He caught her, lifted her, and turned.
"Kelsey." Matt scooped her out of Dan's arms. His face was almost as white as his wife's had been, his eyes wide. "What should I do?"
Nate had seen the whole thing and joined them. "Want me to call an ambulance?"
"I don’t—" Matt muttered.
"The doctor's here," Dan blurted.
Both Matt and Nate turned identical hard looks on him, and he almost wished he'd kept his mouth closed.
But he liked Kelsey. She didn't treat him like dirt.
"I saw her in the stands."
"Go get her," Matt ordered as he strode off toward the ranch house, his wife in his arms.
Something had happened, over by the chute where all the huge, scary animals kept coming from. A fight? Or something else? She'd seen Dan go up and over the metal chute in a move that would've been beautiful if she hadn't known about his injury.
The rodeo stalled out for several moments, and then Megan was shocked when a shrill whistle came from behind her.
Julianne nudged her. "Look."
Megan glanced over the railing behind them, down the dizzying one-story height, to see Dan there.
"Come down," he called. "We need your help."
What was going on?
Adrenaline pumping, she grabbed Julianne's sweaty hand. "Come on," she told Brady.
He grunted, looked like he wanted to refuse, but followed them down the bleachers. Their shoes clanged against the metal, rattling her. Dan met them at the bottom step, another good-looking cowboy behind him.
Dan was out of breath.
"Did you tear your stitches?" she blurted. She shouldn't have. HIPAA protected what he'd revealed in her office, but seeing so many kids and adults doing dangerous stunts in the arena had her on edge. And she'd seen him jump.
And her mouth just ran away with her.
"What? No."
The man behind him scowled. "What stitches?"
Dan ignored him, his focus on Megan. "My boss's wife just collapsed. She's pregnant. Can you come help her?"
Megan felt herself slip into physician mode. "Where?" Then, "I need my bag."
"I can get it for you." Dan almost looked surprised at his own offer. Was that a blush rising in his face? The arena lights and the shadows where they stood beside the bleachers made it hard to tell. She wished she had time to try and make sense of his reaction.
"Want to come with me? Show me your... car?" He addressed Brady, stumbling over the words a bit, as if he'd been going to say mom again but thought better of it.
The cowboy behind him muttered something under his breath. Dan must've heard it. His jaw went rigid, but he didn't say anything else.
"Sure. Okay." She dug in her hip pocket for the keys. "Remember where we parked?" she asked Brady.
He gave her a look only a pre-teen boy could pull off. "Duh."
She kept Julianne's hand. Couldn't help looking over her shoulder as she followed the unnamed cowboy toward a two-story ranch house set away from all the rodeo commotion.
Dan and Brady disappeared into the parking area. The man's shoulders were set and tense.
"I'm Nate. I run the Triple H," the cowboy barked, drawing her attention back. "You the new doc in town?"
"Megan Fuller." She was huffing as she tried to keep up with his long strides, Julianne practically running beside her. "This is my niece Julianne. And my nephew Brady went—"
"With Dan," Nate said flatly. "You wanna tell me about these stitches he has?"
"I can't," she said. "Patient privacy laws. I shouldn't have even mentioned... what I mentioned."
He nodded, the set of his face hard.
And then they reached the yard. The two-story house rose out of the shadows above them. It was lovely, an older-style farmhouse with the kind of wrap-around porch that invited you to sit and stay a while. Lights blazed from all the first-floor windows.
"C'mon in.” The cowboy strode up the steps and across the porch. He pushed open the door. “It’s me with the doc.”
Megan tried to shake off her awareness of the tension that had flowed between the two cowboys. Even though curiosity stabbed her like an out-of-control scalpel. She didn’t have time for curiosity. She had a patient inside.
Chapter 3
Nearly forty-five minutes later, Megan scrubbed her hands in the small half-bathroom.
The cold water was a shock to her system.
