Free On a Snowy Christmas Night by Debbi Rawlins

at home?
    * * *
    J ESSE WAS WORKING late in the barn when he saw headlights turn down the driveway. He hoped it was Shea because if it wasn’t her, he’d end up calling Annie to see what the hell was going on. And man, he did not want to get involved, but Shea should’ve been back by now.
    It wasn’t just him. Rachel was worried, too. When she’d called him inside for dinner an hour ago, he’d thought she might’ve heard from their guest. Failing that, he figured he could count on his sister to make the call. But she hadn’t, and he’d refused to say a word, and now that the sun had been down for two hours, it was colder than shit and if that wasn’t Shea’s car, then he’d have to...
    He didn’t know what he’d do because he had no business thinking about her at all. Yesterday it had been crystal clear to him that she was someone he needed to stay away from. She was...complicated. So what was he doing? Why was he worried about her? She was a big girl. Maybe subconsciously he was looking for a distraction. But that wasn’t like him.
    The motion detector lights he’d put up after the horse trailer was stolen a few months earlier, flooded the driveway and glinted off her silver rental as it got closer to the stables. He was more relieved than he had a right to be, he wouldn’t deny it...certainly not to himself. Now he couldn’t decide if he should walk out to meet her or go back into the barn, act as if it was just a fluke that he’d been standing in the entryway.
    Muttering a curse, he tossed the rag he’d been using to clean out a distributor cap and grabbed his hat off the workbench. He settled the Stetson on his head, then tugged down the brim to keep the floodlight’s glare out of his eyes.
    Apparently Shea hadn’t seen him yet. She slipped out of the SUV, went around to the back and lifted the hatch.
    “You need help carrying anything?” he asked.
    She jumped, her hand going to her throat. “You startled me.”
    “Yeah, I see that. Sorry.”
    Her hair was a wild mess, as if she’d been riding in the wind, her cheeks flushed pink and her eyes alive with excitement. “I’m glad you’re here. I have a question for you.” She reached into the back of the SUV, still talking. “I bought this for Caleb and I want to make sure it’s all right to stay in the car overnight.”
    Jesse’s attention snagged on the curve of her nicely rounded backside and it took him a second to process what she’d said.
    “Caleb?” So she’d met someone. He didn’t recognize the name. Had to be a fellow volunteer. Well, good for her, he thought grimly.
    “Yes.” She backed up, each arm wrapped around large cans of Colombian coffee.
    He frowned, not sure what she expected him to say. “What is it, a Christmas present?”
    “What?” She stared at him as if he were the one being weird. Then she glanced at the cans in her arms and laughed. “No, not the coffee...that.” She managed to point inside the SUV but almost dropped everything.
    He caught one of the cans, drawing close enough to her to get a whiff of vanilla-scented skin under the familiar smell of hay.
    “Thanks,” she said. “I should’ve put these in the backseat. Mind opening the door for me?”
    “Sure,” he said and watched her grab yet another can of coffee. He tilted his head to the side to see what else she’d bought and caught a glimpse of a fourth can, along with stacks of fifty-pound bags of corn and oats. Jesse smiled. “Caleb’s a horse.”
    She nodded, her eyes shining. “A gorgeous strawberry roan. He’s only two years old and so beautiful and sweet-tempered. You have to see him, Jesse. You just have to. I can’t imagine how someone could’ve abandoned him.”
    The temptation to touch her soft smiling lips caught him off guard and he moved back a step. “The coffee isn’t for him, I hope.”
    Shea laughed, hugging the cans to her breast. “These are for Annie. She’s down to her last dregs so I thought I’d surprise