Sara smiled with a mixture of happiness and relief as she nestled against the hard, unyielding muscles of his chest. “Take a breath, cowboy,” she teased, still tingling all over when he let her go. “It’s all good. Although, I have to ask... Are you okay?”
His brow crinkled in surprise. “Yeah, why?”
Might as well be honest. Blushing beneath the appreciation in his gaze, she ushered him across the entry and into the main living area of her home. “You look like you haven’t slept in a couple of days.”
He tilted his head in acknowledgment, looking as if he wanted nothing more than to make love to her again, then shrugged. “A lovesick cow kept me up all night.”
She squinted back at him, not sure whether he was joking or not. “Seriously?”
He cast fond looks at their two young charges, then turned his attention back to her, tipping the brim of an imaginary hat. Obviously enjoying how flustered she’d become, he gave her a cocky grin. “Yes, ma’am. Had a three-year-old Brahma stumble onto my property in the middle of night, bellowing at the top of her lungs.” His lazy grin widened. “I had to catch her and put her in the barn, then look at the brand and the ear tag and figure out who she belonged to.”
Although cattle did occasionally get loose, the timing of the escape could have been a whole lot better, Sara thought. Even as the large-animal veterinarian in her wanted to know, “Was the cow okay?”
“Physically, she was fine,” Matt reported soberly. “I’m not sure her heart was all that great.” He strolled closer, recalling with a smile. “She was in heat. In search of a bull down the road.”
Now it was beginning to make sense. “At Chance Lockhart’s ranch, Bullhaven, where there are dozens of prime bulls,” Sara guessed, trying not to think how right it felt, having Matt here with her this way.
“Yep,” he related. “But my unexpected visitor was not a cow meant to breed rodeo stock, so she was out of luck.” He shook his head, chuckling. “Not that this deterred her, given the raging state of her hormones. Anyway, she never let up her bellowing all night.” Mischief lit his sexy smile as he locked eyes with Sara. He took her hand and pressed it comically over the left side of his chest. “The heart wants what the heart wants, I guess.”
Sara’s sure did. Fingers tingling at the brief contact, she stepped back and propped her hands on her hips, surveying him. “If you didn’t look so tired, McCabe, this would be funny.”
“Actually,” he said and shoved a hand through his hair, setting the damp strands to right, chuckling all the more, “it’s still kind of funny. Anyway, I talked to her owner around dawn and he came to get his lovesick cow around eight this morning.”
Sara could imagine what a relief that had been. “Were you able to go back to bed?” she asked before she could stop herself.
His sleep habits were really none of her business.
And she really didn’t need to imagine him naked between the sheets of his bed. Or wonder what it would be like to be there with him...
Oblivious to the unprecedentedly ardent direction of her thoughts, Matt gave another negative shake of the head. “I had to deliver a big load of mesquite to a barbecue restaurant chain in San Antonio. Just got back a little while ago from that. Went to shower, and here I am. A little late...”
Which explained his wet, shampoo-smelling hair and soap-scented skin.
“...but ready to go.” He pulled out his phone. “So want to get started on teaching Champ the sit-stay command?”
Figuring the more on task they were, the better, Sara smiled. “Let’s do it.”
* * *
Luckily, Charley had nodded off in the battery-operated swing while they were talking. Hence, Matt’s only responsibility was manning the video camera on his cell phone while Sara put Champ through his paces.
“Okay, Champ, sit,” Sara commanded.
The puppy settled on his haunches, while looking up at her.
“Good sit!” Sara praised warmly, giving him a treat.
She lifted her hand in a halting manner. “Now stay.”
Understanding, Champ remained where he was.
“Good boy!” Sara crooned, while Matt looked on proudly, too. “Good stay!” She treated the pup again as he looked up at her intently. And on they went. Practicing walking on a leash, by Sara’s side, without pulling ahead or to the side. Sitting and staying longer. Sitting and staying with lots of warm praise and no treats.
Champ aced it all. And like the magnificent helper he was, Matt captured it all on video on his cell phone. When they’d finished, he promptly emailed it in to the puppy-training group at WTWA.
Aware how much she was going to miss these evenings together when their bargain inevitably ended, Sara asked, “Would you mind sending me one, too? I’d really like to have it.”
“No problem,” Matt said with a genial smile, doing that, too.
Sara gave Champ food and water and put him back in his crate to rest. Charley was waking up from his little nap, so she lifted him out of his swing, handed him to Matt, and then began preparing her son’s dinner of baby food, too.
A supremely contented look on his face, Matt held Charley in his arms while lounging against the kitchen counter. Watching them, Sara couldn’t help but think what a great daddy he was going to make some day. Probably husband, too. He was such a natural on the domestic front.
It was too bad she wasn’t interested in getting married again.
Unaware of the romantic nature of her thoughts, Matt surveyed her thoughtfully. “Is it going to bother you to have to give Champ up at the end of the month?”
Tingling everywhere his glance had touched, and especially everywhere it hadn’t, Sara shook her head. With effort, she drew on a skill she had learned in vet school. “I know this is only temporary so I’m making sure I keep my professional distance and don’t get too attached.”
