“…Thanks,” she said at last.
“Thank you for grabbing hold of me out on the trail. I could have gone off the edge.” I’d had plenty of close calls in my lifetime. That was the life of being a rancher. But I knew how fortunate I was that she’d reacted quickly. If I’d been on my own, I wouldn’t have been so lucky.
“Maybe,” she conceded, relaxing the tiniest bit. “And you’re welcome. I guess that’s why you’re always supposed to hike with a partner.”
“You don’t, though, do you?” I asked, noticing that her shivering was lessening.
“No, I like my independence. It’s why I came back to Poplar Springs to set up my practice. I had an offer to become a partner in a vet hospital in Denver, but I like to do things my way. Being a sole owner suits me better. And I couldn’t turn my back on my father’s land.”
I understood both family obligations and the desire to be independent. “It’s a weird thing, though,” I said. “Working for yourself is good in some ways. I love the freedom and sense of ownership over everything I do, but it tends to absorb my life, leaving little personal time.”
“That’s true enough,” she agreed. “I haven’t been on a date since…since I don’t remember when. Vet school, maybe? That’s terrible.” She wrinkled up her nose. “You date?”
“Some,” I admitted. “Nothing serious, though. No time for that.” Before my dad and Luke were killed, I’d had an active social life, but with the responsibility of the ranch on my shoulders, I refused to dedicate the time it took for anything beyond a casual romance. I told myself that I didn’t want anything more.
From what I’d seen, love was messy and ran counter to my need to be in control. Relationships were too difficult to navigate and maintain. So if I started to feel strongly for someone, experienced feelings that messed with my head, I tended to break it off. Or I overcompensated by trying to manage the relationship, which usually resulted in the woman wanting out.
“So there’s good and bad, but I still wouldn’t trade being a vet here,” she said, bringing me back from my mental wanderings.
“What made you decide that was the job for you? You could have taken over your family’s ranch or done anything.” In high school she’d been top of her class; everything appeared to come easily to her.
“That’s simple,” she said with a small smile. “I had a pony named Meredith as a child. When I was about ten, she got sick and Dad couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so he called a vet. Ruth Wilcox came out, and I followed her around, asking a million questions. She took the time to answer them and discovered what was wrong with Meredith. I was so impressed that I decided I wanted to do the same thing. I’ve been focused on it ever since.”
“Inspiring.” I could see how that would have had an impact on a child. “Wait, so how come Declan Morris bought out her practice instead of you?”
Julia chuckled. “You’ve met her, right?” I nodded. The old vet was excellent with animals, but when it came to people? She was onery on a good day. “She had a falling out with my dad while I was in high school. That woman can hold a grudge. She wouldn’t think of considering me.” She shook her head. “It’s okay. I already had another plan in place.”
Neither of those things surprised me—that Ruth Wilcox transferred her anger with Shaun Lett to her and that Julia had a long-term plan that went back to high school.
“What about you? Did you consider anything but ranching?” she asked.
“Not for a second. I always knew I’d be a rancher. When we were kids, Brian always played the sheriff, and I was the cowboy in our make-believe world.”
“Who was the villain?” she asked.
“Sometimes, Luke was the enemy and we’d sneak around spying on him, but he was never actually part of our game.” There was only a four year difference in our ages, but once Luke hit puberty, it felt more like a full generation.
“So you’ve never done anything else?”
“Yeah, I have, but not by choice.” It wasn’t a story I told often, but we had time to kill, and I felt comfortable with her. “I got in trouble one summer. Brian and I were out goofing off, trying to pull off stunts in the ranch trucks. I messed up and crashed. I was fine—but the truck wasn’t. Dad made me earn the money for the repairs doing an off-the-ranch job. I worked at the diner in town.”
I didn’t add that my father had banned me from so much as touching the horses until I could prove myself worthy of the privilege again. It’d been torture not being allowed into the barn or the pastures—and it was a lesson I’d never forgotten.
“Oh, how did that go?”
I shrugged. “The owners were good to me, but I hated the job. Busboy and dishwasher. The worst was being trapped indoors during the summer months.”
“That would kill me,” she said, twisting a little closer to me. I didn’t think the move was intentional, but it was a stark reminder that a desirable and nearly naked woman was in my arms.
“No matter the weather, I’ve got to get outside every day,” I said, trying to focus on the words and not the feel of her on my lap. “Mom used to try to keep me in if I was sick, but I always escaped.”
“I climbed out the second story window and down the trellis more times than I can remember,” Julia said with a chuckle. “Usually at night, though. Something about the quiet with the moonlight calls to me, and I can’t stay inside.”
“You use the stairs and the door now, I hope,” I teased.
“I do. I guess that’s the advantage of living alone. No one tells me what to do. While Icouldgo out the window, it really is easier to use the door.”
My imagination got the best of me, and I pictured her going outside in a flimsy nightgown to stand in the warm nighttime air. The soft light would reveal her curves through the thin fabric. Curves that were currently pressed up against me. I felt myself getting hard. In another few seconds, she’d feel it, too. I needed to get her off my lap.Too late, I realized, when she turned her face toward me, her eyes widening.
