She smiled faintly. “What a novelty, a doctor who tries to practice what he preaches.”
His eyes glided over the part of her that wasn’t hidden beneath the tabletop. “You look like you keep in great shape. Do you go to the gym?”
Nicolette wrinkled her nose with distaste. “Never. I don’t like gyms. I think natural exercise is the best. So I ride horses whenever I can. And I walk as much as possible.”
“You know, I’ve got to confess that last night at the hospital, I wondered why you showed up in jeans and boots. It’s not usual attire for women in the medical profession.”
A wry smile touched her lips. “Sorry. Those were the most available things in my closet and I was in a hurry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”
He tilted his head back and laughed. “I wasn’t offended, Nicolette. I was intrigued. And by the way,” he added, as he settled a twinkling gaze back on her face, “you looked as sexy as hell.”
Heat poured into her cheeks and she cleared her throat with plans to remind him not to get so personal. But the waitress appeared before she had a chance to say anything and for the next few moments the two of them were busy choosing drinks and food.
Once the waitress was gone, he said, “I think you’ll be glad to hear that Mr. Nelson has agreed to take his daily medication and come in for routine checkups. Hopefully I can keep him on the right track.”
Nicolette sipped from a glass of water the waitress had left behind. “He told me that you want him to take a look at his livestock. That was a nice gesture. It made him feel important. Now that his wife has passed on, the man doesn’t have anyone, except for his housekeeper.”
“I wasn’t doing it just to make him feel important,” he said. “He has years of experience and knowledge with cattle and horses. I would value his opinion and advice and be glad to pay him for it.”
Once again he’d revealed that he wasn’t above asking for help. Apparently he wasn’t one of those guys that thought he knew more than everyone else on every subject under the sun the way her ex-husband had. During their marriage, Bill had worked as an executive for an insurance firm in San Antonio and he’d been good at his job. Yet the man had been hopelessly lacking with manual tasks of any kind. Even so, he’d found it offensive if she’d suggested he get help from a mechanic for an ailing car, or a plumber to replace a leaky faucet.
“I’m sure Dan will be more than glad to help you,” Nicolette commented.
He started to make some sort of reply when he suddenly frowned and reached to his shirt pocket for his vibrating cell phone.
“Excuse me,” he said as he flipped open the phone to identify the caller.
Nicolette watched the frown deepen on his face as he snapped the phone shut and drop it back into his pocket.
“Not an emergency?”
“She probably thinks it is,” he answered. “That was my mother.”
“Oh. Well don’t let me intrude. If you need to talk to her it won’t bother me.”
He sighed. “Thanks, but it isn’t necessary. I already know what the call is about. A big fund-raiser is being held back in Houston this coming weekend for a congressman in my parents’ district. She wants me to attend and refuses to accept that I won’t be there.”
She studied him thoughtfully. “You don’t like politics?”
He released a humorless laugh. “Politics has nothing to do with it. I don’t want to spend my free time at big social galas of any sort. I have more important things to do.”
Nicolette was digesting his comment when the waitress arrived with tortilla chips, hot salsa and tall drinks of iced tea. After the young woman had served them, Nicolette plucked a chip from the basket and dipped it into the salsa.
“Do you have siblings?” she asked him.
He shook his head. “I wish. It’s hell being an only child.”
Nicolette munched the chip, then said, “I wouldn’t know what being an only child would feel like. I have a younger brother and sister. So my mother spreads her attention among all of us.”
“Lucky you,” he muttered and his features tightened as he reached for his tea. “Don’t get me wrong, Nicolette. My mother is a loving person in her own way. But she can be smothering. It was really hard on her when I left for college and medical school. She, uh, you see, my father is always working. Always. So I guess she used me to fill the vacant spot.”
Nicolette was beginning to get the picture and it wasn’t a pretty one. “What do your parents think about you moving to this area?”
