A Perfect Holiday Fling (12 page)

“Oh, no, I’m sure she can make time for you.” The receptionist bolted from her swivel chair. A few minutes later, Callie entered the waiting room.

Underneath her lab coat she wore dark brown pants and a light brown sweater that matched the color of her eyes and made them seem even warmer.

“Hey,” Stefan said.

“Hi.” She smiled at him. Stefan caught her glancing over his shoulder at the room full of people, and he immediately felt the eyes of everyone in the room burning into his back.

“Do you mind if we go to your office?” he asked.

“Sure.” She nodded and he followed her past the exam rooms to a small, but neat office. The minute she shut the door, she stepped up to him and brought his face in for a kiss. Stefan’s eyelids slid closed as he concentrated on the feel of her lips against his. She was like coming home to everything that was right in the world.

“You look as if you needed that,” she said.

“That’s exactly what I needed today.”

Her brows furrowed and then her eyes widened with sympathy and understanding. “You got bad news from the doctor this morning, didn’t you?” She wrapped her arms around him. “Stefan, I’m so sorry.”

Her simple hug nearly leveled him to the ground.

The sense of understanding he felt from her, the compassion, the empathy. They were so foreign that Stefan had a hard time remembering how he should react. He could get used to this feeling, to knowing that someone cared.

Callie released him from the hug, but continued to touch him, rubbing her hands up and down his arms. “So, what will you do now?” she asked.

“The choice should be easy.” He focused on the framed university degrees on the wall above her desk. “I already have a job waiting for me with Dustin’s company. I sure as hell shouldn’t feel sorry for myself.”

Callie cupped his jaw and turned his face toward her. “Stefan, you have every right to feel whatever it is you’re feeling. A loss—any loss—has a mourning period. You’re being forced to give up something you love. That isn’t easy.”

He tucked her hair behind her ear and drew his finger down her cheek. “But at least I have something to look forward to. I’m luckier than most.”

She nodded, her throat working as she swallowed. “Yes, you are. You have a new career waiting for you. And you have a sister and nephew who love you.”

“What else?” he urged.

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Tell me what else I have waiting for me, Callie.”

“You have me,” she whispered. “If you want me, you have me.”

“I want you,” he groaned against her lips as he swept in for a deep, decadent kiss. Stefan pulled her in close, astonished at how just being near her, kissing her, could make one of his darkest days in years so much brighter.

Never in his wildest dreams had he expected to find someone like her when he’d agreed to come to Maplesville to care for Jacob. She was like a rare Christmas treat, a gift he hadn’t realized he wanted until he’d found her.

His cell phone rang, forcing them to finally break their kiss after untold minutes. Stefan pulled it out of his pocket. It was Trina Jefferson’s number.

“We’ll talk later,” Callie mouthed as she left him in the office.

Stefan put a hand up to stop her as he answered the phone, but moments after Trina began speaking he sprinted out of the veterinary clinic.

Thankfully, Maplesville wasn’t that big of a town, and at two o’clock in the afternoon, traffic was fairly light. Stefan pulled up to the pizza restaurant on Highway 421, and found Trina, Kennedy and Jacob sitting on an outside bench. Jacob’s coat was draped over his back. The remnants of his pizza and more than likely his breakfast, too, were caked to the front of his shirt.

“I should have known something was wrong,” Trina said as Stefan approached. “He’s been quiet all morning.”

Stefan dropped to his hunches. “Not feeling good, buddy?”

Jacob slowly shook his head, his face drawn, and Stefan felt as if his chest would crack wide open. He’d never understood the worry a parent endured when faced with a sick child until this very moment.

“He’s running a fever, too,” Trina said, passing the back of her hand over Jacob’s forehead. “Hopefully it’s just a little bug he caught from a kid at the playground or something, but you’ll need to monitor him.”

Stefan nodded, and he suddenly felt bad for the unkind thoughts he’d had about the woman a couple of weeks ago. Her concern for his nephew was obvious, and being a mother of a five-year-old kid, she knew what she was talking about.

“I’m pretty sure I can handle it, but if you don’t mind, I may give you a call if I get stumped, or if his fever doesn’t improve.”

“Absolutely. I’ll drop off some Chicken and Stars soup. He likes that even when he isn’t sick,” Trina said, running her hand over Jacob’s head again. “Well, I need to get back to the other little monsters inside. They’ve probably destroyed the pizzeria.”

Stefan carted his nephew into the Jeep and started for home. Once at the house, he stripped him out of his soiled clothes and, per Trina’s instructions, gave him a lukewarm bath and a couple of Children’s Tylenol. Moments later, Jacob was fast asleep.

Perched on the side of the bed, Stefan peered down at him, thinking of the occasions when Stef had mentioned that Jacob was running a fever, or suffering with a stomach virus, and he wondered how his sister had managed to remain so calm.

Placing a kiss on his nephew’s still slightly warm forehead, Stefan turned off the bedside lamp and rose, leaving Sandy sitting guard at the edge of the bed. He’d accepted the inevitable; the cat was here to stay. If Stefanie came home from Afghanistan and decided she didn’t want her, Stefan figured he’d take her himself.

The front doorbell chimed, and Stefan’s mood instantly lightened. Callie had called just after he’d given Jacob a bath, letting him know that she would be over as soon as she was able to leave the clinic.

He couldn’t deny the sense of fulfillment that washed over him the moment he answered the front door.

“Thanks for coming,” he greeted, giving her a kiss as she stepped inside.

“How is he?”

“Sleeping. Fever is 101.9, but I gave him Tylenol and he drank Gatorade. According to Dr.
Google
, as long as I keep him hydrated and rested, he should be okay.”

