by Kat Brookes
They walked in companionable silence the remainder of the way through the hospital. When they reached the oversize revolving doors at the building’s entrance, Garrett motioned for Hannah to step in first, and then followed her inside as it turned.
“Favorite flower,” Hannah said as they stepped out onto the sidewalk.
Garrett snapped out of his reverie to find Hannah glancing over at him with a grin. “What?”
“Think fast,” she said, smiling. It was a game they had begun playing to help fill the long hours they spent at the hospital. Throwing out random questions when the other wasn’t expecting it. She repeated herself, and then added, “Which is your favorite? Or maybe you don’t know the names of any flowers, your being a rugged cowboy and all.”
His lifted a brow, and not because of the question she had asked. She clearly assumed that a cowboylike him wouldn’t be able to answer that particular impromptu question. “I’ll have you know I’m pretty knowledgeable when it comes to flowers.”
Surprise lit her features. “You are?”
“Blue is big on going flower picking,” he admitted with a grin as they crossed the parking lot. “As her uncle, it’s my job to know which flowers are which.”
Hannah lifted a slender brow. “I have to admit I’m impressed.”
“And to answer your question,” he said as they neared his truck, “A marigold.”
She looked up at him. “A marigold?”
Reaching out, he opened the passenger door and helped Hannah up inside. “Yep.” His grin widened. “Seems I’m a bit partial to flowers that remind me of you. Dark red marigolds that have shades of yellows and golds mixed in make me think of your hair when you’re standing outside, surrounded by sunshine,” he said as he closed the passenger side door and walked away with a grin.
* * *
Garrett strode from the barn, peeling off his work gloves as he went. It had been nearly a week since he’d told Hannah he liked marigolds, because they reminded him of her. The memory of it made him smile. And while the past couple of weeks had been challenging, fitting in trips to the hospital with Hannah, scheduled vet visits and tasks he needed to see to at the ranch, he was making it work—for her. Even if it meant dropping into bed dog-tired each night. Hannah would be leaving soon, and he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible before that happened. And it had nothing to do with her sunset-colored hair or her big, beautiful green eyes. Well, not completely. He liked her. All of her—from the inside out.
“Perfect timing.”
He glanced up to find the woman filling his thoughts walking toward him. Garrett smiled. “Did you rest up like you were supposed to?”
“Yes,” she answered with a smile. “Did you get done whatever it was you needed to do while I rested?”
“I did. I’ve finished with preparations for tomorrow’s vaccinations.”
Hannah’s gaze drifted past him to the corral beside the barn.
Garrett knew without looking what had drawn her attention in that direction. He’d just left Tucker, who was in the midst of breaking in another horse.
“What’s he doing?” Hannah asked.
He cast a glance back over his shoulder, his gaze coming to rest on his youngest brother, who stood in the middle of the corral, coaxing the gelding circling the outer edge of the corral to speed up.
“Breaking in a green horse,” he explained.
“Green horse?”
“A horse that isn’t ready to saddle up and ride yet. That little filly he’s working with right now is young and a pretty feisty yet.”
“It looks dangerous,” she said worriedly.
“My brother knows what he’s doing,” he said. “He’ll get the job done and come out of it all in one piece. I promise.” He inclined his head. “Now come on, let’s take that ride I promised you last week.”
Once they were seated inside, Garrett started the engine and turned to Hannah. “Windows up or down? There’s a bit of a chill in the air this afternoon.”
“Down,” she answered. “I want to take in the fresh air and the sounds around us.”
With a nod, he lowered all the windows, and then slid open the sunroof. “You let me know if the air coming in gets to be too much.”
“I will,” she said as they pulled away from the house. Hannah glanced around at the outbuildings and various pastures. “So, this is all part of the family business?”
“For the most part,” Garrett replied. “The ranch belonged to my father, but he added our names to the deed when we went into rodeo stock contracting. That way we could insure our business, protecting our investments from unexpected loss, such as fire, infectious diseases, natural disasters.”
“Like a flood,” she said.
“Like a flood.”
“Dad also signed over several acres of the ranch property to each of us to build our own homes on.”
“That was so generous of him,” Hannah said.
“He’s always been very giving, wanting the best for all of us.”
“I’ve seen that of him,” Hannah said. “Of your whole family, for that matter. Your father reminds me so much of mine. It makes me realize how blessed I was not to have children with my ex-husband. He could never be the kind of father mine was, the kind I know you could be.”
Garrett looked her way. “Thank you for that. It means a lot to me.” Hannah believed in him. Given the chance, he would prove her right. Having noted the sadness in her tone when she spoke about father, he said, “I know you’re missing your father. I’m sorry he hasn’t been able to be with you through all of this.”
