“NOAH!” ELLA HURRIED up the hill to Noah’s cabin carrying Penny with her hand pressed to her forehead. “Noah! Are you there? Noah!”
From his window, Noah could see there was blood on Ella’s navy jacket and Penny was crying.
Noah’s heart dropped to the floor.
It seemed as if he’d just seen them leave Odette’s and head for Sled Hill. His only appointment for the day hadn’t even shown up yet.
Noah flung open the door, making a quick assessment. “Head wound?”
“Yes,” Ella sobbed as she reached the porch, apparently at the limit of a mama’s bravery. “There’s so much blood.”
“There always is for head wounds.” He took Penny from Ella and instructed her to wash the blood from her hands. “Hey, baby girl. What’s all the fuss?”
Calm her down. Clean and sanitize the wound.
That was the calm Dr. Bishop. Calm because he hadn’t thought ahead to the challenge of stitches. Noah’s stomach triple-somersaulted to join his heart on the floor, freezing him in place. He’d seen men who were broken, bones and sinew not where they were supposed to be. He’d endured their pleas and threats and cussing. But this…
“Ow-wee!” Penny wailed, clinging to Noah when he tried to put her on the exam table.
He knew this child. He cared for this child. He didn’t want to hurt this child, even to help her heal.
Just say it, Dr. Bishop sniped. You love her.
Love?
Penny was bleeding on him. Noah didn’t care. He quit trying to put her on the table and held on tight. “Have a little faith, Penny.”
Let’s hope it’s not misplaced. You could disfigure the kid when you close that wound.
Noah’s gaze connected with Ella’s. She looked as small as Penny without her big jacket on. Her eyes were huge. He wanted to wrap his arm around her, too, and reassure her that everything was going to be all right.
Penny continued to wail. His stomach somersaulted again.
Woof hopped onto the table and its crinkly paper. Penny leaned toward the dog, big drops of blood coming from her forehead. With Noah’s help she dropped into a sitting position. Woof put his big head in Penny’s lap.
The dog did what Ella and Noah couldn’t. Penny’s sobs subsided. She snuffled and buried her hands in Woof’s fur, her lower lip trembling.
In that moment, Noah knew three things. He wasn’t giving up Woof. He wasn’t giving up Penny. And he wasn’t giving up Ella. He loved them all.
Yes, love.
Extremely poor timing, Doc. As usual.
Who cared about timing? Noah was in love!
The feeling coursed through his veins like a thundering waterfall—love-love-love—roaring past his ears and filling his empty places.
If you spread your arms, spin around and break into song, I’ll be sick, Dr. Bishop grumbled.
Woof stared up at Noah with sad eyes, as if to say: Maybe you should think about love later—after you fix my little girl.
“Pet the nice doggy,” Ella said from Noah’s side, her presence grounding him.
“Woof.” Penny clutched the big dog’s neck as if he was a pint-sized stuffed bunny. The tears continued to fall, but the soul-crushing sobs subsided.
“Everything’s going to be all right. Tell me what happened.” Noah cleaned Penny’s wound while Ella recounted events in a quiet voice.
“She went down Sled Hill and the twins couldn’t wait until she was clear to go down after her. They caught up and heads collided. I swear, I could hear the thud from the top, louder than cars colliding.”
Penny’s skin had split open above her brow. The gash was nearly an inch in length and there was a contusion forming beneath it. Noah pressed a fresh piece of gauze on the opening. He needed to stop the bleeding before he closed it up.
“Ow-wee,” Penny whispered, touching Noah’s hand.
“Yes. But it’s going to feel better soon, Penny.” What a lie that was. Her head was going to pound for hours. “Can you keep your hands on Woof while I make it all better?”
The little girl nodded.
He glanced at Ella. “I’m not steady enough to stitch her up.” Her skin was thin, and he didn’t want her to have jagged scars. “But I have skin glue and a butterfly bandage.”
“Do it.”
He hesitated. “It might not seal well.”
“So?”
“She might get a scar.”
“My daughter isn’t going to go into acting like her father’s cousin, Ashley. If she goes to Hollywood, she’ll be a stuntwoman. Glue her back together, Noah.”
A few minutes later, Penny was cuddling with Woof on the couch with drowsy eyes, a small icepack on her head.
