Christmas Rescue at Mustang Ridge. Delores Fossen

early today because tomorrow’s Christmas Eve.”

      Maggie groaned softly. The holidays would slow things to a crawl, and the weather wouldn’t help, either. It was ironic, because normally a white Christmas would have been a perfect way to celebrate, but it would only be perfect if they could get those test results and learn that she was a match.

      “If you could speed that up, I’d appreciate it,” Jake told him.

      The doctor nodded. “If Maggie’s a match, I won’t be able to do the marrow harvesting. You’ll have to take her to Amarillo for that so you might want to go ahead and make arrangements in case you get lucky with the match.”

      Maggie wondered if that’s because it was beyond his medical expertise or if it was because he didn’t want to be involved further in this.

      “Call me the second you have the results,” Jake insisted at the same moment Chet told the doctor, “You can see yourself out.”

      The doctor did just that. He headed for the door and didn’t look back.

      “What’s wrong with him?” Maggie asked.

      “You,” Chet quickly provided. “And me. He didn’t want to get involved because of what happened with Anna, but I convinced him otherwise.”

      “How?” And Maggie was afraid to hear the answer.