She motioned to the large table, and he moved forward to take a seat. Noelle added the first pod and pushed the button, making sure the mug was positioned underneath.

She leaned against the counter. “So, you’re here for the holidays. To be with your family. That’s nice.”

“I haven’t seen them in a while,” he admitted, trying to remember the last time he’d joined his parents and brother for Christmas. More than a decade, he thought. Fifteen years? Longer than that? Maybe it had been before he’d left for college. “Feel free to fill me in on what I’ve missed.”

“I’ve never met your parents,” she said cheerfully. “I know Gideon, of course. He moved here before me. It was last year. I just got here in the spring.” She wrinkled her nose. “It was before the whole snow thing. I’m going to have to take some lessons or something. It’s a lot more slippery than I realized. I know there’s an ice element, but I didn’t think it was, you know...ice.” She made air quotes as she spoke the last word.

He chuckled. “You have a lot to look forward to.”

“You mean aside from warmer weather?” She turned back to the coffeemaker and pulled out the mug. “How do you like it?” she asked, already moving to the refrigerator.

“Black is fine.”

“That’s such a guy thing.”

She pulled out a container of flavored coffee creamer, then handed him his mug and returned to the counter. She obviously knew her way around the kitchen. Because of Felicia, he told himself. Women who were friends hung out a lot doing stuff like having coffee. He supposed it wasn’t that different from going out and having a drink.

She stuck in a second pod, put a mug in place and hit the button.

“You know Gideon bought a couple of radio stations,” she said.

He nodded.

“He does an oldies show every night. Lots of songs I’ve never heard of but most of them are good. Felicia runs the festivals in town. She’s very organized. Carter’s in school, of course.” She glanced at Webster, who sat with his tail wagging. “What about you, young man? Any career plans?”

The puppy barked.

“Impressive.” She glanced up at Gabriel. “Sorry. I talk to everything.”

“It happens.”

She got her own coffee and poured in the flavored creamer then set the container back in the refrigerator. She took a seat across from him and tilted her head.

“What else can I tell you?” she asked. “I have guilt about trying to attack you.”

“With an umbrella.”

She laughed. “I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.”

He liked how amusement danced in her blue eyes and the flash of teeth when she smiled. He wanted to keep her talking because the sound of her voice soothed him. A ridiculous claim, but there it was. What he couldn’t figure out was why. Why her? He was around women all the time. Other doctors, some of the nurses and techs, soldiers, administrators. But Noelle was different somehow.

“How long has Carter been around?” he asked.

“He showed up this past summer. His mom died about a year before that. He was in foster care with his best friend’s family. They’d made arrangements with Carter’s mom before her death, I think. But they started having marital trouble and he was going to have to go into the system. He didn’t have much to go on—his dad’s name and that he’d been in the military. But he found him and made his way here. I don’t think I could have been that resourceful at his age.”

“Me, either,” Gabriel admitted.

He cupped the mug with his good hand. The wound on his left palm throbbed in time with his heartbeat. If he were his own patient, he would tell himself to take something. That being in pain didn’t reduce the time to heal. But he also knew he wouldn’t listen. That he didn’t want the mental wooziness that was a side effect and that he was a long way from the threshold of what was unbearable.

“You know they’re getting married, right?” she asked. “Gideon and Felicia.”

“I’d heard.”

“There aren’t details yet. At least not that I know of, but I can’t see them waiting.” She paused and raised her mug. “I should probably warn you about her.”

“Felicia?”

Noelle nodded. “She’s really smart. However smart you’re thinking, you’re not even close. She’s beyond genius level, although I don’t know what that’s called. And she speaks her mind, which I adore, but it can surprise some people. She just flat out says what she thinks. So you don’t have to be subtle around her. Oh, and she’s super beautiful. If we weren’t friends, I’d have to hate her.”

The last statement was delivered cheerfully.

“You’re good at speaking your mind, too,” he said.

She shook her head. “Not really. I try to be honest. You know, not waste everyone’s time with game-playing. But it’s a tough habit to break. I’m not advocating being mean at all. That’s not right, either. But I think the world would be a better place if we all stuck a little closer to the truth.”

She paused and the corners of her mouth turned up. “I have no idea where that sermon came from.” She stood. “I should get back to my store before I start boring you with my theories on the meaning of life.”

“You have theories?” he asked as he rose.

“A few, but trust me, you don’t want to hear them. Anyway, I also need to get back to my store because in an effort to save money I hired part-time college students instead of full-time regular people.”

“College students aren’t regular people?”

“Not usually. And especially not when there’s a dusting of fresh powder up on the mountain. I live in fear of returning to my store and finding the door propped open and no one inside. Well, no one who works for me.” She paused. “It’s weird because the high school kids I’ve hired are really responsible. So I guess at nineteen they regress.”

He had no idea what she was talking about but that was okay. Just listening to her voice was soothing. He also appreciated the information about his family. A case could be made that he should have known it all himself, but he didn’t.

“It was nice to meet you,” she told him. “And I am sorry about the umbrella.”

He waved off the apology. “You okay to get down the mountain?” he asked.

She blinked at him, then her eyes widened. “Crap and double crap. My car’s stuck in a snow drift.”

Crap was her idea of a swear word? She wouldn’t have lasted in Kandahar an hour, he thought, amused.

“I don’t suppose you know anything about winter driving?” she asked.

“As a matter of fact, I do. I went to medical school at Northwestern and I’ve been stationed in Germany more than once.”

