Читать книгу A Bride For Liam Brand - Joanna Sims - Страница 11

Chapter Three

“He actually kissed me,” Kate whispered into the phone. She was in bed, but she wasn’t ready for sleep. She had brushed her teeth and then stood in the bathroom staring at the lips that Liam Brand had just kissed without any warning or invitation.

“Good for him,” her friend Lorrie told her.

Lorrie also had a child with Down syndrome, a little girl much younger than Callie. Lorrie had started an organization to connect parents in Gallatin County and ever since they had worked together to establish an annual, one-mile Buddy Walk in Bozeman to raise awareness and inclusion for people with DS.

“Good?”

“Yes,” Lorrie reiterated. “Good. He listened to my advice.”

Now Kate sat upright in bed. “What advice was that?”

Lorrie stopped to say something to one of her kids before answering. “He was here to give Dude and Max their shots. He might have mentioned that he was interested in you.”

“And?”

“And I told him that he’d have to be unconventional. That’s all.”

Kate couldn’t think of a response right away. Her mouth popped open, and she shook her head before she said, “So, you encouraged him to assault me?”

“Okay—now that’s way dramatic. All he did was give you a kiss. Tell me you didn’t enjoy it. Liam is handsome, smart, nice and he’s one of the most eligible bachelors in Montana.”

“That’s not the point.” Kate flopped back into the pillows. “I have Callie and the ranch.”

“I do know.” Lorrie said kindly. “I do. But, just because we have children with special needs doesn’t mean we can just put our lives on a shelf. Callie is an adult now, Kate. She needs your help—she’ll always need your help—but you’re going to have to find something else to do with your life other than focusing all of your attention on Callie. Why not shift some of that focus onto someone like Dr. Brand?”

Quiet for a moment of thought, Kate couldn’t deny her friend’s logic. Had she been holding Callie back, in part, because her daughter had always been the center of her world? Was she holding Callie back for her own sake? Part of her, deep down, knew that it was, at least, possible.

They talked for another twenty minutes before they hung up. Lorrie was one of the few people who genuinely understood her struggles with Callie, from fighting for services in the school system, accessing appropriate health care, and the feeling of isolation that could creep in with so many miles between families in a similar situation. She trusted Lorrie; they told each other the unvarnished truth. Her friend had a point. It was time for her to begin to find a new center of her life. Callie was growing up.

* * *

“Good morning, Kate.” Dawn from Dr. McGee’s office had called her out of the blue. “How are you today?”

“I’m good. Just doing barn work, as usual.”

“Well, I won’t be keepin’ you too long.” There was something in Dawn’s voice that signaled that this wasn’t going to be a positive call. “But I do have to share with you that Dr. McGee is going to be retiring.”

Up until that point, Kate had been holding the phone between her shoulder and cheek while she continued to muck the stall she was working on. The news made Kate put her pitchfork down; she stood upright and held the phone to her ear with her hand as the receptionist continued.

“He’s given me permission to tell all of his longtime clients that he’s having some serious health problems and he has to retire.”

Kate felt her chest tighten—she loved Dr. McGee. She’d known him since she was a kid and had always assumed that he would keep on working until he took his last breath.

“I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“So are we.” The receptionist sounded as if she was choking back tears. “It’s a...shock.”

After she hung up the phone, the weight of the phone call began to hit Kate. Beyond the sadness she was feeling in her heart, and the fact that she was going to have to break the news to Callie, who was crazy about Dr. McGee, what was she going to do about her horses? She had a huge barn to run and having a vet was essential to the health of the horses in her care.

Kate finished mucking out the stall, pushed the cart away from the stall, dropped the pitchfork into the cart and then walked outside to think. It was a blue sky day, not one cloud, and it was warm, just how she liked it. Hands on her hips, Kate ran several ideas through her head before she finally landed on her first move.

“I’ll be upstairs in the office if you need me,” Kate told two of her regular stable hands. Whenever she conducted business, she liked to sit at her desk in the office above the barn. Sitting at her desk now, with the view of the flat expanse of the pastures abutting the mountains in the background, Kate was always reminded that she was blessed to be living in paradise. But even paradise came with a price.

