The Maverick's Snowbound Christmas. Karen Smith Rose

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       Chapter Three

      Hadley had amazed Eli as she’d helped deliver the foal. In spite of being short and slender, she was strong, and she was capable. As they’d tended the mare, they’d been huddled close. Very close. If he had leaned in, he could have kissed her.

      But the enormity of the birth had prevented him from doing that. Watching the miracle had kept him grounded—grounded in what he did for a living, grounded in the satisfaction of raising horses, grounded in the knowledge that Hadley was an expert in her field.

      As they sipped their coffee on stools, watching momma and foal rest, he asked, “Where did you go to school?”

      “Colorado State. It was a good experience.”

      “Have you been in Bozeman since vet school?”

      “I have. They’ve been good to me at the practice. There are three vets, so we rotate and we can each get time off. That’s how I was able to come here to Rust Creek Falls for Thanksgiving.”

      “Delivering a foal came back to you. Maybe you should expand your practice,” he suggested.

      She looked over at the colt. “Actually, doing this has revved up my interest in larger animals again. One of our vets specializes in farm and ranch animals. I might tag along with him more often.”

      She gestured to the lid that had come from the cookie jar. “I noticed those organic cookies for the horses.”

      “I try to keep up with the healthiest feeds and herbs that help temperaments. I keep everything as natural as possible,” he confirmed.

      “You use herbs for temperament?” she asked.

      He nodded. “I mix them in with the feed. I’ve picked up a thing or two over the years.”

      He wasn’t sure why he’d just made himself sound a lot older than she was. But he didn’t think he was. He was thirty-five.

      “How old are you?” Eli asked her.

      “Thirty-one. Why?”

      He shrugged. “I just wondered.”

      She narrowed her eyes. “Did you think I was younger or older than that?”

      Releasing a long breath, he knew he’d backed himself into that corner. “I plead the fifth. No matter what I say, it will be wrong.”

      She laughed, and he liked the sound of her laughter.

      Suddenly their attention was taken by Amber. Apparently the rest period for the mare was over. She stood and the umbilical cord broke.

      Hadley quickly stood, too, as did he.

      Arm to arm, they watched as the foal, on shaky legs, rose to its feet. Again, Eli could almost feel Hadley’s emotions as she watched mother and baby bond.

      Sometimes in the past, he’d had to guide the foal to its mom’s nipple. But this foal found it easily. His momma nudged him a little and accepted him.

      Eli knew they weren’t out of the woods yet. The placenta still had to be delivered. If that didn’t happen in about four hours, the risk of infection in the mare was greater. Once again he was glad that Hadley was here. Standing close together, shoulder to shoulder, arm to arm, he was disturbed by an attraction to Hadley that he now had to acknowledge.

      But acknowledging it didn’t mean he was accepting it. He stepped away. “I’m going to see what’s going on outside.”

      He felt Hadley’s gaze on his back when he went to the barn door. To his dismay, he couldn’t get it open.

      Hadley glanced his way. “What’s the matter?”

      Instead of going to the back door near the tack room this time, he went to the bigger door and tried to slide it on its tracks. He managed only a few inches when snow fell in. Lots of snow.

      “We’re snowed in,” he announced.

      Hadley came hurrying to the door, looked outside and gasped. “There has to be twenty inches out there.”

      “Close to it,” he agreed, accepting the situation for what it was. After all, he did live in Montana.

      Hadley began pushing some of the snow away. She looked almost frantic.

      “What are you doing?”

      “I have to get out. It’s still snowing. There will be even more in a little while. I’ll never be able to get back tonight.”

      Earlier, she’d sounded reconciled to the fact that she’d be here awhile. But maybe she hadn’t considered an overnight stay. Was she panicked because of their attraction?

      “Would that be so awful?” he teased, hoping to ease her anxiety.

      Then he saw a multitude of emotions flash through her eyes. Panic. Maybe even a little fear. What was that about?

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