“Whew. Good. Then maybe you wouldn’t mind backing my car out of the drift? Then I can sort of point it down the mountain and I’ll be fine.”

Instead of answering, Gabriel walked to the front door. Despite being barefoot, he headed out onto the porch and saw her small import nose-first in a bank.

There were skid marks on the driveway and a couple of places where it looked like she’d fallen on her way up to the house.

“This really is your first winter,” he said.

She moved beside him and sniffed. “I have other talents.”

He was sure that was true and he wanted to tell her they were likely far more interesting than an ability to drive in the snow. But she was a friend of his future sister-in-law and this was a small town and he wouldn’t be around for very long. All good reasons to only say, “I have no doubt.”

He stepped back into the house and waited until she’d joined him to close the door.

“Give me a second to put on boots and I’ll drive you back to town.”

“You don’t have to go to that much trouble.”

“Someone has to. I doubt you can make it on your own. Pointing the car in the general direction of town is not an option.”

* * *

Noelle nodded at the nice, handsome doctor before he turned away and retreated to the guest room. She sighed, thinking it just wasn’t fair. He was single—at least she thought he was—she was single. She wasn’t sure what else they had in common, but there had to be something. Regardless, she obviously hadn’t impressed him in the least.

Oh, well. There were worse fates, she told herself. Just as soon as her busy season was over, she was going to get into a relationship. Maybe she would join one of those online dating services, or see if there were clubs for singles in town. If nothing else, she could put the word out with her friends. Most of them had recently fallen madly in love.

Maybe there was something in the water, she thought as Gabriel walked toward her, taller now in sensible-looking snow boots.

“Keys,” he said as he approached.

She dutifully held them out. “I’m sure once I’m out of the snowbank I’ll be fine.”

“I doubt that,” he said, shrugging into his jacket. “You’ll be a menace until you hit flat ground.”

“That’s not very flattering.”

He looked at her, his blue gaze steady. “Isn’t it true?”

“Sure it is, but you’re being kind of blunt about it.”

“I thought you liked blunt.”

“Not as much as I thought.”

She made sure Webster was secure in the house before closing the door and following Gabriel to her car. He told her to wait while he backed the car out of the snow, which he did in one easy move. The tires didn’t even skid—something she considered a personal betrayal. When she got her car back in the garage, they were going to have a little one-on-one conversation.

Gabriel stopped beside her and opened the passenger door. She climbed in, instantly struck by how close the seats were and how much broader his shoulders were than hers. She fastened her seat belt and as she did, she glanced at him.

He had a nice face, she decided. A little guarded and there were shadows under his eyes, no doubt from his hand injury and maybe traveling. But he was someone she would instinctively trust. Not that her instincts were anything to brag about, she thought. Look what had happened with Jeremy.

Or not, she thought, facing front.

“Is that the way?” he asked, motioning with his left hand.

Instantly, she felt herself getting woozy. “Be careful with that,” she murmured. “It’s like a weapon.”

He glanced at the bandage. “There’s hardly any blood.”

She leaned back and closed her eyes. “Just the B word itself is bad. Yes, go down this road about three or four miles. At the bend in the road, turn right. Follow the signs and you’ll be heading into town.”

She pressed a hand to her stomach and told herself to think pure thoughts. Or at the very least, distract herself.

“You picked a really good time to visit,” she said, knowing she was about to babble and not caring. Babbling was better than fainting. Or throwing up. “There are always festivals in Fool’s Gold, but more so during the holidays. There are a couple of parades and a live nativity. I can’t wait for that because there’s going to be an elephant.”

“In a nativity?”

“Don’t judge. You don’t know for sure there wasn’t an elephant at the birth of baby Jesus.”

“I’m actually pretty confident there wasn’t.”

“Priscilla is a part of a lot of celebrations in town. She’s a member of the community, too.”

“Priscilla the elephant?”

“Do you know any other Priscillas?” She risked opening her eyes and was pleased to see that there was no bloody bandage in her peripheral vision.

“She would be the only one.”

“Okay, turn there,” she said, pointing when they reached the bend. “Follow that road into town. You’ll turn right on Frank Lane.”

“Who’s Frank?”

“I have no idea. It’s by 4th, which is where my store is. But yeah, Frank. I guess there’s more town history I have to learn.”

“You know about the elephant. That should count.”

He was nice, she thought, wondering if there was a subtle way to ask him to coffee. Or dinner. She glanced at his large hands resting on the steering wheel and wondered how badly things would go if she mentioned a sleepover.

She pointed to her store, and he pulled in front and parked the car.

She turned to him, prepared to offer a heartfelt thank-you, only to realize there was a problem. “How are you going to get back to Gideon’s house?”

“I thought I’d go find Felicia.”

She risked a quick glance at his hand, then turned away before she got faint. “Are you up to it?”

“I’ll be fine. Just point me in the right direction.”

She looked into his eyes and smiled. “I thought you didn’t believe in that.”

“My concerns were specifically about your driving.”

“I want to take offense at that, but there’s the whole snowbank issue that makes it less valid.”

They got out of the car and she gave him directions to Felicia’s office. He handed over her car keys.

“Thanks for the ride back,” she said, wishing she was better at the boy-girl thing. She used to be relatively okay at it. Obviously the lack of practice was showing. “I hope we run into each other again. Not literally,” she added, glancing at the snow still lodged in her fender.