Noah felt like joining them. “I wish everyone’s injuries could be glued as easily,” he said, flexing his fingers.
Slender arms came from behind to hug his chest. Ella wiggled around to slip under one of his arms and sighed. “Penny’s really going to be all right?” Dried blood streaked the side of Ella’s neck. Tears stained her cheeks. She’d never looked more beautiful to Noah.
“I think so.” He kissed Ella’s nose, and then got a wet cloth and gently wiped her clean so he could kiss her properly. When he was done, and she still looked shaken, he laid his palms on her shoulders, aiming to reassure. “Kids get bumps and bruises all the time. We’ll need to watch her for signs of a concussion.”
Ella laid a hand over his, much as Penny had done earlier. “Thank you. I was—”
“Cool as ice.” He appreciated that in a medical assistant.
She laid her forehead on his chest. “I yelled at the boys.”
“Any parent would.” Noah enfolded her in his arms, not wanting to let go, not ready to tell her he loved her. She deserved candles and flowers and moonlight.
“Sophie’s feelings were hurt.”
Ella was compassionate to a fault. “Sophie needs to give those boys more discipline. I’m sure she’ll understand once everything calms down.”
“Yes, but—”
“Help!” Someone yelled from outside.
Woof’s ears perked up, but he didn’t move from Penny’s side.
“Doc, help!”
For the second time that day, Noah hurried to the window.
A woman wearing a fleece-lined jacket and a cowboy hat stood next to a large truck with the Bucking Bull logo on the side. “Doc! Help!” It was Francis Clark. “It’s Zeke. He’s bleeding. Come quick.”
On autopilot, Noah leaped into heart-thumping action. He thrust his arms into a jacket and put on his snow boots without slowing to lace them up. He ran through the powder to get to the truck.
Shane was running toward them, having left the Bent Nickel across the street. “Do you need an extra pair of hands?”
Francis, standing near the open driver’s door, looked near tears. “Zeke’s inside the cab.”
Noah opened the rear passenger door.
Zeke was one of the Bucking Bull’s ranch hands. He was half lying down, half sitting across the back seat. His jeans were torn on one leg, revealing an open fracture. His tibia bone was protruding through the skin. He was pressing a blood-soaked T-shirt to the wound, but weakly, as if he might pass out. His face was pale. “Hey, Doc. Can you squeeze me in?”
“You cowboys are always trouble.” Noah glanced into Zeke’s eyes. The pupils were normal. “What happened?” Noah carefully examined the wound, and then took a toolbox from the floor and carefully elevated Zeke’s foot. For once, he and his internal critic were on the same wavelength.
The cowboy wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “I skidded on black ice coming down the road from the Bucking Bull. A tree jumped out in front of me.”
“I was right behind him.” Francis spoke in the mournful tones of the guilty and gripped the steering wheel as if she needed something sturdy to keep her balance. She had a bruise rising on her cheekbone and panic in her eyes. “I rear-ended him. About fifteen minutes ago.”
“Now, boss, I told you not to take it personal.” Zeke tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace.
Noah caught Francis’ eye. “Are you okay?”
She waved a hand, as if her condition didn’t matter. “I hit the steering wheel when I hit him.” Her truck was too old to have an airbag. Her eyes misted, and she said quietly, “I’m so sorry.”
“It was an accident,” Noah said firmly.
“What he said,” Zeke seconded.
Shane skidded into the driver’s side of the truck and swore. He threw open the cab door.
“Shane,” Noah said calmly, checking his watch to note the time. “Call nine-one-one. Tell them we have an open fracture and need a medevac ASAP.”
Shane didn’t say anything or move.
Noah glanced up.
Shane was staring at blood and bone, his face nearly as pale as Zeke’s. Or perhaps he was staring at Noah’s scars. Noah’s hands were in the same region and he hadn’t put on his gloves.
Noah’s stomach did a slow churn, but the damage was already done. Shane knew Noah wasn’t able-bodied.
“Now, Shane.” Noah put more authority in his tone and repeated his instructions.
Shane nodded and moved away to make the phone call.
“Zeke, when was your last tetanus shot?” Noah asked.
“I can’t remember.” Zeke frowned.
He’d need one. “Are you allergic to anything? Any meds, like penicillin?”
“Nope.”
Antibiotics were a priority if Zeke’s leg was to be saved.
