

Ashley set down the rolling pin, backed away from the counter. Flour drifted down onto Ginger's head like finely sifted snow. "He was right," Ashley said. "He was right not to bail that--that
woman
out!"

"I can stay if you want me to," Olivia said.

Ashley shook her head, hard. "No," she insisted. "But I wouldn't mind if Ginger were here to keep me company."

Olivia looked at Ginger. Knew instantly that she wanted to stay.

"Don't you dare try to walk home again," she told the dog. "I'll pick you up after I finish my last call."

"Oh, for Pete's sake," Ashley said. Like Brad and Melissa, she had always taken the Dr. Dolittle thing with a grain of salt. Make that a barrel. Only Big John had really understood--he'd said his grandmother could talk to animals, too.

"Later," Olivia said, and dashed out through the back, though she did stop briefly to secure the latch on the pet door, in case Ginger got another case of wanderlust.

N
OW THAT HE HAD CREWS
working, the shelter project took off. The barn at Starcross was coming along nicely, too. Tanner was pleased.

Or he
should
have been.

Sophie loved school--specifically Stone Creek Middle School. She'd already found some friends, and she was making good progress at house-training the puppies, too. She did her chores without being asked, exercising Butterpie every day.

That morning, when he came back inside from feeding the horses, she was already making breakfast.

"I used your laptop," she'd confessed immediately.

"Is that why you're trying to make points?"

Sophie had laughed. "Nope. I had to check my email. All hell's breaking loose at Briarwood."

He hadn't been surprised to hear that, since he'd called both Jack McCall and Ms. Wiggins soon after the drug conversation with Sophie that day in the truck, and read them every line of the riot act, twice over.

Ms. Wiggins had promised a thorough and immediate investigation.

Jack had asked if he was sure Sophie wasn't playing him, so she could stay with him in Stone Creek.

"I
really
can't go back there now, Dad," Sophie had told him, turning serious again. "Everybody knows I'm the one who blew the whistle, and that won't win me the Miss Popularity pin."

He'd ruffled her hair. "Don't worry about it. You'll be going to a new school, anyway." He'd found a good
one in Phoenix, just over two hours away by car, but he was saving the details for a surprise. He wanted Tessa to be there when he broke the good news, and Olivia, too, if possible.

Olivia.

Now, there was a gift he'd like to unwrap again.

As soon as Tessa got there and he had somebody to hold down the fort with Sophie, he was going to ask Olivia O'Ballivan, DVM, out on a real date. Take her to dinner somewhere fancy, up in Flagstaff, or in nearby Sedona.

In the meantime, he'd have to tough it out. Work hard. Take a lot of cold showers.

A worker went by, whistling "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

Tanner almost told him to shut the hell up.

T
HERE WAS NO SLOWING
down Christmas. It was bearing down on Stone Creek at full throttle, hell-bent-for-election, as Big John used to say. Watering Charlie Brown in her living room before braving snowy roads to get to the clinic for a full day of appointments, Olivia hummed a carol under her breath.

The week since Ashley had come home from Tennessee had been a busy one, rushing by. Olivia had had supper with Sophie and Tanner twice, once at her place, once at theirs.

And she hadn't been able to shake off loving him.

It was for real.

The big tree in the center of town would be lighted as soon as the sun went down that night, to the noisy delight of the whole community, and after that, over at the high school gymnasium, the chamber of commerce was throwing their annual Christmas carnival, with a dance to follow.

In the kitchen Ginger began to bark.

Olivia frowned and went to investigate. They'd already been outside, and she hadn't heard anybody drive in.

Passing the kitchen window, she saw a late-model truck pulling in at Starcross, pulling a long, mud-splashed horse trailer behind it.

Sophie's much-anticipated aunt Tessa, Tanner's sister, had finally arrived. That would be a relief to Tanner--more than once over the past week he'd admitted he was on the verge of heading out to look for Tessa. Even though Tessa called every night, according to Sophie, to report her progress, Tanner had been jumpy.

"He worries a lot about what
could happen,
" Sophie had told Olivia, on the q.t., while the two of them were frying chicken in the kitchen at Starcross. Then, as if concerned that Olivia might be turned off by the admission, she'd added, "But he's
really
brave. He saved Uncle Jack's life
twice
in the Gulf War."

"And modest, too," Olivia had teased.

But Sophie's expression was serious. "Uncle Jack told me about it," she'd said. "Not Dad."

Now, with Ginger barking fit to deafen her, Olivia made an executive decision. She'd stop by Starcross on the way to town and offer a brief welcome to Tessa. It was the neighborly thing to do, after all.

And if she was more than a little curious about the soon-to-be-divorced former TV star, well, nothing wrong with that. Brad would have to share his local-celebrity status, at least temporarily.

Showing up would be an intrusion of sorts, though, Olivia reasoned as she and Ginger slipped and slid down the icy driveway to the main road. Who knew what kind of shape Tessa Quinn Whoever might be in after driving practically across country with a load of horses and a broken heart?

All the more reason to offer a friendly greeting, Olivia decided.

