Unexpected Christmas with the SEAL

Cal and Hannah

CHAPTER 1

“Everything will be fine,” Hannah said for what felt like the millionth time. “I’ve been here before. I know not to let the animals starve. I know how to muck a stall. And besides, all these critters love me. You see how excited they get when I walk into the barn? I may even open all the stalls and have just a big ol’ 4H cuddle puddle.”

Her Uncle Asher grunted and shook his head in disapproval. He knew she was kidding, but there was a flash of unease in his blue eyes that said he didn’t all together believe she was kidding.

“Well, you can let out everyone but Fumble,” Nate, her other uncle and the far less grumpy and less serious one, said. “That dick of a goat is in solitary confinement for the foreseeable future.”

“He’s just misunderstood,” Hannah said, grinning. “I can relate.”

“We’ll only be gone to the wedding for a few days. And you can always call Cal. He’s on standby,” Asher said.

“I’ll be fine. You managed this place on your own— while humping my friend. I have nobody to hump, so I’ll definitely be able to keep myself busy.”

“Stop saying hump ,” Asher grumbled.

Hannah snorted and flicked her long, dark curly ponytail over her shoulder before pulling her phone from the back pocket of her jeans and checking the time. “Don’t you two need to get a move on? Isn’t your flight in like five hours? And it’s international to the exotic land of Ca-na-da , so you need to be there early. Have you studied the local dialect? Local traditions? I hear they like it if you say hello and bonjour when you meet them. And to always apologize, even if you’re not the one at fault.”

Nate snorted and hitched his duffle bag over his shoulder. Asher merely rolled his eyes, then slung his duffle bag over his shoulder, too.

“Go, go! I’ll be fine. No mares are getting ready to foal. No goats are getting ready to kid. And I’ll make sure I keep Fumble locked up like freaking Hannibal Lecter. Only let him out for a dinner of fava beans and a nice chianti.”

“Fucking smart ass,” Asher said with a surly grumble, opening the door to the farmhouse and stepping out into the chilly late December air. Even though Asher and Nate were her uncles, they were only ten years older than her, since their dad had been from her grandfather’s second marriage. So, she grew up with her uncles acting more like brothers or cousins.

Though, sometimes Asher liked to pull the uncle card and demand respect.

Of which Hannah rarely obliged. It was just too much fun to poke the gruff old bear. Though, he had softened substantially since marrying Hannah’s best friend Triss. And now the two of them were expecting a baby. So not only was Hannah’s best friend also her aunt, but she was giving Hannah a little cousin soon. That would surely soften up Asher even more … hopefully.

They headed to one of their trucks and she stood on the front porch, tugging the sides of her long, cable-knit gray cardigan around her and crossing her arms. There was snow on the ground, but not so much that flights were getting canceled. And as it stood right now, there wasn’t snow in the forecast for a few days, so the guys needed to take this window of pleasant weather and get their asses to the airport .

Normally, they had ranch hands that worked daily on the ranch, but most of them were off for Christmas. A few would pop by to check on things, but Hannah knew she had everything under control.

“Behave!” Asher said with a stern glare of warning before swinging his big frame behind the steering wheel.

“I always do,” she teased.

“Yeah, right.” He shut the truck door and pretty soon the Ford pickup was rumbling down the gravel driveway toward the main road.

Hannah didn’t stand on the porch for long before her toes started to tingle, so she headed inside, where a cup of tea called her name.

Since Triss moved in and married Asher, the farmhouse had experienced a significant facelift. The kitchen cupboards were freshly painted a clean and bright white. The kitchen walls were now a friendly butter-yellow with no-nonsense roll-down blinds over the window. And the living room was far less dark than Hannah remembered. Triss mentioned painting that a brighter beige color, too.

There were also quite a few feminine touches, like throw pillows, blankets, houseplants, and other homey things. Nothing kitschy, and certainly no knickknacks, but you could tell a woman lived in the house now.

Asher and Triss were building a house elsewhere on the property, but they’d hit a snag so building was at a standstill. There was a supply shortage that builders were experiencing across the country. Which meant small, rural builds suffered because all available supplies went to the big cities first. So even though they had broken ground on their new place, it wasn’t quite ready for them to move in.

And now, Triss’s sister, Mieka, was also living on the ranch, since she fell in love with Nate over the summer. As far as Hannah knew, Mieka and Nate were going to continue living in the farmhouse, while Asher and Triss eventually moved to their own place with the new baby .

Triss and Mieka flew out to the wedding ahead of Asher and Nate, since it was their baby sister, Rayma, getting married. They needed to help with wedding prep, the bachelorette party, and they also just wanted to spend some time with their other sisters.

It was bizarre being in a house that was usually so full of life, noise and happiness, but was suddenly eerily quiet.

As someone who worked and lived in downtown Manhattan, Hannah wasn’t used to the quiet that surrounded her as she padded through the warm farmhouse into the happy, spacious kitchen with the live-edge table and old mismatched chairs.

Normally, she could hear street noise all day long, and her upstairs neighbors stomping around in her apartment building. There was no such thing as true “silence” when you lived in the chaos that was New York.

But she also loved it. It’d been her home since she finished grad school and got a job at the clinic she was with now. She loved her job as a speech pathologist. It was her true calling. And it was grad school where she met Triss. Her BFF and now, technically, her aunt.

The click click of nails on the hardwood floor had her heart rate relaxing. Bruno, her uncles’ merle Australian Shepherd, came sauntering into the kitchen. He did a classic downward dog stretch, giving her some serious puppy eyes. Only his puppy eyes differed from most, since his eyes were actually different colors. He was a beautiful dog, though, and smart as a whip.

“It’s just you and me for a few days, buddy. Are we going to spoon at night? I’m cool with it as long as you promise not to fart in the bed.”