“He-llo.”

The way Liam answered his phone always made her smile.

“Hi, Dr. Brand. It’s Kate.”

“Hi, Kate King,” Liam greeted her enthusiastically. “So, we’re back to Dr. Brand, are we?”

Kate touched her fingers to her lips, the lips this man had kissed several nights before. It was a kiss, so fleeting, that hadn’t been far from her mind.

“This is a business call.”

“And here I thought you had finally come to your senses and were calling to ask me out on a date.”

He was teasing her—at least in part, he was—and it took her a moment to catch up with him. He had a way of catching her off guard with his humor and his kisses. He spoke before she had a chance to regroup.

“I’m thinkin’ that this call is about Dr. McGee retiring?”

“Yes.” The words came out of the blue, but the minute Liam echoed the news, Kate felt tears, unbidden, fill her eyes and fall onto her cheeks.

Not wanting Liam to hear her crying, Kate quickly wiped off her cheeks, steeled herself against the sadness she was feeling and focused on the business at hand.

“I’ve obviously been beaten to the punch,” she added.

“Look, Kate.” Liam said, his voice reassuringly strong and steady. “If you need me, I’m gonna be there for you. So you can take that worry right off your shoulders.”

Relieved, she dropped her head into her hand. “Thank you. You know how important it is to have a support system in place.”

“I do,” Liam said. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Their phone call was cut short, making Kate wish that they had more time—he had arrived at his next client and she was hosting a clinic for a group of owners and horses. But just from that brief phone call, Liam had made her feel better. She felt that it was going to be easier to face her day without the worry about who she was going to call if one of the horses in her charge took ill or got injured. Now she knew that she could call Dr. Brand. Liam.

* * *

When word got out that Dr. McGee, a most beloved fixture in the Bozeman area horse scene, was retiring, it wasn’t long before a retirement party was organized. Kate, who didn’t typically take the time out of her business life to go to parties, carved time out of her schedule to attend. Callie and Kate washed up, put on some clean jeans and boots, and then loaded into one of the King Ranch trucks to head into town.

“I should drive.” Callie always said the same thing when they headed off King property. Callie drove, under supervision, on the ranch and, since they owned thousands of acres, she had plenty of dirt roads to drive. But she hadn’t been able to pass the driver’s license test that would allow her to drive off property and her daughter couldn’t seem to accept it.

“You know what I love about you, Calico?” Kate pulled onto the road that would take them into Bozeman.

“Everything?” Callie laughed with a broad smile.

“That’s right.” Kate reached over and squeezed her daughter’s arm. “Everything.”

They arrived at The Baxter Downtown, a venue often used in Bozeman for weddings, special events and, in this case, a retirement party. Dr. McGee’s wife and staff had reserved the Wilson Suite, a smaller, cozier room accented with dark wood fit for a dignified man.

“Dr. McGee isn’t going to like all of this fuss,” Kate whispered to her daughter. “At least on the surface.”

So many people gathered in the small space while Dr. McGee sat at the head table with his wife and closest staff members; she knew the man well enough to know that he was touched by the turnout, even though she had heard him blustering about all of his friends acting like he was about to be pushing-up daisies when he wasn’t ready to go quietly into that good night just yet.

“Is this seat taken?”

The minute Kate heard the sound of Liam’s voice, her body responded in the most unusual way. Her heart started to beat a little faster, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up.

“No.” Kate found herself smiling at the handsome vet. “Be our guest.”

Callie jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around Liam. “Hi, Dr. B-Brand!”

Kate watched Liam closely—he treated her daughter with so much respect and dignity, every time, that she couldn’t deny that this was a part of this new feeling she was experiencing for the man.

“Hi, Calico.” Liam started to take the seat on the other side of her daughter, but Callie shook her head and sat down in the chair instead.

“You should sit next to Mommy.”

“Callie.” Kate glanced around quickly, knowing that people were paying attention. “Let Dr. Brand sit where he wants.”

“Okay,” Callie said sullenly.

Liam took a moment, waited for the mother and daughter to negotiate the situation before he took the seat between them.

