Read Online Holiday in Stone Creek by Linda Lael Miller - Free Book Online Page A

dinner?"
    Olivia looked down at her jeans and sweater. "What's wrong with my outfit?" she asked.
    "Touchy, touchy. I was just asking a simple question."
    "These jeans are almost new, and Ashley made the sweater. I look perfectly fine."
    "Whatever you say."
    "Well, what do you think I should wear, O fashionista dog?"
    "The sweater's fine," Ginger observed. "But I'd switch out the jeans for a skirt. You do have a skirt, don't you?"
    "Yes, I have a skirt. I also have rounds to make before dinner, so I'm changing into my work clothes right now."
    Ginger sighed an it's-no-use kind of sigh. "Paris Hilton you ain't," she said, and drifted off to sleep.
    Olivia returned to her bedroom, put on her normal grubbies, suitable for barns and pastures, then located her tan faux-suede skirt, rolled it up like a towel and stuffed it into a gym bag. Knee boots and the blue sweater went in next, along with the one pair of panty hose she owned. They had runs in them, but the skirt was long and the boots were high, so it wouldn't matter.
    When she got back to the kitchen, Ginger was stretching herself.
    "You're coming with me today, aren't you?" Olivia asked.
    Ginger eyed the gym bag and sighed again. "As far as next door, anyway," she answered. "I think Butterpie could use some company."
    "What about Thanksgiving?"
    "Bring me a plate," Ginger replied.
    Oddly disappointed that Ginger didn't want to spend the holiday with her, Olivia went outside to fire up the Suburban and scrape off the windshield. After she'd lowered the ramp in the back of the rig, she went back to the house for Ginger.
    "You're all right, aren't you?" Olivia asked as Ginger walked slowly up the ramp.
    "I'm not used to running through snow up to my chest," the dog told her. "That's all."
    Still troubled, Olivia stowed the ramp and shut the doors on the Suburban. Ginger curled up on Rodney's blanket and closed her eyes.
    When they arrived at Tanner's place, his truck was parked in the driveway, but he didn't come out of the house, and Olivia didn't knock on the front door. She repeated the ramp routine, and then she and Ginger headed into the barn.
    Shiloh was back in his stall, brushed down and munching on hay.
    Olivia paused to greet him, then opened the door to Butterpie's stall so she and Ginger could go in.
    Butterpie stood with her head hanging low, but perked up slightly when she saw the dog.
    "You've got to eat," Olivia told the pony.
    Butterpie tossed her head from side to side, as though in refusal.
    Ginger settled herself in a corner of the roomy stall, on a pile of fresh wood shavings, and gave another big sigh. "Just go make your rounds," she said to Olivia. "I'll get her to take a few bites after you're gone."
    Olivia felt bereft at the prospect of leaving Ginger and the pony. She found an old pan, filled it with water at the spigot outside, returned to set it down on the stall floor. "This is weird," she said to Ginger. "What's Tanner going to think if he finds you in Butterpie's stall?"
    "That you're crazy," Ginger answered. "No real change in his opinion."
    "Very funny," Olivia said, not laughing. Or even smiling. "You're sure you'll be all right? I could come back and pick you up before I head for Stone Creek Ranch."
    Ginger shut her eyes and gave an eloquent snore.
    After that, there was no point in talking to her.
    Olivia gave Butterpie a quick but thorough examination and left.

    T ANNER BOUGHT A HALF CASE of the best wine he could find--Stone Creek had only one supermarket, and the liquor store was closed. He should have lied, he thought as he stood at the checkout counter, paying for his purchases. Told Brad he had plans for Thanksgiving.
    He was going to feel like an outsider, passing a whole afternoon and part of an evening with somebody else's family.
    Better that, though, he supposed, than eating alone in the town's single sit-down restaurant, remembering Thanksgivings of old and missing Kat and Sophie.
    Kat.
    "Is that good?" the clerk