A sardonic expression twisted his features. “My father refuses to say more than hello to me. And my mother still believes I’ll change my mind and return to Houston. One of these days she’s going to realize that will never happen.”
“You sound sure of that.”
His brown eyes hardened with conviction. “Never been more sure of anything, Nicolette. When you grow up watching your parents do everything wrong, you grow up determined to be different.”
She could feel the undercurrent of tension in his voice and it told her the issues he had with his family were not small matters. The urge to ask him more questions surged up in her, but she bit them back. It wouldn’t do to let him think she was that interested. She didn’t want to give him any reason to think she was looking at him as a man rather than a doctor and colleague.
Thankfully, the waitress arrived with their meal, and they spent the next few minutes digging into their food and exchanging small talk about the clinic.
In spite of it being eons since she’d sat across the table from a man other than her brother or cousins, Nicolette began to relax. It was nice to be out, to be talking, to have a man looking at her as though she were lovely and interesting.
“Tell me, Nicolette—”
“Nicci,” she interrupted. “Everyone calls me Nicci, so you might as well, too. My name got cut short as a child and it stuck.”
He grinned and his eyes twinkled teasingly as they roamed her face. “Little Nicci. Sounds tomboyish. Were you?”
Her cheeks warm, she chuckled softly. “Terribly. I cried when Mother made me wear a dress to church.”
“Well, you obviously grew out of it,” he said as he recalled her long, beautiful legs exposed beneath the hem of her skirt and the sexy high heels on her feet. She was the essence of femininity and every inch of her pulled on him like a mighty magnet.
“I grew out of a lot of things,” she replied with a sigh.
Ridge shoveled up the last bite of enchilada and while he ate it, he studied her expression, which had suddenly become sober. Even though she smiled and laughed and joked at times, he could feel sadness emanating from her, as though her spirit had been broken. He hated that notion and realized he’d like to heal her heart.
“What made you decide to become a physician’s assistant, Nicci?”
She pushed the last few bites of food around on her plate. “I always wanted to help people, and in high school I decided I wanted to become a nurse and work as a missionary. But while I was in nursing school, I realized I could be of more help if I could actually doctor the needy. So I went a step further with my education.”
Ridge studied her downcast face and the way her brown hair waved against her cheek. She had a thick, glorious head of hair. The color was as rich as ground coffee beans and glistened like moonlight on water. Several times he’d caught himself wanting to reach out and touch the strands, to see for himself if they were really as silky as they looked.
“What happened with the missionary work? I mean, you’re obviously living and working here,” he said.
The corners of her mouth turned downward. “I met Bill in college, and after we married my plans…got changed. I have done some relief work in Mexico and the Philippines, though. And maybe someday I’ll go back to do more.”
Her gaze lifted and as her eyes met his he felt a physical jolt. The sensation stirred him and had him wondering what it would be like to have her touching him intimately, to have her soft
drawl whispering in his ear.
She asked, “Have you ever done any relief work?”
Clearing his throat, he said, “Only here in the States.” Then he added mockingly, “My parents think I’m doing relief work now.”
She frowned with confusion. “Excuse me?”
He wished he could laugh. He wished he could forget the sight of his parents staring down their noses at him, trying their best to make him feel guilty and ungrateful. It hadn’t worked. He wouldn’t let it work.
“The fact that I’m practicing here in a small city,” he explained. “Instead of in Houston where the money and prestige are. They think I’m making peanuts and wasting my education.”
Still frowning, she said, “Money and prestige have nothing to do with healing people.”
He gave a half grin. “I’m glad someone around here besides me understands that.” He threw down his napkin and reached for the ticket the waitress had left on the outer corner of the table. “If you’re finished, we’d better go. I have a one-o’clock appointment.”
Nodding, Nicolette reached for her handbag. “I need to be getting back, too.”
Ridge paid the bill and the two of them left the restaurant. As he drove them the short distance to the clinic, he asked, “Your brother and sister, what do they do?”
