Yukon Yuletide Read online

  Copyright © 2017, Caroline Lee

  [email protected]

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  First edition: 2017

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  Cover: EDHGraphics

  This year, Christmas is coming by dog sled!

  Nine months ago, Mack Holmes’ dreams of another Iditarod win—and a legacy which would insure his kennels’ success—drowned under a frozen river with half of his team. The pain of learning to walk again with a prosthetic leg was nothing compared to the weight of the guilt that’s been eating him since the accident, and he’s hidden himself in a secluded mountain cabin at River’s End Ranch.

  Marybeth Weston is a catastrophic insurance adjuster with Catastrophic Anxiety, who is frighteningly close to a breakdown when she returns to her family’s ranch for a holiday break. Learning a champion musher is playing recluse in her family’s mountains, she leaps at the chance to deliver supplies to him…little realizing a blizzard would trap her in the primitive cabin with Scowly McGrinch himself.

  But maybe this slower pace of life—returning to the Christmases of yesteryear—is exactly what Marybeth needs to calm her troubled soul. And maybe Mack is finally going to realize he can’t keep hiding from his future forever…

  And maybe reindeer will fly.

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  EPILOGUE

  Other works by Caroline Lee

  River’s End Ranch:

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  Yukon Yuletide

  River’s End Ranch

  Book Thirty-Four

  Dedication:

  For anyone who’s lost a pet.

  CHAPTER ONE

  December 17th

  “Pizza again?”

  The refrain, coming as it did from a half-dozen mouths, startled a laugh out of Marybeth Weston. She met Cousin Will’s familiar ice-blue eyes over the huge stack of pizza boxes he carried, and had to smile at his look of surprise.

  “What?” he said in mock indignation. “It’s not like it’s unusual. Every seven weeks, my turn to make dinner—”

  “Make dinner,” interrupted Wyatt, his older brother, as he began removing the top few boxes from the stack. “The rest of us manage it.”

  Will grinned. “Yeah, but I like pizza.”

  “I do too, honey,” his wife, Ellie, spoke up from the booth where she nursed their infant son. “Your siblings just like to give you a hard time.”

  “She’s right,” another brother, Wes, teased with a grin, his arm around his wife Amber’s chair. “You’re really easy to tease.” He grunted when Amber elbowed him, but that didn’t stop him from wheezing out, “But we do like pizza.”

  Marybeth watched her cousin Kelsi cross to the now-open boxes and snatch up a paper plate.

  “Speak for yourself. I love pizza.” Kelsi’s eyes closed in bliss as she chewed. “And I like not having to do dishes,” she added around a mouthful of cheese.

  Marybeth was happy to stand back and watch her cousins surge for the pizza, shoving each other good-naturedly away from their favorite. It was only after the first rush had died down that she grabbed a plate and two slices of veggie pizza for herself. She settled her hip against the café’s main counter and slid her gaze over the gathering as she chewed.

  When had the Weston clan gotten so big? She supposed this was just the usual suspects, though as her cousins had gotten married, the crowd had obviously grown. Kelsi and Jess—another cousin—had been the first to find love and marry, then Kelsi’s brothers had followed like dominoes. Bam bam bam, all married. Even Dani, Kelsi’s twin, who had to be the least romantic person Marybeth knew, had been ga-ga over her husband for almost a year now.

  Not only that, but some of them already had kids! Wade—the oldest—had adopted his wife’s nine-year-old daughter, and it seemed like the others were racing to catch up. Kelsi’s twin daughters were only a few months shy of a year, Belinda and Wyatt had baby Warren, and Will and Ellie’s little Reddy was the youngest.

  Still, it felt…familiar.

  “Just like old times, eh?”

  Her cousin Dani’s appearance startled Marybeth, but she managed to smile as she finished chewing and swallowing.

  “Yeah,” she answered truthfully. “It really is.”

  Marybeth and her brothers had grown up nearby, coming to the ranch as often as possible. She’d played with the twins and Will, while her brothers had been closer to the older boys. They’d all gathered on Sundays—all the cousins, mom and dad, Aunt Bobbi and Uncle Wilber, and even some of the farther-away Westons. Their Sunday dinners had been raucous and lively and were one of her favorite childhood memories.

  So she took a big bite of pizza and waggled her eyebrows at Cousin Dani, who just chuckled and shook her head.

  When Aunt Bobbi and Uncle Wilber decided to retire and travel, Marybeth’s cousins had implemented this weekly dinner in the café, which was closed on Sundays, as a way to maintain their closeness. As far as Marybeth could see, it was working well. This gathering—the laughter and teasing and shouting, and did Wes just thrown a slice of pizza at Jess’s husband Jake?—was more than just like old times.

  It was like coming home again.

  Marybeth’s job took her all over the country, where she stayed in strange hotels for days—sometimes weeks—at a time. She had an apartment in Spokane, but it wasn’t home. She couldn’t even manage to keep a house plant alive! And if she were honest with herself, she didn’t really want to. That wasn’t home. Until she’d returned to River’s End Ranch for a much-needed Christmas break, she wasn’t even sure she’d known what home still was.

