Hot Christmas Nights Page 9

  “You remember her don’t you?”

  “Sure I do.” He floundered. “Tara, right? No wait, Taylor.”

  “Teneille.”

  “Teneille. Of course.”

  “Maybe the two of you could get together again and go out for a meal at the tavern or—”

  “I’m not sure what my Christmas plans are yet.”

  “Are you going away?”

  “Maybe.” Before he could be drawn into an all-out lie, he pointed to Buster. “You need to give him one tablet a day until the course of antibiotics is finished. Do your best to keep him quiet for the next few days.”

  “Thanks, Dr. Josh. And thank Dr. Timms for me too.”

  With a sigh of relief, he passed her off to Sarah, the practice’s receptionist, smiling at the Santa hat Sarah had perched on her head. He moved the miniature Christmas tree out of Buster’s reach, before Buster could destroy it. “I told you it’d be more trouble than it was worth,” he grumbled.

  “No trouble to me,” she shot back with a cheery grin. “You’re the one who spends most of his time rescuing it.”

  True. But it was hard to resist a bit of Christmas spirit.

  Biting back a grin, he retreated to his office. He barely had a chance to enjoy the momentary lull before his mother poked her head around the door. “Sarah told me to come on through. And seeing as though it’s lunchtime…”

  She brandished a package that smelled suspiciously like hot chips. His favorite. On cue his stomach rumbled. He kissed her cheek before leading her to his desk and clearing a space for the food.

  “What’s up?”

  “Why does anything need to be up for me to have lunch with my favorite son?”

  “Because the last time you brought lunch into the office it was to rope both me and Erin into helping out with the surprise party you threw Dad.”

  “And a rather fine party it was too, I might add.”

  “The time before that it was when you were worried that Cassidy would flunk her second year of university and wanted me to have a word with her.”

  “And so she did! That sister of yours doesn’t have a steady bone in her body.”

  His sister was now a globetrotting photojournalist. “You’re proud of her and don’t pretend otherwise.” He unwrapped the chips. “Besides, you only call me your favorite son when you want something.”

  She harrumphed and ate a chip.

  Josh chewed and waited.

  “Is Erin in today, darling?”

  “She’s out on house calls. If you’re wanting to rope us into some fancy Christmas or New Year’s plans you’ll have to wait till she gets back.”

  “No, darling, I wanted a quiet word alone with you.”

  He straightened. “Is everything okay with Dad?”

  “Yes, of course, dear. Everyone is in the very best of health. It’s just… Look, I don’t usually pay much heed to gossip, but it seems to me there’s been more than the usual number of rumblings where Erin’s concerned recently. People have been dropping into the office, talking about it.”

  He promptly lost his appetite. His mother was the local real-estate agent and kept her ear to the ground. What she didn’t know about the happenings in Belltrees wasn’t worth knowing.

  “Losing Raggedy Ann has been hard on her,” he said. The kelpie had been her shadow. She’d loved that dog with all her heart—and despite what people said, Erin Timms had a big heart.

  “Yes, dear, I know, but these rumblings have been sounding for a couple of months now—not just this week.”

  “But—”

  “Do you know that last month she told Bethany Sattler that she was killing her dog?”

  “She has a point! Beth is overfeeding poor Cleo and—”

  “Yes, dear, but you wouldn’t have called Bethany a homicidal maniac dressed in pink.”

  He winced.

  “She told Mervin Price that his yard was a disgrace.”

  “One of Lily Mortimer’s cats got tangled in discarded barbed-wire in Mervin’s yard and we were lucky to save its leg. Erin was upset. Understandably so.”

  “Joshua Mark Halliday, the man can barely walk! He’s eight-five if he’s a day.”

  “Then the town needs to organize a working bee for him.”

  “Already taken care of, dear, but that’s not the point. Mervin fought for this county. He deserves more respect than that.”

  He had no comeback for that.

  “Mind you, I totally agreed with her for tearing strips off Graham Hughes when she found out he’d drowned his barn cat’s litter of kittens but…”

  But Erin was putting the town’s back up.