Tanner had probably already left for the construction site in town, and Sophie was surely in school, secretly
lusting after the role of Emily in next year's production of
Our Town.
Stone Creek never got tired of that play--perhaps because it reminded them to be grateful for ordinary blessings.

It bothered Olivia to think Tessa might have no one to welcome her, help her unload her prized horses and settle them into stalls. Since all her morning appointments were things a veterinary assistant could handle, Olivia decided she'd offer whatever assistance she could.

Only, Tanner was there when Olivia arrived, and so was Sophie.

She and Tessa--a tall, dark-haired woman who resembled Tanner--were just breaking up a hug. Tanner was pulling out the ramp on the horse trailer, but he stopped and smiled as Olivia drove up.

Her heart beat double time.

Sophie was obviously filling Tessa in on the new arrival as Olivia got out of the Suburban, leaving Ginger behind in the passenger seat. Tessa's wide-set gray eyes, friendly but reserved, too, took Olivia's measure as she approached, hands in the pockets of her down vest.

What, if anything, Olivia wondered, had Tanner told his sister about the veterinarian-next-door?

Nothing, Olivia hoped. And everything.

Except for a few stolen kisses when Sophie happened to be out of range, nothing had happened between Olivia and Tanner since Thanksgiving.

For all that she was playing with fire and she knew it, Olivia was past ready for another round of hot sex with the first man she'd ever loved--and probably the last.

Tanner made introductions; Tessa wiped her palms
down the slim thighs of her gray corduroy pants before offering Olivia a handshake. The caution lingered in her eyes, though, and she slipped an arm around Sophie's shoulders after the hellos had been said, and pulled her against her side.

"I'm trying to talk Tessa into going to the tree-lighting and the Christmas carnival and dance tonight," Tanner said, watching his sister with an expression of fond, worried relief. "So far, it's no-go."

"It's been a long drive," Tessa said, smiling somewhat feebly. "I'd rather stay here. Maybe I'll stop feeling as if the road is still rolling under me."

"I'll stay with you," Sophie told her aunt, clinging with both arms and looking up with a delight that made Olivia feel an unbecoming rush of envy. "We can order pizza."

"You don't want to miss the tree-lighting," Tessa said to Sophie, squeezing her once and kissing the top of her head. "Or the carnival.
That
sounds like a lot of fun." The woman looked almost shell-shocked, the way Ashley had when Brad brought her home from Tennessee, and it wasn't because of the endless highways and roadside hotels.

Will I look like that when Tanner's gone?
Olivia asked herself, even though she already knew the answer.

"Dad could bring me back after," Sophie insisted. "Couldn't you, Dad?"

Tanner looked at Olivia.

Tessa's glance bounced between the two of them.

"Are you up for a Christmas dance, Doc?" Tanner asked. It was a simple question, but it sounded grave under the watchful eyes of Tessa and Sophie.

"I guess so," Olivia said, because jumping up and down and shouting "Yes, yes, yes!" would have given her away.

"Note the wild enthusiasm," Tanner said, grinning.

"I
think
she said yes," Tessa remarked, her smile warming noticeably.

"Do you have a dress?" Sophie inquired, her brow furrowed. Clearly she was worried that Olivia would skip off to the Christmas festivities in her customary cow-doctor getup.

"Maybe I'll buy one," Olivia said, after chuckling. She still felt as if she'd swallowed a handful of jumping beans, though.

Buying a dress she'd probably never wear again?

What I did for love.

When she was a creaky old spinster veterinarian, she'd show the dress to her brother's and sisters' kids and tell them the story. The G-rated part, anyway.

She checked her watch, which was a perfectly normal thing to do. She even smiled. "I guess I'd better get to the clinic," she said. Then, achingly aware of Tanner standing at the edge of her vision, she added, "Unless you need some help unloading those horses?"

"I think I can handle it, Doc," he said good-naturedly. "But if you're in a favor-doing mood, you can drop Sophie off at school."

"Sure," Olivia said, pleased.

"I thought I'd take today off," Sophie piped up.

"You're in or you're out, kiddo," Tanner told her. "You were dead set on continuing your education, remember?"

"Go," Tessa told her niece. "I'll probably be asleep all day anyway."

Sophie nodded, very reluctantly, but in that quicksilver way of children, she had a warm smile going by the time she climbed into the front seat of the Suburban. Ginger, always accommodating, when it came to Sophie, anyway, had already moved to the back, her big furry head blocking the rearview mirror.

"Where are you going to plant Charlie Brown when Christmas is over?" Sophie asked, snapping her seat belt into place and settling in.

"I hadn't thought about it," Olivia admitted. "Maybe in town, on the grounds of the new shelter. I'll be living upstairs when it's finished."

"I wish all Christmas trees came in pots, so they could be planted afterward," Sophie said. "That way, they wouldn't die."

"Me, too," Olivia said.

"Do you think trees have feelings?"

Ginger had shifted just enough to allow Olivia a glance in the rearview. Olivia caught a glimpse of Tanner, leading the first horse down the ramp and toward the newly refurbished barn.

"I don't know," Olivia answered belatedly, "but they're living things, and they deserve good treatment."

