by Em Petrova
“Good. Now take those trash bags outside and then put on a shirt and go help your brother with the horses. He’s been trainin’ them in the afternoons and could use a hand.”
He didn’t for a minute believe Zayden needed—or wanted—his help, but he nodded all the same and went to lift the bulging trash bags. He carried them outside and around the house where the cans were kept tucked away. When he lifted a lid to stuff the bags inside, he expected to see empty glass liquor bottles filling the can like the old days when his dad dumped them here, but the can remained empty.
Things had changed since dear old pops died, and for the better. He stood there, drinking in the Colorado air and considering how two of the people he’d been closest with in life treated him now. Zayden was bound to be skeptical of his reasons for coming home, with good reason. Mimi was the same, but wore a disapproving crease between her white brows each time she looked his way.
He’d just have to prove himself to them. Showing them all he’d work for his keep and planned to make something more of himself than another drunk-ass Moon would be his priority.
A rumble in his gut had him pitching to the side. He leaned over and tore off the garbage can lid a split second before he puked his guts out.
Fuck. He’d start his new life right after he got rid of his hangover.
* * * * *
“Dr. Peterson, a call for you on line two,” the receptionist informed Brennah over the intercom.
She’d just finished lancing an abscess on a cat who got into a fight. “I’ll take the call in my office.”
She crossed the hall to her small, messy office and dropped into the seat at her desk. It would take her an entire Saturday afternoon to clear the surface of all the medical magazines and files.
She shoved her hair off her face and picked up the phone.
“This is Dr. Brennah Peterson,” she answered. For a moment, she listened to the client, her mind far away from her surroundings and already out in the field with the troubled horse. “How long has the horse been down? Since last night. Okay, I’ll be out soon. Give me your address.”
She scribbled it down and pocketed the note. She still had four more patients to see before she could make the farm call with the sick horse. Worry ate at her as she left her office and strode to the next patient room.
She loved having her own practice, adored her patients. When she took the position, she never realized how thin she’d be spread, but she never backed down from a challenge, and she’d studied her entire lifetime to achieve this dream. She was in for the long haul. Stokes, Colorado needed her, and with her mother gone to parts unknown in Florida with some new boyfriend, Brennah felt comfortable returning.
Erasing all lines of worry on her face, she put on a pleasant expression as she opened the door. “Hello.” She smiled at the woman and young girl standing next to a pit bull. “This must be Smokey.”
The woman nodded and the little girl threw her arms around the big brown dog’s neck. “Is Smokey going to die?”
Brennah eased closer to the animal with the child clinging to it. “Let’s have a look at Smokey and we can see what’s wrong with him. Has he been sick?” She looked into the girl’s blue eyes.
She nodded, ponytail bouncing.
“Why don’t you help me check over Smokey? Would you like that?”
Brennah had found that kids enjoyed teaching moments and it would lessen the girl’s fears. Glancing up at the mom, she smiled. “When did this start?”
“Tuesday he threw up a few times.”
“Did you notice any blood in it?”
“No. But since then he hasn’t been eating.”
“Nothing at all?”
The woman shook her head.
“Is he drinking?” She felt along the dog’s sides and stomach. She had her suspicions about the cause but needed more details.
“He drank a little this morning, but not the usual amount.”
“Smokey makes a big mess when he drinks,” the girl added.
Brennah smiled at her. “I bet he does! Doggies like to lap their water fast, don’t they? And they don’t care about spilling it.”
The child giggled.
After examining the dog’s eyes, ears and mouth, she made mental notes. Then she took out her stethoscope and held up the round end. “Will you help me hold this over Smokey’s heart so I can take a listen?”
Beaming, the child bobbed her head again. Together, they kept the dog still.
“Sounds good. Want to hear his heart?” Brennah asked.
“Yeah!”
She placed the earpieces into the girl’s ears. “Hear that thump-thump?”
“I hear it!” she said too loudly with her ears closed off.
