Chloe's Secret (9 page)

Chapter 14

Colton wanted to kick himself for taking her that way with the current weather. He couldn’t have anticipated the cows, but a road like that gets slick in a rain from all the oils, and she was too new to know that. He could have killed her. Thank God she reacted quickly and had paid attention in the classes.

He guessed he was still a little revved from the kisses at the bar and not thinking straight. He had been proud of the way she avoided a wreck, and if it hadn’t been for the cow, she’d probably have controlled it until stopped. Still, she did the only thing possible; she laid the bike down and rolled.

He was pretty sure he had been shaking more than her when he came up and looked into those marble-sized eyes. After he was certain she was okay and the animal wasn’t going to keel over, it all sank in. Her bike was mangled and not drivable, her hands weren’t shredded but definitely in bad shape. Her eyes teared up and, as much as she tried to contain it, the tears flowed. The only plus seemed to be the cow. It had a black mark on its side, but after running a few yards, had bent it’s head to graze and promptly ignored them.

Tess seemed more upset about the motorcycle than her own injuries, blubbering something about “it’s all he wanted” and “I shouldn’t have tried.” He assumed that meant shouldn’t have tried to ride, and while she punished herself, he accepted the blame instead. His head had still been spinning from their make-out scene in the bar when he topped the hill and it had been a struggle for him to stop. He didn’t have time to warn her before she came flying up behind him.

The doctor at the clinic was handling a critical case, so she had to wait. Rather than waste time sitting in an awkward guilt-ridden silence, Colton walked across the street to the hospital and stopped in on Grams.

“Hey, you’re awake.” He smiled, trying not to show his stress from the accident.

“Barely. I don’t know what they’re filling that I.V. with, but it’s strong stuff.” Mona touched his cheek, a light feathery sign of affection. “You okay, sweetie? You look like you’ve been through hell.”

“Fine, Grams.” Should he tell her he nearly killed her favorite redheaded customer?

“They still won’t let me go home. Complications with my colon or something.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“No kidding, I get to have a colonoscopy tomorrow. Gee, what a treat. Wanna take my place for that and I’ll fill in for you with Goliad?”

Colton laughed and held up his hands. “No way. That’s one party you can go to on your own, but I’ll stop by and check on you tomorrow night.”

It wasn’t a good time to tell her about Dad taking over the carriage stand, she’d likely not approve. Of that or the wreck. What a screw-up he’d become.

They chatted about weather and television shows for a few minutes, then he excused himself to let her drift back into a drug-induced slumber. When he walked out the door to cross toward the clinic, he stopped for a minute.

Tess sat on a bench by the door, her hands bound in white gauze, her face splotchy and hair tussled everywhere. She was drop dead gorgeous. He really didn’t like the gnawing feeling that realization brought on.

He plopped beside her on the bench. “Well, I’ve dragged you through the rain, then a herd of cattle, and now the hospital. Where next, Lucky Bird?”

Sheer exhaustion shadowed her features and he wondered if she felt similar to the days when he had emergencies in his clinic that lasted through the night. Something inside him told him to tread carefully, but he ignored it. He slid her back into him, placed both palms against her shoulders, and kneaded against the knots that had accumulated.

“You’re tired,” he said and registered her nod in agreement. When she closed her eyes and leaned her head back, he smelled the shampoo that hinted at cucumbers even after all the rain. The anger she so often held onto had disappeared, but the knots showed how strongly it had ingrained. “How about home?”

She nodded and let out a very soft groan.

“I’ll be right back.”

She was almost asleep when he loaded her into his pickup, which he’d retrieved from the clinic two blocks away. Whatever pain meds she’d been given, she and Grams were both in la-la land. He had no choice but to take her home. His home. Well, technically it was Grams’ place, but he’d been there since she went into the hospital.

The horses needed someone close by.

Chapter 15

“There’s a woman passed out on the couch,” James Scott said nonchalantly the following morning as he pulled the milk from the fridge and doused the bowl of cereal he’d poured.

Colton started at his presence, expecting the house to be empty, or at least almost empty. “Where’d you come from?”

“The barn. I loaded Goliath into the trailer, but Bullwhip didn’t like it much. I’m headed downtown. You need anything?”

“You don’t have to do that, Dad.”

“Someone has to.”

“Yeah, me. This isn’t your thing.” It irritated him that his father had waltzed back into the family heritage as if he’d been there all along. Grams wouldn’t like it.

“Well, seems to me that’s
your thing
.” He hooked a thumb toward the couch in the other room. “Just might need some tending to. I’d be happy to take over for you if you’d rather handle the carriage, but somehow I doubt you’d stand a chance if I did.”

“Yeah, seeing as how you’re so charming and everything.” Colton was only half sarcastic, remembering that she did say she liked his Dad.

“What’d you do to her hands?”

“She laid her motorcycle down.”

For some reason, his dad found that funny. He snickered, “Well, that’ll teach her to take lessons from you.”

Colton picked up the pile of blankets on the counter and tossed them at him. “Get going if you’re going to, smartass.”

When the door slammed behind his dad, Colton turned to clean the cereal bowl he’d knocked over. She was already there, sopping it with a napkin . . . and her bandages.

“Hey.” She yawned. “You kidnapped me.”

“I didn’t have a choice. You were passed out and your house keys were nowhere to be found.”

“Hmmm. So, this is where the horses stay?” She watched the trailer creep from the fenced lot.

“Uh-huh.” The scrubs they’d put on her at the hospital had fallen low on her hips and she’d donned her sweater, which she obviously found folded by the bed. His bed. Or at least the one he’d used as a kid. Staring at the skin exposed between the two pieces of clothing was hard to avoid. He exhaled a sharp curse seeing the giant bruise on her hip.