  She supposed she should be thankful to her boss for noticing the strain she was under and insisting she take a break, but since she wasn’t even sure he was saving her job for her, or if this was his way of gently nudging her out the door, she was even more stressed now than she had been. Still, it was nice to be among family.

  “So is there something in the water around here or what?” Marybeth nodded to all of her happily married family members. She tapped the toe of one of her favorite red cowboy boots against the linoleum floor, and wondered how so many of her cousins had found love so quickly.

  Dani just chuckled before saying, “You’re not the first person to say that. I blame Jaclyn.”

  “Jaclyn Hardy?” Marybeth’s brows rose in surprise. “That’s the old lady who lives in the RV park, right? She’s still alive?”

  “Oh yeah.” Dani chuckled again. “Alive, and meddling in everybody’s business. Pretty sure she takes credit for all of these marriages.” Dani nodded to her siblings and Jess.

  “I didn’t know she was a matchmaker,” Marybeth said thoughtfully as she lifted the last of her pizza.

  Dani shrugged. “Yeah, well, been a while since you were here. I don’t think it was something she advertised when we were kids.”

  Marybeth flushed, telling herself not to take her cousin’s words as accusation. It had been a while since she’d been back to the ranch. “I’m glad I’m here now.”

  “But…?” Dani prompted.

  “But what?”

  “But all of us can see there’s something wrong, Marybeth. You’re not happy.”

  Marybeth scoffed. “When did you all become experts on me? You just said it’s been a long time since you’ve seen me.”

  “Yeah, but you used to be as cheerful and giddy as Kelsi.” Dani gestured with her crust of pizza. “I mean, I get that people change…but this isn’t you at all.”

  Marybeth took a big bite to avoid having to answer. Dani was more perceptive than she seemed. It wasn’t that Marybeth was unhappy…it’s just that sometimes she felt like she’d forgotten how to be happy at all. But being back here on the ranch like old times…it was a nice start.

  “So…you wanna talk about it?” Dani prompted again.

  Did she want to talk about it? Talk about the nightmares, the therapy, the Xanax? Marybeth snorted. “No thank you.”

  “Alright.” Dani shrugged. At least she wasn’t being pushy. “What should we talk about?”

  “Christmas,” Marybeth blurted. “It’s only a week away. I’m assuming you celebrate differently now than we did when we were kids?”

  “Kinda.” Dani’s ice-blue Weston eyes swept over her family as if she was keeping watch. “As the operation grew, we’ve added more formal activities. This week we’ve got cookie-decorating and ornament-making in the barn, and my favorite, the snowmobile races. You want to help?”

  “With the races?

Totally!” Marybeth had always loved snowmobiling, but hadn’t done it in a while…not since she’d had to cover that accident out in North Dakota where that teenager slammed into the side of a—

  No. She wasn’t going to think about work right now. She forced herself to forget and think only of her cousin’s offer. “When?”

  “Well, they’re still a few days away, but Travis was going to help me start setting up the course tomorrow.”

  Marybeth felt a flicker of disappointment. “Oh.” It sounded as though Dani didn’t really need her help after all…

  Why did that make her feel so disappointed? Maybe she’d been excited for something to do, something to focus on.

  Dani, bless her, seemed to understand. “Well, we can’t have you sitting around for the next week watching the rest of us work.”

  She nudged Marybeth with her elbow, somehow managing not to spill either slice of pizza, and Marybeth’s lips twitched ruefully. Dani was right; the River’s End Westons all had a sense of purpose. They played hard—yep, that was definitely a slice of pepperoni Will had just chucked at Wes’s head, despite Kelsi hollering at them about cleaning up—but they worked hard too. She’d only been back on the ranch a few days, but already she could appreciate how hard her cousins worked. They each had a place, a spot here on the ranch, and they knew where they belonged. They had a sense of purpose and order, and she imagined it must be so fulfilling, to see your work up-lifting something so special.

  To know exactly where you belonged.

  She stifled a sigh. The job she’d worked for years was a well-paying one, with great benefits which allowed her to take this “long vacation,” as her boss called it. But it was a vacation from a job she didn’t love—didn’t even like! A job that caused her gut to clench up and her palms to sweat and her stomach to climb up her throat just at the thought of getting a call.

  “Marybeth?” Dani’s voice seemed to come from far away. “You okay, lady?”

  Marybeth forced herself to take deep, even breaths, even as she plastered a smile on her face. “I’m fine.” Fine. “It’s Christmas, and I’m in the prettiest place in Idaho. How could I not be fine?”

  Her cousin was looking at her strangely. “Yeah.” And then, as if she could read minds, Dani said, “Maybe you’d like to help out around here for the next few days?”

  Something to occupy her mind? Something to distract her from the bad thoughts? Marybeth had to stop herself from nodding too eagerly. “I’d love to help! What can I do?”

