She gave me a pained look. “You know I trained with Doc Wilson before buying out his practice. I overheard your father confiding in him that Luke had a good head for making money, but he made his decisions with too much focus on the financial bottom line. Both Doc and your dad were concerned that might have a negative impact on the health of the animals. Your dad asked Doc to keep an eye on what Luke did. Until today, I never saw any reason to bring it up. But Queenie needs better feed—and quick.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said, reeling on the inside. My dad didn’t trust Luke’s judgment? That didn’t make sense. Not once had I seen him disagree with Luke’s actions. Not one damn time. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Are you saying I’m a liar or suggesting that I don’t know about animals? Or both?” She glared at me, her hands going to her hips. “Because looking at Queenie now, it’s clear that she’s malnourished and you’ve been feeding her crap feed chosen byyourbrother.”
I took a step closer to her, my temper raging. I wanted to tell her that she didn’t know a damn thing about anything to do with my family. I wanted to tell her to get the hell off my ranch. But with just inches between us, the memory of kissing her hit me hard enough to make me suck in a breath. My thoughts immediately went to everything that happened after that initial kiss, and I felt my face go red. From anger? Temptation? I didn’t know.
Her eyes suddenly widened, and she turned away. Whatever she’d seen on my face was enough for her to start quickly packing away the few items she’d gotten from her bag to examine Queenie.
“Call me if she doesn’t show improvementafteryou’ve switched her feed, which I suggest you do today. And don’t just limit it to her. Change it out for all of them. I don’t want to have to come back out here for this again.” Julia shook her head and the look on her face was one of pure disappointment, which hit me hard in the gut. She headed for the barn door, her strides long.
Maybe it was because she didn’t look back again, or because my brain was warring with the desire either to argue with her or kiss her, but I jogged after her and grabbed her arm. I didn’t have a plan for what to say, but I wasn’t done with our conversation. She jerked away from my hold and stumbled back, her foot catching on a slight dip in the ground. A second later she was on the ground.
“Dammit,” she said and sucked in a breath. Her hands went to her right ankle, rubbing it.
“Jesus, Julia, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you fall.” I dropped down next to her. My anger was gone in a second. I wanted to make sure she wasn’t injured, but she waved me away.
“I don’t need anything from you,” she said. “Leave me alone.”
“Let me help you up.” It was all I could do not to gather her up in my arms and lift her from the ground. “We’ll go up to the house and?—”
“Back off and give me a minute,” she practically barked at me, and I froze. She grimaced when she probed her own ankle, making me think it had to be sprained, if not broken. But she seemed determined to ignore that possibility, insisting, “I’m fine. Really. I’ll just go home and ice it. I’m sure it’s just a sprain.”
She attempted to struggle to her feet, rolling awkwardly to her side so her good leg took all her weight as she pushed herself up into a standing position. I hovered near by, waiting for her to accept my help. She didn’t. “See, it’s all good.”
“Julia, you can’t even put weight on it,” I argued.
“Yes, I can.” She put her right foot on the ground and almost went down when her ankle buckled beneath her. I caught her around the waist, keeping her upright.
“You won’t be able to drive like this,” I said. “I’ll take you home.”
“Get me to my truck,” she conceded, accepting my help for now. “I can drive with my left foot. It’s only a few miles.”
“Nope, that’s not safe. Both Brian and Sofia would be furious with me if I let you drive like this.” I hoped that by mentioning Sofia in addition to my brother, she might see reason when all she appeared to be seeing was red. I steadied her with one arm while retrieving her bag with the other. With my help, she hopped out of the barn. Both our trucks were parked nearby. Ignoring her attempts to head toward her own, I guided her to mine.
“I don’t need your help,” she gritted out.
“How are you going to get in your house when you get to your ranch?” I asked. “Did you think of that?”
“Fine. Take me home,” she said, hopping the last few steps to the passenger door.
She swung the door open with more force than necessary and I barely missed taking the edge of the door to my shin. She reached for the grip and hoisted herself onto the seat while grimacing in pain. I watched her struggle and finally stepped forward to help her finish getting in the truck, trying very hard not to think about how good it felt to touch her.
I felt like an ass given how much pain she was in, but I couldn’t stop mentally replaying the way we’d made love to each other that night in the rain. In this moment, we were boiling mad at each other, but that didn’t change the arc of attraction between us.
I got in the driver’s seat and headed toward the main road. As I drove, I considered my options. I could take her home, get her ice and ibuprofen, and see that she had everything she needed for the day. I could hear her making small, pained noises eventhough she tried not to, and I was convinced that she required ongoing care.
It might be a sprain as she thought, but even then she could do more damage by walking on it too soon. I’d learned that the hard way when I was a teenager and took a fall from a horse. I’d declared that my arm was fine, and I’d been partially right. It hadn’t been broken, but I’d made a bad sprain worse by continuing to use that arm until my mother forced me to go to the urgent care center.
I wasn’t letting that happen to Julia. I made the turn toward her ranch, but when her driveway came into sight, I drove on by.
“What are you doing?” she said. “I live there.” She pointed behind us. “Or have you forgotten?”
“I know where you live,” I said, gearing up for another fight. “I’m taking you to the urgent care center.”
“I don’t need to go there. It’s just a sprain. Turn around and take me home. Now.” Her tone was imperious, as if she expected to be obeyed—but that wasn’t going to happen. I continued driving toward the urgent care center knowing full well that I might destroy the tenuous relationship that existed between us to the point I’d have to find another on-call vet. But dammit, what if it was worse than she thought and she was too stubborn to do anything about it?
She crossed her arms in front of her and I heard her huff, but other than that it was a silent drive until I pulled up in front of the urgent care center.