“It’s hard,” she admitted. “But we talk on the phone every night. Every day he sounds so much better. Hopefully, his doctor agrees when Dad sees him this week.” Her father hadn’t been responding to the antibiotics treating his bronchitis and had needed to change to a stronger one, delaying his arrival even more. It was tearing Hannah up not to be there to help care for him, but she couldn’t leave Austin. Thankfully, her father had several good friends looking in on him and providing him with meals, so he wouldn’t have to spend his energy cooking. And he’d sounded better the last couple of times they’d spoken, which surely was a sign of his good health finally returning. “He’s praying he gets the go ahead to drive up here this coming weekend. Your mother and father have invited him to stay at the ranch whenever he gets here.”
“I’ll pray he gets good news this week,” Garrett told her, wanting Hannah to have her family, at least what she had left of it, there with her—and her there with him.
“I’m sure Dad would appreciate that.”
They drove only a short distance down the road before Garrett slowed and turned onto a pull-off. Up ahead, beyond that pasture’s fencing, were the horses that had been retired from the Triple W’s rodeo roster. He shut off the engine and looked to Hannah. “I want you to meet some of our veteran horses. They’ve retired from the rodeo life and will live the remainder of their lives out here on the ranch, eating well and spending their days in leisure.”
“Sounds like a pretty nice life to have,” she said with a smile. Her gaze rested on the horses gathered just beyond the fence line, grazing contentedly. “They’re so beautiful.”
So are you was at the tip of his tongue. Thankfully, Garrett managed to hold on tight to those words. He was supposed to be giving her a tour of the ranch, not sweet-talking her with flowery compliments. Even if they were true. She was one of the prettiest, most genuine women he’d ever had the pleasure of knowing. “Come on,” he said, opening his door. “Let’s go have a closer look.” Garrett stepped out of the truck and then made his way around in long, hurried strides to help Hannah down. Then they walked together up to the fence.
Two of the horses stopped their idle grazing to come over and greet them, sticking their heads over the top of the fence where Garrett stood. They
nosed at the front of his shirt, nearly knocking him off balance with their enthusiastic greeting.
“What are they doing?” Hannah asked with a giggle.
“Begging,” he said with a chuckle.
“For what?” she asked, watching their antics.
He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out several small cubes. “Sugar. These boys have a sweet tooth like you’ve never seen.”
“A lot like their owners, from what I’ve heard,” Hannah said, smiling.
“We do at that,” he agreed. He reached out to run his hand along the side of one of the broncs’ necks. “Jackson, Tucker and I grew up surrounded by these majestic creatures. We rode before we could walk. At least, that’s how Dad tells it. Mom says otherwise.”
“I love listening to your father tell stories at dinner,” she told him.
“You mean you love listening to him embellish the truth,” Garrett corrected with a grin.
Her smile widened. “He could tell us a story about mowing the grass and make it sound exciting.”
“It’s not,” Garrett told her. “Believe me. I’d much rather be spending time with these horses.”
“I can tell,” Hannah said, looking up at the mare with a smile. Sighing softly, she said, “If I hadn’t just had a baby, I’d ask you to take me for a ride. I’ve never been on a horse before and I’d trust you to keep me safe.”
He’d like to keep her, not only safe, but in his life for good. He could teach her to ride, and she could teach him to enjoy the little things in life a little more. “Someday, I will. Austin, too.” Promise made, he inclined his head toward his truck. “We’d best move on. There’s a lot to see.”
They returned to the truck and headed farther down the road. “How did you get into contracting horses to rodeos?”
He answered, eyes still fixed on the road ahead. “After talking our thoughts over with Dad, my brothers and I decided it was what we wanted to invest our time and money into. It gave us a way to stay connected to the rodeo after we had all finally stopped competing in it. We started out contracting to supply stock to smaller, local rodeos, and, as the number in our herd grew, so did the opportunities for us to contract with even bigger rodeos. The only thing holding us back from supplying stock to the largest rodeos was the fact that we couldn’t offer bulls in addition to our broncs.”
“Why would you have to do that? You’re horse ranchers.”
“To provide for most associations, a stock contracting firm has to buy a membership and there are a lot of requirements we have to meet,” he explained.
“That’s a lot of hoops to jump through,” she noted.
“Hoops we’re more than willing to jump through,” he said.
“But I thought this was a horse ranch,” she said, glancing around. “I haven’t seen a single bull since I’ve been staying here.”
“It is,” he said with a nod. “And you wouldn’t have. We don’t own any bulls. But Kade Owens does. To meet the mandatory requirements, we formed a partnership with him.”
“Who is Kade Owens?”
“A good friend from our rodeo days,” he explained. “Kade and Jackson competed against each other in the bull riding events before an injury ended my brother’s rodeo career.”
“Is that the reason for Jackson’s limp?” she asked as she stood looking out over the pasture.
Garrett looked to her in surprise. “You noticed that?”
“I’m a physical therapist,” she reminded him, something they had touched upon a few times during their many hospital talks. That she had taken a leave of absence after her sister and brother-in-law’s passing and planned to follow that up with the allowed maternity leave after the baby was born. Her sister and Brian’s will, drawn up well before Hannah had agreed to carry their child for them, had left everything to her, so she was blessed with the financially stability to stay home with Austin for a while if she chose to. And right now there was no other option. Her son needed her, and she needed him.