“What can I do to help?” Ella appeared at Noah’s side, wearing one of Noah’s black hooded sweatshirts. She’d brought a blanket, which she draped over Zeke’s lap and chest without flinching at the sight of his injury. She produced a bottle of water from the sweatshirt pocket, opened it and handed it to Zeke. “Tell me what to do, Noah.”
She’d done plenty, just with those two gifts. He introduced her to the cowboy. “Keep Zeke talking and warm while I get what I need.” Noah was already making a list in his head. A shot of antibiotics, a tetanus booster, saline solution, sterile wrap, a splint, ice packs. He was more in his element with Zeke’s injury than he’d been with Penny’s.
“Although I like the doc,” Zeke said with a strained smile that tried to be pickup worthy. “I enjoy talking to pretty ladies more.”
“Flatterer,” Ella quipped, proving she was more than capable of handling an emergency with grace. She would have made a fantastic ER nurse or doctor. She waved off Noah, but not before their gazes connected.
He nodded at her and she nodded back.
Another connection. Albeit a simple one. A quick one. Still, it confirmed for him that she was the one for him. He climbed back through the snow to his cabin and threw what he needed into a plastic tub, running on the good kind of adrenaline.
Woof followed him with his eyes, still acting as Penny’s pillow. Her eyes were closed.
Noah spared a moment to pry open Penny’s eyes and flash light in them. Still no sign of concussion. She swiped his hand away and grumbled something unintelligible.
Noah returned to the truck and Zeke, sending Ella back to the cabin to watch over Penny. His pulse was pounding with excitement. He was alert and engaged in the challenge, knowing exactly what to do, knowing what Zeke would need when he reached a hospital.
Thirty minutes later, a helicopter touched down in the middle of the crossroads. Noah helped Zeke into a flight gurney. And then he watched as Zeke and Francis were carried away.
“You were good,” Shane said from his position nearby. “You probably saved that guy’s life.”
Noah nodded once and thrust his hands in his jacket pockets, the feelings of relevancy and elation draining. He climbed the path to the cabin.
Ella met him on the porch. She was still wearing his black hooded sweatshirt, probably because her jacket was stained with her daughter’s blood. “You were in your element with Zeke.”
“In a way.” Noah was happy to see her, grateful she’d come out to meet him. But that didn’t change the almost numbing letdown. Zeke’s future was in someone else’s hands.
“What happens next?”
“Surgery. He’ll need surgery.” Noah replayed a scenario in his head where he was the one to perform the procedure. Irrigating the wound, making sure flesh and bone were clean, implanting metal in both ends of the bone, stitching him up, praying there’d be no infection.
“I bet Zeke wishes you were doing the surgery, too.” Ella slipped her arm around Noah’s waist, trying to draw him inside, where it was warm.
Noah hesitated in the doorway. He stared down at the top of Ella’s head and then drew his right hand from his pocket to stare at his scars. He turned to take in the broad flat valley covered in picture-perfect snow and then the crossroads where the helicopter had touched down.
He loved Ella. He was growing to love the people who lived in this valley.
But there would always be a hole in his heart where his dreams once resided.
One that no one and nothing could fill.
He drew Ella closer, splaying his ugly hand across her back, but lingering in the doorway.
He loved her. And she loved him. He could sense it in the way she’d accepted him.
They went inside and he closed the door behind them.
Love. He tried to tell himself it was enough.
Never, jeered Dr. Bishop.
* * *
“I NEVER MADE s’mores before.” Ella wiped Penny’s hands with a damp paper towel. “A couple more of those and I won’t fit in my jeans tomorrow.”
She sat in the corner of the couch in the living room of the inn, Penny—wearing her butterfly bandage—nestled in her arms. Penny’s sledding accident and resulting tears had worn out her daughter, but it had drawn Ella and Noah closer together in those brief minutes after he’d stopped the bleeding and sealed her wound. But then Zeke…
Noah had been amazing with the injured cowboy. He’d stood tall. He’d given orders with precise authority. He’d tended to Zeke’s wound without gloves. There was an energy to his every breath that said this was what he was meant to do.
And then the helicopter had taken off and he’d been quiet. She’d left him to his thoughts and hadn’t asked anything of him when he’d shown up after dinner with chocolate, marshmallows and graham crackers for their promised dessert.
