A Child Under His Tree Read online

  She pushed him out of her thoughts. It was getting tiresome having to do so.

  “Tell Leandra I’ll pick up Tyler in a couple hours.” Any longer, and her rambunctious son would likely be wearing out his welcome. “Where do they live again?”

  “Out past the old Perry place. The barn’s the only thing still standing, but you’ll see it. Just keep going another mile or so till you get to the sign for Evan’s veterinary practice.”

  The Perry place. Another unwanted memory. She and Caleb had spent many a stolen afternoon in that abandoned barn.

  She went to the staircase leading from the kitchen and yelled for Tyler. “Bring your jacket,” she called, and heard his footsteps overhead as he took a detour. Then he was racing pell-mell down the stairs.

  “Slow down, buddy,” she warned. “Fall down the stairs and you could end up with yet another cast.”

  He slowed, but only enough to jump past the last two steps.

  “Hey.” She crouched in front of him and tugged his jacket over his wriggling shoulders. “You need to behave yourself when you get there, okay? Use your good manners.”

  “Please and thank you,” he chanted.

  “Give me a kiss.”

  He bobbed forward to bestow a lightning-fast peck on her cheek. “Can we go now?”

  Tabby stepped forward. “You betcha.” She held out her hand to him, and they headed out the kitchen door. Kelly chewed the inside of her cheek, watching them.

  The only other person she’d ever sent Tyler off with had been Gunnar’s mother back home, and it felt odd doing so now.

  She managed a cheerful wave, though, in response to Tyler’s wildly enthusiastic one as they drove away.

  When they were out of sight, she closed the door and stared at the kitchen around her.

  Then she went to work.

  She had two uninterrupted hours. She’d do well not to waste them.

  And she didn’t.

  By the time she stopped to wash up and change out of her grimy clothes, she’d broken down most of the strange collection of boxes and containers. Half she’d already burned in the big metal drum out behind the house. The other half would need to wait for another time.

  But at least she’d removed enough of them to allow her to get a few more rooms dusted and mopped. She planned to call a Realtor or two the following day and imagined they’d have plenty of ideas about the best way to list the house. At the very least, though, she wanted the place to be clean.

  The sun was dipping a little low in the late-afternoon sky as she drove past the Perry barn.

  She hated that her foot lightened up on the gas pedal as she passed it. She couldn’t even blame it on the condition of the road. Unlike the one leading out to her mother’s place, this one was smoothly graded with a fresh coat of tar.

  She hit the gas a little harder until she saw the dark wood barn in her rearview mirror. Just as Tabby had said, another mile or so up the road, she saw the sign for Taggart Veterinary. She slowed and turned into the drive.

  She spotted Tyler and Lucas immediately. They were climbing on the wooden play structure situated in a fenced yard next to a two-story house. She parked in the paved area next to the clinic a little distance from the house. As soon as she got out of her car, she could hear the boys’ young, high-pitched voices.

  Clearly, they were having a blast, and she was smiling as she headed toward the front door of the house.

  She didn’t get there, though, before she heard her name being called. She looked back toward the vet building and spotted Leandra Taggart standing in the doorway, waving toward her.

  She about-faced and headed that way. “Sounds like they’re having a good time,” she said by way of greeting.

  Leandra had been ahead of Kelly several years in school, so they’d never really been close friends. But the other woman hadn’t changed a lick since the last time Kelly could remember seeing her.

  She greeted Kelly with a quick hug as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Sorry we missed your mother’s funeral yesterday,” she said, pushing back a short lock of bright blond hair from her forehead. “I hope you got the flowers we sent.”

  “I did. Thank you. They were lovely.” Tasteful white lilies. She looked back toward the play structure when she heard Tyler’s laughter. “It was really nice of you to watch Tyler like this.”

  “Are you kidding? Lucas was over the moon. His best friend from preschool moved away this summer and he’s been mopey ever since. As you can hear, they’ve been getting along like wildfire.” She looked over her shoulder. “Evan, we’re heading over to the house,” she called loudly, earning a muffled response in return before she closed the door and led the way toward the house. Her steps were quick, probably because she wasn’t wearing a sweater or a jacket and the wind was blowing harder than usual. “So how have you been faring?”