Brennah and the mom chuckled. Then Brennah rose to her feet. “Is Smokey a chewer? Does he chew up toys or shoes?”
“He steals anything he can get his teeth on,” the owner replied.
Brennah nodded. “I suspect he ate something that has him clogged up. I need to take an x-ray to see, then we’re probably looking at surgery.”
Brennah saw her share of upset clients who loved their pets dearly, and this woman was no exception. Her eyes flooded with tears. “Oh no. I hate to put him through that. How much is surgery?”
“We can have the discussion when we cross that bridge. First, let’s see if maybe Smokey is just suffering from some gastroenteritis.” She looked down at the little girl and said, “An upset tummy.”
“I don’t like when my tummy’s upset either. Poor Smokey.”
“We’ll get him feeling better as quick as we can,” Brennah reassured her. “Okay, let me take Smokey and we’ll do some x-rays. I’ll bring him back to you in a few minutes.”
After taking the dog by the leash, she led him out of the room and into the wide hallway running the length of the clinic. One of her two vet technicians stood there unpacking a shipment of supplies.
Kylie turned to her with a smile. “Are you headed to x-ray?”
“Yes. I suspect he has a blockage.”
“Why don’t you let me take the x-rays and you can see the next patient?”
Brennah knew her from back in her high school days. Practically everyone from Stokes knew each other in some fashion. Kylie and the other tech, Mindi, remained close friends and attended vet tech classes together after school. Brennah sort of inherited the pair when she took over here after the former veterinarian left Stokes.
“It’s all right—I’ve got time,” Kylie said.
Brennah already knew her employees whispered behind her back that she was a control freak. She heard when they discussed how she took her own x-rays, ran her own labs and everything else that came with caring for animals, but Brennah didn’t see that as being controlling. Being more hands on meant she delivered the best care to her patients.
Deep down, though, she did question her own personality, and more than once had considered that her need to control things around her might be the result of growing up with a mom who hid too many wine bottles in the trash can. From a young age, she’d taken care of herself. Getting herself ready for school, packing her own bagged lunch and sometimes even calling off work for her mom when she couldn’t seem to climb out of bed.
She shook herself. Those memories had been cropping up all week, since she’d discovered Dane Moon passed out in her barn.
Brennah handed over the leash to Kylie with a smile. “I know you can handle it.”
A few minutes later, Brennah returned Smokey to his owners to wait, and in the meantime, she turned to yet another patient room and opened the door.
There sat a beagle with porcupine quills in his face and mouth, and some nasty ones dangerously close to his eye. Brennah shook her head at the sad state of the dog. “Hi, Mr. Williams. Looks like Butch came close to losing that eye. That’s gotta be painful, huh, boy?” She bent to examine the dog closer while she talked to the old timer.
“Always goes after the porcupines in the pines.” He rub
bed his white beard as he talked. “This is the second time I’ve had to bring him in to have the quills removed. Sometimes I can do it myself, but this…”
They both looked at the poor dog, who resembled a pin cushion.
“We’ll need to give him some sedation to work on him. Why don’t you leave him with us and we’ll give you a call once he’s all better?” She offered the older man a smile.
Minutes later, she sent Butch to get prepped for quill removal, but paused to study the x-rays from Smokey. Mindi stood nearby, looking on with her.
“Do we have a blockage?” Mindi asked.
Brennah nodded. “Definitely an obstruction. The owner has no clue what the dog ate.” She glanced at her coworker and her eyes burned like she’d been hit by a gamma ray. “Mindi, where in the world did you get those scrubs?” The colors were so distracting that she couldn’t focus on the x-rays anymore. In fact, she was seeing spots.
The young woman wore the most colorful scrubs in blue and purple with pink cats printed all over them. She beamed down at herself and stuck out her leg to show off the cats prancing up her thigh. “Online. Aren’t they cute?”
