The Doctor's Cowboy

by Trish Milburn

  Chloe took his hands in hers and rubbed her thumbs over his knuckles. When she looked up into his eyes again, she had such a warm, open expression on her face that he fell the rest of the way in love with her.

  “We can’t choose our families, but we can pick our friends and who we let into our hearts.” She took one of his hands and placed it over her heart. “I choose to let you in, Wyatt Kelley.”

  Unable to resist any longer, he pulled her to him and kissed her as if the world were ending all around them. Wanting to be even closer to her, he led her straight to bed.

  After they made love, he couldn’t stop touching her, loving the feel of her soft skin, making sure she hadn’t fled during one of the blinks of his eyes.

  “You’re too good to be true,” he said as he skimmed her cheek with his thumb. “Too good for me.”

  “Now that’s just dumb.” She scooted closer and dropped a light kiss on his lips.

  He caught her hand and held it against his chest. “It’s not. I don’t have much to offer you.”

  “If you’re talking about material things, I might have to punch you. Do you take me for someone who cares about that?”

  “No, but it’s a guy thing. We want to be able to take care of the women we love.”

  Chloe froze, and for a moment Wyatt was afraid he’d said the wrong thing. When a smile started at her mouth and spread to her eyes, he knew it was the best moment of his life.

  “So, I’m not the only one who feels this way?”

  Wyatt couldn’t look away from her face, afraid if he did the truth shining in her eyes would disappear. He realized he’d seen that truth building in her for days but had convinced himself he wanted it so much that he’d imagined it.

  “I was probably as scared to admit it as you were,” she said.

  “Because you didn’t know me?”

  “Partly. I mean, loving someone is supposed to take time, right?”

  “So you’re not one of those people who believes in love at first sight?”

  “I believe in infatuation at first sight, and that might lead to love.”

  He grinned at her. “Were you infatuated with me, Dr. Brody?”

  She poked his chest with one of her fingers. “Don’t get full of yourself, cowboy.”

  “So you weren’t?”

  She rubbed where she’d poked him. “You weren’t hard to look at.”

  He lifted her chin. “Neither were you, Doc.”

  She lowered her eyes. “I was more afraid of what caring about someone would mean. I began wondering if all of us—Dad, my brothers and I—were alone because somewhere deep down we didn’t want to get hurt.”

  “Because of the loss of your mom.”

  She nodded.

  “That’s why you’ve been so concerned about me riding again.”

  “Yeah. And I’m a doctor, not generally a fan of situations where people put their lives in danger.” She lifted her gaze to his. “But yes, I hate the idea of you climbing on a bull, maybe getting hurt again. Or worse. But, I also know that I have no right to ask you to quit. All I can tell you is that to fully heal, you need to not strain those muscles for a few more months. And they may injure more easily even after you’ve completed your recovery.”

  His entire identity felt threatened. But maybe it was time to think about the next stage of his life. Maybe he’d avoided it long enough.

  As he pushed a lock of Chloe’s hair away from her cheek, he knew that he wanted to find a way to have that next stage include her. He’d been alone most of his life, had always told himself he was fine with it.

  He wasn’t fine with it anymore.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “You’re going to need some blood-pressure medication,” Chloe said as she patted Joan Faris on the hand then began writing the prescription.

  “The joys of getting old.”

  “I know.” Chloe ripped the prescription off the pad and gave it to Joan. “But it’s better than the alternative.”

  When Joan left the tent they’d set up on the lawn behind the clinic, Chloe wiped her brow and took a drink of her huge cup of lemonade. She’d been going nearly nonstop all day, barely taking a break to eat a quick lunch from the potluck the local churches had set up under an adjacent tent, which also housed the entertainment meant to keep people occupied while they waited for their turn to see one of the doctors or nurse practitioners.

