Sneak Peek! Christmas at Miller Ranch…

Chapter One

James

“Oh, my goodness. James, is that you?”

The middle Touhey child turned, a tray of hot cocoas in hand, one with extra, extra whipped cream, one with double chocolate and Christmas tree sprinkles, then two which were slightly more sensible. 

“Hello?” James answered uncertainly, taking in the sight of the woman smiling up at him like he was an old friend. She was of average height and curvy, with dark chestnut hair in big curls that were barely contained by a cloth headband. 

She was pretty, that was for certain, and her grin was a bit dazzling. James liked to think that was why he didn’t notice the teal-colored scrubs she was wearing until her smile faded ever so slightly.

“Sorry, you probably don’t remember me. It’s been a couple of years since I saw you last. But it’s me, Ka—”

“Katrine!” James blurted, his memories suddenly rushing back to him in a deluge. “Katrine, never Katrina! Hey, it has been a while.”

“Oh! You do remember me? How flattering!” Suddenly the woman opened her arms wide for a hug and James found himself drawn up into an embrace. If it had been any other stranger, he would have jerked away. Except Katrine was no stranger, not even remotely, and it wasn’t even the first time she’d held him.

“You look amazing, by the way. How is your care going? I’ve missed you since you transferred to another OT.” James opened his mouth to object, but Katrine just waved her hand. “I don’t take it personally. I specifically work with day-to-day physical therapy. I’m not equipped or trained to give you what you needed with your new prosthetic.”

James nodded, eyes flitting to two nieces and a nephew that he’d brought along to go check out the new Grossology exhibit at the city’s science museum. Poor Chastity. His “sister-in-law” had planned a whole weekend trip with her brood, only for her, Ben, their eldest, and their youngest to all get hit with a truly wicked level of cold. Naturally, Dani had stepped in, offering to house the healthy kids and have Benji take them to the museum, only for poor Dani and Caspian to get sick too.

Thankfully it wasn’t anything lethal, but it was a lot of dripping noses, sneezes, achy bodies and cranky cranks. James supposed that was the downside of having a large, wonderfully close family. When someone got sick, most everyone else ended up getting it like dominoes. 

Which was why James offered to take his nieces and nephew to help. He figured, out of everyone, he was the least likely to get them ill. Besides, he had missed out on so much of their lives by going in and out of the hospital between his initial injury, his recovery, his subsequent infections, then losing his leg to it, then having to recover. 

“I do miss our hangouts,” James said, pulling himself back to the conversation with his old occupational therapist. “I remember you every time I have soup.” 

Katrine laughed at that, and it was every bit as charming as James had remembered. She’d been an integral part of his life for nearly three years after the fire. Helping him learn how to deal with his lack of mobility and independence. Teaching him how to deal with his diminished sensation and intense spikes of pain. She’d taught him how to write again, use utensils, and even get in and out of the shower. So many things. 

James remembered hating her some days, dreading the pain that came along with doing therapy with her. But mostly, he was incredibly grateful to her. She had been his anchor in the storm his life became after the fire. She gave him power, as well as hope to believe he could ever be “normal” again.

He supposed true normal was forever out of the window, in truth. After all, he’d been kept in a medical coma for a long while, then just when it seemed like he was recovering, he’d gotten a life-threatening infection that nearly made him go into septic shock. And then he’d lost his leg on top of it. 

“Hah! I suppose that’s not the worst legacy.” Someone tugged at Katrine’s purse, and James looked down to see a little boy who was practically the spitting image of her. “One minute, mon petit chou. Mommy’s talking to an old friend.”

“Okies, but can I have that much whipped cream on my hot choccie?”

“Only if they have coconut or oat milk whipped cream. You know how milk makes your tummy hurt, mon chou.”

“I think they do, merci.”

“You’re welcome, now go sit with your Auntie Gabi for me, okay? I’ll just be a couple more minutes.”

The child nodded and trotted off, his little legs taking him across the cafe pretty quickly.