“I suppose that means you would be able to pick up on things others might overlook, or not give much thought to. Where Tucker and I rode mostly horses in rodeo competitions, Jackson rode bulls. The bigger the bull, the meaner the bull, the more eager he was to climb on top of it and make the ride.”
“That had to be so scary.”
“The rush of adrenaline that comes with taking on a sixteen or seventeen-hundred-pound bull tends to push any rational fear aside for those few short seconds. When it’s man against beast. Will against will. Sometimes the bull wins,” he told her. “Like it did the day Little Shamrock, who was anything but little, won, and Jackson took a loss he couldn’t come back from.”
“What happened?” she asked almost hesitantly.
“A little over eight years ago, my brother was competing in the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. He was riding the best he’d ever done. Made his way up to the top ten. But when the next day’s competition came, Jackson seemed to be out of sorts. I’m not sure what happened to make him lose his mental focus to that extent, but it cost him, not only a lot of money, it nearly cost him his life when he was thrown by the bull he’d drawn to ride.”
Hannah gasped, her hand flying up to cover her mouth.
“He landed hard and was too dazed to react before Little Shamrock trampled him.”
“I thought they had clowns to chase the bull away when a rider falls,” she said.
“Rodeo clowns do their best to keep the fallen riders safe, but sometimes there isn’t enough time to get to the rider and to distract the bull before the damage is done. Jackson’s leg sustained most of the damage, requiring a good bit of hardware to put it back together.”
She groaned, as if imagining his brother’s pain. “And therapy, I would imagine, with a break that severe.”
“And therapy,” he acknowledged with a nod.
“Your poor brother. That had to be such a hard recovery for him.”
“More than we ever imagined it would be. It was as if something inside of him was broken, too, and we didn’t know how to fix it.” He shrugged. “Maybe it was his having been forced to accept the probability that he would never compete again. Or if he did, knowing it wouldn’t be at the level he had been.”
An empathetic frown pulled at her lips. “That would have to play not only on his heart, but on his mind and his pride as well.”
“It did. He was angry a lot of the time in the beginning, convinced he would never be the man he was because of that almost nonexistent limp.”
“Nearly nonexistent to you and me,” she said, “but in Jackson’s mind it’s what people notice first, maybe even judge him by. I know because I’ve provided physical therapy for a few rodeo cowboys who also sustained rather substantial injuries.”
“It changes everything for them. Even the slightest impairment can throw off a rider’s ability to hold on during the ride. Depending on the kind of injury they sustained, it could affect their grip strength, balance, even the rider’s ease of motion during a rough ride, as it had Jackson.”
She nodded. “That makes sense. Thank the Lord he wasn’t injured worse in that fall.”
“I do,” he admitted. “Every day. Running this business has brought us even closer than we were before. I don’t know what I would do without my brothers.” The thought was out before he’d processed what his words might do to Hannah, who had lost her only sibling. “I’m sorry. That was thoughtless of me.”
“Don’t apologize,” she said with a forgiving smile. “You should feel that way. And I pray you never have to find out. At least, not for a very, very long time.”
He prayed for the same thing.
“I’m glad you were the one to find me that day,” Hannah said, looking up at him with an expression he couldn’t quite read.
“So am I.”
As if finding herself caught
up in something she wasn’t prepared for, a feeling he could relate to, Hannah looked away.
They drove a short distance down the road before he turned onto the dirt and gravel drive that led to his place. He’d meant what he’d told her. While he wished that Hannah had never had to go through that terrifying ordeal with the flood, and then unexpected arrival of her baby, he truly was glad that he had been the one the good Lord chose to save her. To save them. To have the honor of caring for them in their time of need.
“Your place?” she asked as they neared the house.
He nodded. “I want to show you my veterinary clinic. Not that I use it much. Except for storing medications and supplies, most of my work is done out in fields and barns, since I deal mainly in the care of large animals. Horse, cows, etcetera.”
“What about smaller animals like cats and dogs?”
“There’s a vet in town who handles domesticated animals,” he explained. “We fill in for each other when needed.”
He pulled up in front of the building that served as his clinic and cut the engine. “Now sit tight until I come around to help you down.”
“Garrett, I’m perfectly capable of getting out of your truck on my own,” Hannah said, reaching for the door handle.
“I prefer to help you down because this truck is higher up than most,” he explained. “And if you were to fall getting out, my mother would have my head. The rest of my family probably would as well. I happen to like my head where it sits, atop my shoulders, so please just sit there until I come around.”
Hannah laughed softly. “Well, when you put it that way.”
After helping her down, Garrett walked her to the office entrance. He unlocked the door and then eased it open. “After you,” he said.
She stepped inside, her gaze moving slowly about the room. “It looks almost like a doctor’s office,” she noted. “Except for the skeletal posters of animals hanging on the wall behind the examination bed.”
Before Garrett could respond, his cell phone rang. “I’m sorry,” he said, apologizing for the interruption. He pulled out his phone and glanced down at the screen, then back up at Hannah. “Work call. Do you mind if I step outside and take this?”