  “And the farmers on the larger holdings won’t hear a word said against her.” His mother took her time selecting another chip. “Still, they’re practical folk. When it comes to their livestock they don’t have a sentimental bone in their bodies.”

  That wasn’t entirely true, but there was no denying they appreciated Erin’s plain speaking. And they recognized skill when they saw it. Erin was the best vet in the district.

  Caroline Halliday heaved a sigh. “She used to be such a bright chipper thing when she was in school.”

  He dragged a hand down his face.

  “People are starting to time their visits to the clinic for when Erin isn’t here.”

  He stiffened.

  “And, darling, while that’s not good for business, the fact is I’m worried about her.”

  He met her gaze, every sense going on high alert. He trusted his mother’s instincts. Not only had she raised six rowdy children, dispensing wisdom and common sense when and as it was needed, but prior to that she’d trained as a nurse. She’d been married to his father—the town’s doctor—for over thirty years, and before she’d bought Belltrees Realty, had helped out in the surgery whenever she was needed. Caroline Halliday was trained to recognize a fellow being in distress.

  “You’re worried about her?”

  Her nostrils flared. “Eunice is a bitter soul. Dealing with her day in and day out must be wearing the poor girl thin. According to your father, though, Eunice is nowhere near as disabled as she makes out. He doesn’t believe for a single moment that Erin needed to go back home to look after her.”

  Eight months ago, Eunice had had a massive heart attack. Things had been touch and go for a while, but she’d been making steady progress since her surgery.

  Josh raked both hands back through his hair. “Jeez, Mum, what happened to client confidentiality?” He did his best to look scandalized, but from the expression on his mother’s face he hadn’t succeeded.

  “I know you won’t repeat it to anyone…except maybe Erin. It could be good for her to hear it.”

  Eunice Timms had played the invalid card on an endless loop of ‘woe is me’ and ‘nobody knows how hard it is’ until Erin had given in and returned home to help her. Now, though, Eunice acted like she was the one doing Erin the favor and putting a rent-free roof over her daughter’s head. Whenever Josh contemplated it too closely it made him want to punch something.

  “The odd thing is that while Erin doesn’t mind giving any of Belltrees’ pet owners a piece of her mind if she thinks they deserve it, she lets that mother of hers walk all over her.”

  He leaned towards her. “Do you know why?”

  She lifted a noncommittal shoulder. “Family can be a strange beast.”

  Not his family. The Hallidays might have the occasional difference of opinion, but they were close. He didn’t know what he’d do without them. He couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to have Eunice as his only living relative.

  “The problem is that Erin doesn’t have anyone to share the load with.”

  “She has me!”

  His mother reached out and patted his hand. “No offence, darling, but you’re neither her brother nor her husband.”

  “I’m her best friend.” Fighting back a scowl, he leant his elbows on the desk. “But I suppose you mean I’m not someone who can leg
itimately share in Eunice’s care.” He steepled his fingers and tapped them against his lips. “Maybe I should—”

  “Erin wouldn’t let you? She hates to impose on anyone.”

  He wasn’t just anyone! They’d been friends since high school. She was his business partner. She could impose on him any way she wanted. If he could take some of the weight off her shoulders he would.

  “Attend to your mother please, Joshua Mark.”

  He glanced up, stilled, and then leaned back in his chair. “You have a plan.”

  “I do.”

  “Am I going to like it?”

  “I rather think you will.”

  He seized another chip. “Hit me with it.”

  “Howdy, Erin-Heron!”

  Erin’s lips lifted at Josh’s familiar greeting—a nickname she’d acquired in second grade when her class had visited the local wetlands. Josh was the only person to still call her that.

  “Afternoon, Butternut-Squash-Josh. What’s put you in such fine fettle this afternoon?”

  “A hundred percent of our clinic clientele paid their bills today.”

  She adjusted the arm she had inside the cow. “Nice.”