  She glanced out and saw a truck driving by on Main Street pulling a horse trailer. Chances were the driver was headed to the fairgrounds for that night’s rodeo. The sight of it caused a pang. It’d been two weeks since she’d left Wyatt in Wyoming because she couldn’t put off coming back to work any longer. He’d kissed her at the airport and said he’d see her soon, whenever he got things squared away with his grandfather’s estate.

  She’d come back to Blue Falls riding high on the knowledge that the man she loved felt the same way about her. But with each passing day, she’d lost a little more of that elation and started to worry when Wyatt began to seem distant during their phone conversations. Now that a thousand miles separated them, had he changed his mind? Had he realized that what he felt for her wasn’t love at all but rather gratitude for being there when he needed someone?

  Chloe swallowed against the emptiness that was threatening to widen within her again. She needed to stay focused on work and get through this incredibly busy day. There would be time later for sadness and kicking herself for opening herself up to that kind of pain.

  She glanced over to where Sophie and Jenna had been directing patients to the appropriate doctors since early that morning. “What do we have next?”

  The two nurses shared a quick look between them that Chloe couldn’t decipher. Whatever it was, she didn’t have time to deal with that, either.

  “There’s a guy who says he thinks something is wrong with his heart,” Sophie said.

  With the heat bearing down on the Hill Country today, the last thing someone with a heart problem needed was to be kept waiting. “Show him in.”

  Chloe turned her back to take another drink as she heard Sophie say, “Right this way.”

  When Chloe spun to face her newest patient, it was her heart that skipped a beat. “Wyatt.” And then what Sophie had said echoed in her head again, and panic hit Chloe right in her middle. “Sophie said something was wrong with your heart.” How could that be possible? He was young, healthy.

  Wyatt lifted his hand to his heart. “It feels like half of it is missing.”

  The words were so out of character for him that it took her a moment to realize what he was saying and that there actually wasn’t something physically wrong with him.

  Wyatt groaned a little. “That’s too cheesy, isn’t it?”

  “No. Just unexpected.”

  “Yeah, I felt like a giant goof standing in the pharmacy reading all the greeting cards, trying to figure out something romantic to say when I saw you again.”

  A smile tugged on her lips then grew. “The image of you reading all those cards just might be the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

  Wyatt lifted a brow. “Yeah? Good enough to get me a kiss?”

  Chloe didn’t care who saw her. She ran into his arms and kissed him with all the happiness that was suddenly surging inside her. If she had an entire dictionary’s worth of words at her disposal, she wouldn’t be able to properly express how good it felt to be held in Wyatt’s arms again.

  When they finally broke the kiss, she looked up into his eyes and smiled like an idiot.

  “I’ll have some of what he’s having,” said a middle-aged guy who was being examined by Dr. Hershel.

  That made everyone in the tent laugh, even Chloe as she leaned her forehead against Wyatt’s chest. After a moment, he framed her
face with his hands and kissed her on the forehead.

  “I see you’re busy, so I won’t hold you up any longer.”

  She wanted to grab hold of him, irrationally afraid that if he walked out of the tent she’d never see him again. But common sense told her that he didn’t drive all the way to Blue Falls just to give her a goodbye-for-good kiss.

  “Okay.” That single word felt like the bravest thing she’d ever said.

  He was gone before she thought to ask him where he’d be. Would he feel comfortable going to the ranch, or would he get a motel room? She considered texting him, but the afternoon proved to be as busy as the morning. From all accounts, the free food, clothing and household items areas were just as busy. She hated seeing that many people in need but so happy that they were being helped. They had Wyatt to thank for that.

  She finally finished with the last patient of the day, a shy Hispanic girl named Anna. The little girl finally came out of her shell and smiled when Chloe presented her with one of the miniature stuffed animals she kept on hand for just such occasions. After prescribing antibiotics for the girl’s sinus infection, Chloe was caught off guard when Anna wrapped her arms around her in a hug.

  As Chloe touched Anna’s head and smiled down at her, that ticking clock inside her started tolling like Big Ben. She had no idea where her relationship with Wyatt was going, if anywhere, but she found herself imagining having his children with a clarity that nearly made her stagger.

