by Natalie Dean
The Cowboy Falls for the Veterinarian
Miller Brothers of Texas Book Three
Natalie Dean
Kenzo Publishing
© Copyright 2020 by Kenzo Publishing - All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document by either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited, and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Dedication
I’d like to dedicate this book to YOU! The readers of my books. Without your interest in reading these heartwarming stories of love, I wouldn’t have made it this far. So thank you so much for taking the time to read any and hopefully all of my books.
And I can’t leave out my wonderful mother, son, sister, and Auntie. I love you all, and thank you for helping me make this happen.
Most of all, I thank God for blessing me on this endeavor.
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Epilogue
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About Author - Natalie Dean
1
Sterling
Sterling stood in one of the fields on his family’s expansive ranch. He double-checked the reading he had written down for the latest pH soil test in the purple-flag area. Good to go. This time, he hadn’t switched the nine to a six, like he was often wont to do. When he was satisfied that he had recorded it in his notebook correctly, he was tempted to just call it a day and head back to the manor. But then he remembered that Solomon and Frenchie were meeting with their wedding planner back at home. Staying right where he was in this patch of field suddenly seemed like a much better idea.
It wasn’t that he resented his older brother, he didn’t. If anyone deserved a sweet lady on his arm, it was Solomon. It was just that with his eldest two brothers engaged and his twin getting serious with Teddy, Sterling couldn’t help but feel a bit… outdone.
He shook his head, his dark hair moving about. He’d taken to growing it out, trying to separate himself a bit more from Silas, his twin brother, but the reactions were mixed. Most seemed not to notice at all, and his mother wanted him to cut it. But he just needed something. He felt like he was being left behind, permanently fixed in the shadows of his older brothers.
No one wanted to be the worse twin, but that was what Sterling was.
Unless he could conclude his experiment and potentially end up earning his family more money to add to their billions.
Alright, he was getting ahead of himself, but he was pleased with the information he was gathering so far. Sure, his brother Silas had really gotten into the manual labor aspect of the ranch and was always off fixing something, or learning this, or doing that, but those projects were mostly all for vanity’s sake. They had handymen, experts that could handle that. But what Sterling was doing? Well, that required a real expert.
…or a layman with a lot of time and money on his hands.
Because even though his family cycled their crops like they were supposed to, their output was middling at best. Sterling’s father never seemed to care much; after all, they were a ranch, not a farm, but Sterling knew that a boost of only a few percent could yield a healthy profit bump.
And that was what dear ol’ Dad was always going on about, right? Maximizing profits? There was only so much blood his family could squeeze out of a stone, but what if Sterling found a whole new stone entirely? A stone that they could build on.
Granted, that was if he could collect enough data to understand what was lackluster about their soil and finish concocting his own feed mix to replenish whatever that was. And if his feed worked, well then that too was another thing to package up and sell. It would be a two-pronged measure of success, and then he wouldn’t be sliding by anymore. Who knew, with the tension between Dad and Sterling’s older siblings, maybe he’d end up as the new favorite.
That would be something, wouldn’t it? Growing up, it hadn’t really mattered that Sterling had maintained a perfect 4.0 in all of his classes. It hadn’t mattered that he was one of the best swimmers, best shot-putters, and best wrestlers for his weight class. Oh sure, all of those things were expected of him, but they were just jewels on the crown. Because Sterling was doomed to be the fourth son in six, and there wasn’t much for him to do besides “not mess up” his family’s reputation or legacy.
“Well, at least I’m not Samuel,” he muttered to himself, tucking his notebook away in his leather satchel and moseying back to his truck. Poor Samuel had had the misfortune of being born a little too soft, a little too sweet. It was like the guy hadn’t inherited any of his father’s business-shark senses, and that left him out in the cold. The black sheep. Sterling was glad that his eldest brother was off making his own life on their aunt and uncle’s ranch. But running away wasn’t an option for Sterling.
Sterling was a lot of things, but a coward wasn’t one of them.
Besides, his timing couldn’t be much better considering Solomon and Dad were barely talking, and Silas was about to refuse to be a go-between for them anymore. All Sterling had to do was figure out his little experiment.