  It wasn’t unusual for them to be paid in dribs and drabs. It wasn’t unusual for either of them to waive payment altogether if they knew a client was doing it tough.

  “And seeing you arm-deep in a cow always lifts my spirits.”

  That made her grin, but she didn’t reply as she slipped her fingers around the as-yet-unborn calf’s legs and pushed. Very gently she turned the unborn calf’s head. She gave thanks that Alan, the farmer, had put the young cow in a headgate. Not that she blamed her in the slightest for wanting to kick her. She withdrew her arm and held her other hand against the cow’s abdomen, felt another contraction ripple across it.

  “Problem?”

  As ever Josh’s quiet voice, his very presence, steadied her. “The calf wasn’t in the ideal position for birthing.”

  “But now it is.”

  “Now it is,” she agreed. “But this cow is a little young—” not to mention a little small “—to be pregnant.” She glanced at the farmer standing nearby. “But she performed an Houdini act, got out of her paddock and found herself face to face with Alan’s bull.”

  “And abracadabra—one pregnant cow,” Josh said.

  “Fence is fixed now,” the farmer said shortly. “If she wasn’t so small she’d have never—” He shrugged. “No cow will be getting through that fence again.”

  Not after the right royal lecture she’d just given him, they wouldn’t.

  Josh ran a hand down the cow’s shoulder. “She’s getting tired.”

  Erin ran a practiced eye over her—tired and distressed.

  “She’s going to be a good little breeder.” Alan folded his arms, his expression not changing, although Erin knew how concerned he was about the welfare of this little cow. His wife, Carol, had hand-reared her. “She’s worth a lot of money to me.”

  Erin bit back a sigh. She knew what that meant. If it came down to deciding whose welfare was more important, he wanted her to save the cow over the calf. “I’ll do everything I can,” she promised.

  Josh’s hands went to his hips. “What is it you always say—you’ve never seen a calf pulled too early, but you’ve seen them pulled too late? Want me to fetch the chains?”

  She nodded and he went to collect them from her station wagon. “I’ll try and make this as easy on both mother and baby as I can, Alan.”

  “I don’t doubt that for a moment, Dr. Timms. And it won’t hurt to have Dr. Josh here either.”

  “It won’t hurt at all,” she agreed, bemused anew that the town always called Josh by his first name and her by her surname.

  She nodded towards the cow. “If we get them both safely through this, what kind of mother do you think she’ll be?”

  “Hard to say. But if she rejects the calf it won’t be the first we’ve had to hand rear.”

  Good. Alan wasn’t one of those farmers who dismissed poddy calves as too much trouble.

  She met Josh’s gaze as she took the newly sterilized chains from him. “Ready?”

  “Whenever you say the word.”

  It was a long, slow process, not to mention hard physical work, and Erin was fiercely glad that the job took her entire concentration.

  It momentarily lifted the grey shroud of grief that swamped her.

  It momentarily banished the bone-deep exhaustion that gripped her. Exhaustion caused by her mother; an exhaustion growing heavier by the day and becoming increasingly harder to ignore.

  It pushed away the irritation—some days she’d call it despair—that had become her constant companion over the last few months. Despair that pet owners could be so mind-boggling ignorant.

  I didn’t know any better, or I didn’t know it’d harm my pet were no defense in Erin’s book. Cruelty came in many shapes and forms. But I love my snookums and he loves his square of chocolate every day.

  You’re poisoning your dog!

  But I can’t deprive him. He’ll think I’m punishing him.

  Argh!

  Erin pushed all of that away to focus on the job at hand. “Okay,” she said, appalled at how tired she sounded. “We’re nearly there.”

  Josh moved in closer beside her. “I’ll see to the baby. You see to the mother.”

  She nodded, and with a grunt pulled the calf out the final distance. Josh broke the calf’s fall and then pulled the membrane sac away from its mouth. She glanced at it, grimaced and then focused on ensuring the young cow neither hemorrhaged nor went into shock.