  “You okay?” Jenna asked when the family left the tent.

  Chloe nodded. “Yeah. Just wiped out.”

  “I hear ya. I feel like half the county came through here today.”

  “Felt like half of Texas.”

  It took another hour for the staff and volunteers to get all the equipment, files and other supplies back into the clinic. By the time she was finished, all Chloe wanted to do was go home, soak in a bath and then sleep for about twelve hours. Well, that’s what she’d want if she didn’t feel she had to make an appearance at the rodeo since the proceeds were going to pay for the free clinic they’d just concluded.

  And if Wyatt weren’t waiting for her.

  But when she drove up in front of her house a few minutes later, Wyatt’s truck was nowhere to be seen. She shoved down the wave of panic that hit her, telling herself to stop being so ridiculous.

  She met Garrett coming out of the house as she was headed in.

  “I heard things went well today,” he said.

  “Yeah.”

  He nodded. “Mom would be proud.”

  She smiled at that. “Yeah, I think she would.”

  When Garrett started to walk away, she asked him, “Has Wyatt been here?”

  “No. Is he back in town?”

  She detected the note of surprise her brother wasn’t quite able to hide. When she’d returned from Wyoming, her dad had been happy for her when she’d told her family how she and Wyatt felt about each other. Owen had been his usual teasing self. But Garrett, he’d been more cautious, doing the protective, big-brother thing.

  “He came to see me while I was working.”

  He didn’t respond immediately but then nodded once. “Good. I hope it works out the way you want it to.”

  As he walked away, she sensed a touch of sadness about him that she suspected had nothing to do with her or Wyatt. As she watched her big brother climb into his truck, she found herself hoping that he could find love one day, too. He was a good man and deserved it.

  After she showered and dressed for the rodeo, she checked her phone to see if Wyatt had sent her a message. Her heart leaped when she saw his name on the screen. She touched the screen to open the message.

  See you at the rodeo?

  She texted back Sure, then did a little dance around her bedroom that would have made a love-struck fifteen-year-old proud.

  By the time she got to the fairgrounds, it was already crowded. She scanned the faces she passed on the way from her car toward the grandstand, but none of them belonged to Wyatt. Even looking for a cowboy hat didn’t help when she was in a sea of them.

  “Hey, Chloe!”

  She turned at the sound of Elissa Kayne’s effervescent greeting, the one she often used to convince her customers at the plant nursery that they couldn’t live without a rose bush or set of butterfly wind chimes. Chloe knew because she’d fallen victim to Elissa’s landscaping siren call on more than one occasion.

  “Hey, yourself. How are you?”

  “Good. You? I bet you’re zonked after today. I drove by and you’d think you were handing out winning lottery tickets.”

  Chloe supposed that in a way they had been. If not for the free clinic, some of the patients might not have been diagnosed with their conditions in time to have them be highly treatable.

  “Fine, but yes, tired.” Chloe glanced around. “Where’s your more attractive half?”

  “Hey! I think I’d be offended if Pete wasn’t so darn cute.”

  “Cute, nothing. He’s a hottie.”

  “You had your chance, missy. It’s not my fault no one snapped him up before I did.”

  Chloe smiled. “Meant to be.”

  “Yeah.” Elissa’s smile was full of that newlywed glow, understandable since her wedding to Pete Kayne had only occurred a couple of months earlier. “Speaking of meant-to-be romances, I’ve been hearing all about your own hunk of cowboy hotness from Verona. Even though I’m not living under the same roof with her anymore, I’ve been questioning my sanity for letting Pete convince me to live next door.”

  “You know you’d miss her if you moved farther away.”

  “Blue Falls isn’t that big. Other side of town would have been just fine, even if Pete did already own the property next door.” The lot had held Pete’s former house for a long time until a tornado the previous spring had blown it off the map. “Oh, and I didn’t answer your question. Pete’s on patrol tonight.”

