The Prodigal's Christmas Reunion. Kathryn Springer

was wrong. Winston, her corgi, had been standing at the door of the barn instead of ambling down to the mailbox to greet her the way he usually did.

       Erin had discovered Diamond lying down in the stall, already in the throes of what looked as if it were going to be a long and difficult labor.

       The blue roan was Erin’s first rescue. She’d attended an auction one summer afternoon and spotted the horse tied to the back of a rusty trailer, half-starved and abused. One look into those sorrowful, liquid brown eyes and she couldn’t walk away. No one had bothered to mention the mare was expecting.

       Even with a good diet, a warm place to sleep and daily doses of tender loving care, Diamond had been slow to regain her strength. Erin had been afraid all along that the horse wouldn’t be able to handle a difficult birth. She’d shared her concern with Dr. “Tweed” Brighton, who’d promised to help deliver the foal if necessary.

       If only she could get in touch with him.

       A plaintive whinny split the air and Erin placed a comforting hand on the mare’s belly.

       “Not much longer now,” she whispered, hoping it was the truth.

       As the minutes ticked by, helplessness and frustration battled for control of Erin’s emotions, swept along on a tide of “what ifs.” What if she’d become a veterinarian instead of taking over the café from her mother? What if she hadn’t chosen duty to her family over her dreams?

       Then she would be able to offer something more than simple comfort or encouraging words as Diamond struggled to bring her foal into the world.

       A ribbon of wind unfurled through the barn, carrying the sweet scent of pine and new-fallen snow. Erin’s knees went weak with relief when she heard the soft tread of footsteps coming closer.

       The stall door slid open behind her.

       “Thank goodness you’re here, Tweed,” Erin said without turning around. “She’s in a lot of pain but nothing seems to be happening.”

       Instead of a response marked by a crisp British accent, something the veterinarian wore as proudly as he did the tweed cap that had earned him his nickname, there was silence.

       Erin shifted her weight and glanced over her shoulder. Her gaze locked on a pair of snow-covered hiking boots and traveled up. Over long legs encased in faded jeans. A flannel lined jacket. Broad shoulders. Sun-streaked blond hair. Chiseled features that formed the perfect setting for a pair of denim-blue eyes.

       Lucas Clayton’s eyes.

       Lucas blinked several times, but the young woman kneeling in the straw didn’t disappear.

       And she looked just as shocked to see him.

       The years melted away, burning through the layers of defenses Lucas had built up until all that remained were memories.

       Memories of the one person who’d never stopped believing in him at a time in his life when Lucas had stopped believing in everything.

       When Tweed had sent him on an emergency call, Lucas had only been given the address—not the name—of the person who needed help with a pregnant mare.

       Erin Fields’s unexpected presence not only stirred up emotions Lucas had buried long ago, but also created a few new ones.

       The image frozen in his mind had been that of an eighteen-year-old girl. This Erin looked the same…but different.

       The knee-length corduroy coat didn’t quite conceal her willowy frame, but the sprinkle of ginger-colored freckles he’d often teased her about had faded. Windswept tendrils of copper hair framed features that had matured from a wholesome prettiness into a delicate, heart-stopping beauty.

       He knew Erin hadn’t left Clayton, but she wasn’t supposed to be here. Inside an old barn adjacent to a dilapidated farmhouse a few miles outside of town. They’d both grown up in Clayton—their houses only a few blocks apart.

       The mare tossed her head after sensing an unfamiliar presence, reminding Lucas why he was there.

      Focus, buddy. In a town the size of Clayton, you knew you would see Erin sooner or later, he told himself.

       Later would have been better.

       The expression on Erin’s face told him that she felt the same way.

       “What are you doing here? Where’s Tweed?”

       “He had another call.” Without waiting for an invitation, Lucas stepped into the stall. Kneeling down next to Erin, he caught a whiff of her shampoo, a light floral scent that reminded him of mountain lilies.

       A scent that had no business lingering in his memory.

       “I don’t understand. Why would Tweed send you?” Erin shifted, putting a few more inches of space between them.

       “He hired me.” Lucas ran a hand over the horse’s neck and felt the muscles ripple under the velvety skin.

       “Hired…” Her gaze dropped to the medical kit he’d set down in the straw.

       Lucas watched the myriad emotions topple like dominoes in a pair of eyes the color of warm gingerbread. Confusion. Disbelief. Denial.

       “I’m here to help,” Lucas said curtly. Being this close to Erin had opened a floodgate to his past and it was his way of trying to put a cap on the memories flooding in. “But if you’d rather wait for Tweed—”

       “No. I just wasn’t…” Erin averted her gaze. “Go ahead and do whatever you need to do.”

       Lucas opened the med kit and began to prep for an exam. “She belongs to you?”

       Erin nodded. “I didn’t realize Diamond was pregnant when I rescued her from the auction.”

       Diamond. It figured. Only Erin Fields would see potential in an animal as battered and broken as this one. The number of scars crisscrossing the washboard ribs hinted at invisible ones below the surface.

       Lucas worked quickly, aware that the woman beside him was watching every movement. He tried to keep his expression neutral, but she must have seen something there. Erin had always been good at reading him. Sometimes too good.

       She leaned forward. “How is she?”

       “In distress.” Diamond’s ears twitched at the sound of his voice, but she didn’t even bother to lift her head. Lucas silently weighed his options.

       “What can I do?”

       “Keep her calm.”

       Erin had always been good at that, too. How many times had she listened to him as he vented about his mother’s unreasonable expectations for his future plans? Taken his hand to absorb his volatile emotions, her lips moving in a silent prayer on his behalf? Been there for him without asking for anything in return?

      Don’t leave like this…

       Lucas ruthlessly shook off the memory of the last night they’d spoken. A hundred miles down the road he’d realized that Erin had done the right thing when she’d refused to run away with him. He hadn’t been fit to be a good husband back then.

       Any more than he was fit to be a father now.

       He turned to reach for a syringe only to find that Erin had anticipated his need. Their fingers brushed together and Lucas couldn’t help but notice she wasn’t wearing a ring. The realization that Erin wasn’t married sent equal measures of relief and terror skittering through him.

       “Talk to her.” Lucas’s voice came out sharper than he’d intended. “She’s not going to like this.”

       Erin scooted closer to the horse and spoke to her in the same gentle, soothing voice she’d once used on him.

       Lucas worked in silence for the next few minutes, administering a sedative to relax the horse while he performed a brief but enlightening internal exam.