But considering he had already collected his samples for the day and checked his other reading spots, there wasn’t much left to do in his fields. Adjusting the strap of his satchel, he headed back towards where he had parked his truck.
He supposed he hadn’t thought that part through and had left his ride all the way back at the beginning of his strip of work, by the pigpens.
Sterling hated the pigpens.
First of all, they smelled terrible. Second of all, they were incredibly noisy. He wasn’t sure where he had ever gotten the idea that the creatures were relatively quiet, but they most definitely were not. Even remotely. Plus, there were always several workers monkeying around with things, and Sterling always felt like he was in the way.
They never said anything to him, of course, but he could feel it. No one wanted the owner’s son around while they were workshopping things. And they were definitely workshopping, since the pigs weren’t even close to one of the Miller’s staple crops. Apparently, there
were still all sorts of kinks that needed to be worked out with the animals. From pen configurations to feeding schedules and even their breeding program. Most of the time, Sterling’s eyes would just glaze over when the workers went into the things they needed to improve.
But as he walked past, he couldn’t help but notice one of the pigs standing right at the edge of the pen and staring at him. He gave her a little wave, and her head jerked up and down while she grunted.
“Is that so?” he asked her, pausing long enough for her to get in several more grunts. She was a big ol’ sow, with a healthy pink hide and bright eyes. The bright rainbow tag in her ear told him that she was Peggy—because Mom wasn’t always the most creative when it came to names—and if he recalled right, she had an attitude.
Almost as if she heard his thoughts, she let out another round of grunts and exclamations, really giving Sterling the what-have-you. He couldn’t help but chuckle, amused by her personality. He remembered reading once that pigs were incredibly intelligent, which was easier to believe with the way Peggy was looking at him.
“You know, none of the boy pigs are gonna wanna kiss you with that kinda mouth on you,” he teased, walking towards her. He’d seen some of the workers scratch under her chin before, so he wondered if she would allow him the honor.
He didn’t quite make it there, however, as his phone started to ring in his pocket. The only people who ever called him on his personal number were family members, so he answered without thinking about it.
“Hey Sterling, are you at the manor right now?”
He recognized the voice of his younger brother, Sal. Although many folks always thought he was older because of his sheer size. “Yeah. I’m out by the pens right now, just finished up in the fields. You need something?”
His brother sighed. “Yeah, I had this package that I meant to send to our PO box, but it accidentally got sent to our real address. Do you mind driving down to the main road to our mailbox and grabbing it?”
“What, shipping more contraband to our house?”
“You’re hilarious. If you must know, it’s custom hot sauce from Hawaii.”
“Why do you need custom hot sauce from Hawaii?”
“Um, do I interrogate you about your packages?”
“You know full well you would if I was asking you to pick it up.”
“Alright. Fair enough. But seriously, do you mind? You know how people like to drive by and mess with things.”
He did know. Their mailbox was all the way at the end of their drive, connected to the main road. It was big, almost like a safe, but it didn’t stop people from driving by and hitting it with baseball bats or dropping a firecracker inside. Nothing had happened in the last six months, but one never knew, so his family had taken to a more secure PO box in the city.
“Yeah, I’ll head home and grab the keys. I assume you’re calling me because it’s already been delivered and isn’t just on its way?”
“You got it.”
“Alright. I’ll see you later, brother.”
“Um yeah, maybe. I’m kinda dealing with something down in the southern edge of the business district right now.”
“Really? I haven’t heard of anything.”
“Just something on my own. Thanks again, brother. We’ll talk later.”
“Yeah, we will.”
Then the call ended. Sterling felt a lick of curiosity at what his younger brother could be up to, but in the end shrugged it off. Sal was salivating to be someone in the family even more than Sterling was, and if he was up to something, it was best to just wait and see what it was.
Besides, Sal was all muscle and insecurity, constantly pining after their father’s attention. Sterling wasn’t like that.
Not at all.
2
Elizabeth
Elizabeth was not having a great day.
In fact, one could almost say that she was having a no good, dirty-rotten, awful, very bad day.
She’d had no idea that it was going to be so terrible when she had woken up. If she had, she would have turned right around and crawled back into bed. But noooo, she’d gone out completely oblivious to all the awful that was waiting for her.