“I didn’t know you had a kid,” James said, trying to wrack his brain if she’d mentioned a son before. Then again, Katrine could be pretty private. He didn’t even know that she was born in France and had moved to America when she was around eleven. He couldn’t remember the exact details, but he was pretty sure her father had been stationed there for quite a long while before being called back home and bringing the rest of his family with him. 

“Didn’t you?” She paused to think. “Huh, I was literally pregnant with him when we first met.”

…she was? James knew that a lot had been on his mind then and that he’d had to recover from his coma, but he hadn’t thought he’d been that out of it. 

“Oh, huh. I must have forgotten.”

“That’s alright. It’s not like you don’t have plenty on your plate!” She laughed and more memories came flooding back. James had always liked her laugh. It was so personal and inviting. He never felt judged or condescended to whenever she let out a few peals of mirth. “Speaking of which, how is the family ranch coming? I used to love hearing about all your updates. Any more chicken or goat drama? I think I vaguely recall there being a mean girl sort of situation with your… cows? Was it the cows? Now that I say it out loud, it sounds kind of silly.”

“Oh no, it definitely was the cows. Honey and Hannah were kind of crowding out Tabasco, mostly because they were jealous of a grafting situation with a very cute orphan calf.”

“I understood… almost all of those words,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it. It all got solved eventually.”

“Well, isn’t that a relief! And here I was worried for years how their drama unfolded.” She reached out and gently squeezed James’s arm. But instead of making him feel uncomfortable, he found that he liked the contact. It was… nice.

Katrine tucked in a stray wisp of hair before continuing. “Anyway, what are you doing here in the city? Definitely a drive for you.” Especially considering that for four years, James hadn’t been able to drive at all. Regaining that freedom had been particularly poignant and liberating. 

“I’m taking my nieces and nephew to the Grossology exhibit.”

“What!? No way! That’s where my friend Gabi and I are taking our kids. What a small world.”

James nodded, swallowing hard a bit at just how happy she looked at the coincidence. Before he could really think it through, his right brain hotwired the path to his throat and blurted out something without the left brain’s discerning input. 

“We should all go together. Let the kids hang out and all that.”

And maybe us too?

Chapter Two

Katrine

James Touhey looked good.

Katrine would never forget the first time she’d walked into James’s room to do her evaluation. He looked so downright miserable that she’d expected him to be a real crank. Sure, she wished her patients didn’t take their pain out on her, but she also kind of didn’t blame them, so she’d prepped herself for the worst. 

But James was far from the worst. He really, really tried to be as polite as he could despite the incredibly strenuous effort it took for him to get through even the simplest of things. In all honesty, Katrine thought it might have helped him to lose it a little, because when he grew truly frustrated, he would often just shut down instead of expressing it and getting it out of his system. 

It had been a long road that they’d been on together, but goodness, if she hadn’t always been impressed by his indomitable spirit. He never let himself stay defeated for long, and whenever she rolled in for his next session, he would attack everything with the same endless determination.

But most importantly, he listened. That was what really stuck with Katrine. She’d had plenty of Type A patients before. The ones that pushed and pushed and pushed themselves, often into the territory of making things worse. They always thought they knew better than her, even when she warned them over and over again that they needed to chill out. 

Not James though. If she told him he needed to take a break, or to stop entirely, he would. There were only two times in their entire work together that he’d looked at her with that sweet yet melancholy gaze of his and said in his drawl, “Ma’am, respectfully, I would like to go a bit more, if that’s alright. Got something I need to work out.”

She’d always let him work it out then, whatever it was, and both times he was right. He’d clearly needed to go a bit farther. Katrine supposed he’d taught her that sometimes she needed to listen too.

“Auntie Kat, did you know the human body sheds about nine pounds of skin a year on average?!” 

Katrine turned away from watching her boy play in one of the interactive exhibits to turn to Mark, her friend’s child. He was four years older than Remy but had definitely taken on an older brother sort of role. Which Katrine would be endlessly grateful for. If it weren’t for Gabi and her kindness, Katrine didn’t know how she would have been able to survive after her husband just walked out on her. They may not have been related by blood, but as far as Katrine was concerned, Gabrielle Gonzalez was her sister through and through. 