  Kelly gave what had become the standard answer. “Fine.”

  Leandra smiled slightly. Her gaze was sympathetic. “You’ve probably been hearing that question a lot.”

  Kelly hesitated. “Well—”

  Leandra waved her hand, her smile widening. “How about some hot chocolate?” She pushed through the white-painted wooden gate, entering the grassy side yard where the boys were playing. “Lucas? You and Tyler about ready to go inside?”

  “No!” Lucas’s head popped up over the edge of the fort at the top of the structure. Tyler’s was only a second behind.

  Her boy’s face was wreathed in smiles; his cheeks were rosy from the cold air and his hair stuck up in spikes from the wind.

  She waved at him.

  “We’re playing pirates, Mom,” he yelled, then disappeared again.

  “They’ll sleep well tonight,” Leandra said on a chuckle as she bounded up the steps and darted inside the house. “Nothing like a couple hours of fresh air.” She pushed the door closed and gestured toward the kitchen. “Come on inside and relax. J.D.’s got my daughter Katie for the afternoon, otherwise she’d be out there demanding to play pirates, too. She and J.D.’s son are both four. Katie thinks she’s big—” she made air quotes “—like her big brother. Lucas, of course disagrees.”

  Since Kelly had concluded that she wasn’t going to be able to make a quick getaway, she pulled off her jacket and sat on one of the iron bar stools at the granite breakfast counter. “How’s Hannah?” She remembered from before leaving Weaver that Leandra and Evan were also raising his niece.

  “She’s great. She’s with her cousin Chloe cooking something up for Halloween costumes. You remember my cousin Ryan, don’t you? Chloe’s his daughter.”

  She nodded weakly. The Buchanans and the Clays were related by marriage rather than blood. But if they knew that Tyler was one of them, he’d be absorbed right into the fold.

  She closed off the thought.

  Leandra was busily moving around the kitchen, pouring milk in a saucepan and pulling down a couple oversize blue mugs.

  “Nice place you have.”

  “Thanks. We like it.” She slowed down long enough to look out the window, and then reached for two more mugs, setting them on the counter, as well. “I’ve heard through the grapevine that you’re planning to sell your mom’s place?”

  “Mmm-hmm. I’ll call a couple Realtors this week. Anyone in particular you can recommend?” She glanced at the door when it opened again and Leandra’s husband, Evan, walked in. The smile on Kelly’s face froze a little when she spotted the man following him, though.

  “If that puppy pees on my floor, you’re cleaning it up, whether you’re a doctor or not,” Leandra warned when she saw the blond puppy Caleb was holding. “Unless you want to go to Braden, there are only a few here in town to choose from,” she said to Kelly without missing a beat. “Caleb, which real estate office have you been working wi
th?”

  * * *

  Caleb lifted his chin away from the pup’s tongue and switched her from one arm to the other. “The new one out by Shop-World. Why?” Maybe it was pure orneriness, but he deliberately pulled out the stool right next to Kelly.

  She gave him a fulminating look.

  “Careful,” he murmured softly. “Don’t want to scare my new puppy into peeing with that glare of yours.”

  “I didn’t know you were here.”

  His cousin Leandra was either truly oblivious or chose to be when she cheerfully plunked two mugs in front of them, then turned and handed one to her husband. “See you found another sucker,” she said to him.

  Evan’s smile was broad. He looked toward Kelly. “Still have three more pups available to good homes,” he said. “They’re rescues. Golden retriever mix. Make good family dogs.”

  “Please.” Kelly was already shaking her head. “Don’t say that in front of Tyler.”

  “All boys want dogs,” Caleb said. He let the pup climb up his shoulder.

  She didn’t look his way. “All boys want them. Not all boys live in apartments that don’t allow pets.”

  The door flew open, and Lucas and Tyler raced in.

  “Door,” Leandra said, and Lucas skidded to a halt, backed up three feet and shoved it shut.