  “How’s he liking the switch to state police? Sure seems weird not seeing him working alongside Simon and the guys at the sheriff’s department.”

  “He likes it, but I know he also misses the old job, too. Those guys are like family to him. Now stop avoiding my question. Where’s your yummy bull rider?”

  “Around somewhere. I’m supposed to meet him here.”

  “So things are going well?”

  Chloe gave a little shrug. “I think so.”

  Elissa gestured for Chloe to follow her. “Come sit with us. Let Wyatt come to you.”

  Chloe fought the need to search the crowd until she found Wyatt and followed Elissa to the grandstand. “Us” turned out to be India, Skyler, Keri Teague and several other members of the Teague clan. Higher up, she spotted Jake and Talia Monroe. In front of them, Jake’s daughter, Mia, was sitting and chatting up a storm with her best friend, India’s stepdaughter, Ginny. Seeing the little girls together made that newly awakened maternal yearning twist inside Chloe.

  After several greetings, Chloe took an empty spot next to Elissa and tried watching the events in the arena. But her gaze kept wandering to the crowd, wondering where Wyatt was. She checked her phone and still didn’t have a response to the text she’d sent when she arrived. Had Wyatt decided not to come? Should she go home? No, she reminded herself, she was here in an official capacity, too, representing the clinic.

  So she told herself to stop worrying, to enjoy talking with her friends and watching the riders compete. She cringed when one of the bareback riders got tossed into the dirt at an awkward angle. That was going to leave some bruises and maybe result in a trip to the chiropractor.

  As there was a lull in competition between the bareback and team roping events, Chloe scanned the crowd again. She was beginning to think that Wyatt wasn’t going to show when she spotted him—back behind the pens that held the bulls.r />
  Her heart nearly stopped. Surely he wasn’t going to climb astride a bull, not this soon. There was no doubt in her mind that he’d negate all the progress he’d made toward healing completely, might even injure himself worse this time. And he knew that she didn’t want to be a witness to that.

  She tried to rein in her fear, telling herself there was a logical explanation. But the longer she sat watching him talk to the other cowboys, the more her stomach knotted.

  “You okay?”

  Chloe glanced at Elissa, who was looking at her with concern. “I don’t feel so well. Excuse me.”

  She hurried down the steps and ran alongside the bleachers, then past the lines extending out from the concession stand, and out into the field where the cars were parked. She could still hear everything the announcer was saying, so she’d know when the rodeo was over and she needed to go make an appearance as the representative of the clinic. But she wouldn’t have to watch Wyatt put his life in danger if he were stupid enough to climb atop one of those bulls.

  She’d told him she didn’t have the right to ask him to quit, and she’d come to terms with loving a bull rider. But this soon, when the risk was even greater? That she couldn’t bear to watch.

  She lifted her gaze to the stars, thought about her mom looking down at her all these years. What did she think of Wyatt? Of her daughter finally falling in love?

  “Mom, please keep him safe.”

  * * *

  WYATT SHOOK LIAM PARRISH’S hand, sealing the deal that would transition Wyatt to a new phase of his life, one he hadn’t foreseen before settling astride Beelzebub in this very arena.

  “Just call me when Chloe gives you the okay,” Liam said. “No way I’m going against doctor’s orders, especially Chloe’s. She knows where I live.”

  Wyatt laughed. “Will do, and thanks again.”

  Liam nodded and went off to deal with some issue that needed his attention as the head of the rodeo company putting on the event.

  Left alone, Wyatt wandered over to the back of the pens. He stared at the bulls. They all seemed so calm at the moment, but the moment a cowboy got on their backs they’d become bucking beasts. A pang of loss hit him right in the middle, and for a moment he wondered if he’d made a mistake. But then he remembered that he’d done nothing but think about his decision for the past two weeks as he’d dealt with dispensing with his grandparents’ belongings and their home. The longer he’d been away from Chloe, the more he knew what he had to do, wanted to do. It was time for a change. And he’d realized that it was as much for him as for what he might have with her.