Chapter 19 Ransom
RANSOM
Ransom stood in the doorway for a moment, unable to believe his eyes.
He hadn’t expected to see Hailey at his door, let alone in the company of one of the dogs, looking like the two were thick as thieves.
Yet here she was, frozen and bedraggled but triumphant, carrying a wooden crate with her coat inside of it for some reason.
The storm swirled behind her so that the world beyond the reach of the porch light blurred into a fog of furiously falling snow.
“Hailey,” he heard himself murmur.
Henrietta barked loudly and joyfully, and Hailey didn’t even jump.
“She had babies,” Hailey said, gazing down at the big dog in admiration.
For a second that sentence didn’t compute.
Then the crate Hailey was holding so protectively took on a brand-new significance and Ransom’s frozen brain suddenly allowed him to jump into action.
“Come in,” he told her. “Come in. But… there are more dogs in here.”
He could see the tension in her jaw, but she nodded crisply and hurried inside.
Henrietta shadowed her, a furry shoulder practically attached to Hailey’s hip.
“Where was she?” Ransom asked as he led them to the fireplace.
Anna, Elsa, and Olaf blessedly stayed where they were, lying by the Christmas tree under a wait command.
He’d brought Shadow in too, since he wasn’t sure if she was used to the cold, and she was waiting with the other three, even though the command was hard to follow when so many interesting things were happening.
She’s a good dog, he thought to himself.
“She was in my barn,” Hailey said. “My power went out, so I went out to get a flashlight and I found her. She was in labor… Ransom, they’re very tiny. I don’t know if they’ll make it, but I knew you’d know what to do.”
He was pretty sure those puppies couldn’t be more than a few days early, but her words sent a shiver of fear down his spine. It would be next to impossible to get to the animal hospital in this weather.
She set the crate down and opened her coat.
Henrietta immediately thrust her snout into the box and the babies mewled and nuzzled at her.
Relief flowed into Ransom’s veins. The babies were small, but they were just as they should be. It was only that Hailey had never seen a newborn puppy before.
“Their eyes aren’t even open yet,” she whispered sadly.
“Let’s get them back with their mama,” Ransom said, grabbing a quilt from the back of the sofa and laying it on the floor by the fireplace.
Hailey and Henrietta watched as he lifted the babies gently out and placed them together on the blanket.
He was proud to see Henrietta go to them immediately and nuzzle them close to nurse again.
“We made it,” Hailey said, crawling over to stroke Henrietta’s head.
Henrietta’s tail thumped on the blanket and Hailey smiled down at her new friend.
“What do you think?” Hailey asked, looking to Ransom. “How early are they? Are they going to survive?”
Ransom gazed at the little ones, so tiny, yet nursing lustily like perfectly healthy baby shepherds eager for their meal.
The truth was that Henrietta would have been absolutely fine on her own in that unheated barn. The puppies were healthy and strong, and Hailey hadn’t needed to do what she had done, bringing them all home to Ransom in the middle of a snowstorm.
But it was so brave, so selfless…
His heart ached at the thought that she had done this kindness in spite of her own fears and the very real danger of being out in the elements herself.
“Hailey,” he said gently. “I know they look tiny, but they’re going to be just fine. Actually, this is how every newborn puppy looks.”
“But their ears,” she murmured. “And their eyes are closed.”
It had been a long time since Ransom had wondered at the tiny, folded ears and closed eyes of a baby dog, but he saw them again now, through her eyes. For a moment he felt the same awe he had the first time he saw a litter of newborn pups.
“I know,” he agreed. “They look so vulnerable, don’t they? But they’re just as they should be. And Henrietta looks great too.”
“She’s a very good mama,” Hailey agreed immediately.
“I know she’s very happy to be warm right now,” Ransom told her truthfully. “And since she’s here, we can pamper her with extra food right away.”
Hailey observed the big dog in silence for a moment.
“I didn’t really need to bring them here, did I?” Hailey asked after a moment.
Ransom hesitated for a moment, but he didn’t want to be anything but honest with her.
“No, you probably didn’t need to,” he told her. “But I’m really glad you did.”
“You’ll be telling this story all over town,” she sighed. But her eyes were twinkling and she looked like she wanted to laugh.
“Not if you don’t want me to,” he told her truthfully. “But I think people would really get a kick out of it. Now let’s get you some dry clothes. I think you’re in worse shape than they are.”
Her laughter rang like bells, and he felt himself falling harder than ever for her, even though the situation was hopeless.
She’s with that actor, he reminded himself. Have some self-control.
An hour later, Ransom was at the stove as Hailey padded down the stairs. Her hair was wet and she was swimming in his old football sweats, but her cheeks were rosy and he was glad she was warm again.
