Make Mine a Cowboy

by A. J. Pine

  Charlotte shook her head and let out a small laugh. Gran was stubbornly independent. Charlotte should know. She took after the woman.

  “I’m coming back,” she said again. “For however long it takes. I’ll figure it out on my end and get on the first flight out of New York I can find.”

  “Whoa,” Carter said. “That is not why I called. If she gets out of surgery and finds you here—”

  “She’ll be relieved,” Charlotte said. “She’d never admit it, but she needs more help than anyone there can give her part-time. Again, the practice won’t love it, but I have a couple weeks left. The other five or six weeks, I don’t know. I’ll take it unpaid, extend my contract, whatever I need to do. But I’m coming back to take care of Gran and the inn, and there’s nothing you can say to change that.”

  Charlotte wasn’t able to do a thing to save her grandfather from the heart attack that took his life, but she could make sure that Pearl didn’t put herself at risk again.

  Carter laughed. “You’re worse than she is, aren’t you?” he asked.

  Charlotte smiled. “I learned from the best.”

  Chapter Three

  Oh my God. Where is she?”

  Ben heard the woman’s voice, but it didn’t register that she might be talking to him. So he readjusted his hat over his eyes and went back to sleeping off his feelings.

  “Hey!”

  He heard the voice again, and this time it came with a kick to the toe of his boot. He took his time straightening and pushing the brim of his hat up so he could see who his assailant was.

  “Doc?” he said, calling Dr. Charlotte North by the nickname he’d given her when they’d enjoyed a no-strings-attached fling—his favorite kind—before she’d gone back to New York and he’d gone back to life as he knew it.

  His vision registered the disheveled auburn ponytail and the wildness in her green eyes. He’d spent weeks being the cause of such wildness, but this was different. Especially since he was pretty sure he’d been in the hospital waiting room this whole time and not in bed with Pearl Sweeney’s granddaughter.

  Then it clicked. “Oh, damn. Pearl. I’m sorry. I just—”

  “Fell asleep while my gran was in surgery?”

  Ben sat bolt upright. “I was just going to shut my eyes for five minutes. Twenty tops.” He chuckled. “Guess the day took a lot more out of me than I thought.”

  Waking up to her though…He’d done it before, but seeing her now felt…he felt…

  Charlotte crossed her arms. “My grandmother broke bones that needed to be surgically set, and you’re laughing?”

  He stood. “No. Shoot. Doc, that’s not what I meant.” He reached for the hand that gripped her rolling suitcase with white knuckles, but she snatched it away.

  Okay. He deserved that. He could see how things might look, but he was here, at the hospital, waiting to make sure her grandmother was okay. If he could just explain…

  He opened his mouth to do that, but she didn’t give him the chance.

  “Carter said she’s in recovery.” She lifted her chin and smoothed out nonexistent wrinkles in her clothes. “I just need to read her chart and verify what he relayed to me, and then everything will be fine.”

  “Doc,” he said softly. He had this sudden urge to make sure she was okay, but she shook her head.

  “Call me Charlotte, please. I need to go see her and make sure she knows there’s nothing to worry about. I cleared it with my practice. I’m taking a two-month leave of absence until she’s back on her feet.”

  And she spun on her heel and left, abandoning their conversation and her suitcase.

  He grabbed the handle and wheeled it after her, but before he could catch up, she was already hightailing it into the nearest elevator.

  That went well.

  He glanced out the waiting room window and saw that it was pitch dark outside, so he pulled out his phone and finally checked the time.

  “Eleven-thirty?” he said aloud and then laughed. “She’s pissed that I was sleeping thirty minutes before midnight?”

  He shook his head at no one in particular. She was out of sorts. He got that. And he guessed he wasn’t the first person she expected to see upon arrival.

  It wasn’t like he was prepared to see Charlotte North again so soon either. Or under such circumstances. And was it bad that while she’d yelled at him he thought about the last time he’d heard her—uh—speak with a raised voice? It had been her last night in town. And maybe a time or two the morning after. He wasn’t going to send her back to New York without a reminder of the best part of her stay in Meadow Valley.