  Then the boys were running through the kitchen again. A moment later, they heard footsteps pounding on the stairs.

  Leandra was standing at the stove, whisking something in a pan. “Axel and I were lucky,” she said. “We always had lots of room for pets when we were growing up.”

  “How is Axel?” Kelly asked.

  “He’s great. Got married. He and Tara have two little boys. Aidan will start kindergarten next year.”

  “She brought Hank the tank in for a well check a few weeks ago,” Caleb said. The puppy had climbed off his shoulder and was circling on his lap. “Kid’s not even three and he’s off the charts for height and weight.”

  “The Clays grow ’em big,” Leandra joked. “Remains to be seen what y’all Buchanans do.” She turned and poured creamy-looking hot chocolate from the saucepan into their mugs. “Marshmallow or whipped cream on top?”

  Kelly shook her head, declining both.

  “Marshmallow,” Caleb said. “My niece looks like a mini Lucy. Bet she’ll be taller, though.”

  He felt Kelly’s sudden look.

  “Your sister had a baby?” she asked. For once, she wasn’t giving him a looks-could-kill glare. “Is she still dancing in New York? I remember she had a knee injury or something.”

  He plucked a fat white marshmallow out of the jar Leandra set in front of him. She made the things from scratch. He didn’t know how, but they put the stuff you could buy in the store to shame. “She moved home to stay after that injury. Married a widower. But she still dances, if you count the dance school she runs in town.”

  “Wow. That’s a big change.” Kelly took the tongs from him and grabbed a marshmallow after all. “So who else has gotten married? Had babies?”

  “Well.” Leandra pursed her lips slightly, then skewered him with a sly look. “Everyone but Caleb there.”

  “Not for lack of trying,” Kelly said. When he nearly choked on his hot chocolate, she gave him an innocent, wide-eyed look he didn’t buy for a second. “What? I’m not saying anything they don’t know.”

  The puppy on his lap let out a huffing snore. If Kelly was able to poke fun at him, maybe there was hope she wouldn’t detest him forever after all.

  “She’s got you there, cuz.” Leandra’s eyes were laughing over the rim of her mug.

  “We’re only cousins because my grandmother married your grandfather,” he reminded her.

  “How are your grandparents?” Kelly directed her question at Leandra.

  “Squire’s ornery as ever,” Caleb answered before she could. “By default that makes my grandmother eligible for sainthood.”

  “They’ve started spending part of the winter down in Arizona,” Leandra told her.

  “Or whatever cruise Gloria drags him on,” Evan added.

  “You know, Kelly, if you want a quick sale of your farm, just let him know it’s available. Uncle Matt runs the Double C, of course, but Squire still likes to snatch up good property when he can.”

  Kelly’s expression sobered. “That’d be a trick. You know my mother would come back to haunt me if she ever knew her farm became part of the big, bad Double C Ranch.” Whenever Georgette wasn’t envying the cattle ranchers, she’d been sneering at them for being land-grabbers.

  “She’d haunt anyone with the nerve to buy her farm, period,” Evan said. “No disrespect, Kelly. But I got to know her a fair bit over the past several years.” He shook his head slightly and gave a crooked smile. “She was a woman of...strong conviction.”

  “Stubborn as hell, I think you mean,” Kelly said.

  Leandra lifted her mug with one hand and squeezed Kelly’s hand with the other. “To Georgette Rasmussen. May she rest in peace.” She waited a beat. “And not tell too many angels how to do their jobs.”

  Caleb heard Kelly’s faint laugh. Heard the bittersweetness in it. But she lifted her mug. “To my mother.” As soon as she took a drink, though, she set down her mug and said, “I really should get Tyler home now. Leave you all to enjoy the rest of your evening.”

  “You could stay for supper,” Leandra suggested. “It’s not going to be anything fancy, but we’d be glad to have you.”

  “What about me?”

  Leandra sent Caleb a look. “You never need an invitation.” She patted his cheek as she passed him. “You’re always more than willing to mooch a meal off your relatives.”