Although he looked skeptical, as if wondering if that could actually be done with a puppy as cute as little Champ, Matt reached over to grab a tissue and dabbed some drool from Charley’s chin. “That’s good.”
Matt shot Champ, who was now snuggled up against the grate drowsily watching everything that was going on, a gentle look. “What about Champ?” Without warning, he sounded a little worried. “Is the pup going to have a hard time leaving you?”
Wasn’t that just the five-million-dollar question.
Sara exhaled. She lifted her gaze to his, answering carefully. “If it were just Champ and me and Charley all the time for a month, and this home was all he knew, he likely would, at least for a short while.”
She held up a hand before Matt could interrupt.
“That’s why we’re getting him used to all sorts of different situations and places and people. To help prepare him for the extensive training and varied experience he’s going to have over the next two years.”
Matt nodded approvingly, although he still looked a little apprehensive. “He is a pretty calm and outgoing little fella.”
Smiling, Sara reflected, “He’s definitely got the heart of a service animal. Plus, he seems to automatically sense where he is needed...as was demonstrated when he met Alyssa Barnes and some of the other soldiers at WTWA.” She released a breath. “So, as long as there is a soul in need of comforting, or a wounded vet in need of assistance, I think he’s going to rise to the challenge and be just fine. And I know he will be loved, wherever he goes, by whomever he is with.”
Matt seemed to trust her assessment. “Good to hear,” he said gruffly.
Wondering if Matt were beginning to get a little too attached to the pup-in-training, despite his previous aversion to all dogs, Sara reached for Charley and settled him in his high chair.
Turning back to Matt, she asked casually, as if she hadn’t been hoping this would be the case all along, “Would you like to stay for dinner?”
* * *
There were a lot of reasons why he should decline, Matt thought. The first being the reason he had been unable to sleep the night before, even before the lovesick cow showed up.
His first visit to the West Texas Warriors Association facility had been as difficult as he’d expected. Seeing the veterans who’d been getting rehab in the glass-walled physical therapy center stop what they were doing long enough to greet Champ warmly had brought up a lot of memories. Good and bad. And though he hadn’t had any more nightmares since he had started helping out Sara, Charley and Champ, he had feared he might be thrust right back into the darkness if he did go to sleep. Which in turn had made him wonder if he was doing the right thing in spending so much time with them, given Sara’s ever-present need to move on to a happier, trauma-free life. So, aside from the few kisses they’d shared the night before, at the evening’s end, he was putting the brakes on the sexual part of their relationship, too.
At least for now.
Until he was sure he could be what she wanted and needed...even in an untraditional, non-married, sense.
“I mean I do owe you a meal, and then some,” Sara continued, an uncertain smile curving her soft lips.
Damn. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her feelings. And given how delicious whatever she was cooking smelled...he’d be a fool to turn it down. Pushing the troublesome thoughts away, Matt straightened. “Love to, darlin’,” he said. Maybe this was just what he needed. Maybe Sara was just what he needed. “What can I do to help?”
Relief showed in her slender frame and a smile lit up her face. “Finish feeding Charley for me?”
Their hands brushed as she handed him the dish of baby applesauce and some sort of meat and vegetable entrée. Aware all over again how silky her skin felt, it sparked in him a fierce longing to rediscover every glorious inch of her soft, womanly curves. Matt released a rough breath as he pulled up a chair in front of the infant. “I think we can handle that.”
Charley watched him raptly, seemingly as happy to have Matt there for dinner as Matt was to be with them. He could so get used to this. In fact, he had a suspicion they all could. “So how has your day been?” he asked Sara, over his shoulder.
As she moved about the kitchen gracefully, he admired how pretty she looked in her yellow button-up blouse, knee-length denim skirt and brown leather moccasins. “Very busy. Since plans are underway for the WTWA service-dog reunion.”
“Oh, that’s right.” Matt shifted his chair so he could see her, and Charley, too. “You’re having it at the Blue Vista?”
“Yes. We’re having it here at my ranch.” Pleasure teased the corners of her lips. “I’ve got plenty of room. Anyway, I volunteered to help send out the invitations and gather the RSVPs this year, so whenever Charlie and Champ were down for a nap I was busy doing that.”
Matt watched Sara put together roast chicken sandwiches on fresh-baked wheat bread, with slices of tomato, red onion, and colby-jack cheese. She added chipotle mayo, then slid them onto the panini press. “Am I on the invite list?”
She looked up, her expression inscrutable. “Did you want to be?”
Two weeks ago he would have said hell no. Two days ago, after making love to Sara, he would have said hell yes. Now...after visiting the WTWA with her...he was on the fence.
To go and be around all his fellow soldiers and the dogs they loved could mean triggering a new slate of hellacious memories. However, to not go would be signaling to Sara that she—and the dog she was training—weren’t important to him.
Assuming his answer was no, Sara turned away from him and kept her poker face. She removed the sandwiches from the panini press and slid them onto a plate. “I’d like to have you here,” she said gently, “but it’s not required. Not by a long shot.”