  A few minutes later she leaned against the railings of the headgate and sent Alan a small smile. “She’s going to be fine.”

  He let out a long low breath. “Much obliged.”

  She turned to Josh, her heart dipping in expectation of what she’d see. Her jaw dropped. The calf was breathing! She seized a clean towel and leapt to Josh’s side to start rubbing its hindquarters while Josh rubbed the front. “Amazing!”

  He grinned at her and it lifted her spirits. “I’ll have you know this calf isn’t some delicate little petal.”

  Which had been part of the problem—a smaller calf would’ve been easier to deliver.

  “She’s strong like her mom.”

  Erin glanced around at Alan to find him grinning like a new daddy.

  When they put calf and cow together, the cow immediately let the calf suckle.

  Alan pushed his hat back from his forehead. “Well, look at that.”

  “An early Christmas present,” Josh said.

  “I can’t thank the two of you enough.”

  Josh’s grin widened. “Let’s hope you’re still feeling that way when you get our bill.”

  That earned him a reluctant chuckle from the laconic farmer. “Can I get you two a beer?”

  “I’ll take a rain check,” Josh said.

  Erin stifled a yawn, wondering what wind had blown Josh out this way this afternoon. Not that she was complaining. In all likelihood he’d saved the calf’s life. “Me too, thanks, Alan.” One beer and she’d curl up in a corner somewhere and go to sleep.

  “You look done in, Dr. Timms.”

  “She was up half the night with a sick dog.”

  She shrugged that off. “Part of the job.” She’d volunteered because hanging out at the surgery for half the night was preferable to suffocating half to death in the heat and bitterness of her mother’s house. She glanced at her watch. A house she’d need to return to soon to cook her mother’s dinner.

  She nodded at the cow and calf. “Keep an eye out for the placenta. If you have any concerns, give me a buzz.”

  She and Josh packed up her equipment, leaving Alan to keep watch over his new addition.

  “Meet me down at the waterhole?”

  She blinked. The waterhole on the edge of town had been a favorite haunt of theirs as teenagers. “Why?”

  “I have chocolate milk in the Esky
and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. A big bag.”

  He hadn’t answered her question, but when he dangled a family-sized bag of crisps at her she didn’t care. “You had me at chocolate milk.”

  His laugh warmed her. “See you there in five.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  When Erin arrived at the waterhole, Josh was already sitting on a blanket in the flatbed of his truck. “If you had to give up chocolate milk or salt and vinegar chips,” he said, as she climbed up beside him, “which would you choose?”

  It was a game they always played. She took the carton of chocolate milk that he held out to her and settled back beside him, reaching into the bag of crisps. “What if I gave up chocolate milk in winter and salt and vinegar crisps in summer?”

  “It’s cheating, but I’ll let you get away with it.”

  She stared out at the river as she munched the crisps and slowly felt the tension ease out of her back and shoulders. “It’s gorgeous down here.”

  “Yep.”

  She used to come down here a lot.

  In front of them, clear water rippled through the shallows, the river rock shining gold, orange and almost purple in places. The afternoon shadows lengthened across the broader expanse of the river further down, softening the harsh summer light. The longer she gazed at it the quieter her soul seemed to become.

  She really should come down here more often.

  Uh huh, in all of your spare time?

  On cue, her phone buzzed. A text from her mother. When will you be home?

  She bit back a sigh. Soon, she texted back.

  She dropped the phone to her lap and nudged Josh’s shoulder with her own. “It’s nice of you to be concerned about me, Josh, but I want you to know I’m all right. I mean, I’m going to miss Raggedy Ann, of course I will.”

  An ache stretched through her. She rubbed a hand across her chest, but the ache didn’t ease.

  “But…” She had to swallow to prevent her voice from breaking. “But she had a good life and made it to a respectable age. I can take comfort in those things.”

  He raised his carton of chocolate milk. “To Raggedy Ann, the best dog in the world.”

  “To Raggedy Ann.” She touched her carton to his and they both drank. Erin had to blink hard to clear her vision.