  Dani chewed on a bite of pizza while she watched her family, seeming to consider the question.

  “Well,” she finally said, “I can’t speak for the others, but if you’re willing to help me out, I sure could use it. Not with the search and rescue stuff, obviously. And I’m not sure how long it would take to explain some of our filing systems…”

  Marybeth put her remaining slice and the paper plate down on the counter behind her. Suddenly, she was too excited to eat. “Anything! I’ll even run errands for you!”

  Suddenly nervous about the vulnerability she’d just revealed, Marybeth looked down at her hands. “I mean, well...” She shrugged. “I came here to relax a little bit, but the idea of sitting around and watching everyone else work…it’s not appealing. You know?”

  When she peeked up, Dani was studying her with an expression which told Marybeth she did know.

  “Yeah.” Dani slowly nodded. “Being alone with your thoughts sometimes isn’t that much fun.”

  The two women exchanged a glance—identical ice-blue eyes meeting one another—and Marybeth wondered what kind of stuff her cousin saw on her search and rescue missions that made her understand so well. Neither of them acknowledged that pain, but when Dani nodded once, Marybeth returned it.

  “I think…” Dani cocked her head to one side. “I think I have something you can help me with, especially since you said you know your way around a snowmobile.”

  This sounded intriguing. “Tell me about.”

  “There’s a man living in the cabin up on Sunrise Ridge.”

  “Really?” Marybeth’s brows rose. She’s heard about the cabin, nestled off one of the hiking trails halfway up the mountain, when she’d returned to the ranch over the summer for her aunt and uncle’s vow renewal. Wes had built it as a honeymoon cabin at one of the prettiest overlooks, and it was a popular rental spot. “I thought it was inaccessible in the winter.”

  Dani shifted uncomfortably. “It basically is. And believe you me, I’m nervous about him being up there. But he’s been renting the place since last spring, paying a pretty penny to hide out up there, and he and Wade have worked out some kind of deal. We’ve been taking supplies up every other week or so, now that it’s inaccessible and he’s stopped going into town for his appointments.”

  Marybeth’s attention had been caught by the words hide out. “You mean…he’s a recluse?”

  “Something like that, yeah.”

  It was obvious Dani knew more than she was telling, but the other woman quickly changed the subject. “Anyhow, one of his dogs is about to give birth, and there’s a major winter storm heading through…”

  Marybeth had heard about the storm. Everyone had heard about the storm.

  “…so we’re sending this week’s delivery of supplies up early. I was supposed to head up in the morning, but I’ve got about three million things to get done tomorrow, and they’re all down here on the ranch—”

  Nodding, Marybeth interrupted, saying, “And that errand will take a few hours.” A few hours away from everything, up on the mountain, breathing clean air. “I’d be happy to run the supplies up to him.”

  “Awesome.” Dani looked relieved. “Thanks. Elf and Tristan are servicing all the snowmobiles right now, so if you head over first thing tomorrow, they’ll hook you up with one. Then swing by the main house and I’ll meet you out back to help load up all the supplies.” She grimaced. “Apparently, nursing dogs need a lot of protein, because he’s never ordered so many frozen steaks before.”

  Marybeth’s brows rose again. This was sounding way more interesting than being stuck on the ranch and feeling useless. Birthing dogs, mysterious recluses… “Who is this guy, anyhow?”

  “I dunno.” Dani shrugged. “Some dog-sled dude. Wade recognized his name. Mack somebody…um…Holmes?”

  “Mack Holmes?” Marybeth’s sharp tone caused more than one Weston head to turn her way. “The champion dog-musher Mack Holmes is hiding out on your ranch?”

  Dani frowned. “Is he famous or something? Maybe that’s why Wade told me not to mention him being here to anyone, if I could help it.”

  Holy pitootie!

  “I can see why!” Marybeth bounced a little on the balls of her feet. “He’s been missing for months, Dani! The media has been trying to track him down for—”

  “He’s not missing, he’s just hiding.”

  A sudden thought hit Marybeth, and she gasped. “You said pregnant dog! He’s got Star? Here at River’s End Ranch? Did he bring the rest of his team—or what’s left of it? Is he okay? Do you realize how incredible this is? I’ve been worried sick since he disappeared!”

  It was Dani’s turn to raise one incredulous brow. “Sounds like you know him personally.”

  Forcing herself to take a few steadying breaths, Marybeth tried for nonchalance when she shrugged. “Well…no. I mean, I’m a fan.”

  A fan. She’d fallen in love with the sport of dog-mushing when she was a little girl visiting her mother’s father and sitting on his lap to watch the coverage of the Iditarod every March. They’d followed the race faithfully for years, cheering on their favorites and researching the teams. Once she’d mastered the internet, Marybeth had been able to bring statistics and stories about the dogs, and Grandpa had listened eagerly. Even after he’d passed away, she still followed the race. It made her feel closer to her grandfather, and she knew he would’ve been just as heartbroken over Mack Holmes’s accident on the fourth leg of this year’s race as she’d been.