Only to promptly be let go from the veterinary practice she had been working at. Not as a vet, of course, but as an assistant veterinarian. She hadn’t been given a solid reason either, if only because they all knew the real reason, they were deciding to part ways.
Because the truth was, Elizabeth had a real issue of arguing with the vet about what was the best procedure to do or the best method of care.
But how could she not? The head of the practice was almost seventy years old and as stubborn as could be. One of those old, old-fashioned types who asked her why she didn’t want to get married and told her that she spoke “white.” He also kept using outdated procedures, which often caused the animals they were supposed to be helping to be in unnecessary pain or lengthen their healing time.
“Office politics,” she grumbled to herself, pressing the pedal to the metal perhaps a bit harder than she should have. But all she wanted to do was get home, draw herself a bath, and soak away some of her troubles. Maybe some chamomile bath salts? Or even eucalyptus? Elizabeth had never really been into makeup or beauty products, but she had always loved her bath enhancements.
Granted, she really couldn’t afford a ticket at the moment, so maybe slowing down would be her best bet. Her eyes slid over to her stack of mail that she had thrown into her front seat after hurrying into the city that morning, most of them being bills that were almost due or just past.
She hated how long her commute was. An hour and forty minutes between the city and the small town she lived in was going to kill her car, but it was one of the only places she could find a job. Apparently, most of the vet practices in the area were family affairs, employing children, nieces, and nephews. They didn’t want a freshly graduated student who they didn’t know from Adam.
She just needed some time to save up. To get out from under the student loans that were crushing her and catch up on her other bills. Namely her phone. She couldn’t let that get shut off.
Except… now she had no job. She was unemployed. Sure, she could maybe collect a little unemployment, but she was sure her former bosses would fight her on it.
Ugh.
It felt like everything was mounting up on her, and no matter how hard she tried to be responsible, she was always a step behind.
It wouldn’t do her any good to work herself into a frenzy while she was stuck on her long commute. She needed to take a deep breath, calm down, and let herself focus on the things that she could fix at the moment.
Her hand went to the radio, her MP3 player already plugged into the aux cord. She’d had the thing since high school, and it’d certainly gotten her through plenty of awful times. But just when she was about to hit play on the thing, a sputtering sound caught her attention, quickly growing in volume until her car was suddenly slowing down.
“Oh no,” she groaned to herself, her blood running cold. “No, no, no, this cannot be happening!”
Oh, but it was. Her car continued rumbling, continued slowing, and she barely managed to pull it over to the side of the road before it stopped entirely, smoke billowing from under its hood.
“Not good,” she said, shaking her head.
She wanted to say more. Oh, she wanted to say a whole lot more, but that wouldn’t get her anywhere either. She needed to gather the facts of her situation and figure out what to do. She could worry about the peripherals later.
Well, at least she had friends with cars. Reaching for her purse in the backseat, she pulled out her cell phone. Only to remember that it had died back when she had been talking to a college friend, Tyra, after being let go. And it had died because her car charger had stopped working that morning.
Yeah, definitely a horrible day.
Well, she wasn’t helpless. It was still early in the morning and she hadn’t been driving for long, so it
was probably just a few hours’ walk back to the city. Once she got there, she could get her phone charged and arrange for a tow from someone.
And maybe she would luck out, run into someone before then. It was unlikely, but if not, she’d get some good cardio in.
“Alright, you’ve been through worse. This is just another inconvenience, not a tragedy.” Besides, it was going to make her bath really nice.
Elizabeth went to her trunk, grabbing her sunscreen, a water bottle and an emergency flare. As a vet, she always taught herself to be prepared just in case. She’d heard horror stories of people being stranded or lost and not making it because of a lack of supplies, so she wasn’t going to let that happen to her.
Still, even though she told herself to focus on the doable and ignore everything else, she couldn’t help but grumble to herself as she started to hoof it down the road. At least she was wearing comfortable shoes, considering she’d been planning for a ten-hour shift of helping animals, and her sunscreen was a wonderful mix of coconut and that special smell that could only be described as “summer.”
“Just think of it as a workout. This is like… a free gym class that you normally would have had to pay a guest fee for.”
That almost worked, but not quite. On second thought, she headed back to the front of her car, grabbed her MP3 player and headphones, then locked everything up so she could head off.