“Lex helps our cousins, Matt and Cordero, run the ranch. He mainly manages sales and shipping. Matt is general manager and Cordero is in charge of the horses. Of course, most of the time all three of them labor with the rest of the wranglers. As for my sister, Mercedes, she’s presently in the Air Force and serving at Camp Justice over in Diego Garcia.”
“Must be nice to be a part of a big family,” he mused out loud. “I’d like to meet them someday.”
Nicolette could just imagine the buzz she’d create if she invited Ridge out to the ranch. She’d fiercely resisted her family’s nagging to find herself a boyfriend. If Ridge showed up for supper they’d think she’d either gone totally crazy or that she’d soon be sporting an engagement ring.
She glanced over at his rugged profile, then allowed her gaze to drift downward over his lean torso and long legs. The sight of him reminded her of all that she’d been missing and everything she’d been trying to forget. Yet the hollow feeling in her chest wasn’t enough to make her look away or to keep her from saying, “Maybe you’d like to come out to the ranch for supper sometime?”
By now they were at the clinic. He pulled into the nearest parking slot and turned off the engine before he turned in the seat to look at her.
“Are you serious?”
No, she was crazy, Nicolette thought. This man was nine years younger than her. Anything between them would be wrong and never work. But she’d offered the invitation and she wasn’t about to go back on it now.
“Yes, I’m asking you out to the ranch for supper. You said you’d like to see it and meet my family. Here’s your chance,” she said with a cheery casualness she was far from feeling.
He let out a long breath, and then a wide smile spread across his face. “You’ve surprised me, Nicci. I’m almost wondering if this is some sort of trick.”
“Trick? Why would I do something like that to you?”
A deep, rough chuckle rumbled up from his chest. “Nicci, Nicci,” he said with wry censure, taking hold of her hand, “you know you dislike me for taking Dr. Walters’s place.”
Nicolette turned her head away from him as streaks of sizzling heat jumped from his fingers into hers. “That’s not right. I mean, I loved Dr. Walters and I hated to see him go. But it’s not your fault that the man retired.”
“Hmmm. Well, I got the impression last night that you—” his voice lowered to a purr “—didn’t want anything to do with me personally.”
Her expression wary, she looked back at him. “Is that what this is, personal?”
His hand slid up her arm until his warm fingers were curved around the side of her neck. Nicolette’s insides began to burn and melt, and she wondered why she didn’t have the strength to get out of the truck and away from him.
“It is for me,” he murmured. “From the moment I first laid eyes on you, it became personal.”
She tried to suck in a deep breath, but all her lungs could manage was a shallow sip of air.
“Ridge, I’m nine years older than you.”
His face dipped closer to hers. “Who’s counting?”
She nervously licked her lips. “I am. And besides that, I’m not interested in…romance. Not with you or any man.”
“Well, I’m just going to have to do my best to change your mind,” he whispered.
Nicolette saw his kiss coming, but she didn’t have the strength to turn her head or pull away. Instead, just as his mouth was about to settle over hers, her eyelids fluttered down, her lips parted.
The contact was just long enough to allow her to taste him, to feel the hard contours of his lips molding against hers. Then it was over and she was staring at him in lost wonder.
“When do I show up for supper?” he asked. “Saturday?”
From the corner of her eye, Nicolette caught a flash of movement in front of the truck. Instantly she jerked away from him to see a group of nurses walking across the parking lot. At least two of the women were glancing their way, and she could only guess at what they were thinking.
“Now look what you’ve done!” she exclaimed. “Those nurses probably saw us kissing. By this evening, gossip about the two of us will be all over the clinic!”
“Good,” he said with a grin. “I want everyone to know that you’re going to be my woman.”
His woman! What was he, some sort of modern-day caveman? No, she would never belong to any man again, Nicolette silently vowed. And the sooner she got that message across to Dr. Ridge Garroway, the better off they’d both be.