  “That’s the doctor degree,” he told her as she left the room. “Makes me smart enough to successfully avoid menial tasks like cooking.” The puppy lifted her head from his lap, yawned and started licking his arm.

  He got up. From his experience with puppies, he knew that it was pee time after nap-time. And he had as little desire to clean that up as he did in cooking his own meals. He carried her outside into the yard and set her on the grass.

  She was still sniffing around, trying to choose her spot, when the door behind him opened again. Kelly and a dejected-looking Tyler came out. But the second the little boy’s gaze landed on the puppy, his eyes lit up. He jumped off the steps and rushed over to her, falling to his knees as he patted her head. The puppy immediately tried climbing up on him.

  “Is he one of Doc Taggart’s puppies?”

  “She is.”

  “Tyler, come on.” Kelly held out her hand and waited impatiently for her son to take it. “It’s getting late and we need to go home.”

  “But Mommy,” he protested, “she likes me.”

  “I can see that.” Kelly crouched down beside them. “But the puppy doesn’t need a bath before bed, and you do. Gunnar’s also expecting you to call him tonight, remember?” She rubbed her hand over the puppy’s fluffy back. “So say goodbye.”

  “I wanna take one home, too.”

  “Buddy, you know we can’t take a puppy home to live with us. We’ve talked about it a hundred times.”

  Tyler tilted his head back, looking up at her. “Then can we come back and visit her? Please?”

  Finally, Kelly’s gaze slid toward Caleb. But only briefly. “The puppy is Dr. C’s. She’s going to go home and live with him.”

  Tyler’s bright brown eyes shifted to his face. “Can I come visit?”

  “Tyler—”

  “Sure,” Caleb said over her immediate protest. “You can come and visit the puppy any time you like.”

  Chapter Six

  The next afternoon, Kelly stared out her windshield at the apartment complex in front of them.

  She still
wanted to strangle Caleb, and since he wasn’t available, her steering wheel had to suffice.

  “Is this it?”

  She glanced in her rearview mirror to meet Tyler’s hopeful look.

  “Apparently.” The building hadn’t existed when she’d moved away from Weaver. Caleb had seemed to take inordinate pleasure in giving her the address when she’d called his office earlier.

  She put the car in Park and turned off the engine. She wanted to be there about as much as she wanted to have a hole drilled in her head.

  “This is not going to become a regular habit,” she reminded Tyler when she unfastened him from his booster seat. “One visit to the puppy.” She still didn’t know what had possessed her to allow it in the first place.

  Too bad Evan had already found homes for the other puppies that morning; she’d have just taken her son back to his and Leandra’s house to visit them.

  Tyler pushed out his lower lip, and she lightly tapped it. “Don’t pout. You wanted to visit the puppy and you’re getting that chance. Do you want to enjoy it or pout your way through it?”

  He sucked his lip back to where it belonged and climbed out of his booster, hopping down to the ground. She closed the car door behind them and reluctantly turned to face the building again.

  The apartment was at the far end of the building. Inwardly, she felt the way Tyler did when he was facing an unwanted task; she wanted to drag her feet and let her shoulders droop. Outwardly, she hoped she was doing a decent job of hiding that fact.

  They reached the door and she lifted Tyler up when he begged to use the door knocker. It was a decorative brassy thing shaped like a lion. As soon as he’d clanged the metal ring hanging from the lion’s mouth, they heard a loud yapping from inside.

  Caleb opened the door, immediately bending down to catch the dog before she bolted outside. He was barefoot and wet headed, wearing green hospital scrub pants and nothing else.

  She tore her eyes away from the small scar on his naked shoulder blade and lowered Tyler to the ground. “This a bad time?”

  He muttered an oath, brushing past Kelly to follow the wily puppy out onto the sidewalk when she escaped his grasp. He scooped the dog up and carried her back with him. “No. I told you when you called that this was about the only time I was free.” He grinned at Tyler, who was receiving a face washing from the puppy who was straining over Caleb’s grip to reach the boy with her tongue. “Looks like someone’s glad to see you.”