Which meant they were facing hemolytic disease in the foal, Holden thought.
Kurt continued casually, “You know what to do, so there shouldn’t be any problem, but if you run into difficulty, just call me.”
He nodded. “Sure thing.”
His cousin joined him in the aisle. “You still want me to look at the foal that was born this morning?”
Holden nodded and he led the way. “Mind if I ask you a question?”
“Go ahead.” Kurt carried his veterinary bag into the stall. Exhausted from the rigors of giving birth, the big bay mare was lying on her side in the straw. Her colt was cuddled up next to her tummy.
“You’re happily married,” Holden remarked, as he stepped in to gently help the wobbly-legged colt to his feet.
“I certainly am, and I don’t mind saying, it’s great.” Kurt checked the foal’s limbs and evaluated the flexor and extensor tendons. “Had I known just how great, I would have—”
He stopped abruptly, the way blissfully married folks always did when they realized they’d put their foot in it.
“It’s okay,” Holden remarked, looking forward to the day he wasn’t known as a divorced rancher who’d had his heart broken. “I know I failed big-time at the marriage business, first time around.” Because if he hadn’t, he and Heidi would have stayed together after the loss of their baby.
“Still—” Kurt paused to listen to the colt’s heart and lungs “—I didn’t have to rub it in.”
“It’s fact. I’m dealing with it. Moving on.”
Kurt looked up in surprise, as Holden plunged on. “Which brings me back to my question. How would you feel if something happened to you…?”
Kurt peered at the foal’s gums. “Meaning I go to the big tent in the sky?”
He nodded. “And another guy came along and put a move on Paige?”
His cousin removed a thermometer from his bag. “I don’t think I would feel anything in that scenario, because I’d be dead.”
Holden brushed off the joke. “I’m serious.”
“That’s what worries me.” Kurt stripped off the first pair of gloves, donned another and drew blood for the lab work. Then he studied Holden. “This is about Libby Lowell, isn’t it?”
“I promised Percy I would look after Libby if anything ever happened to him.”
“And you have.” Kurt gave the antibiotic and tetanus injections. “We all know that.”
“I asked to be her rebound guy. And she offered to be my rebound woman.”
Kurt examined the colt’s navel stump. “Did you agree?”
Hell, yes. Out loud, Holden said rhetorically, “What do you think?”
“Only now you’re having second thoughts,” Kurt guessed, leading the infant colt to its mama to suckle.
“It sounded easy enough at the outset,” Holden confided as the foal began to nurse. “Libby and I planned to date each other through the holidays—to sort of get our sea legs back. And then that would be it. We would go our separate ways, move on to real relationships.”
The other man nodded approvingly at the foal’s vigor, before turning back. “So what’s the problem?”
“We’re just a couple days into our grand plan,” he confessed, as they stepped out of the stall. “And I’m not sure we can keep our emotions in check.”
Kurt removed the stethoscope from around his neck. “What are we talking here…physical attraction?”
“And guilt—that this is not what Percy had in mind when he asked me to take care of Libby.”
Kurt packed up his vet bag. “He wanted Libby to be happy. He wanted her to be safe.”
“Yeah?” Holden started out of the barn.
His cousin fished in his pocket for his keys. “He probably also wanted her to be loved.”
Holden’s mood remained skeptical. “By his best friend?”
Kurt lingered next to his pickup truck and thought a moment. “I don’t think jealousy exists in heaven. I think all those negative emotions are filtered out. They’d have to be, for anyone to have eternal peace.”
“You’ve got a point there,” Holden said quietly at last.
Kurt tossed his gear in the cab. “You and Libby, on the other hand, are still here on earth. So you’re going to have the whole gamut of emotions to deal with, whether this works out the way you two envisioned or not.”
Holden turned his face into the wind, eyeing up the gray clouds overhead. Christmas and New Year’s would be here sooner than they thought. And with that, the end of his arrangement with Libby. “So what are you saying? It’s only going to get worse?”
“No clue. The only thing I do know—” Kurt slapped him companionably on the back and flashed an encouraging grin “—is that you, my friend, are in deep.”
“LIBBY?” VINCE HUNT ASKED shortly after the dealership closed for the day. “Got a minute? We all have something we’d like to say to you.”
Her nerves jangling, Libby walked out into the showroom, where all her employees were gathered. She was pleased to see the staff had gotten together and decorated the showroom for Christmas, as tradition required, making Holden’s help that evening unnecessary.
The head of financial services continued, “We’re sorry about the way we confronted you the other day. Since then, we’ve all had the opportunity to sit down with Jeff Johnston individually.”
So that was what had been going on….
Speaking for the service department, Manny Pierce chimed in, “He let us know that he really takes care of his employees, and he is planning to run the business on the same model Southwest Airlines uses.”
This was news. “You’d each own a small part of the company through profit sharing?” Libby asked in surprise.
Heads bobbed happily.
Lucia Gordon smiled. “He’s really focused on building each business he owns into a cohesive team. Plus he said he would give us all written contracts and guaranteed salaries and bonuses for the next five years.”
