Reunion Pass: An Eternity Springs novel (17 page)

Tough love, Murphy,
Lori told herself.

“Then it will do you good to have someone else to think about, Timberlake. Have him sleep in his crate. He’ll feel safer, and you’ll sleep easier knowing he’s not getting into mischief.” She shoved the pup at him and let go. As she’d known he would, Chase caught him. “I’ll be back in a week to check on him. You two have fun.”

She hurried to climb into the SUV, and as a precautionary measure, she locked the doors. Just in time, too, because he tried the passenger door as she fired up the engine.

“Dammit, Lori!” he repeated. He banged on the window with his fist.

Lori grinned and finger-waved, put the van in gear, and spun her tires as she left. Just before she made the first curve that obstructed her view of the yurt, she glanced in her rearview mirror. Chase held the wiggling puppy out at arm’s length, and he appeared to be lecturing the dog. Even this far away, she could see the red scratches on his chest. “That’s what you get for parading around bare-chested where any trespassing female can see.”

She fastened her attention on the road ahead, though her thoughts remained on the man—and mutt—she’d left behind. All in all, it had gone better than expected. Maybe, just maybe, Celeste’s little found dog would prove to be the medicine Chase Timberlake needed.

*   *   *

What had just happened?

Chase stared from the wriggling puppy he held to the dust stirred up by Lori Murphy’s spinning tires. What
the hell
had just happened?

“She dumped a dog on me. That’s what just happened.”

Without taking his gaze from the curve where Lori had disappeared, he set the dog onto the ground. Anger flared like a match strike. That woman had more nerve than a root canal. Who did she think she was? What kind of veterinarian was she? Dumping puppies on unsuspecting men! Did she do this sort of nonsense often? What made her think it was all right to waltz in here like nothing was wrong, dump a dog on him, then give a little smart-assed finger wave and speed off?

Chase slowly straightened, his anger abruptly draining away. He absently rubbed the scratches on his chest. “She waltzed in here like nothing is wrong. Huh.”

She didn’t ask how he was doing. There’d been no questions about what had happened or why he was living at the yurt or why he refused to leave it. Huh.

She’d treated him … normally. Nobody had treated him normally since he had crossed paths with the Callahan search team while making his way out of hell.

Chase glanced down at the mutt, who had begun to climb his ankles. “The least she could have done was trim those razors that are attached to your paws.”

He gave his leg a gentle shake, dislodging the dog, and eyed the box she’d unloaded. He didn’t have to let this stand. He could carry the supplies and Captain Claw here to his parents’ house and return the whole enchilada to Eternity Springs within the hour.

Except, Lori had treated him normally. She didn’t spend long minutes searching his expression with eyes filled with worry like his father. Her voice wasn’t choked with emotion when she spoke to him like his mom. She hadn’t acted perkily out of character like Lana.

She’d trusted him to care for the mutt.

From Lori Murphy, DVM, that showed a phenomenal amount of trust.

Her stubbornness was the stuff of which legends were made, but then, so was her compassion. Lori had a gold-plated healing heart when it came to four-legged animals. She wasn’t Mother Teresa with the two-legged variety, but she was still more caring than just about any female of his acquaintance. With the exception of her response to her father during those early months following his return to Eternity Springs, Chase couldn’t think of anyone whom Lori treated with anything less than kindness.

She hadn’t been kind to him just now … or had she?

She’d believed in him.

He clung to the thought like … Captain Claw’s paws.

“A week,” he murmured. She’d said she’d be back in a week. He imagined it would be easier to keep the damned dog a week than to make a trip into town where he’d have to speak to people.

The dog scratched his calf. “No!” he said, giving the pup the stink eye. The little floppy ears perked up. A little pink tongue slid out of his mouth and his tail wagged a mile a minute. The cute factor was ridiculous.

With a heavy sigh, he picked up the supply box and carried it into the yurt. The puppy followed, right on his heels. The first thing he did upon entering the structure was pee on the wooden floor. It was a warning of things to come.