  Maybe after things with Pearl were settled, he could show her a good time again.

  He shrugged and turned toward the exit door, pausing before he left to glance at his buzzing phone. It was Carter.

  Are you still here? My cousin said she saw you. They’re obviously keeping her overnight for observation. Sorry I forgot to tell you when surgery was done. Just one of those days, you know? Will keep you posted about a ride home after she’s released tomorrow if you’re still up for it.

  No problem, Ben texted back. And tell your cousin when she’s ready, I’ll drop by the inn with her suitcase. She left it in the ER waiting room. And before you say you’ll come grab it, I’d like to be the one to deliver it straight to the owner. I’m wide awake now, so I’ll be up for a while.

  He strolled through the door and out into the brisk, dark night.

  It had only been a week since she’d left Meadow Valley, but seeing Charlotte again—today—it felt a little like a sign.

  Their time together had been great. No, scratch that. It had been damned near spectacular. Head clearing and distracting but…the thing was, the thrill of seeing her unexpectedly should have only awakened feelings a bit below the belt. But it hadn’t. Okay it had, but there was something else.

  He paused when he got to his truck and blew out a steadying breath. Then he shook his head and laughed.

  Slow your roll, Callahan.

  This something else was nothing more than the culmination of his medical news on top of Doc—Charlotte—arriving here after receiving the news about Pearl. Coincidence. Not a sign. He threw the suitcase into the bed of his truck and absently whistled a tune.

  A two-month leave of absence, huh? He guessed the good doctor would be looking for another distraction, and who better for the job than a man who was newly in the service of doing for others?

  Because oh the things he could do to—er, for—her.

  Chapter Four

  Charlotte sat in the chair of her grandmother’s hospital room and stared at the sleeping woman. Gran was okay, but it was going to be a long road to recovery.

  Maybe she shouldn’t have lashed out at Ben like that, but she needed to be angry at someone. She couldn’t be angry at her mother for being MIA because she’d followed up her gig photographing a wedding in Scotland with a thirtieth anniversary vow renewal in Salzburg. Her mother and grandmother hadn’t seen eye to eye since Charlotte’s father had lured her mother away from Meadow Valley, first to L.A. and then to the farthest reaches of the world—as long as the happy couple was equally happy to pay their fee. And when her mother couldn’t make it back to the States in time after Gramps died, the rift between the two had only grown wider.

  Charlotte had played the middle ever since, trying to coax her mom back to Meadow Valley for at least a short visit while also trying to coax Gran to text or call her daughter to let her know she still thought of her.

  “A relationship can survive physical distance,” Pearl would say, “but not emotional absence. And your mother’s been gone longer than she’s been overseas.”

  Yet that was how Charlotte had survived since they’d all lost Gramps. Emotional distance. Solving the problems she could—with science and medicine and clear-cut answers.

  What would Charlotte say when Gran woke up? “Mom sends her love from Austria. Sorry she can’t be here after you almost killed yourself
.”

  She exhaled and closed her eyes. Her neighbor back in New York, Megan, tried talking Charlotte into joining her meditation class, but Charlotte always found an excuse to decline. Mostly it was due to time, and mostly that was the truth. But the other truth was that it was simply easier to do her own thing, to read her medical research journals and stay connected to a world that made sense. A world that had hypotheses and experiments. Conclusions and answers. Plus, as far as meditation was concerned, there was an app for that—several, actually. And each one she’d tried using—which she hated to admit was probably a few more than several—had failed. Miserably. It was like she thrived on stress. Not that she wanted to. She simply didn’t know how to relax. But she could really use some de-stressing right now.

  She opened one of her many meditation apps and followed the first direction, which was simply to focus on her breathing as she attempted to tune out the hustle and bustle of the medical staff outside the door.