Actually, Matt thought, it was. Especially if he didn’t want some other ex-soldier making a move on her. Because whether Sara realized it or not, something was happening with her, too. Her heart was opening up again to new people, new experiences. Same as his.
“I’ll not only attend,” he promised, reaching over to briefly touch her hand as she put the plates on the table, then returned to the stove to get the rest of the meal. “I’ll help out in any way I can.”
* * *
Sara couldn’t say she was surprised that Matt had volunteered once again. The McCabes were gallant to the core.
There had been a moment there, however, before he had accepted her invitation, when she’d sensed something troubling him again.
That worried her.
It was moments like that, when she didn’t know what was going on with him emotionally, that had destroyed her marriage to Anthony. She didn’t want a similar exclusion wrecking her rekindled friendship with Matt.
Thankfully, he looked okay—albeit still a little tired—now. And maybe that’s all his hesitation had been, she thought. The fact he was feeling tired and overwhelmed after a very long day.
Bolstered by the positive turn in her thoughts, she ladled chicken tortilla soup into bowls, set them on a tray, along with the condiments, and carried it to the table.
As she sat down opposite him, he regarded her with interest. “So how is this event usually set up?” he asked, adding shredded cheese, sour cream, pico de gallo and guacamole to his fragrant soup.
“It’s very casual. We set up on the lawn. All the attendees bring food and outdoor folding chairs. A couple of people usually man the grills. Mostly, people sit around and share stories, and meet each other’s service animals, and at the end of the reunion, we take some pictures.”
“How many people attend?”
Sara stirred condiments into her soup. “Last year it was around two hundred. I think we’re on track to do about fifty more than that this year. And, of course,” she said, tilting her head, “we have invited all the people who have expressed an interest in volunteering in our puppy training program, too. So it could be about 275 total, I think.” She smiled at Matt, glad he was going to be joining them. “We probably won’t know for sure until the day of, since not everyone RSVPs.”
“Can you handle that many people here?”
Matt looked out the window. Dusk was falling, but they could still see the rolling green lawn that surrounded her ranch house.
Sara nodded. “As long as the weather is nice, we can absolutely accommodate everyone. If it’s not,” she frowned, relating, “then we have to move it to the WTWA building, which can hold that many people and their dogs at one time. Although it won’t be as cozy, since they’ll be scattered over three floors and a covered outdoor area.”
Matt paused, taking it all in. “Let’s hope for nice weather, then...”
They talked a little more.
Sara noticed that Charley was chewing on his hand, as if his gums were bothering him again, so she brought out a teething ring from the freezer and handed it to him.
Matt laughed as Charley promptly stuck it in his mouth and rubbed it back and forth across his gum. “Got to hand it to the little guy,” Matt claimed, as proud as any father. “He figured out what makes him feel better right away.”
Sara nodded.
Like Matt, her son preferred being self-sufficient. As did she, actually. Until now...
Now it was nice having Matt around to help, keep her company and make her feel like a whole lot more might be possible in life again.
She looked at his empty sandwich plate and soup bowl. “What about you, cowboy?” she asked. “Can I get you anything else?”
He shook his head.
“No, but it was delicious.”
“Thank you.”
Silence fell.
As the awkward pause drew out, Sara looked from Matt to Charley and back again. It was hard to tell who was losing steam faster now that they’d eaten. She smiled at Matt. “I was going to ask you if you wanted to hang around while I made an appl
e crumble for dessert...but I’m thinking I should offer you a mug of really strong coffee, then send you home instead.”
“Both sound really good, don’t they, Charley?”
Her son kicked his legs in response and then leaned over and reached for Matt, batting his forearm persistently.
Matt turned to slant Sara a questioning look.
“I think he wants you to hold him,” she explained. The really funny thing was, Sara wanted Matt to hold her, too...
* * *
By the time Sara had the dessert in the oven, Charley’s head was drooping over Matt’s shoulder. Sara glanced at the clock, belatedly realizing, “Oh, honey, it’s past your bedtime.”
Charley offered her a drowsy smile.
“Anything I can do?” Matt asked, still looking a little ragged around the edges himself.
Sara glanced at the puppy still sound asleep in his crate and shook her head. She gestured expansively toward the sofa. “Just have a seat and keep an ear out for the timer on the oven.”
Matt offered her a mock salute. “Will do.”
Charley’s bedtime routine of bath, storybook and bottle took about twenty minutes. When she’d finished, she eased her sleepy son into his crib and kissed him good-night.
Wondering how Matt was faring, she went back downstairs. Found him with his eyes closed and his head resting on the back of the sofa cushion, his breathing deep and even. Long jean-clad legs sprawled out in front of him, brawny arms folded across his chest, he looked incredibly solid and masculine.
Not sure what to do—leave him be and let him spend the night—or wake him and send him on his way, she edged closer still.
And that was when he stirred, his eyes opening to look up into hers.
Matt blinked. Scrubbed a hand over his face. Groaned. “I nodded off, didn’t I?”
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