The Doctor's Cowboy

“And a rodeo cowboy should have a lot harder time with it?”

She set the book down on the table and crossed her arms. “That is not what I meant at all. For all I know, there are Mensa members who ride bucking horses and chess champions who do tie-down roping. I think lots of people have hidden talents.”

“What’s yours?” He appeared to be having a hard time hiding a mischievous grin.

“I’ll have you know that I’m the family Scrabble champ and have been since I was twelve.”

“Yeah? Maybe you should broaden your competition.”

“Is that a challenge, Mr. Kelley?”

“Only if you’re willing to accept it, Dr. Brody.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to do everything you’re told so you can get better and we can have a Scrabble duel before you leave.” She took a step back from the side of Wyatt’s bed. “And speaking of leaving, I really am going home this time.”

“If you’re bored on your days off, you know where I’ll be.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

When she stepped out of the room, she nearly collided with Sophie, who was wearing a too-happy smile. “Dr. Brody.”

Chloe did her best not to utter an “oh, crap” at how loaded those two words from Sophie’s mouth were. She remembered their earlier conversation about the matchmaking pool and wondered if she’d just opened herself up to a full-on assault by Verona Charles and her determination to make sure everyone in Blue Falls got paired up to live happily ever after.

Perhaps the bigger danger was how much a part of Chloe liked that idea.

Chapter Four (#ulink_9c0e2c32-a15e-5ed3-a312-921585e1a4bd)

Chloe paused in slicing potatoes when she heard a text ping her phone. She activated the touch screen to see it was from Linnea. When she opened the message, it was a photo of the back of Linnea’s wedding gown. The confection of satin, lace and pearl buttons looked as if it were out of a fairy tale. But that was to be expected. Linnea owned one of the nicest bridal stores in Dallas, and she’d snagged herself a prince. Well, not literally a prince, but Michael Benson could certainly treat Linnea like a princess. He was a handsome financial executive who made a good deal of money, and had captured Linnea’s heart in record time.

A sigh escaped Chloe as she stared at the dress. She was thrilled for her best friend, but she wondered if she’d ever find someone who made her feel the way Michael made Linnea feel.

Her thoughts drifted to Wyatt Kelley, probably because he seemed to be the only guy on her radar at the moment. Maybe if Wyatt were local, she’d consider seeing if their conversations would lead to something else. She was normally pretty grounded and sensible, but for some reason she had to keep reminding herself that Wyatt would be gone in a matter of days. Besides, there was nothing between them other than some teasing and a few minutes spent together here and there.

“You okay, sis?”

Chloe closed the message on her phone before looking over her shoulder at Garrett. “Yeah. Why?”

“Because you’ve been staring at your phone for over a minute.”

Surely it hadn’t been that long. Had it? “Linnea just sent a text about her wedding dress.”

Garrett walked up to the kitchen sink, turned on the water and proceeded to wash his hands. “Hope she has unlimited texting the way she’s sending you photos almost faster than you can open them.”

“Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

“Maybe, but I guarantee you Michael isn’t sending photos of his tux and shoes and whatever else to his best man.”

She bumped his shoulder with her own. “Just because guys are simplistic creatures doesn’t mean we have to be.”

Garrett turned around and leaned back against the sink. “So you’re telling me that when you get engaged, you’re going to send Linnea fifty photos a day of every little detail?”

There it was, that crazy reference to her getting married again. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll send them to you and Owen, too.”

Garrett snorted then headed toward the front door. “Need anything from town?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Well, except for the memory of Wyatt from her dream springing into her head.

When Garrett was gone, she went back to slicing potatoes. It was a good thing she had a couple of days off, ones where she could immerse herself in tasks around the ranch and let the strange pull toward Wyatt fade. Part of her felt bad that he’d likely be bored crazy without anyone to visit him, but it wasn’t her responsibility to keep him entertained. She’d already done more for him outside her professional duties than any other doctor likely would.

Still, as she went through the day cleaning the house, doing laundry and putting fresh hay in the horses’ stalls out in the barn, her thoughts kept straying back to Wyatt. She actually had to fight the urge to drive into town to see him. Visiting him on days she worked and was already at the clinic or hospital was one thing, but how could she explain visiting someone she barely knew on her day off? And if Sophie and the other nurses had their way, Chloe would be in the town Cupid’s matchmaking crosshairs. And just because Verona had gotten it right before with people whose other halves were supposed to just be passing through Blue Falls didn’t mean that would be the case with Chloe.

Once she put the potatoes in the oven, she went out to the front porch to feed Roscoe and Cletus, the family’s two basset hounds. As soon as she stepped through the doorway with the scoop of food in hand, the dogs hopped up from where they were dozing at the edge of the porch and trotted over to their matching bowls, their long ears swaying.

“Hey, fellas,” she said as she scratched first Roscoe between the ears then Cletus. She laughed when they ignored her, their minds focused on dinner. Letting them chomp away, she went to sit at the top of the porch steps.

She watched as a hawk soared high above the pasture beyond the barn. The sound of horse hooves drew her attention back to ground level. Owen and her dad rode toward the barn from the south, what they all referred to as the back of the ranch. They’d been out checking the fence line after hearing about another strike on a nearby ranch by pranksters who for some reason thought it was great fun to cut ranchers’ barbed-wire fences, allowing their cattle to escape. What they either didn’t realize, or didn’t care about, was that their vandalism was dangerous. A cow could get hurt or, worse, someone might hit them with a car and be injured or killed.

When her dad and brother dismounted, Owen took the reins of both horses and led them toward the barn. Her dad turned toward the house.

“Find any breaks in the fencing?” she asked when he came close enough to hear her.

“For now, everything is fine. Until they catch these bastards, we’re going to have to keep a close eye on the whole spread.”

“I saw Simon Teague in town yesterday,” she said, speaking of the local sheriff. “He said they had something similar happen up in Runnels County a few months ago. He’s been talking with the sheriff up there, but they never caught the people.”

Her father shook his head. “If they were stealing the cattle, it would almost make sense. But this is just pure meanness.”

“Simon said they’re doing all the extra patrols they can.”

“But there’s no way he can be everywhere at once, not with what few men he has at his disposal.”

“Maybe they’ll get lucky.”

Her dad grunted as if he weren’t holding out much hope for that. After a moment, he seemed to set aside worries of the fence cutters and looked at her. “Hear you’ve made a new friend in that bull rider laid up at the hospital.”

Well, hell. She guessed it was too much to hope that word wouldn’t get out about her spending extra time with Wyatt. She shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Sort of stinks for him to be stuck in a hospital bed with no family or friends to keep him company. Doesn’t even have a roommate at the moment.”

A sad little smile stretched her dad’s mouth. “You’re so like your mother, lending aid and comfort to anyone who needs it.”

“It’s my job.”

“It’s more than that, always has been since you were a little girl befriending every kid at school who didn’t have friends.” He paused for a moment. “I wish your mom could see what a good woman you’ve grown up to be.”

Chloe pressed her lips together and blinked a couple of times against sudden tears. One would think that after all this time, talking about her mom wouldn’t make her want to cry. But at times, it felt as if she’d just talked to her mom, been held in her arms, only the day before.

Perhaps sensing how close her emotions were to the surface, maybe even feeling choked up himself, her dad climbed the steps beside her, patting her on the shoulder as he passed by.

Roscoe padded over and flopped down beside her, resting his head on her leg as if he knew she needed some comfort. She ran her hand over his head and down his back. He looked up at her with those big brown eyes, and her heart went gooey soft with love. Roscoe might be a dog, but he and Cletus were a part of the family.