Mercifully, the conversation took a different track after that, though the subject of trees lingered in Olivia's mind, leading to Kris Kringle at the lot in town, and finally to Rodney, who was living the high life in Brad's barn at Stone Creek Ranch. For that little stretch of time, she didn't think about Tanner.

Much.

"Aunt Tessa is pretty, don't you think?" Sophie asked as ramshackle country fences whizzed by on both sides of the Suburban.

"She certainly is," Olivia agreed, feeling unusually self-conscious about her clothes and her bobbed hair. Tessa's locks flowed, wavy and almost as dark as Tanner's, past her shoulders. "I don't recall seeing her on TV, though."

"We got you the season one DVD of
California Women
for Christmas," Sophie said with a spark of mischief in her eyes. "It was supposed to be a surprise, though."

Sophie and Tanner had bought her a Christmas present?

Lord, what was she going to give them in return? She hadn't even shopped for Mac yet, let alone Brad and Meg, Ashley and Melissa, and the office staff and the other vets she worked with at the clinic.

"It's no big deal," Sophie assured her, evidently reading her expression.

Fruitcake? Olivia wondered, distracted. One of those things that came in a colorful tin and had a postapocalyptic sell-by date? If they didn't eat it, it could double as a doorstop.

"How come you're frowning like that?" Sophie pressed.

"I'm just thinking," Olivia said as they reached the outskirts of town. The hardware store had fruitcake; she'd seen a display when she bought the lights and ornaments for Charlie Brown.

And what kind of loser bought bakery goods in a hardware store?

This was a job for super-Ashley, she of the wildly wielded rolling pin and the flour-specked hair. Olivia would drop in on her on her lunch break, she decided, to (a) borrow a dress for the dance, thereby saving pos
terity from the tale, and (b) persuade her sister to whip up something impressive for the Quinns' Christmas present.

"This is cool," Sophie said a few minutes later when Olivia pulled up to the curb in front of Stone Creek Middle School. "Almost like having a mom." Having dropped that one, she turned to say a quick goodbye to Ginger, and then she disappeared into the gaggle of kids milling on the lawn.

Olivia's hands trembled on the steering wheel as she eased out of a tangle of leaving and arriving traffic.

"We still have half an hour before you're due at the clinic,"
Ginger said, brushing Olivia's face with her plumy tail as she returned to the front seat.
"Let's go by the tree lot and have a word with Kris Kringle. For Rodney's sake, we need to know he's on the level."

"Not going to happen," Olivia said firmly. "I've got some paperwork to catch up on before I start seeing patients and, besides, Kringle checked out with Indian Rock PD. Plus, Rodney's doing okay at the homeplace. I get daily reports from either Meg or Brad, and we've been to visit our reindeer buddy twice in the last three days."

Ginger was determined to be helpful, apparently. Or just to butt in.
"How's your mother?"

"I do not want to talk about my mother."

"Denial,"
Ginger accused.
"Sooner or later, you're going to have to see her, just to get closure."

"You need to stop watching talk-TV while I'm at work," Olivia said. "Besides, Mommy dearest is in the clink right now."

"No, she isn't. Brad got her a lawyer and had her moved to a swanky 'recovery center' in Flagstaff."

Olivia almost ran the one red light in Stone Creek. "How do you know these things?"

"Rodney told me the last time we visited. He heard Brad and Meg talking about it in the barn."

"And you're just getting around to mentioning this now?"

"I knew you wouldn't take it well. And there's the being in love with Tanner thing."

Olivia grabbed her cell phone and speed-dialed her sneaky brother. Mr. Tough, refusing to bail their mom out of the hoosegow back in Tennessee. He hadn't said a single word to her about bringing Delia to Arizona, or to the twins, either. They'd have told her if he had.

"Is Mom in a treatment center in Flagstaff?" she demanded the moment Brad said hello.

"How did you know that?" Brad asked, sounding both baffled and guilty.

"Never mind how I know. I just do."

Brad heaved a major sigh. "Okay. Yes. Mom's in Flagstaff. I was going to tell you and the twins after Christmas."

"Why the change of heart, Brad?" Olivia snapped, annoyed for the obvious reason and, also, because Ginger was right. If she wanted any closure, she'd have to visit her mother, and after what had happened to Ashley, the prospect had all the appeal of locking herself in a cage with a crazed grizzly bear.

"She's our mother," Brad said after a long silence. "I wanted to turn my back on her, the way she turned hers on us, but in the end I couldn't do it."

Olivia's eyes stung. Good thing she was pulling into the clinic lot, because she couldn't see well enough to drive at the moment. "I know you did the right thing,"
she said as Ginger nudged her shoulder sympathetically. "But I'll be a while getting used to the idea of Mom living right up the road, after all these years."

"Tell me about it," Brad said. "It's a long-term thing, Liv. Basically, the prognosis for her recovery isn't good."

Olivia sat very still in the Suburban, nosed up to the wall of the clinic, clutching the phone so tightly in her right hand that her knuckles ached. "Are you telling me she's dying?"

"We're all dying," Brad answered. "I'm telling you that, in this case, 'treatment center' is a euphemism for one of the best mental hospitals in the world. She could live to be a hundred, but she'll probably never leave Palm Haven."