“Huh, you’re right. That is pretty gross, Mark.”

“Right? The human body is so weird. Like a squishy machine.”

A sharp laugh sounded from a few feet away and Katrine turned her head to see James nearly choking on his hot cocoa. Which, she had to admit, looked pretty delicious. She’d been tempted to grab something like that herself, but sugary things were an easy migraine trigger for her, and she wasn’t about to risk her son’s much-anticipated trip to the science museum for a delicious beverage.

Handsome men, on the other hand… 

No, she needed to stop that. Sure, he wasn’t her patient anymore, but there was no doubt he saw her only in a professional light, and she needed to respect that. Besides, she doubted that divorced single mothers with strange accents and size fourteen pants were his type. Nah, she’d seen pictures of him before his severe injuries. He’d been a classic beefcake, all-American with strength packed into some inviting bone structure framed by some great hair. He no doubt wanted a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl who smelled like apple pie and didn’t have nearly a U-Haul’s worth of baggage to trundle along behind her.

Oh well. That didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy his lovely company and be incredibly proud of how far he’d come. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” he said, ambling over. “But that’s a pretty good description, Mark. Humans are just squishy, messy machines.”

Mark nodded enthusiastically, his pleasure at being validated apparent. He was a sweet kid, he was, but most of his peers at school didn’t seem to see it. He had friends, sure, but Katrine wasn’t an idiot. She knew that there were others who saw the action figures he’d bring to recess each day, and how enthusiastically he participated in classes, then decided to ostracize him as a “nerd.” She and Gabi both wished that they could shield him from the bullying, but in reality, there was only so much they could do about the social relationships of elementary students. 

“Thanks, Mr.…”

“You can call me James, or Uncle James if you need an honorific. Not to be a cliche, but Mr. Touhey is my father, and he’s still plenty kicking.”

“What’s a cliche?”

Instead of getting irritated, which Katrine knew plenty of people were inclined to do whenever a kid asked one too many questions, James just grinned. 

“Good question. It means that it’s something that’s said or done so often that it’s become predictable. You know, like when people ask how are you and the other person says ‘fine’ instead of how they’re actually doing? It’s a bit like that.”

“Oh, so like a commonplace phrase?”

“Yeah! Exactly. Like a commonplace phrase. Good vocabulary, kid.”

“Thanks, Mr. James!”

At that Mark bounced away, rejoining James’s nieces who were reading about boogers and other forms of mucus. Certainly not Katrine’s thing, but hey, whatever made them happy. Apparently, kids loved random and gross facts about the body, considering the success of the exhibit as it traveled across the country. 

“Cute kid,” James remarked, finishing off his cocoa and sliding his hands in his pockets. Did he know he looked like a magazine model when he did that? Probably not. Although he held himself well enough, Katrine got the feeling that he still saw himself as the burn-riddled shell of a man who’d fought tooth and nail to get back to himself. Which was a shame. 

Not that she thought she could dictate his healing process. James had gone through the wringer and back. She didn’t blame him for most likely having insecurities; she just wished he didn’t have to. Unfortunately, there were always going to be people who would only see the scars from his skin grafts or his slight limp when he walked. 

But those people didn’t know a good thing when they saw it, so there. 

“Yeah, that’s Gabi’s boy. He’s basically an older brother to Remy.”

“I noticed they seemed to get on pretty well. Unusual with that kind of age difference, so it’s nice to see.”

“I don’t think it’s all that unusual.”

James winced ever so slightly. “Isn’t it? I remember my brother and me getting real annoyed with my little sister Dani always trying to tag along with us for everything from the age of nine to thirteen.”

“Well, that’s different,” Katrine answered with a small chuckle. “You lived with her every single day. Remy and Mark only see each other about once a week.”

“Ah, I never thought about it that way, but you’re probably right.”

