Читать книгу The Heart of a Cowboy - Trish Milburn - Страница 10

Chapter Four

Natalie exchanged her pajamas for jeans and a T-shirt. The absolute last thing she wanted to do was go back out to the Brody ranch again and still not be able to tell them why she was in town. Well, she could tell Garrett and his dad, but it just didn’t feel right to not tell Chloe. After all, they’d once been very close. To give the information to the first Brody she could find then race back to Kansas before Chloe even returned from her honeymoon felt like the ultimate in cowardice. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it right, no matter how hard it proved to be.

But now, she had to focus on the task at hand. She might not want to be around the Brodys until she could talk to all of them at once, but she couldn’t leave an animal in danger.

The rain was still coming down as she raced out to her truck and drove as fast as she dared toward the Brodys’ ranch. Her stomach knotted, and she hoped the few fries she’d eaten stayed right where they were.

The drive seemed to take three times as long as it had earlier, even counting the stop she’d had to make on the side of the road during the first trip. The rain didn’t slacken until she neared the turn into the ranch, and then only slightly. She hit the brakes, skidding a little, when she came over a small hill and saw two fire trucks pulling out of the Brodys’ drive.

Her heart lurched. Fire trucks? She glanced across the darkened field and made out a lighted window through the slanting rain. At least something was still standing. And Garrett had said nothing about a fire when he’d called. She didn’t think something could have caught fire, the 911 call be made, fire trucks respond and the fire be extinguished in the half hour it had taken her to arrive.

When the trucks passed her, she pulled into the drive and hurried to reach the house. Her headlights caught someone leading two horses toward the barn. The man looked over his shoulder toward her, and though she couldn’t tell for certain, she got the feeling it was Garrett’s dad.

A huge lump formed in her throat and she had to blink back tears. Her father had cost Mr. Brody his wife, the mother of his children. How in the world was she going to face him and not have the horrible truth be obvious in her expression?

Now is not the time. Now you focus on work, a hurt animal, nothing else.

Not even the tall, sexy and currently drenched man she saw beyond the one leading the horses. Even soaking wet and with her vision impaired by the rain battling with her windshield wipers, she knew it was Garrett standing next to a big bay, his hand slowly rubbing down the horse’s neck.

She shook her head as she parked then grabbed the emergency medical kit she kept with her at all times. She never knew when she might come upon an animal in need, whether it was livestock, pet or wildlife. She cared for all of their welfare equally.

Not taking time to retrieve her rain gear, she hopped out of the truck and crossed to where Garrett stood next to the beautiful animal.

“I didn’t know whether to move her,” he said without preamble. He nodded toward the barn. “We had a fire, but it’s out now.”

She stepped close to the mare, shushing her when she tried to sidestep away. Running her hand along the same stretch of neck that Garrett had moments earlier, she said, “There’s a good girl.” She examined the injury as best she could in the dim light. “Bring her inside, but carefully. Try not to let her move any more than she has to.”

Natalie led the way inside the barn, which smelled like a combination of hay, rain and smoke. She glanced up to where the back part of the building’s roof now sported a hole that would make the last two stalls unusable until repairs were made. Of course, one of those stalls also had damage of its own that had nothing to do with the roof damage. She had no doubt that the injured horse had been the one to splinter the wood on the front of the stall.

She pointed toward the smallest stall near the front of the barn. “Put her in there.”

“Won’t give you much room to work.”

“Also won’t give her room to kick me into next week.”

Natalie stayed clear until Garrett managed to get the animal into the stall. He did his best to soothe the mare, but she still didn’t go into the stall willingly.

“Be careful,” he said when Natalie stepped into the stall. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

She eased her hand along the horse’s side, gradually moving toward the spot where the sizable sliver of wood was protruding. “Try to keep her as calm as you can. Keep talking to her, draw her attention that direction.”

Natalie went into a familiar autopilot mode, opening her bag of veterinary supplies and prepping everything she’d need. When she was ready to remove the mother of all splinters, she caught Garrett’s eye across the mare’s back. “Get ready. I’m going to pull out our offender.”

Thankfully, the wood hadn’t gone too deep into the horse’s flesh, but that didn’t make much difference to the mare’s reaction when Natalie jerked it out. The animal threw her head back, showing her teeth, and sidestepped so suddenly that she slammed Natalie against the side of the stall.

“You okay?” Garrett sounded so concerned that the lump made a return appearance in her throat.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Deliberately not making eye contact with him, she went to work cleaning the wound, disinfecting and closing it up. “What’s this girl’s name anyway?”

“Penelope.”

“Interesting name for a horse.”

“Chloe named it after a character in one of her favorite movies.”

Before she could stop herself, she glanced toward Garrett and found him watching her. Even looking as if he’d been dumped in the lake, he still took her breath away. For a moment she forgot what she’d been about to say. It took forcing herself to break eye contact to get her brain functioning again. “The movie Penelope?”

“Yeah. She’s probably seen that movie a hundred times.”

“It’s a good one.” In fact, it was one of Natalie’s favorites, too. But instead of making her happy that she and her childhood friend still obviously had things in common, a heavy sadness welled up in her. She’d missed so much of Chloe’s life, so many adventures they might have had together if her father had simply not gotten in his car that night.

She shoved away that thought because she needed to concentrate on her task. When she finally finished, she caressed the side of Penelope’s face and scratched between her ears. “Good girl. You’ve had a rough night, huh?”

Seemingly calmer than she’d been since Natalie arrived, Penelope turned her head and nuzzled Natalie’s face.

“Well, wonders never cease.”

Natalie glanced toward the stall’s door and saw Garrett’s dad standing there with his forearms propped along the top of the door. Her heart ached in her chest. He looked so much older than she remembered. Even though that made perfect sense, the realization also made her sad.

When he looked at her and smiled, she had to fight tears.

“When Garrett told me you were in town and you were a vet, I couldn’t believe it.” He shook his head slowly. “You’re not that little girl I remember.”

She made herself smile back. “Not for a long time.”

“Lot’s changed since those days.” He nodded toward Penelope. “Looks like you could give Dr. Franklin a run for his money.”

“So he’s really still the vet here?”

“Yep.”

As she packed up her supplies, she couldn’t help a small smile, a real one this time. She had fond memories of Dr. Franklin, of helping out around his vet practice when her mom had volunteered there one day a week. Those hours spent watching him take care of sick animals had been what set her on the path to becoming a veterinarian herself.

She put the brakes on the trip down memory lane and slipped out of the stall, Garrett right behind her.

“After this night, we all need a big slice of pie,” Garrett’s dad said.

“That’s okay. I’ll just be going.” She needed to get away from the ranch, from the memories, from the way her pulse sped up every time she made eye contact with Garrett. Hell, every time she was within sight of him. It wasn’t helping that with his clothes plastered to his skin, she could see every well-defined muscle and wanted to skim her hands over them.

Mr. Brody patted her on the shoulder. “I insist. Someone has to save me from Linnea’s baking.”

She glanced at Garrett.

“Owen’s new wife,” he said. “She really likes to bake when she’s nervous.”

“And these last few days leading up to the wedding, she’s been going through sugar like we operate a sugar cane plantation instead of a cattle ranch.” Mr. Brody chuckled. “Not that I’m complaining.” He patted his middle. “But the girl is going to make me fat.”