“You’ve never had s’mores, Ella?” Gabby turned from her place on the hearth, pale red hair in a ponytail. She’d been roasting marshmallows for the twins, who kneeled on a rug a safe distance from the fire. “Seriously? How can this be?”
“I’ve never been camping,” Ella admitted.
Gabby gasped. “Then you have to have another one.”
Had Noah known she’d never had the treat when he’d brought over the makings of s’mores? If given a guess as to what he’d bring, she’d have chosen a box of frozen cheesecake from the general store’s freezer. Ella’s gaze searched for Noah and the chance to ask him about it, coming up empty. He’d disappeared with Mitch shortly after arriving at the inn and she hadn’t seen him since.
“Grandpa Harlan took us camping once when we were little.” Laurel was tucked into the other corner of the couch covered by the quilt she coveted, the blue-and-brown one made by Odette. “All twelve of us. Remember?” She glanced toward her cousins.
“I do.” Shane shuddered dramatically from his seat in the corner. “Grandpa Harlan was a brave man.”
“You can’t call that camping.” Sophie snorted, pushing her glasses with the back of her s’more-filled hand. “He rented a tour bus with bunks in it.”
“It was camping,” Laurel insisted. “We parked in a campground.”
A familiar wave of longing swept through Ella’s chest. “I went fishing once.” With one of her foster dads. “I didn’t catch anything.” But Aaron had taught her how to skip rocks. It was the first and only trip they’d taken together. A few weeks later, he’d lost his job and was forced to give up Ella. She still had one of the small flat rocks from that trip.
“How much more snow do you think we’ll get this winter?” Shane asked, the same as he’d asked every hour since dinner.
As one, Ella, Sophie and Laurel groaned.
Laurel kicked out her feet. “The last time a man talked so much about the weather, he used it as a pickup line.” She pitched her voice low. “How much longer do you think it’ll rain?”
“What an original opener.” Sophie chuckled. She’d accepted Ella’s apology regarding her harsh words toward the boys earlier, and had offered an apology of her own.
“Did it work?” Ella asked.
“Of course it worked.” Laurel sat up, eyes twinkling. “Do you know what it’s like to live in Hollywood and be the identical twin of Ashley Monroe? Anyone who doesn’t ask me if I’m Ashley has a leg up on the competition.”
When Sophie’s laughter died down, she admitted, “I once went on a blind date with a man who couldn’t remember my name. Turned out he was someone else’s blind date.” She rolled her eyes. “I should have taken that as a sign.”
“Why’s that?” Ella snuggled Penny closer.
Sophie sighed. “I married him.”
Ella gasped, but Laurel found this hysterical.
“Did your husband not want to be a father?” Gabby handed Ella another s’more. “That’s why my dad divorced my mom. She figured out early on that she didn’t have the mommy gene.” At Ella’s offended noise, she added, “Not that I take it personally. I was just a baby.” By the slant of her eyes, Ella could tell her mother’s disregard did hurt Gabby.
“It was her loss,” Ella said.
That earned her a small smile from the girl.
Shane reached for a marshmallow roasting stick, finally enticed to join the binge. “I once accepted a date with a pop star who was doing a six-month concert residency at our resort in Vegas. She took me to a bar in our hotel, ordered a drink and seemed to be interested in me until she got a text and left with another man.”
“I don’t believe you.” Sophie called his bluff. “Women adore you.”
“Family doesn’t count,” Shane chided gently. “I was being used. She knew her ex-boyfriend was going to be there. She needed a man to make him jealous and get him back.”
“Oh, that’s sad. And it makes you a little bit more human, brother dear.” Sophie patted his arm.
Shane speared a marshmallow. “And you deny you’re the evil twin.”
“You couldn’t play nice? Just this once?” Sophie heaved a dramatic sigh, one that elicited a giggle from Penny, which brought Sophie’s attention to Ella. “What about you, Ella? What’s your bad-date story?”
“I don’t have any bad-date stories because—”
“She’s just like Bryce,” Laurel muttered. “None of his relationships ever ended badly.”
Ella paused, wondering once more if Bryce had loved her as deeply as she’d loved him. Her stomach churned, but that might have been because she’d eaten three s’mores. “My romantic life hasn’t been all wine and roses.”
Noah’s silhouette appeared in the doorway behind the check-in counter.