Skewering his chest with her forefinger, she said in a gritty voice, “Look, Doctor, get this through your head now. I will never, ever be your, or any man’s, woman! Your friend, maybe. But never your woman!”
Unaffected by her harsh outburst, Ridge gently patted her face and gave her a wicked smile. “We’ll see, Nicci. We’ll see.”
Chapter Four
Later that evening, Ridge pulled to a stop in front of his house to see Corey, his new teenage handyman, waiting for him on the front verandah. Enoch, Ridge’s German shepherd, was snuggled up to the teenager’s side, panting with a silly grin at the fact that he had company.
“Hi, Mr. Ridge!” The tall, slim boy with bright-red hair jumped from the porch and jogged out to meet his employer. “You got home early this evening. Not as many sick people today?”
Ridge climbed from the truck and pulled a briefcase after him. “There were plenty of sick people, Corey. I just happened to take care of them a bit more quickly today. Been waiting long?”
Corey was fourteen years old and lived with his mother in a small house a mile or so down the rural road from Ridge. He’d met the boy at a local church gathering that had been given just so Ridge would have the opportunity to meet his new neighbors. At that time he’d learned Corey’s mother worked at a local grocery store as a checker. It wasn’t until later, after he’d hired Corey to help him with chores around the place, that the boy had told Ridge he didn’t have a father. Apparently, the man had left the family when Corey was only a few months old.
Corey shook his head. “No. Just a few minutes. I came early so I could check on Enoch’s water bowl. I wouldn’t want him to go thirsty. With it being so hot and all.”
“No. We certainly wouldn’t want that,” Ridge agreed as he strode toward the house. Corey followed closely at his heels with the dog bounding happily in front of them. Enoch’s water bowl was a galvanized foot tub that held enough water for five dogs to drink for several days. It was obvious the boy loved the German shepherd and used any excuse to spend as much time with the dog as he could. Ridge was grateful that his pet had companionship while he was away at work.
“Oh, yeah, I ate a
sandwich before I walked over. I’m fine.”
“Well, why don’t you come in the house and drink a soda while I change clothes. And then we’ll get to work on that fence.”
Ridge reached to open the wooden screen door, but Corey hung back. Ridge glanced around to see a sheepish expression on the boy’s freckled face. “What’s wrong? If you don’t want a soda, that’s fine. Just tell me.”
The teenager’s face turned ruddy. “It ain’t that, Mr. Ridge. My mom says I’m not to go into your house. She says that would be—intruding.”
Obviously the boy’s mother was trying to teach him manners, and Ridge respected her effort. Especially when Lillian, his own mother, had been just the opposite and had pushed Ridge to insert himself into any situation where he might benefit.
Slapping the boy’s shoulder with affection, he said, “Only if I didn’t invite you, Corey. Now come on. I’ll personally tell your mother that it’s okay with me.”
“You will?”
“Sure.”
“What about Enoch? Can he come in, too?”
Since the dog already had his nose stuck in the crack between the wooden screen door and the casing, it was clear he didn’t want to be left out.
“Yeah,” Ridge said with an indulgent grin, “he can come, too.”
Ridge opened the door, and the dog shot into the house. Corey followed and Ridge led the way to the kitchen. After he’d given the boy a soda and Enoch a bowl of treats, he hurried to the bedroom to change into jeans, T-shirt and boots.
A few minutes later, man, boy and dog left the house and walked through the hazy heat of late afternoon until they reached a spot in the pasture where Ridge was replacing sagging barbed wire and rotted cedar posts.
The ground on Ridge’s land consisted of soil that locals referred to as black gumbo. It was rich, black clay and would grow anything planted in it. However, there were drawbacks. When wet, the clay weighed a ton and stuck to everything, and when dry, it was as hard as cement. Unfortunately, weather the past few weeks had been dry and digging with a hand-held posthole digger was arduous and slow going.
The Best Catch in Texas Page 5