“Wow.” She rubbed it in disbelief.

“Must have been your phone. They found it in your pocket. It was obliterated, came out in pieces.”

“Well, I hope no one tried to call me.”

“Not much you can do about it. You hungry or should I just take you home?” He realized he was still staring at the bruise, or actually at the skin adjacent to it. Smooth, soft skin he wanted to touch. Needed to touch.

“You’re nice, Colton,” she said.

“No, I’m not.” He knew where she was going and it was wrong. He wasn’t nice, and the thoughts he had at the moment proved it. They included pulling her out of that sweater and scrubs and doing things she likely wouldn’t want him to.

“You are. I wish I didn’t have to lie to you.” She turned and left the room. Huh?

When he caught up to her, she had already put her shoes on and was headed toward his truck. He followed.

“Lie about what?”

“I tried to tell you but, well, you just wouldn’t listen.”

“You mean about Grams?” Was she still loaded on meds? She didn’t acknowledge.

“Just remember, I tried to tell you.”

He drove her home. She jumped out of the truck before he had rolled to a stop, pressed the door shut, and leaned through the window.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Colton. And thanks. Really.”

She walked toward the man waiting on her steps. Waiting for her. The man who cursed loudly when he saw her hands. He obviously didn’t appreciate Colton returning her with bandages and bruises.

Chapter 16

The following day, Colton’s workload started with a series of emergencies and went downhill from there. Two dogs that tangled with cars and a cat which likely wouldn’t make it through the day had to fit in among his regular appointments. Those were always sad, fortunately he’d also had a cute litter of puppies to check, and a call to deliver a foal. Still, it wore heavily.

When Abby popped in with her latest rescue he was already tired, and it wasn’t even noon. He dropped the prescriptions on the reception desk for one of the accident dogs that he patched up. She ran a hand up the back of his scrub shirt and dug into the tenseness of his neck. It startled him. He narrowed his eyes and slid a glance over his shoulder.

It was at that moment, the guy from Tess’ front step walked into his clinic. He took stock of the woman rubbing Colton’s back and frowned.

“You want to tell me how Tess ended up with those bandages on her hands and my dad’s bike in a heap of dents? What kind of instructor are you?”

“Excuse me?”
His dad?

“You heard me.”

Abby, obviously enjoying the scene, leaned against the counter and planted her arm against him. Colton wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed at her invasion of his personal space or at the misconception of the man that walked in.

“You’re Tess’ brother?”

“That’s right. And I won’t stand by and have her kill herself just to fill some sort of obligation to our dad. Or let you help her do it.” The man looked Abby up and down, and flicked his gaze back to Colton.

“She just has a little road rash.” Behind the man, his next appointment entered. A spaying.

“She said she hit a cow.”

Abby apparently thought that was funny. Both men scowled when she giggled, and she sobered up quickly.

Colton strode toward the man, held out a hand, and introduced himself—hoping to get a name that would go with the face. Tanner Richmond had the same angry eyes, more angry now than hers normally were. He had a ruddier color to his hair and skin, though. Colton assumed he spent a lot of time outdoors.

His assistant cleared her throat to remind him that he had a tight schedule and it was already backed up.

“I have to get back to work. You want to talk, come back at noon and we’ll do it over lunch.”

“She’s not as tough as she pretends to be,” Tanner said. Colton assumed he meant Tess.

“And she’s not as fragile as you seem to think either.” Colton turned and trudged down the hall to his waiting client.

“Is he always like that?” Colton heard Tanner ask Abby before the door closed behind him.

When he made it back into the reception area at noon, the guy was gone and so was Abby. His receptionist had rescheduled her to accommodate the busy day and the holiday. They had agreed to try to shut the clinic down by two. He skipped lunch and attended to one of the accident victims.

When he pulled his keys from his pocket at two-thirty and headed out the back door to his truck, his mind was focused only on getting to the carriage stand. The holidays were a busy time and there was always a stream of visitors that wanted to see the city by carriage.

He stopped in his tracks at the sight of Tanner leaned against his truck, waiting. “You have a lot of customers.” He rose from the vehicle and slipped his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Young female customers.”

“Not really.” Colton nodded at Garrett Porter, the elderly gentleman carrying his Pomeranian to a car at the front of their building. They observed his assistant locking the door and leaving as well.

“And staff.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m not
saying
anything, just making an observation. Guess being a vet’s pretty good for the social life.”

That was a joke, considering he had virtually no social life at all. Colton had no idea what Tanner wanted, but he assumed it wasn’t good. Why else would he basically plant himself at the clinic and wait?

“So what do you want from me? An apology? I’m sorry I took Tess riding on that road yesterday. If I had known some farmer would be moving his cattle, we’d have gone a different way. And if I’d known that a twenty percent chance of rain meant we were going to have a two hour downpour, we wouldn’t have gone at all.”

“It rained on you, too?” Tanner cursed and his eyes, so much like hers, flared.

“Yes, but you have to know. She was going any way. By herself. She’d already planned it and the only reason I was with her, was—.” He stopped because he didn’t know the reason. Maybe his Dad said to go? Because he thought he was invited? He’d never felt obligated to accept an invitation so that wasn’t necessarily the case.

“I know why you were there.”

Colton offered Tess’ explanation. “One of the things I teach my students is never ride alone.”

Apparently that made her brother laugh, just before he glared at Colton again.

“What else do you teach them? Seems to me between the vet clinic and motorcycle gig, you have a busy life.”

He had no idea.

“It must be exhausting to keep up with.”

“Yeah well, I think I see where this is going. You know you two are a lot alike.” Colton opened the door of his truck and slipped behind the wheel.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Angry.” Colton closed the door and left.