“Prove it,” Laurel challenged. She hadn’t had anything but graham crackers, having decided her stomach woes were either from bad sushi she’d had at the Boise airport, or the turkey-salad sandwich she’d eaten at the Bent Nickel when they’d arrived. She claimed she was going to cleanse her system by only having water and crackers.
Ella didn’t have the heart to tell Laurel graham crackers weren’t part of a mild diet for upset tummies.
“See?” Laurel sighed as if Ella’s silence had proven her point. “Sunshine and rainbows.”
“Hang on.” Ella suddenly remembered something from her past. “There was the time a guy in high school asked me to prom.”
“Keep going,” Laurel prompted. “It doesn’t sound bad so far.”
Noah was still in the doorway, lingering on the outskirts of Ella’s life. She feared the distance between them might end up as relationship fodder the next time the Monroes brought up the topic of failed romance.
Ella plunged ahead with her story. “I was ecstatic. But the next day he withdrew his invitation.”
“Oh, now that is bad.” Sophie shook her head. She picked up a chocolate bar and tried to foist it on Ella. “You need a dose of sugar to make it all better.”
“Really, really bad,” Laurel agreed, taking Sophie’s cue and trying to force a graham cracker on Ella.
Noah didn’t comment.
“Did this loser have a reason?” Shane demanded, blowing out the marshmallow he’d set on fire. “I might have to look him up and tell him how to treat a lady.”
“He said he’d decided going to prom was too expensive.” Their sympathy enveloped Ella. This was what it was like to be part of a family. To be a Monroe. “While he was counting pennies, I’d already dived in and purchased a prom dress.” From the secondhand store.
“Stores frown on prom-dress returns,” Laurel said, in her voice of experience.
Sophie nodded, unwrapping the candy bar.
She’d still had it in her closet when she’d married Bryce. She’d told him the story behind it and he’d asked her on a grown-up prom date, insisting she wear the dress. When the night of their date arrived, Bryce wore a tux, dinner was a catered affair at their place and they’d danced in their living room. With her expanding curves, the dress hadn’t been a flattering fit. But it hadn’t mattered—not to Bryce or Ella.
Shane swiped the candy bar from Sophie and the graham cracker from Laurel, using them to make a s’more. “Seriously, though. It’s going to stop snowing tomorrow, isn’t it?”
They all groaned.
“Don’t you know this is one of the coldest, snowiest places in the United States?” Gabby gathered the marshmallows and the roasting forks. “It’s January. Winter has barely begun. Suck it up, Shane.”
“Yeah,” Laurel agreed with a grin. “Quit complaining.”
“Oh, come on.” Shane struggled to sandwich his marshmallow between layers of chocolate and graham cracker. “You all feel the same way I do. Admit it.”
“Never.” Ella set Penny on the floor and stood. “I’m going to bed. It’s past someone’s bedtime.”
Boots scuffed behind the front desk. Noah stepped into the light, hands thrust in his jacket pockets. “How’s Penny doing?”
“Good.”
Penny toddled to Noah and wrapped her arms around his leg.
“Good night, Penny.” Noah patted her head with a gloved hand, his gaze finding Ella’s. “You’ll wake her every hour to make sure she doesn’t have a concussion?”
If I say no, will you stay the night with us?
“I can handle it,” Ella said instead. What she wasn’t sure she could handle was falling off the ledge they were dancing across.
“What’s the latest on Zeke’s condition?” Shane asked Noah.
“He came out of surgery with flying colors. It’s just a waiting game to make sure there’s no infection inside the bone or tissue.”
“Or he could lose his leg?” Sophie’s glasses had slid down her nose.
Noah nodded.
“But he won’t. Because Noah was here.” Ella picked up Penny. “Dessert was lovely.” I wish you would have joined me. “Thank you.”
That sparked a round of appreciation for Noah’s originality and the deliciousness of s’mores.
Their words barely registered in Ella’s head. What was registering was the distant look in Noah’s eyes. Between her rushing the natural course of things and Zeke’s accident today, she’d thrown Noah off-balance and he hadn’t yet recovered.
And if he never recovered?
My heart will break.
Noah left without a look of longing or so much as a kiss on Penny’s cheek or Ella’s lips.
“I bet he wouldn’t get a blind date’s name wrong,” Sophie murmured.
“Or renege on a prom,” Ella added.