a clear dismissal, one he couldn’t ignore. Ruben gathered his dogs’ leashes and headed for the door. “Thank you. See you around. And by around, I mean next door. We kind of can’t miss each other.”
As he hoped, this made Mia smile a little. Even Silver’s dour expression eased into what almost looked like a smile.
As he loaded the dogs into the king cab of his pickup truck, Ruben could see Dani turning off lights and straightening up the clinic.
What was her story? Why had she chosen to come straight from vet school in Boston to set up shop all the way across the country in a small Idaho town?
He loved his hometown, sure, and fully acknowledged it was a beautiful place to live. It still seemed a jarring cultural and geographic shift from living back east to this little town where the biggest news of the month was a rather corny light parade that people froze their asses off to watch.
And why did he get the impression the family wasn’t socializing much? One of the reasons most people he knew moved to small towns was a yearning for the kind of connectedness and community a place like Haven Point had in spades. What was the point in moving to a small town if you were going to keep yourself separate from everybody?
He thought he had seen them at a few things when they first came to Haven Point but since then, Dani seemed to be keeping her little family mostly to themselves. That must be by choice. It was the only explanation that made sense. He couldn’t imagine McKenzie Kilpatrick or Andie Bailey or any of the other Helping Hands excluding her on purpose.
What was she so nervous about?
He added another facet to the enigma of his next-door neighbor. He had hoped that he might be able to get a better perspective of her by bringing the dogs in to her for their routine exams. While he had confirmed his father’s belief that she appeared to be an excellent veterinarian, he now had more questions about the woman and her daughters to add to his growing list.
After a long, difficult day, following a long, difficult week, all Dani wanted was to pop a batch of popcorn, sit on the sofa and watch something light and cheery with her girls for a few hours. As she stood at the kitchen sink of their three-bedroom cottage drying the last of the dishes Silver had washed after school, she thought that what she would really like was a long soak in the tub. By the time her daughters were in bed most nights, she didn’t have enough energy left to even run water in the tub.
The kitchen was small enough that cleaning it never took long. The house Frank Morales had provided as part of her internship compensation wasn’t big but it was comfortable, with three bedrooms, a living room and a lovely glass-enclosed family room facing the lake, which had become their favorite spot.
Someday she’d like to have a little bigger house, maybe with an actual dining room, but that would have to wait awhile. She had thousands of dollars in student loans to pay back first. Meantime, this house worked well for their needs.
Her life could have been easier. Occasionally, she tormented herself by playing the old what-if game, wondering how things might have been different for her and her daughters if she had been able to ignore her conscience and taken money from Tommy.
If she had accepted the ill-gotten gains her late ex-husband had tried to give for child support, she might have been able to start her professional life as a veterinarian with a clean slate, even with a little nest egg, instead of feeling swallowed by debt. But she would have had to sell her soul in return and she wasn’t willing to do that.
Yes, she was tired of the constant scrimping and saving and striving, but at least when she finally made her way to bed each night, she could close her eyes with a clear conscience.
Mostly clear, anyway.
She set the dish towel over the oven handle to dry and made her way to the family room. Silver was, as usual, on her phone while Mia was doing more somersaults, this time on the carpet, while their ancient little mutt Winky watched from her favorite spot on the floor, blocking the heater vent.
“Movie night!” Dani said cheerfully. “Who’s ready? I’ll make the popcorn. You two just need to pick a show.”
“Yay! Movie night. My favorite!” Mia grinned from the floor.
“I think we should watch a Christmas movie. What do you say? Elf, Grinch, Arthur Christmas or something off the Hallmark Channel.”
The previous Christmas, during Dani’s rare moments off from school, they had binge-watched movies on the Hallmark Channel. Dani had felt a little world-weary to truly appreciate the sweet happy endings but Silver had adored them.
It had been several months since Silver had been interested in anything sweet. Right around the time she’d dyed her hair and started begging for the tattoo Dani would not let her get until she was eighteen.
“Elf,” Mia declared without hesitation.
“Okay. One vote for Elf. What do you think, Sil?”
“I think you’re going to have to watch without me.” Her daughter rose from the sofa with the long-legged grace she had inherited from her father. “I’ve got to go. Some friends just texted me and they want to hang out.”
Dani felt her temper flare at Silver’s matter-of-fact tone but worked to keep it contained. “Are you asking me or telling me?”
Silver’s jaw worked. “Asking, I guess. Can I go hang out with my friends?”
At thirteen, she seemed to think she didn’t need permission these days for much of anything. Dani had a completely different perspective on the situation.
“Which friends? And what did they want to do?”
“Just friends from school,” Silver said, impatience threading through her voice. “Why do you have to know every single detail about my life?”
“Because I’m your parent and responsible for you. I’m not asking for every detail but I have to know where you’re going and who you will be with. Those are the house rules, kid. You know that.”
Silver didn’t appear to appreciate the reminder. “I thought you might lighten up a little once we moved to the middle of freaking nowhere. Instead, you’re worse than ever.”
Oh, Dani so did not want to deal with this tonight. Not after the day she’d had. “You’re going to want to watch your tone and your attitude, miss, unless you would prefer to spend the night in your room instead of with any friends.”
Her daughter glared for a moment and then, with her quicksilver moods lately, her expression shifted to one of resignation. “Fine. I’m going over to Jenny Turner’s house. She’s in my biology class. She was going to call some other friends so we could watch the latest Marvel movie that just came out. Is that okay with you?”
Dani knew Jenny and her parents. They lived just one street over and her family had two beautiful Irish setters who appeared well mannered and well loved.
“Will her parents be there?”
“Her dad is on a work trip but her mom