“Dr.
Google
is correct,” she said with a scant smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

Unease tiptoed across Stefan’s skin as he watched her walk over to the dining room table and survey the puzzle he and Jacob had been working on this week.

Something was off. Stefan had felt it last night when she’d left so abruptly after they finished decorating the tree. Things had seemed normal enough this afternoon when he’d gone to her clinic, but then again his head was in such a messed up state after Captain Finch had handed him the news about his eyes, maybe he hadn’t been looking hard enough.

She turned her attention to the framed portrait of Stefanie, Brandon, and Jacob that hung above the sideboard in the dining room, her expression contemplative. She pulled at the lapel of the coat she still wore, tugging it more tightly around her.

Something was definitely off. She was too subdued. Too restrained.

Stefan took a couple of steps forward, stopping just inside the arched entryway that separated the open dining room from the living room.

“Callie, what’s going on?”

Her head snapped up and that’s when Stefan noticed the tears brimming in her eyes. He raced to her side, gathering her into his arms. “Callie, talk to me. What’s going on?”

She collapsed against him, her body shaking with her silent cry.

“Callie, what happened?” Stefan had to fight to keep his voice calm. She was scaring the hell out of him.

“I had to euthanize Bo today,” she said. She turned her face against his chest and she sobbed—literally sobbed—as if she’d lost a family member.

Stefan didn’t know what to think. He could understand a veterinarian getting attached to a patient, but her reaction seemed extreme. But then Callie looked up, and apparently noticing the look of confusion on his face, explained her relationship to the Beagle who had belonged to a life-long friend of her father’s, and was a littermate of her childhood dog, Huck.

“I’m sorry,” Stefan murmured against her hair, rubbing his hands up and down her back.

She slowly twisted out of his hold and took a couple of steps back, wrapping her arms around her.

“That’s not all,” she said. When she looked up at him, her eyes were filled with uncertainty. “John Gaines called today. He wants a decision about me joining his practice.”

His chest caved in at her words.

“What did you tell him?” Stefan couldn’t take a breath even if he tried as he awaited her answer.

“I asked him to give me a day to think it over.”

A day?
He had only one day to get used to the idea of possibly losing one of the best things that had ever happened to him? Stefan’s entire being recoiled at the thought. He’d just found her; he couldn’t be expected to give her up already.

“Callie, why do you want to leave?”

She looked up at him, those tears still flowing down her cheeks. Stefan pressed harder. He had to get to the root of whatever was driving her compulsion to leave. So that he could obliterate it.

“The night we visited Gauthier, you told me that you couldn’t think of anywhere else you’d rather live. So why would you want to leave?”

“Because John’s practice is already established.”

“So is yours,” Stefan countered, closing the space between them again. “But that’s not what I asked.” Running a finger down her cheek, he captured her chin and lifted her eyes to his. His chest seized at the sadness staring back at him.

“What are you running away from?”

Her delicate lips trembled and she pulled the bottom one between her teeth as she stared at a spot over his shoulder.

“I don’t know anymore,” she whispered. She focused back on him and shook her head. “I really don’t know anymore.”

Her shoulders lifted with the deep breath she took. She pulled out of his hold once again, and turned, walking toward the Christmas tree. Stefan followed.

“I’ve had a difficult year,” Callie started, her voice void of emotion. “I tried to put on a brave front when Adrian left me, but it was just that, a front. I have never been more embarrassed and humiliated in my life.”

“Callie, you have nothing to be ashamed about. He’s the one who cheated.”

“Easy words to say.” She shook her head. “I wanted to leave because I’m tired of being the one everybody pities. Poor little Callie Webber. First her parents left, then her husband. Even Bo,” she said, her voice cracking. “I just can’t be that person anymore, Stefan.”

“Callie—” Stefan reached for her, but she hugged her arms tighter around herself, warding him off.

“Everyone that I’ve loved has left me.”

“That’s not true.” She looked up at him. “You have an entire town of people who love you, Callie. I’ve never seen anything like it. Those people who you think pity you? They don’t. They
love
you. They want you to be happy.” Stefan caught her by her upper arms. “Do you really think you can find happiness by running away?”

She shook her head. “I’m just so tired of everyone leaving me. I just thought it would be easier if I left this time.”

“Callie, you realize that you will never find a place with people who love you the way the people in this town love you, right?” He lifted her chin and stared into her eyes. God, they were beautiful.
She
was beautiful. “This town needs you, just as much as you need it. You belong in Maplesville, Callie.”

She swiped at her cheeks. “What about you?” she asked.

“I’m starting to think that maybe I belong here, too,” Stefan said. “Honestly, I’d already made up my mind even before I went to the VA clinic today. I knew before the doctor gave me those results that I would never fly an aircraft again.”

“Oh, Stefan.” She cupped his cheek in her palm.

Stefan covered her hand. “I can handle it,” he said. “I wouldn’t have been able to say that two months ago. Maybe even one month ago. But I know that I can handle it now, because I have something waiting for me. If I can’t remain in the Navy, I can’t think of a place I’d rather be than right here.

“I can picture myself in Maplesville, helping Stefanie to raise Jacob, becoming a part of this town. Becoming a part of your life.” Stefan gathered her face in his hands, his mouth a hairsbreadth from hers. “I can see myself loving you, Callie. Give this a chance. Give us the chance to build on this. I promise I won’t leave you.”

The twinkling lights of the Christmas tree illuminated the tears flowing down her cheeks. Stefan pressed his lips to each and every one of them before cradling her jaw in his hands and lifting her lips to his.

“I’m willing to give it a chance,” she whispered against his lips.

Stefan buried his hands in her hair and crushed his mouth to hers, marveling at how his perfect holiday fling had turned into so much more.