Who was the woman in the mirror? Wisps of hair had escaped the clasp at the back of her neck and framed her face. Her cheeks were flushed, probably from the exertion of hustling across the fields to the ranch house. Maybe from seeing Dan again. Her eyes were even sparkling a little, something she hadn't seen in the mirror since Emma's death.
Enough of that. Single moms didn't have time to gawk at themselves in the mirror. Time to gather up the kids and head home.
She couldn't help glancing around as she left the bathroom. Earlier, she'd been too concerned about Kelsey to care about her surroundings.
The Triple H ranch must do well for itself. The house was furnished just the way she would've done it. Warm and homey. Family pictures everywhere, including photos of a princess—Matt Hale's sister-in-law. Books scattered everywhere.
Why did the ranch house feel like home so effortlessly, when Megan had spent countless hours trying to transform the bungalow in town to a place where Julianne and Brady would feel comfortable? She didn't have the touch, apparently. Or maybe it was her they didn't feel at home with.
Kelsey had claimed the books as hers. She'd still been explaining her pre-eclampsia diagnosis when Dan and Brady had appeared, the boy clutching Megan's black medical bag to his middle.
Matt Hale had shown Brady to the office, where Julianne was already watching TV. Dan had disappeared, but Megan couldn't forget the concern in his eyes. Kelsey mattered to him. Were they related? Friends?
By the time she'd taken Kelsey's vitals and found the baby's heartbeat the old school way—by stethoscope—the pregnant woman had stabilized. Her blood pressure had been slightly up, but they'd called Kelsey's obstetrician on speakerphone, and the consensus was that a late-night visit to the ER would do more harm than good. Kelsey had promised to come in for an office visit first thing Monday morning.
Megan had excused herself to wash up, unable to block out Matt Hale's quiet dressing down of his wife.
Megan only hoped the woman would listen. Pre-eclampsia was nothing to joke about. It was dangerous for both mom and baby, and even though bed rest had to be difficult for someone as active as Kelsey—a runner and former Olympic champion—it was necessary.
Not wanting to interrupt, Megan exited the bathroom and tiptoed down the hall. Lights flickered, and flat noise came from under a door midway down the hall. Must be the office.
But only Julianne was inside, her eyes glued to the cartoon characters on the screen.
"Where's Brady?" Megan glanced back down the hall, but she hadn't passed him, and no lights had been on in other rooms.
Julianne's eyes went to the floor.
"Where is he?" Megan's heart started thundering against her breastbone. She'd set the rules for a reason.
"He really wanted to watch the rest of the rodeo," Julianne said in a small voice.
Panic spiked. There were so many things that could happen to a little boy by himself.
"Come with me right now." Megan knew her voice was betraying her anxiety.
Megan grabbed the girl's arm as they hit the back porch. The fields were dark for nearly a quarter of a mile until the arena lights flooded the action over there. So many places a boy could stumble and fall. Sprain his ankle. Get lost.
"The next time your brother does something stupid, you come and get me," she muttered.
Julianne's voice was still tiny. "But you said not to interrupt you."
She had said that. It hadn't even crossed her mind that Brady would leave the house. He didn't even know anybody here.
What was he thinking?
Dan had beat feet back to the rodeo. Not because he didn't want to be around Megan, but he knew Nate expected him back. Though there were plenty of cowboys around, this rodeo was the Triple H's responsibility.
One of the stock contractors had relieved him when the bronc busting started. The men were particular about their stock—with good reason, the rodeo association had rules to protect the animals—and wanted to ensure their expensive stock got into the arena all right.
Nate wasn't around to give him another job, and it'd gotten dark and crowded enough that Dan could hang around the shadowed side of the arena without causing a ruckus. He tried to relax into the feel of the metal railing beneath his hands. Loosen up his neck and gaze at the sky between competitors. The stars were out.
The aura surrounding the arena had changed. With the kids' competitions out of the way, the adult riders were all business. Even the crowd's cheers had changed, louder and more raucous as the night wore on.
He'd loved the roping competition when he'd been sixteen. Had thought it was going to be his winning ticket out of Taylor Hills.
