The Heart of a Cowboy

His dad didn’t have to be told to go call Dr. Franklin. He just headed for the house once he saw Garrett had Penelope under control.

With another roll of thunder, the heavens finally turned on the spigot and rain started falling harder. It took less than a minute for Garrett’s clothes to be soaked through, but he didn’t move.

His dad stalked back across the yard. “Doc Franklin is out of town, so I put a call in to Dr. Smith over in Fredericksburg. But his answering service said he’s out on another call. We’re next up.”

The way Penelope was bleeding and breathing hard, they needed help sooner. He glanced back over his shoulder but didn’t see flames anymore. Thank God for that. He returned his attention to his dad.

“Watch her. I’ve got an idea.”

He raced into the house and grabbed the phone. Since he’d been at the Wildflower Inn earlier and didn’t think Natalie was staying there, he called the next best guess for where she was staying.

“Country Vista Inn,” a female voice answered.

“Natalie Todd’s room, please.”

When the person on the other end of the line didn’t come back with a “There’s no one staying here by that name,” instead connecting him with a room, he almost breathed a sigh of relief. But when the phone rang several times with no answer, he started pacing and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Come on, pick up.”

As if she heard him, Natalie’s sleepy voice said, “Hello?”

Despite all the potential catastrophes currently in play, for a moment he stood there imagining her in bed, that blond hair rumpled, her feminine curves clothed in something soft and barely there.

Good grief, he needed to get laid.

“Natalie, it’s Garrett Brody. Sorry to wake you, but I need your help.”

She didn’t immediately respond, and for a moment he wondered if she’d fallen back asleep.

“My help?”

“You’re a vet, and I have a badly injured horse.”

“Doesn’t Blue Falls have a vet?”

“Dr. Franklin is out of town, and the backup from Fredericksburg is already on another call. And Chloe’s horse has a big piece of wood piercing her side.”

He heard movement on the other end of the call and imagined her swinging her legs over the edge of the bed.

“Please tell me you’re like Dr. Franklin and pack medical supplies with you wherever you go,” he said.

“I do,” Natalie said through a yawn. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Thank goodness for small miracles. He headed back outside to tell his dad the news, determined not to imagine Natalie arriving in her skimpy sleepwear and bed-tousled hair. Damn if he didn’t get a raging hard-on at that image. This time, he was thankful to be doused by the cold rain.

Chapter Four (#u40f6a817-cc1d-5613-9691-0f7aea5d8477)

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.”