By noon, Chase was considering abandoning the name Captain Claw in favor of Captain Havoc. The puppy could give Lori’s dad’s dog, Mortimer, a run for his money. Right under Chase’s eye, he’d managed to chew up the grip of a fishing pole, pee on one of Chase’s running shoes, and rip a five-inch tear in the bedsheet. After a lunch of the leftover pasta primavera his mother had brought over last night, he put the pup in the crate and crawled into bed for his afternoon nap.

The past few days, Chase had indulged in long afternoon naps—following an extended morning nap. He’d had trouble getting out of bed at all during the day. For some weird reason, the nightmares didn’t plague him as much when he slept during the day.

He pulled his pillow over his head to drown out the pup’s whimpers and whines. It didn’t work. After a good five minutes of the nerve-grating noise, Chase jerked the pillow aside, lifted his head from the mattress, and glared at the mutt. “I’ll bet Edvard Munch used one of your ancestors for inspiration for
The Scream.
”

He rolled out of bed and decided to take the dog for a walk. “You can call me Drill Sergeant Timberlake. I’m going to march you until you drop.”

Despite the threats, that’s not what happened. After hiking for the better part of an hour, the dog continued to go strong. He made Chase tired just watching him.

The exercise did Chase good. Despite his weariness and the lack of sleep, when he took a seat at a spot with a nice view of the valley and Eternity Springs below, he felt more rested than he’d felt in weeks. When the pup climbed up onto his lap and settled down to sleep, a sniffy little snore coming from his snout, Chase absently scratched him behind the ears and let his mind drift.

Lori had sure looked pretty this morning. She’d always been appealing, but the girl-next-door look she’d had about her in high school had matured into a natural beauty that made a man think about snuggling in a sleeping bag at sunrise.

She wasn’t as in-your-face beautiful as Lana, and he couldn’t picture her wearing an evening gown and standing at a craps table in Monte Carlo. But honestly, that whole scene had lost what little appeal it had had for him in the past. Not that Lana had dragged him into it kicking and screaming. High-stakes gambling on the French Riviera was a thrill sport of its own, and Chase had enjoyed the experience. Once. He couldn’t imagine doing it again.

But then, he couldn’t imagine doing much of anything. Except maybe hiking over to Lover’s Leap and taking a running jump off the cliff. Or going for that swim in Reunion Lake that sounded so tempting.

It would be the easy way out. Too easy. He could never do that to his family and friends. He’d already caused them enough grief as it was. He’d assured his father of that just yesterday when Mac came by the yurt, rousted him out of bed to go fishing, and eventually confessed his concerns about Chase’s mental health.

Captain lifted his head, looked at Chase with solemn brown eyes, and licked his hand. Chase took a ridiculous amount of comfort from the little pup’s action. He realized that sometime during the past few hours something within him had started to thaw.

“Leave it to Lori,” he murmured. His little healer. Except, she wasn’t his any longer, was she?

The thought gave his heart a twist, which was downright sorry of him. After all, he was still engaged to marry another woman—on the Fourth of July, apparently. He’d better begin working up some enthusiasm for the idea. After all, she was ready to change her whole life for him, wasn’t she?

Because she feels guilty. Almost as guilty as I do.

That thought led him right back down the road to hell.

He awoke to a bloodred dawn and the certainty that he’d screwed up. After four days and three nights of near constant movement, he’d sat down and slept. Hard. Cautiously easing out from behind the boulder that had provided concealment, he looked around. It was quiet. The stillness was different. It was as if he were the only living being left alive.

They’d moved out during the night. He’d slept right through it.
Oh, God, I’ve lost them.

On a mountainside in Colorado, Chase fought nausea that suddenly churned in his stomach. Abruptly, he set Captain down on the ground and stood. “We’ve sat on our asses long enough. Time to get back and chop some wood.”

Never mind that he already had a woodpile tall enough for three winters—long, bitter winters—he found that swinging an axe and sweating battled off the daylight nightmares as good as just about anything.

He ended up carrying Captain two thirds of the way back to the site of the yurt. The dog explored the clearing while he chopped his wood, and when Chase went inside to shower, he put him in the crate so that he wouldn’t emerge from the bathroom to discover he’d clawed his way through the yurt’s canvas.

The sound of the water almost drowned out the puppy’s cries. Almost.