Bruno sat down and cocked his head to the side.

She filled up the kettle and set it on the gas stove to boil.

“Uncle Asher thinks I can’t handle it here for a few days. But I’ll show him. Nay, we’ll show him. We’ll clean the house from top to bottom, muck stalls, and maybe I’ll even teach you some new tricks.”

Bruno just kept tipping his head from side to side .

“Or should I take on a real challenge and teach Fumble to be a civilized goat who doesn’t pee on himself, anyone else, or escape?”

Bruno yawned, then fell to his belly, gazing up at her with enormous eyes of doubt.

“Yeah, I thought that might be a little much for the time we have. Don’t want to fly too close to the sun the first time around.”

Eventually, the kettle whistled, and she pulled it off the stove just as there was a knock at the door.

Bruno barked and trotted to the front door while Hannah set down the kettle on a cool side of the gas stove and turned off the element on the side she’d just been using. Last thing she needed was to torch her uncles’ house twenty-minutes into her house-sitting gig.

She headed to the front door and swung it open.

Her jaw dropped.

Cal was driving home from Denver when he got a text message from Asher asking him to swing by the ranch. His and Nate’s niece, Hannah, was house-sitting for them over Christmas while Nate and Asher attended a wedding in Canada. Cal already knew this, and was on standby if Hannah needed any help, but he hadn’t been anticipating getting a message from Asher so soon.

But Asher just wanted Cal to pop in and introduce himself to Hannah so she didn’t feel so awkward calling a stranger if she needed a hand.

Luckily, the Harris Brothers Ranch was on his way home, so he swung down the driveway and rumbled his black Chevy Silverado toward the farmhouse .

He clomped his boots up the freshly swept porch steps, opened the screen door and rapped his scarred and freckled knuckles against the worn wood.

A bark from inside told him that Bruno was there.

He loved Bruno.

And Bruno loved him.

Well, Bruno loved everyone, as long as they rubbed his belly. But Cal liked to think he and Bruno had a special relationship. Bruno understood Cal.

Bruno just wanted belly rubs. He didn’t need Cal to talk up a storm.

A simple dog for a simple man.

Cal thought about getting himself a dog like Bruno, but so far, he hadn’t connected with a pup or even a rescue dog the way he did with his friends’ dog.

The door opened to reveal an amber-eyed beauty with dark, curly hair in a high ponytail.

“Can I help you?” she asked, her jaw having dropped and eyes gone wide when she first opened the door and gave him a thorough and appreciative once-over.

He scratched the back of his neck, but then dropped to a crouch and scratched Bruno behind the ears when the dog started rubbing his sides up against Cal’s leg for attention. “Name’s Cal. Your uncles told me to stop by and check on things.”

Her growl had Bruno glancing up at her in surprise. “Seriously? They’ve been gone like thirty minutes. Did they honestly think I was going to torch the place that quickly?”

Cal shrugged. “Just doin’ as I’ve been asked. Thought I should come and introduce myself.” He continued to give Bruno attention, even when the dog rolled onto his back and shamelessly exposed his belly for rubs.

“Well, as you can see, Bruno is fine. I’m fine. The ranch is fine. The horses and goats are fine. Everything here is just fine. So,” she flicked her fingers in front of her, “you can go. ”

He’d heard from Asher and Nate, as well as Asher’s wife Triss, that Hannah was a fiery one. And he could certainly see her spark.

The smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth from her sass had him wanting to stick around just to see if she could turn those sparks into flames.

But he also didn’t want to upset her. The harsh set of her jaw told him she was a stubborn woman and probably didn’t like that her uncles had secured her a babysitter.

Standing up to his full height, which elicited a mild whimper of disappointment from Bruno, he gave her a curt nod, kept his head down and turned to go. “All right then. You take care. Call me if you need anything.”

“I won’t,” she said haughtily.

“Hope not.” The gravel crunched beneath his boots as he made his way to the truck. Bruno lumbered down the steps behind him and was hot on his heels.

“Bruno!” Hannah called. “Inside, boy.”

But Bruno wasn’t done with Cal and his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth as he smiled up at Cal and trotted beside him. “I know, boy, I want more time with you, too. But the lady has sent me on my way.”

Hannah snorted from the porch steps, her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at him.

He bent down and gave Bruno another ear scratch, which just made the dog’s tail go berserk, then he opened the door to his truck.

“Bruno, come on!” Hannah called again.

Bruno glanced back toward her, then up at Cal, then back to Hannah, then back to Cal.

Hannah made a frustrated noise in her throat, ducked back into the house, and came out with winter boots on. She made a point of stomping dramatically down the porch steps, then across the gravel driveway with the clumps of snow scattered around. “Come on, Bruno, in the house. I’ll give you a piece of cheese when we get inside.” She bent over and reached for his collar and hooked two fingers around it, giving the dog a gentle tug.

Cal opened his truck door. “It’s supposed to freeze hard tonight. Make sure you stoke the stove before you go to bed, hmm,” he said as he climbed in behind the steering wheel.

“I know,” she blurted. “I’ve been here plenty of times.”

“All right then. You take care.” He turned over the key, and she backed up with Bruno, her fingers still in his collar, so that Cal could close his door.

He gave the angry beauty another head nod, put the truck into drive and slowly headed back in the direction he came.

A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed Hannah standing there in the driveway, watching him.

And she was still watching him when he reached the end of the lane and paused under the arch for Harris Brothers Ranch.

Another smile curled the corners of his mouth. He couldn’t see her face from how far away he was now, but he could feel her ire.

She didn’t want help.

She didn’t like that her uncles sent Cal to check on her.

He hoped she succeeded and had an event-free time at the ranch where she didn’t need to call Cal for help. But he also kind of hoped she did, because he really wanted to see her again.