that before. And she wanted it badly.
She looked at Caleb. “Do you know how lucky you are?”
He brushed his finger across her jaw. “I think I do.”
Though she had been talking about his family, he was talking about her. His tenderness undid her, and she was grateful that she was sitting down or else she’d have swooned into his arms.
How was she ever going to leave this all behind?
Chapter 29
Caleb
The morning after Faith and Doc came to dinner, Caleb whistled on his way into the house after doing morning chores. He’d fed the herd in the field just as the sun was coming up, and the rosy color in the sky reminded him of the way Faith had blushed last night. He couldn’t get enough of her reserved pleasure that his family so openly accepted her.
It was almost like her soul craved it, and he couldn’t help but believe that she’d been placed in his life for a reason. Perhaps God wanted her to see what a family could be like so she could look forward to creating her own one day.
But it could just as well be that God wanted Faith in Caleb’s life, with his family, and she needed to know that she would be unconditionally loved here. He hoped the second reason was the case, but he knew enough to know that his plans and God’s plans didn’t always line up.
That hadn’t stopped him from spending a lot of time on his knees last night praying.
“It’s three days until Christmas—there’s no way you’ll make it back!” Dad’s yelling came through the barn walls and hit Caleb in the chest. It wasn’t often that Dad raised his voice—someone must have pushed him too far. He had a pretty good guess as to who it was.
Charging ahead, his whistling dropped, Caleb swung open the barn door to find Dad and Forest squared off. Sparkle and Galen looking over their stall doors to see what the commotion was about—those two loved a bit of gossip. Pax was leaning against Dunder, sneaking him reindeer treats as he watched the two males battle it out.
Forest planted his feet. “I’ll fly back, Dad.” His words came out as if Dad were an idiot for not thinking of that option. He threw his hand at Dunder. “Stella and Kris rode Dunder here from Alaska when he was sick. I can handle Snowflake.”
Ah—so that was what this was about. Caleb shut the door behind him and joined the fray.
“If you find her, and that’s a great big if, I shouldn’t have let her go.” Dad stomped back and forth like a bull in the pasture.
Caleb held up both hands. “Whoa! Dad. We couldn’t leave Stella stranded. She’s over toys!” Protecting Santa and all that he stood for was woven into Dad’s soul as much as red thread was in his flannel shirt. For him to make a statement like that meant he was thrown off his game in a major way.
Forest poked Caleb’s chest. “You agree with me. You’re the one who had to do the news interview, and we’ve had calls from all the major networks wanting quotes since then. Snowflake is drawing more and more attention. There’s people camping in the snow trying to get a glimpse of her. Someone’s going to get frostbite—or worse. We need to get her back home ASAP.”
“And I told you all we’d wait until after Christmas—your mom deserves to have her kids here to celebrate the birth of Christ.”
Caleb watched his father pace back and forth. Suddenly, he understood something that he hadn’t before. It wasn’t that Dad didn’t want to get Snowflake; it was that doing so could hurt the woman he loved. As much as he was programmed to take care of the reindeer, Mom came first in his heart—and it was tearing him apart to have the two things he cared about in this world at odds.
Caleb got it, because he’d been dealing with it on a much smaller level with Faith. Smaller because they weren’t married or even committed past this Christmas. But big enough that the lie he’d told her about Rudy not flying in his cage that day rolled over him like a barrel of reindeer poop. He had a right to stay true to the reindeer—at least, that was what he told himself. If Faith was staying and they were moving to the next level, not so much. But for now, keeping the family secret was more important than his