Love at First Snow: A Christmas Miracle by Boroughs PublishingGroup Page B

infamous
Christmas Eve storm four years ago.
    Walking to the door, she flipped the OPEN
sign to CLOSED. She’d sent her only employee home hours ago. She
should’ve followed. Instead she’d hung around, just in case of an
emergency, but not one customer had walked in her door all
afternoon. Everyone was hunkered down in their cozy homes in front
of their fireplaces, celebrating Christmas Eve with friends and
family. Except her.
    Cyrus, her St. Bernard cross and the clinic
mascot, opened one eye from his location on his dog bed. She
whistled at him. With a sigh, he heaved himself to his feet and
lumbered over.
    The phone rang, and she crossed the room to
answer it. “Island Vet.” Cyrus sat down in the middle of the floor,
not interested in expending more energy than absolutely
necessary.
    “Hey, where the hell are you?”
    Sarah smiled. “Closing up shop.”
    “Good, then come on over. We’ve got a
boatload, and we’ll be drinking lots of liquid good cheer and
singing off-key Christmas carols.” Her best friend Cari and Cari’s
husband Kyle lived down at the marina on an old fifty-footer.
    “I can’t. I have some things to finish
here.”
    “Liar.”
    Sarah didn’t deny it. Normally she spent
Christmas Eve on the boat with her friends and her dad, but this
Christmas was different. She just didn’t want to go down there with
all those people making merry. She’d be one heck of a downer. They
didn’t need that, and she didn’t need the guilt. New Year’s might
be a different story. She couldn’t wait to ring out this hellacious
year and look to the future.
    “Mark’s here.”
    Sarah blew out a breath and tamped down her
exasperation. Cari was always trying to fix her up. “You know I’m
not interested in dating right now.”
    “He’s a nice guy.”
    “Exactly why he doesn’t need to get mixed up
with me. The clinic is my life right now. I don’t need a guy
muddying the waters. You know I don’t have time for a relationship,
even if I wanted one—which I don’t.”
    Sarah’s boyfriends had been few and far
between with her pre-vet and vet school studies monopolizing all
her spare time. Once out of college she’d dived into the vet
practice with her father, as well as traveling to neighboring
islands for vaccination clinics and her animal rescue work. Spare
time didn’t enter into her schedule. After her father died, she’d
given her heart and soul to the practice with no room for a social
life. If her friends wanted to see her, they made an appointment to
bring an animal into the clinic.
    “Promise me you’ll be at dinner tomorrow.”
Cari didn’t give up easily.
    “Absolutely, even if I have to snowshoe. I
wouldn’t miss your prime rib for anything.”
    “Okay, then. We’ll see you tomorrow. But if
you change your mind—”
    “I know. I’m always welcome. Thanks.” Sarah
hung up the phone before Cari had a chance to argue.
    Crossing the room, she paused to straighten
the bags of dog food stacked on the shelves against one wall. With
a sigh she gazed around her little clinic, her home away from home
for close to five years, turned out the waiting room lights and
stepped into her tiny office, which was crowded with piles of
veterinary journals and animal care books.
    Pushing a bunch of papers out of the way,
Sarah picked up a picture half-buried on her messy desk. Her
mother, frail and gaunt, lay in a hospital bed but still managed a
smile for the camera. Next to her, a ten-year-old Sarah clutched
her hand, looking like crap. A few hours after that picture was
taken, her mom succumbed to a long battle with cancer and young
Sarah’s world caved in. For years it’d just been her and her dad.
Until two years ago. She couldn’t believe how much it still hurt.
At times the pain almost drove her to her knees. Orphaned at
thirty-two, without family at Christmas.
    Sure, there were lots of people who had it
worse, but she couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for herself.
The holidays