  Inhale…exhale…inhale…exhale…

  Still inhaling and exhaling, she heard her alarm on her phone go off—not here in Gran’s hospital room but in her memory.

  Wait. It was working? It never worked. This had to be some sort of fluke, but it was a fluke she needed, so she followed the thread.

  She was in a bed, rationalizing that if she didn’t open her eyes, then it wouldn’t really be morning. And if it wasn’t morning, it meant her vacation wasn’t over, that she wasn’t heading from Meadow Valley all the way back to New York City. Not that she didn’t love New York. She did. She missed her bodega with the best coffee, the cacophony of horns honking, morning commuters shouting into their wireless earpieces, and the ridiculously handsome stranger in the three-piece suit who always got on at the stop after hers and somehow ended up in her train car. They never spoke and likely never would, but the routine of it—the familiarity of her entire morning commute—comforted her.

  The alarm sounded again. Or maybe she’d set a second one so she wouldn’t miss her flight. But—ugh—just a few more minutes before dealing with the real world. She threw a pillow over her face to block out the morning light.

  She felt the covers pull away from her side, and warm lips pressed a kiss to her naked hip. It was the kind of kiss that definitely melted a girl’s worries away—or turned them into something steamy.

  She hummed with delight, then fumbled for her phone on the nightstand, silencing it for good.

  Kisses trailed up her side, dangerously close to her now-exposed breast, and a strong hand gently uncovered her face so those same warm lips could find hers.

  “I’m gonna be late,” she said, her voice half pout and half purr.

  But Charlotte North didn’t do anything by accident, which meant she’d worked in enough time for a little of this when she’d set her alarms last night.

  She finally opened her eyes, squinting against the morning sun sneaking in through the shuttered windows. And there he was—Ben Callahan—her cowboy. Well, her vacation cowboy. She didn’t have time for much else, and lucky for her, her cowboy was on a permanent vacation from anything resembling a relationship. It had made for a perfect escape from reality, and after today there’d be a whole country between them.

  “Do you want to be late?” Ben asked, his dark hair sticking up at all angles, his jaw covered in scruff.

  She propped herself up on her elbow and tousled his already tousled locks.

  Looking at him, at those mischievous blue eyes, she wanted to be all kinds of late. She wanted to miss her plane. She wanted to prolong the fantasy as long as she could.

  “I could be late,” she said. “As long as I’m not keeping you from anything.”

  He glanced at his naked wrist and then grinned that devilish grin that had gotten her into this same situation—the day they’d met.

  “Nothing important on the docket today other than making sure I put a smile on your face that lasts the whole flight home.”

  He pulled her on top of him, and she yelped with laughter.

  “Just like that, Doc,” he said.

  She rolled her eyes and pretended the nickname annoyed her. And it would have if anyone else had said it, but Ben somehow made it sound sweet, sincere, and almost real.

  It might have been the closest thing to a relationship she’d ever had. But it wasn’t real.

  He kissed her, and she forgot what she was thinking.

  Kisses were good like that.

  Charlotte hummed softly.

  Someone cleared their throat, the sound most definitely coming from outside her meditation-induced memory.

  Oh God. Had she hummed out loud? Did it sound like—

  “You awake there, cuz?” a voice whisper-shouted.

  Her eyes flew open to find her cousin Carter standing in Pearl’s doorway.

  “Yes!” she whispered back, then stood and tiptoed to the door, grateful she hadn’t woken her grandmother with her hum. Moan? WHAT DID CARTER HEAR?

  “Must have been a good dream,” he said with a grin.

  She backhanded him on the shoulder. “Cut me some slack. I just flew across the country worried out of my head. And it’s”—she glanced at her watch—“almost midnight. Which means for me it’s about three a.m.”

  Carter held his hands up in a peace offering. “I will say nothing else about whatever—or whoever—you were dreaming about.” He laughed and then mimed zipping his lips. “And you? Worried? That’s a first.”