“After meeting with him one-on-one, we realize he’s a decent guy,” Swifty Mortimer said. “So we’re all okay with it now.”
“Not that we want to see you go,” Manny Pierce hastened to add. “But…we understand.”
Libby was so shocked she didn’t know what to say. Finally, she managed to thank everyone for their support.
“And one more thing,” the receptionist said, handing Libby a slip of paper. “This call came in while you were with that last customer.”
Holden’s name was scrawled across the top. The message beneath read: “Sorry about tonight. Rain check?”
Not sure what that meant, Libby worked to keep her expression inscrutable. “That’s it?”
Lucia shrugged. “He sounded like he was in a hurry.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Libby went into her office and tried to reach Holden, both on his cell phone and on the ranch line.
There was no answer either place.
Which meant what? she wondered, beginning to feel a little upset. Had he learned the dealership had already been decorated and changed his mind about spending time with her tonight? Or was it more than that?
Realizing there was only one way to find out, Libby got in her car and drove out to the Bar M ranch. She hadn’t been out there in almost two years, and she was surprised to see how much had changed.
There were now countless pastures and four large stables, a barn and the original fieldstone ranch house with the steeply pitched roof.
Holden’s pickup was parked in the drive. Light spilled from one of the buildings, and she headed that way. Holden was inside, kneeling next to a newborn foal, slipping a muzzle over its head.
He looked up as Libby slipped into the stall.
“Hi,” she said softly, amazed as always at the fragility and wonder of new life.
She knelt down beside the foal, which was the spitting image of its mama—silver body, dark gray mane, white feet.
Holden flashed her a sexy smile. “I guess you
got my message.”
“Yeah.” He was really in his element.
Wishing she’d thought to change into jeans and boots, or at least brought some with her, Libby hunkered down beside him, being careful not to get the goo from the birth on any of her nice work clothes. “What are you doing?”
Holden went to the cooler in the corner and brought out a bottle of what looked like formula. “Prenatal tests determined this foal has hemolytic disease. In other words, there was a blood group incompatibility between the dam and the sire. Antibodies are produced during pregnancy that, if ingested by the foal, would destroy her red blood cells.”
Admiring Holden’s competence, Libby asked, “Sort of like Rh disease in humans?”
“Right.” He shook the bottle, making sure its contents were mixed. “Although in babies, it’s a little more complicated. With horses, all we have to do to keep the foal from harm is substitute compatible colostrum for the first thirty-six hours, and make sure Willow here doesn’t nurse and ingest any of Lady’s.”
“Hence the muzzle,” Libby guessed.
“I’ll milk the mother six times a day and discard her colostrum, to prevent any from being transferred to the foal, and feed Willow by hand. Then she’ll nurse at her mother’s side, as per usual.”
“Wow. You really know your stuff.”
He grinned. “Breeding and training quarter horses is my profession.”
And, Libby thought admiringly, he did it very well.
“Want to help with the first feeding?”
Was he kidding? “Love to,” Libby said.
Holden produced the bottle for the newborn and a wooden bench for Libby to sit on. With gentle hands, he undid the muzzle and helped them get situated, with Willow braced and supported by Libby’s knees.
Looking content but exhausted, the mama horse lay on her side, watching.
As the sleek little foal began to suck on the bottle, Libby was filled with tenderness. She slanted Holden an appreciative glance. “No wonder you couldn’t make our date.”
“Sorry I couldn’t leave a more detailed message. I just figured I would call you later. I didn’t expect you to drive all the way out here.” Holden paused to study her, his expression maddeningly inscrutable. “Why did you drive all the way out here?”
Libby flushed and struggled to keep her guard up. Before her heart went from foolishly wishing for more than a rebound-dating experience with Holden, to being completely vulnerable.
She forced herself to glance away from him. “I tried calling—there was no answer.”
He braced his hands on his hips, his eyes guarded now. “Did you think I’d changed my mind about helping you and I was standing you up?”
Libby drew a breath, reassuring herself that even after the hot intensity of their kisses, they were in no real danger of actually hooking up. They were both much too sensible for that. She gestured with her free hand. “First of all, the decorating has been done today by LRE staff. And, after last night…”
Holden’s jaw set with McCabe resolve. “We were smart to stop when we did. Continuing after the picture fell…well, that would have been really awkward.”
It certainly had broken the mood.
Libby gave a sigh of relief. “So it’s not just me.”
“It’s not just you.” An indecipherable emotion crossed his face.
As they headed for the exit half an hour later, when the foal had been fed, Holden put a hand on the small of Libby’s back and surveyed her closely. “Since you’re here and things are calm in the barn for now…want to come inside with me?”
She ignored the heat radiating from his palm. “Sure.”
Together, they crossed the yard and walked into the two-story fieldstone ranch house.
Unlike her home, where photos of Percy and his family abounded, Holden’s house had been wiped clean of any memory of Heidi and their marriage. But then that was to be expected, since they were divorced. As she looked around, Libby couldn’t help but wonder if that was a healthier way to live, in the wake of loss….