The rest of the day and the next passed in a haze of puppy care, proving to Chase that his parents had always been right with the advice they gave to potential dog owners—get one that’s at least a year old. He solved the crate-crying problem by letting Captain sleep with him. The pup didn’t move once he snuggled up against Chase, who got the best night’s sleep that he’d had in weeks.

And his heart thawed, just a little bit.

Lori had included a couple of tennis balls in the supply box, and on the afternoon of the seventh day Captain’s retriever blood showed itself. He figured out how to play fetch.

The pup’s delight in the game was contagious. Something a little magical happened.

Chase laughed aloud.

Chapter Ten

With the Memorial Day weekend behind them and the summer tourist season in full swing, Lori’s schedule at the clinic kicked into high gear. The steady stream of appointments kept her so busy that she rose early in the morning and fell asleep late at night and didn’t have a moment to spare to fret about Eternity Springs’s newest citizens.

Until late in the week when a no-show appointment finally gave her time to grab a bite of lunch and check her messages, and she found a long, bombshell text message from Caitlin on her phone. So, Chase’s sister was on her way to Denver with Ali and Lana to go wedding-gown shopping because a new wedding date had been set.

“July Fourth,” Lori murmured. Huh. First Valentine’s Day, now the Fourth of July. Lana must really have a thing for holidays.

Of course, Chase liked holidays, too. Lori would never forget how silly he got about the community Easter egg hunt in Davenport Park. The man always volunteered to be in charge of hiding the eggs, and like a general preparing for battle, he would devise detailed plans for each of the three different age classes of hunters. He had a baseball cap equipped with tall, pink and white rabbit ears that he’d wear during the hunts. He’d wander the field helping the little ones and giving the older kids a hard time.

He’d been in Chizickstan on Easter this year. She wondered if he’d spared a thought for rabbit hats and plastic eggs and chocolate bunnies. Her freshman year at A&M he’d sent her a three-foot-tall chocolate bunny.

Yes, the man should marry on a holiday.
Except, he shouldn’t be marrying a reality TV star.

The chime on her office door announced the arrival of her next appointment. Lori was glad for the distraction. However, at the end of her workday, she decided she needed to spend a little time with her own unsettled thoughts, so she loaded her kayak into her SUV and drove to Hummingbird Lake. She found time spent on the water both relaxing and soothing, and in light of the day’s news, she could use a dose of both. She needed to make peace once and for all with the fact that Chase was getting married.

She launched the kayak from the fishing pier and began to paddle the circumference of the lake. Immediately, the water began to work for her and her spirit began to settle.

What a weird start she’d had to this new beginning of hers. When she’d decided to accept Nic’s offer regarding the practice and move back to Eternity Springs, never in a million years would she have thought that Chase would be living here, too. Two streets down and one block over from her, if they moved into the old Carpenter place like rumor had it.

Not that Lori expected they would be there for long. Chase had come home to heal, but he’d get his mojo back and then they’d be off again. In the meantime, Lori had to figure a way to move beyond any awkwardness that would arise from running across Lana or Chase at a mutual friend’s house or in the grocery store.

The thought startled her, and that quickly, her calm disappeared. Oh, jeez. She’d first met Chase in the grocery aisle at the Trading Post. Her teenaged heart had fallen a little bit in love with him at first sight. What if she ran into him among the canned vegetables again?

Fresh is best anyway. Just don’t buy canned. You don’t even like canned veggies. Stay in the fresh produce aisle! Or if you’re desperate, go frozen! Everyone should have a bag of peas in their freezer to use as an ice pack if needed. It’s basic first aid!

First aid? She blew out a sigh of self-disgust and dug her paddle into the water.
Seriously, get over yourself, Murphy.
Avoidance only made the situation worse. She
needed
to run into him in the canned vegetable aisle. Face the problem and deal with it.

“Like a vaccination,” she murmured as the orange kayak glided silently forward. That’s how she would think of it. She needed to deal with the situation—with them—in short little shots. That was how vaccines worked. A person took little doses of dead virus so that the body developed antibodies and thus immunity to them. She could think of it as the C&L vaccine.