“Thank you,” she told him as she joined him in the kitchen. “What’s that? It smells amazing.”
“Grilled ham and cheese,” he told her. “And tomato soup. I thought you could use some warming up.”
“That sounds amazing,” she groaned. “But what about Henrietta? Did she eat anything yet?”
“Yes,” Ransom said, smiling at how much she clearly cared about her new canine friend. “I grilled her up some hamburger while you were showering, and she really enjoyed it.”
“Nice,” Hailey said, nodding.
“The dogs eat better than we do half the time,” he laughed as he slid her sandwich onto a plate and passed it to her. “I give them a lot of raw chicken. It’s good for them and it helps the younger dogs with the need to chew. But tonight I figured she could use some extra fat.”
“She earned it,” Hailey agreed.
She took a bite of her sandwich as he grabbed her soup from the microwave.
“I’m surprised the kids didn’t wake up with all this commotion,” she said.
“They were pretty worn out from playing in the snow today,” he told her. “They would probably sleep through an elephant stampede.”
“Oh, this is so good,” she groaned around her first bite. “Thank you. I guess I worked up an appetite.”
“I still can’t believe you did what you did,” Ransom said. “Weren’t you scared?”
“Terrified,” she said, nodding. “At first. Then we were in so deep that it didn’t matter anymore.”
Ransom nodded, wondering if she would go on.
“The hardest part was the beginning,” she said. “And then taking the babies from her to put them in the crate.”
She shivered, as if the memory still scared her, and then took another big bite of her sandwich.
“I would have been careful about that myself,” he admitted. “You did a great job though, and it’s clear she trusts you.”
That earned him a smile.
“I guess I’m not as afraid of dogs as I thought,” she said, shrugging.
“After what happened at your party, which again I’m so sorry about, I just can’t believe what you did tonight,” he ventured.
“In retrospect, I guess it was kind of funny,” she said, stealing a glance up at him. “Finding me up in a tree?”
“Not to me,” he assured her. “I knew how scared you were and all I wanted was to turn back time so I could stop it from happening.”
“How did it happen anyway?” she asked.
“Travis was very, very sad about it,” Ransom said. “But he was playing with the puppies, and he thinks he left the gate open. Although…”
He glanced over at Henrietta and another idea started to occur to him.
“What is it?” Hailey asked.
“I wonder how she got out tonight,” he said, frowning.
“Do you think she opened the gate?” Hailey asked.
“I would have said no, but I’m not sure how else she could have gotten to you,” he said.
“And my barn door was open,” she said softly. “I thought I must have left it that way.”
“I have to run and check my barn,” he said, running for the door and shoving his feet into his boots.
The dogs all pricked their ears up, but he held up a hand and they stayed put as he pulled on his coat and took off into the snowy night.
The wind blew hard, sliding icy fingers into every opening in his coat.
Thankfully, the path he had shoveled so faithfully throughout the afternoon still had less snow than the rest of the property.
He reached the small barn quickly and picked his way through the snow to the gate on the paddock fence.
Sure enough, it was open. One set of deep prints was just visible, though it was nearly covered by the falling snow.
He closed the latch and headed to the barn.
Thankfully, all the other dogs were still inside. They greeted him joyfully, looking perfectly content on this snowy night.
“Good job, guys,” he told them. “Thank you for sticking around. Henrietta and her babies are doing just fine.”
Raven capered over for a pat and she nuzzled and sniffed very curiously at him. He’d washed up of course, but he knew that her sensitive nose still smelled what he’d been up to. She was the best tracker of the bunch.
“Yes, girl,” he told her. “We’re going to have more puppies around here.”
He found a concrete block and took it with him when he headed out, skirting the barn and circling back to the gate to place it in front.
He was pretty sure that Henrietta was his only escape artist, but he would be getting those new latches right away.
As he headed back to the house, he thought about Hailey inside, sitting at the counter eating her midnight snack, smiling as she talked about Henrietta.
Why didn’t I beg her to give me a second chance before she started seeing Caspian Thorne?
Thinking back over the past two weeks they had spent together, he realized that he’d had plenty of opportunities to tell her he was sorry that he hurt her, and to beg her to let him try again to be the man she deserved.
For the second time in a night, he wished like anything that he could rewind time.
But time only moved in one direction, relentlessly forward.
As he jogged back up his own porch steps, he reminded himself of the man he wanted to be right now—thoughtful, honorable, and kind.
Not the kind of man who moons over a woman who is in a relationship.
Somehow, he was going to have to make it through this snowstorm with the woman he loved without saying a word about his feelings.
It’ll be easier in the morning, when the kids are up and there’s no time to overthink things, he tried to tell himself.
But he knew it wasn’t true.