Christmas Rescue at Mustang Ridge

Despite the glare Jake shot her, Maggie kissed Sunny’s forehead. “Sleep tight, sweetheart.”

Maggie put the book back on the nightstand before she joined Jake outside the room. He shut the door and looked down at her as if waiting for an explanation.

“I didn’t bring up Anna.” Maggie pulled off her mask. “And that last part she said—that was all Sunny’s idea. I had nothing to do with it.”

His glare stayed in place for several seconds before he muttered some profanity. “I didn’t hear what she said. Why don’t you tell me?”

Oh. She’d thought from his sour expression that he’d been reacting to Sunny’s mommy wish, but maybe the mood hadn’t been for anything specifically said, just for the fact that Maggie was there.

“Thank you for letting me see her,” Maggie told him.

She braced herself for some kind of verbal blast, because she figured Jake was kicking himself for allowing the little visit. Chet was certainly adding to that mental kicking because he was standing in the great room with yet another McCall glare aimed at her.

However, he wasn’t alone.

Maggie recognized the man next to Jake’s father. It was Dr. Gavin Grange, and after studying his body language, she wondered if at least part of Chet’s glare wasn’t meant for the doctor and not just her.

“Dr. Grange will do the blood test now,” Jake informed her.

She volleyed glances among the three. “Is there a problem I don’t know about?”

“The doc’s just worried about his own hide,” Chet snarled.

Dr. Grange didn’t confirm that. Not with words anyway. But he came closer, set his medical bag on the table in the entry and extracted a syringe with a needle.

Maggie held out her arm for the doctor to wipe the spot with an antiseptic pad. She winced a little when he shoved the needle into her vein, and he drew not one but two vials of blood. He put the blood vials in his medical bag.

“How soon before we know the results?” she asked.

“I’ll ask the lab to expedite it.”

“Stay on them,” Chet piped in. “I want those results today.”

That caused the doctor to scowl, and he gathered his things before he turned to Jake. “I can’t make it happen that soon. Usually, an expedited test still has a twenty-four-hour turnaround, and the hospital lab is closing early today because tomorrow’s Christmas Eve.”

Maggie groaned softly. The holidays would slow things to a crawl, and the weather wouldn’t help, either. It was ironic, because normally a white Christmas would have been a perfect way to celebrate, but it would only be perfect if they could get those test results and learn that she was a match.

“If you could speed that up, I’d appreciate it,” Jake told him.

The doctor nodded. “If Maggie’s a match, I won’t be able to do the marrow harvesting. You’ll have to take her to Amarillo for that so you might want to go ahead and make arrangements in case you get lucky with the match.”

Maggie wondered if that’s because it was beyond his medical expertise or if it was because he didn’t want to be involved further in this.

“Call me the second you have the results,” Jake insisted at the same moment Chet told the doctor, “You can see yourself out.”

The doctor did just that. He headed for the door and didn’t look back.

“What’s wrong with him?” Maggie asked.

“You,” Chet quickly provided. “And me. He didn’t want to get involved because of what happened with Anna, but I convinced him otherwise.”

“How?” And Maggie was afraid to hear the answer.