Until Jimmy ditched him.
He still liked watching the cowboys working in pairs. Could still remember the feel of the lasso, stiff in his palm, sailing out over his head. The high of winning.
He still hadn't shaken the uber-awareness of his surroundings that his time in prison had instilled in him. If someone accidentally brushed against him, he jumped a mile.
Which meant he caught the slight movements to his right as a kid-sized body sidled up to the arena fence.
Dan squinted into the shadows. Brady. The doc's... sort-of kid.
He'd been quiet when they'd fetched the doc's bag from probably the only sedan on the property earlier. It'd been as out of place as the doc in her slacks with her hair up behind her head.
It went to show how small Dan's world had become. Sequestered on the ranch all the time. By his own choice.
He didn't have enough distractions. He'd thought of little besides the pretty doctor since he’d seen her both in her office and at the gas station. That glimpse of pain that had crossed her features... it had hit some kind of old-fashioned dinner triangle inside him. He still felt the echo of it.
And now the kid had snuck out here. Dan didn't have to do much guesswork to figure out why the kid was hiding in the darkest shadows.
Dan's senses tingled again, and he turned his head the other direction. Miles, Nate's boy, sidled up on his opposite side.
"Hey," Miles greeted him.
"Nice ride," Dan said.
Miles was the other person, besides Kelsey, who didn't seem to hold Dan's crimes against him. Maybe because the two of them hadn't known Dan before. Nate and his wife Kayla had adopted the boy just last year, the paperwork coming through just about the same time their baby girl had been born.
"My rope slipped," Miles said. "I lost a good half second for our team."
Movement from his other side. Brady was edging closer. Was the boy trying to listen to their conversation?
Dan turned to look at him. "You met Miles O'Malley yet?"
Brady's eyes caught a reflection from some light behind Dan, shining and about the only thing he could see of the boy in the shadows.
His eyes narrowed. He seemed unsure whether to run off or join the conversation.
Apparently Miles rated high, because Brady stepped into the light. "That was you riding? And roping?"
Miles smiled. You'd never know the kid had been an orphan before. He had an easy manner, helped in his mom's dog rescue. Loved to talk maybe more than he loved dogs.
"Yeah, that was me. What's your name? You new in town?"
"We just moved here. I'm Brady."
The boys knocked fists. They were probably two years apart. Miles was older. Brady could do a lot worse for friends.
"How'd you learn how to do that stuff?" Brady almost bounced in excitement.
"My dad taught me to ride." The pride in Miles's voice was easy to hear.
And Dan couldn't help the pinch in his gut. Nate was a good dad. Had been a good friend, until Dan had thrown everything away. That itch between his shoulder blades started in bad.
Miles's gaze slide to Dan. "I think Scottie is going to quit, though. He wants to play football, and his dad said he couldn't rodeo and play sports."
"Bummer," Dan said.
There was a beat of quiet. The bell rang, and two adult riders flew out of the gate on their horses, making quick work of roping and tying off a steer.
Dan heard the intake of air from Brady. And then the quiet, "Do you think I could learn how to do that?"
"Sure, you could," Miles was quick to insert.
But Dan knew better than to assume. "If your mom… I mean the doctor… if the doctor agrees, there's lots of places around here that give riding lessons."
Brady locked his eyes on the action in the arena. His shoulders drooped.
"She's not my mom," he muttered. "She's my aunt. My parents died."
Oh. Poor kid.
Miles moved around Dan to stand next to Brady and put his hand on the other boy's shoulder. "I'm sorry. My parents are gone, too."
The boy's compassion put a hot knot in Dan's throat. Adults could take notes from a kid like this, a kid with a good heart.
Then a strident voice rose above the rodeo noise. "Brady!"
Dan raised a brow at the kid, whose expression showed a mix of guilt and anger.
When Dan caught sight of the doctor, she looked frazzled and stressed. Her hair had completely escaped the knot, and her face was pale.