He leaned over to say, in that low, baritone voice of his, “This is where I wanted to sit.”

Kate wasn’t someone who embarrassed easily; she was a woman in a world still dominated by men. But she felt her cheeks grow hot, and she knew that if anyone was watching her face closely, the pleasure she felt by that simple comment was right there in her eyes and the small smile on her lips.

Two of the biggest gossips in Bozeman were sitting directly across from them at the banquet table. The Mendelsohn widows, Beatrice and Emma, were very interested in the new “dynamic” of the handsome eligible veterinarian and the relationship-skittish horse trainer.

“How long have the two of you been courting?” Beatrice got straight to the point.

“We aren’t.” Kate crinkled her brow a bit. Was it that obvious that she felt “something” akin to happy nerves sitting next to Liam?

“Not yet,” Liam added after he took a large sip of his water without ice.

“They make a very handsome couple,” Emma told her sister.

“They do,” Beatrice agreed. “Very handsome.”

“Everyone always said that about John and I,” Emma continued. “That we were a handsome couple. Of course, Beatrice was always the prettier one of the two of us. But even my sister has had to admit that my John was the most handsome man—so tall and straight.”

Beatrice put down her teacup with a small smile. “Don’t pay a bit of attention to Emma. I’ve never admitted to such a thing.”

Emma raised her eyebrows at her sister, puckered her lips a bit and then turned her attention back to them. “You make a very handsome couple. I approve of this match.”

“As do I.” Her sister agreed loudly enough for the people seated at the table behind them to hear.

Kate and Liam exchanged a quick look, both of them understanding that to make any more denials that they weren’t an “item” would only give the sisters more fodder for their gossip. So they both just nodded and smiled, and let the conversation naturally drift in a different direction.

The speeches given by the staff at Dr. McGee’s clinic were emotional; even though Kate didn’t show it on the outside, she felt such sadness that this amazing man was leaving the profession before his time. Mrs. McGee spoke and then by unanimous applause, Dr. McGee agreed to say a word or two.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with all of you,” Dr. McGee said in a gruff voice laced with an unusual undertone of emotion. “I’m not dead yet. But since y’all are probably the same folks who might make it to my funeral one day, this gets you off the hook for that shindig.”

That was the entire speech. That was Dr. McGee. After that brief speech, everyone started to leave. Liam stood, pulled out Callie’s chair first, and just as she was pushing back her own chair, she saw the vet reach out his hand to her.

Kate looked at that hand for a split second; it was such a small thing, taking an offered hand, but it seemed like a big deal to her.

Her hand slipped so easily into his—his hand, strong, rough from clinical work in the field, was a perfect fit for hers. She had big hands for a woman, and whenever she held hands with a man, as rare as that was, she always felt like the “dude.” With Liam, she felt like a woman holding the hand of a man.

They walked out together, the three of them, and Kate hated the feel of curious eyes on them. It was such a small town that no doubt word had gotten out that Liam had sat at her table two nights in a row and now they were sitting together at Dr. McGee’s retirement party. Gossip was a pastime for some in their town.

“You like Mommy, don’t you?” Callie asked Liam when they reached their truck.

Liam, as he always did, took Callie’s questions seriously, answered them directly. “Yes, Calico. I do.”

Kate sighed at her daughter’s question. Callie was Callie, and no matter how many discussions they had about “polite questions,” there were just some things that her daughter wasn’t going to be able to change.

Callie giggled at Liam’s response, turning her head and covering her mouth with her hand.

“Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?” Her daughter threw out of invitation before she got into the truck.

Liam looked directly into Kate’s eyes before he said to Callie, “I really appreciate the invite, I really do. I’d love to eat some more of your good cookin,’ but the next time I come over for dinner, it’s gonna have to be your mom who invites me.”

That could have been a moment for her to invite him, but she just wasn’t ready. She was feeling things for Liam—she was—and he hadn’t been subtle about his attraction to her. But this was territory that hadn’t been explored in over a decade! Kate wasn’t the type of woman to make drastic changes in her life; she was a tugboat, not a speedboat.

“It was nice spending lunch with you,” Kate said, after she climbed behind the wheel.