“Maybe so. But back to your sister. What changed?”

“Huh?”

“You said it annoyed you until you were thirteen. What happened to change that?” Katrine asked.

“Well, Dani was getting picked on, and I guess you can say we got kind of protective. She withdrew into herself a lot, and we weren’t going to stand for it. Got into a lot of fights until we graduated, but you know, we were older than her so she still had to face her junior and senior year of high school alone.”

James sighed and there was plenty of melancholy in his tone. Not that Katrine was surprised. She’d seen pretty much every member of their family interact, and their love for each other was incredibly apparent. 

“We really did try to be there for each other, but people can be so cruel. And there may have been quite a few kind people in her class, but goodness, the ten or so really mean ones certainly made their mark.”

Katrine nodded, her heart aching. “The issue is it’s not just the ten mean ones, but it’s also everyone else who sat idly by and decided it wasn’t their business to interfere or even encouraged it. Tends to make a person think they deserve it.”

“That’s a really great way to put it.”

The two of them shared a moment of quiet contemplation, their thoughts no doubt going in different directions but rooted in the same kind of sorrow. Although Katrine hadn’t ever really been bullied as a kid, she saw plenty with Mark and worried about Remy eventually. 

Eventually, it was James who broke the quiet between them, pulling Katrine back to the real world. 

“Okay, this conversation is starting to get depressing. Why don’t we change the subject?”

“Sure, but what do you think the best way to do that is?” Katrine shot back, pointing as she did. “With the ‘What Happens When We Sleep’ exhibit to our right or the ‘How Food Is Digested’ exhibit?”

“You know, I think I’ve learned plenty about what happens to my meals after they enter my body. Let’s check out the sleep stuff. Goodness knows I don’t get enough.”

“Ooof, truer words have never been spoken.”

Together they walked through that section of the floor, making sure to keep an eye on the kids. Katrine couldn’t recall a time she’d had so much good conversation and laughs with someone who wasn’t Gabi, Mark, or her own son, but James and his nieces plus nephew were a total delight. And that was with being hopped up on adrenaline and the sugar from their hot cocoas. Maybe once the day was over, Katrine would treat herself. After all, it was the Christmas season and what better way to top off a cold wintery day than with a warm, chocolatey drink?

It was definitely money well spent, especially when all the kids seemed to thoroughly exhaust themselves, slowing down bit by bit until it was clearly time to go. 

“This was such a nice time,” Katrine said as they headed to the parking garage, where they would all part ways to go in their separate directions. Part of her wished the day wouldn’t end. Perhaps that was silly, considering she hadn’t seen James in nearly two years and that he was only ever her patient, but he really was a lot of fun to hang out with. And apparently quite gifted with children too, which was a plenty admirable skill in her opinion.

Then she added, “Thank you for suggesting we all go together.”

“Yeah, the kids got on really well. I wouldn’t be surprised if they ask to have another playdate with Mark. And Remy could tag along too, of course.”

Katrine’s face lit up in a smile. “That would be amazing! I’ll make sure to talk to Gabi about it. Maybe we should all exchange numbers?”

“That sounds like a good idea to me.”

Katrine’s heart fluttered in her chest at that, and she told herself to calm down. He was just looking out for Mark and being a great uncle, that was all. And so they stopped right then and there, pulling out their phones and trading numbers. 

“Okay, you’re programmed in! I’ll text you sometime,” she said.

“Yeah, for sure,” James answered before seeming to hesitate. Katrine paused as well, although she didn’t exactly know what she was hoping for. “Actually…”

“Yes?”

“Ma Miller, my sister, and my mother are doing this huge bake sale at the community center that was built last year. There’s gonna be activities for kids and plenty of cooking on site, even with all the prep we’re doing. Would… would maybe you want to come, uh, participate?”

Something warm and fuzzy spread through Katrine’s chest. Something so fragile and foreign that she tried not to acknowledge it. She’d learned long ago the dangers of letting her hopes rise far too soon. 

“I’d love that.”