Darling December: Calendar Girls' Ranch, #12

By Caroline Lee

December "Dawn" Calendar has been blind her entire life, but that hasn't stopped her from living her life to the fullest on her family's ranch. An integral part of the family business, the Calendar Girls' Ranch, she uses her remarkable voice to lead the kids in song and music appreciation.

But she knows there's one thing her sisters can do—have been doing—that she can't: falling in love and moving away. Even if she did manage to find someone who could love her, blindness and all, the ranch is her home. She can move around there as well as any sighted person, and just the thought of leaving is terrifying to her.

 

But what man would want to live with her and her parents?

And then comes the night when a tap on her window reveals a man with a serious head injury, who can't recall his full name or his reason for being at her house. Todd's identity is shrouded in mystery, and it's impossible not to wonder if he arrived with nefarious intentions.

But after a while...it ceases to matter. Because Todd is the funniest, sweetest man Dawn has ever met, and best of all, he seems to like her—and her home!—just as much. But his missing memory stands between them. Until he can remember who he is, and why he sought her out, the two of them won't be able to build their future together!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Caroline Lee
• Release date: Jun 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201266691

Book preview

Chapter 1

Dawn woke in darkness.

Of course, that wasn’t anything new. Being in the dark only mattered if you knew the difference.

She’d been born blind, so everything was darkness to her…not that she had any frame of reference for what darkness was. But over the years, she’d gotten good at being able to tell what time of day or night it was when she woke up based on the sounds of the house around her.

And right now, if she didn’t miss her guess, it was the middle of the night.

Of course, since her sisters had gotten married, one-by-one, and moved away, the house was fairly quiet these days. To someone who was used to the hustle and bustle of a love-filled home, the lack of sound was a little disconcerting.

But something—some sound, some out-of-place sound—had woken her.

She reached for her phone, and when prompted, it told her it was four-thirty in the morning. Too early for Mom or Brunie to be up working on breakfast, although they should be awake soon.

So what had woken her? And why was her heart beating so quickly?

Taking a deep breath, she rested her head back on the pillows and stared blindly up at the ceiling. She cleared her mind and tried to think back over the last minute. What had she heard, just before waking? What sound had been out-of-the-ordinary—

There!

The scraping sound came again from the empty room beside hers. When her sisters had still been at home, it had been shared by Julia, Sparky and Berry, and she knew it well.

Although she wanted to scramble out of bed, experience had taught her she needed to move slowly and steadily in case some of the furniture had been moved. So she swung her legs out of bed, found her robe draped over the chair where she’d laid it last night, and slid her arms into it. She slid her phone into the pocket—she never went anywhere without it these days—and moved stealthily from her room.

Her hands found the door, then the knob, and as she eased it open, she rested her hand against the jamb and tried to steady her breathing. There! The scraping sound came again. If the door to the next room was open—and she thought it was—then the sound would be coming from near the window.

An animal perhaps? A bird flying into the glass?

She remembered May talking about that sort of thing, but surely it was pitch-black outside. Why would a bird be flying around in the dark running into things?

Maybe he’s running into things because it’s dark.

Oh, yeah. That made sense. Most creatures weren’t as comfortable in darkness as she was.

Stealthily, she crept along the hall, holding her breath and hoping to hear the noise again. When she reached the door to the room which used to be Julia, Sparky and Berry’s—which was open just as she’d remembered—she froze.

And listened.

The sound she’d heard—the scraping noise—didn’t repeat. Would a bird scrape like that? No, it had sounded more like a larger animal trying to get into the window now that she thought about it. Or perhaps its claws had been scraping against the side of the house.

Or…a person trying to climb the trellis she knew was there.

Her breath caught in her throat. A person? Why would a person—

Perhaps it was one of her sisters trying to get back into her old room? It would be just like Sparky to pull something this silly.

Or maybe it was someone else. Someone not related to her.

A sudden thought crashed into Dawn and caused her to suck in a desperate breath between her teeth.

There’d been a recent spate of robberies in Cauldron Valley, hadn’t there? Was someone trying, even now, to break into her house?

Well, one thing was for certain: Dawn wasn’t going to let them. If it wasn’t Sparky scraping at the side of the house, she wanted them to know she was there!

But, since it might just be a squirrel, there was no need to wake up her parents just yet, she decided.

Taking a deep breath, Dawn carefully moved her hand along the wall by the door until she found what she was looking for. The light switch rested beneath her fingers, and with only a moment’s hesitation, she flipped it.

Perhaps someone else, without her finely tuned sense of hearing, would’ve missed what sounded very much like a gasp, then a faint grunt, which had come from outside the window.

But anyone would’ve heard the sound of a body hitting the ground outside; the sickening thud of flesh against something hard.

And then the moan of pain.

I did that.

Whoever it was who’d just been hurt…she’d caused their hurt. And even though Dawn didn’t know who it was, she couldn’t not help.

Wheeling away from the room, she groped her way across the hall, sighing gratefully when her questing hands found the opposite wall. There was no time for caution now! With her fingers trailing along the well-known wainscoting, she hurried toward the front stairs, praying Brunie hadn’t decided today was the day to leave the vacuum cleaner lying out.

Again.

To her relief, she made it to the stairs without incident and gratefully grasped the bannister and hurried down. In the front foyer, she paused just long enough to fumble for the umbrella stand by the front door. Her family always returned her white canes there, because although she could navigate her home without help, she’d be foolish to leave the house without one.

On the front porch, a chill swept through her as the cold night air blew across her cheeks and neck. Luckily, she didn’t smell rain, but she could feel the morning dew beginning to cling as she grasped the railing.

Not quite as cautious as she should’ve been, her cane tapped out a familiar rhythm as she bounded down the steps and onto the familiar brick bath. She realized she was panting in fear and did her best to control her breathing as she rounded the corner of the house and slid to a stop.

Her bedroom—and the one next door—should be above her, which meant whoever fell from the second floor should be nearby.

Hello? She held her breath, straining her ears to hear any signs of a person. Hello?

There.

Was that the sound of someone breathing? An exhale full of pain?

Let me help you.

It wasn’t until the words had escaped her lips that she realized she’d whispered them out loud. But she meant them, with every inch of herself. No matter why the person was there—surely it wasn’t Sparky—Dawn had been the one to cause them injury.

And she needed to make it better.

Why couldn’t she hear the person anymore? Cautiously, she began to tap her cane against the ground as she stepped forward, one foot at a time.

Hello? she whispered again. Where are you?

She heard another exhalation the moment before a masculine groan of pain had her jerking her head to her right.

Her cane made a thwack sound as it hit something soft, and Dawn didn’t bother swallowing her whimper of apology. Instead, she threw herself down beside the man…and yes, it was most definitely a man who was lying on his back half-in half-out of her mother’s old flower bed.

Hello? Frantically, she swept her hand along what felt to be denim. Are you okay?

Way to be an idiot, Dawn. Obviously he’s not okay.

A groan was her only answer, and she comforted herself with the knowledge that at least he wasn’t dead.

She let go of her cane and leaned over him, patting what she could feel until she could understand—without sight—how he was laying.

Let’s see…if this is denim, which it feels like, then it’s likely his legs. Is it one of my brothers-in-law?

Why would one of them be trying to climb the trellis to the second-floor bedrooms?

She continued to grope.

Here’s his ankle, this is his knee, and here’s his thighs, right? And this must be his—

A different kind of groan emerged from up near where his head would be, and Dawn froze when she realized exactly what she was now cupping with