He raised his hand in a wave. When her eyes locked on him, he pointed down at his side.
Relief crossed her expressive face, but by the time she'd navigated through the crowd to them, she only looked stern. She had the little girl in tow.
"Brady! What was rule number one?"
She didn't reach out and hug him like Dan might've expected.
And the boy's shoulders tensed up immediately. He didn't answer her, just stuck his chin out toward the arena, jaw set.
Miles watched curiously.
He could almost see the doctor rallying her patience. "Brady, rule one."
Brady gritted his teeth stubbornly, still staring at the arena.
"You were supposed to stay with your sister," the doctor said. "It's not safe."
"It's all good folks here," Dan said, trying to reassure her.
She cut him an angry look. "That's not the point. What if one of those huge bulls had gotten out? He could've been trampled."
Okay, so she'd gone from a little worried to the sky is falling. There's no way the stock contractors or the ranch hands would let that happen. Plus, there were extra hands on horseback if some freak accident happened.
But Brady was having none of it.
And Dan could see the doctor's temper was about to snap.
He reached out and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Your aunt was worried about you. You have anything to say to her?"
Brady slid a glance at Miles. Dan thought he might refuse, but finally he mumbled, "I'm sorry."
But when Dan glanced back at the doctor, her eyes were fixed on him, not on the boy.
"You've pulled your stitches," she accused.
"No—" But when he looked down, a red stain was growing beneath his armpit. "There's a paramedic on call for the rodeo. I'll have him fix me up."
But she was already shaking her head. "Let's go back to the house."
Megan was still shaking from the rush of adrenaline and fear when they reached the ranch kitchen. She needed to calm down, or there was no way she'd be able to stitch up the cowboy.
Brady had just walked off. Barely apologized.
She'd been so scared.
"Sit down," she told Julianne and Brady, pointing to the small table jammed in a breakfast nook. A glance through the doorway showed a long picnic-style dining table, which would've given the kids more room, but right now, she wasn't letting Brady ou
t of her sight.
Dan addressed Miles. "Why don't you get your friends some lemonade? Scarlett probably has some cookies hidden away." The doctor looked at the other boy now. Seemed she’d barely noticed him when she'd found them. He'd followed them back to the house, and Dan had introduced him as Nate's son.
Julianne lit up, but Brady muttered, "Cookies are against the rules," beneath his breath.
"It's fine," Megan said through gritted teeth.
Of the two of adults in the room, it was easy to see who was making more of an impression on the kids. Julianne was smiling at Dan and even Brady had a sparkle of interest in his eyes.
Megan just wanted to get out of here. But she couldn't let a patient suffer. She put her bag on the table and opened it.
Her hands were still shaking.
"Is there a bedroom or somewhere…?"
And then Dan was there, closer than she expected. Pressing a hot cup of coffee into her hands, their fingers tangling.
"You can stitch me up right here. There's plenty of light. Why don't you take a minute, first?"
The mug’s warmth seeped into her. For a few seconds, she and Dan shared a connection. She took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of coffee and man, and some of her fear drained away.
She was caught in his gaze, in his touch. Warm and appreciative. A tether back to steady ground.
And then... more. An electric charge, an awareness zinged between them.
Abruptly, he broke away and stepped to the counter. He looked out the darkened window. He was pulling away. She'd felt him do the same in her office. What made him distance himself?
She leaned her hip against the counter, allowing a sense of calm to steal over her. Letting her mind stop spinning from visions of everything that could've happened to Brady but hadn't. Behind all of it, she continued to be aware of the man nearby.
"How long have you been riding?" Brady asked, voice low.
Miles answered in normal volume. "Not that long. When my mom and dad started fostering me, my dad taught me. They gave me Buster for my birthday last year."
"Really? You have your own horse?" Julianne asked the question, but when Megan glanced at the table, it was easy to see the jealousy streaked across Brady's face.
Melting Megan: a Cowboy Fairytales spin-off (Triple H Brides Book 5) Page 3