“Likewise.” Liam had a way of looking at her in a way that no other man had in a very long time. Maybe not ever. It was as if he liked everything he saw when he looked at her face.

“I’m sad about Dr. McGee,” she admitted to him.

“So am I.” Liam had one hand tucked into a front pocket and the other holding her open door. “I could work a lifetime and not feel like half the vet that man is.”

“I don’t know about that,” Kate objected. “I was really impressed with how you handled Visa.”

Liam nodded and then shut the door for her. “I appreciate that. I hope to see you again real soon. You too Calico!”

They said their goodbyes then, and she drove away. In the rearview mirror, she saw Liam still standing in the parking lot watching them as they left.

“Mommy! Why didn’t you tell him he could come over for dinner?”

“I don’t know.” Kate told her daughter. But that wasn’t entirely true. There was something there between them—she felt it and she could tell that Liam could feel it too. It was something real, something tangible. And it genuinely scared the crap out of her.

* * *

A couple of days after Liam had seen Kate and Callie at Dr. McGee’s party, he had really struggled with his next move. He could tell that Kate felt the same attraction to him that he did with her. But he could also see that she wasn’t ready to jump into a relationship. If he wanted to explore his feelings for Kate, he was going to have to be strategic. Instead of calling, which he wanted to do, he decided to just give her some time to mull over the lunch, and the kiss, they had shared.

“He-llo!”

It was Kate King on the line.

“I can’t believe I forgot about this,” the trainer told him. “But I have a prepurchase vet check scheduled for tomorrow. The woman’s coming in from Helena, and she’s already called several vets...”

“I think she may have called me already,” Liam told her.

“She did. I know this is a big ask—but I’m really in a bind. The prospective buyer has no flexibility in her schedule.”

When he first got the call from the woman out of Helena, she had mentioned the King Ranch, but his scheduled was still overflowing because of Dr. McGee’s sudden retirement. Thankfully there were a couple of other vets in the area who were able to step up their game.

“I just can’t get out there today, Kate. I would if I could,” he said, and then added in the silence that followed, “I hope you know that.”

“No. I know,” Kate told him, her disappointment obvious to him. “I appreciate it.”

After another moment of odd silence, she asked, “Could you come out tonight? I know it’s a lot to ask, but the indoor riding ring has lights. We ride at night here all the time.”

She continued in a lowered voice. “Please, Liam. She’s a really big connection for me. If I get this deal done, there could be so much business for the Triple K.” After another pause, she added, “I really need this.”

The worry he heard in her voice convinced him that he had to find a way to help her. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I’ll be there. As soon as I can. It won’t be until six or seven. I already know that for sure.”

“Whenever you can get here. I’ll let the buyer know,” Kate said. “And, Dr. Brand... Liam...I can’t thank you enough.”

* * *

He was already exhausted when he parked his truck in front of Kate’s barn. The prospective buyer, a rather fancy-looking woman with platinum hair who was originally from Oklahoma, greeted him with Kate at her side. He was lucky that the exam was uncomplicated—the horse was sound, had good hooves, and had negative flexion tests and X-rays. Although a prepurchase vet check could take up to four hours, this exam went smoothly and he was wrapping up with the potential owner after two hours.

“You shouldn’t have any difficulty using this horse for the purposes you’ve stated,” he said to the client. “I should have a report to you by tomorrow afternoon. I won’t be able to get it out tonight.”

“Tomorrow will be just fine.” The woman with the heavy Oklahoma accent smiled at him.

Liam packed up his equipment, while Kate showed the woman to her car. They met back at his truck just as he was finished loading.

With a sigh, Kate, in cutoff shorts that showed off her long, slender legs, muscular from years of riding, leaned against the truck.

“Long day,” she said, her loose hair blowing in the gentle night breeze.

He nodded.

“Are you hungry?”

Liam slipped his keys into his pocket with a nod.

“Callie made chili again. You seemed to really like it the last time.”

“As a matter of fact, I loved it.”

Kate tucked her hair behind her ear. “Join us for dinner?”

Liam sent her a tired smile. “That’s the best offer I’ve had all week.”