Casually, Holden advised, “Make yourself at home. I’m going to shower. After that, maybe we can rustle up some dinner.”
Left alone, Libby wandered into the kitchen, switched on the lights and got her second surprise of the evening.
Chapter Seven
“What’s all this?”
The icy note in Libby’s voice stopped Holden in his tracks.
He ran a hand through his freshly shampooed hair and followed her gaze to the stacks of paperwork on his kitchen table. Too late, he realized he probably should have told her about this when she first arrived at the ranch.
He’d certainly meant to mention it.
Had she not showed up so unexpectedly and looked so damn gorgeous in tailored black slacks and an evergreen wool blazer, he probably would have told her. Instead, all he’d been able to focus on was how soft and silky her hair looked, falling about her shoulders.
Holden edged closer, taking in the agitated color in her sculpted cheeks and the stormy set of her luscious lips. Calmly, he brought her up to speed. “Jeff Johnston stopped by earlier today. He gave me the full sales pitch. Told me how good this would be for you.”
She raised her chin. “Bottom line?”
Okay, so she was ticked off at him. Holden matched her contentious tone. “He wanted me to use my influence with you to try and get you to sell to him.”
She released a short, bitter laugh. “And you said?”
“That you’re a very intelligent woman who likes to make up her own mind. I also warned him that tactics like this were not likely to put him in your good graces.”
Libby watched him get the coffeemaker out. “You can say that again.”
Holden poured coffee grounds into the paper filter. “I’m not the only rancher he’s visited. He’s been making the rounds of all your customers.”
“And my employees.” Frowning, Libby told Holden about the meeting she’d had with her staff before she had come over to see him.
Holden added water and switched on the machine. “How do you feel about that?”
“Honestly?” She leaned against the counter and rubbed the toe of her suede pump across the wide-plank oak floor. “I don’t know what to think.” She bit her lip. “He seems to have convinced everyone that he would do one heck of a lot better job running the dealership than I have.”
“And that hurts,” Holden guessed, wrapping a consoling arm about her shoulders.
Libby settled into the curve of his arm in a drift of cinnamon perfume. “I thought I had done a good job.” She shook her head. “Sales are on par with what Percy—and his parents—managed. I’ve given everyone bonuses and cost-of-living raises.”
“I know they all appreciate that.”
“Yeah.” Libby fell silent.
“I thought this was what you wanted.”
“So did I,” she admitted.
Sensing there was more, he waited.
She ran her hands through her hair, then turned to look up at him. “I didn’t expect to get what I wished for so quickly.” She stepped back slightly so they were no longer touching.
Holden pushed aside the need to pull her into his arms and kiss her again. “Has Johnston come in with a number yet?” he asked.
“No.” Libby sighed. “But given how determined he is to make the deal, I can’t imagine he would offer anything insulting.”
“You can still turn him down.” Stay here in Laramie. “Keep the business in the family, so to speak.”
Regret pinched the corners of her mouth. “Actually, Holden,” she said softly, “I can’t.”
LIBBY COULD TELL by the way Holden was looking at her that she was acting like a flighty woman unable to make up her mind.
She couldn’t help it. Her emotions were a mess. And who better to hear why than the man who had already seen her at her worst, and thought no less of her?
“I still feel bad about selling, because even though the Lowel
l name will be on the dealership, there’ll be no one from the family actually involved in running the business.”
He got two mugs from the cupboard. “And that ends three generations of tradition.”
Libby frowned. “That’s not what Percy or his parents would have wanted.”
Holden filled the mugs with the fragrant brew. “You’re right.” He paused to pass her one. “As much as Percy sometimes resented being handed a career, he was proud of what his family had built.”
Libby sipped the hot, delicious coffee. “I’m proud of it, too. And now I’m on the brink of ending that.”
Holden took her elbow and led her to the living room. “Have you thought about keeping the dealership yourself and just hiring someone else to run the day-to-day operations?”
She settled on the handsome leather sofa. “I’d still have to be involved on some level. And that would keep me from moving on to a life of my choosing.”
“Which would be where?” he asked as he sat down beside her.
Libby turned toward him. “I don’t know that, either. I was thinking Austin, because I grew up there, but most of my friends have moved away.” She drew a bracing breath. Became way too aware of the soapy clean scent of his hair and skin.
Pushing aside a mental image of Holden in the shower, she forged on. “Would being there just remind me of losing Aunt Ida?”
Compassion shone in his blue eyes.
Libby swallowed. “I could certainly relocate to Dallas or Houston. There would be plenty of opportunity for whatever I might choose to do with my life.”
“But no family or friends.”
She traced the UT insignia on the coffee mug. “I don’t have family anywhere.”
Holden lifted his mug to his lips. “That will change.”
She met his eyes and didn’t look away. “Will it?” she countered softly, feeling a little depressed again, like the hero in A Charlie Brown Christmas. “I don’t seem to have much luck in that department.”
Holden put his coffee aside. “I know you feel unattached, Libby. Sometimes I feel that way, too.”
A Cowboy to Marry Page 7