  Thank the stars for his discretion—and for a familiar face when everything else felt like chaos.

  “I’m not worried. Not anymore now that I know Gran is in the best possible hands. The surgeons did a great job. And she’s resting comfortably. While I wish circumstances were otherwise, all is right with the world—or will be in a couple of months.”

  Carter laughed. “Do you read your patients’ charts to wind down at the end of the night? Or do you just snuggle up with the New England Journal of Medicine and call it a day?”

  Charlotte glanced down at the chair in which she’d been meditating—at the medical journal that had been splayed on her chest. “If you must know, it’s Pediatric Allergy and Immunology these days. The office is going to start doing allergy testing after the first of the year, so I want to make sure I—”

  “Know everything about everything?” Carter teased. “You’re still you.”

  Charlotte rolled her eyes, but she actually enjoyed her cousin’s teasing and the familiarity of being in a place where people got her.

  Before coming out for the fall festival, Charlotte had only seen Carter a handful of times since they were kids, their paths crossing when they’d both visit Meadow Valley in the summer—him traveling all the way from Houston and her from L.A. Somehow Meadow Valley had reeled him in though. Or maybe it was his fiancée, Ivy Serrano, who had done that. She guessed it was a combination of the two. For Charlotte, this had only ever been a place to visit. Now she had to find a way to make it home for the next six to eight weeks.

  Carter grabbed Pearl’s chart from the door and nodded toward Charlotte.

  “You already read it, I assume?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Didn’t have to. Dr. Alvarez and her nurses filled me in as soon as I got up here. Dual fractures in the ankle, both pinned in place during surgery.” Her foot was wrapped in a soft splint and bandage to manage the post-surgery swelling. “She told me I have to bring Gran back in a week for the plaster cast. The wrist, luckily, was set without surgery, but it was still a bad break. They want her in a sling so she doesn’t get overconfident and start using her hand before she should.”

  Carter smiled. “Sounds like Doc knows who she’s dealing with.”

  Charlotte’s eyes widened at her cousin’s use of Doc and hoped he didn’t notice. She’d been so cold to Ben in the ER, but in her defense, he was sleeping when he should have been…what? It made sense now. He’d been there waiting for Pearl, which meant he’d been there to help. She just hadn’t been mentally prepared f
or him to be the first person she saw. Not that there was any way to prepare for seeing your vacation fling asleep in an emergency waiting room because he was worried about your grandmother too.

  “Hello? Charlotte? Did you hear anything I just said?”

  She blinked and saw Carter’s hand waving in front of her face.

  “What? No. Sorry. Guess I got caught up in thinking about what could have happened. She’s really lucky, you know?”

  Carter nodded. “She is, but she’s not going to feel so lucky being confined to a wheelchair. That’s what I was saying when you zoned out. There’s no way she can use crutches or even a cane without her right hand. She can’t do any of the cooking for the inn let alone run the place. Are you sure you know what you’re in for?”

  Charlotte forced a smile and nodded. “The inn’s kitchen has a microwave, right?” She let out a nervous laugh. When Carter called her earlier today, he’d assured her Gran’s injuries weren’t life-threatening, but he’d also made it clear that Pearl was in no shape for her day-to-day duties at the inn and that she wouldn’t be for quite some time.

  Pearl was it for Charlotte—the one constant in her life that wasn’t work or routine. Even if Gran was 3,000 miles away, she was the closest relationship in Charlotte’s life. Gran was her person, and Charlotte hadn’t thought twice about dropping everything to help her—which meant she really hadn’t thought this through. Leaving her job and her stable life to run an inn? What the hell was she thinking? She couldn’t cook, and she certainly didn’t know how to fold a fitted sheet or…or even register guests.

  Seriously. What had she done?

  Carter winced. “Pearl has a small cooking staff. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Just in case, though, I’ll see if Casey from Midtown Tavern can stop by tomorrow and give you a few pointers. Just try not to let Pearl know if you start serving pub fare. She’ll flip.”