Brennah chuckled. “Nobody could ever accuse this clinic of being depressing with you around. Okay, back to Smokey. I think the obstruction looks soft. Like a piece of clothing. Maybe a sock.”
“Surgery?” Mindi raised a brow.
“I’m afraid so. I hate to break it to the owners. They’re already feeling a little emotional.” After pulling down the x-rays, she turned for the patient room. “I’d better do it quick. After that, we can keep Smokey quiet and pull those quills on Butch. Then I need to take this farm call. Got a horse on the ground who won’t get up.”
“Speaking of horses—are you plannin’ to take any of yours to the fair this summer?” Mindi asked.
As a kid, Brennah went to the Stokes Fair with a hefty ounce of jealousy for those girls lucky enough to own horses to show. Her dream to do the same followed her throughout life and became her main reason for buying the old Connally homestead.
“I have been working with a mare, training her for reining.”
Mindi gave her an excited smile. “That’ll be great. Let me know if you need any tips. You know Charlie would love to help.”
Brennah and Charlie had graduated together, and she was happy that the young man had settled down with someone as fantastic as Mindi. She gave her friend and coworker a smile. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.”
After speaking to Smokey’s owners, they said a teary goodbye to their pet. Brennah took the dog back to the holding area and made him comfy in a kennel with a blanket.
She poked her head into the surgery room, where the techs had Butch prepped for surgery. “How’s everything going?”
Kylie looked up. “We’re ready for the sedation, but he’s pretty loopy just from that first shot. We were able to pull all these.” Kylie pointed to the bowl of quills on the table.
“Oh good.” She smiled at her employees and patted Butch’s side. The dog didn’t budge. “Boy, he really is loopy, isn’t he? Let’s remove a few of these more difficult ones and see if he requires something stronger to make him sleep.” She took up a surgical instrument and got hold of a quill near the dog’s ear. She pulled three without trouble and then moved toward his eye.
Only when she got near the worst of the bunch did Butch move. She gave him a bit more sedative and started to work again. When Brennah finished, she returned to Butch in time to flush the wounds left from the quills.
“Mindi, would you get some ointment to send home with the owner?” She removed her gloves and threw them in the wastebasket.
“Right away.”
“Hopefully Butch doesn’t get into another porcupine, but if they do once, they’ll do it again.”
Mindi looked at her closely. “You could use a coffee break, Dr. Brennah.”
She shook her head. “No time right now, but I’ve got some coffee in the car. I’ll drink some on the way to the next call. See you soon, Mindi.”
Brennah breezed through the office and smiled at the receptionist. “Bree, I’ll be on this horse call, and then I’ll swing by to see that calf with pneumonia I treated yesterday. As soon as I return, we’ll begin surgery on Smokey, okay?”
“Got it, Dr. Brennah.”
Brennah pushed through the door and stepped out into the mountain air. The vet clinic, nestled on a side street, had a beautiful view of the mountains. As she climbed into her SUV, she filled her nose with the scent of Ponderosa pines.
The scent made her think of the pines that grew by the creek cutting through her property—and the Moons’ too. Their adjoining ranches shared the creek as well as a border, yet she hadn’t set eyes on Dane since that morning she’d discovered him in her barn.
Probably better she didn’t. A man like that didn’t fit into her lifestyle. Stubborn, always in trouble…and was through with people who drank too much. Unfortunately, the hot and sexy man woke her up to the fact she’d been alone for a long time, but she didn’t want a man like him in a thousand years.
Chapter Three
Three months later
Zayden never got easier for Dane to be around. He’d helped his brother check the cattle daily, dealt with horses and fixed a bunch of fence on the top ten acres nearest to the mountain, and he still couldn’t figure out how to get on Zayden’s good side.
He’d been sober every one of his days here on the Moon Ranch. Hell, he never even left the premises. But Zayden only spoke to him in grunts and waves of his hand as they worked together.
At least the work felt good. Dane had forgotten how he’d earned the muscles he used onstage dancing for the ladies. Hard work, the mountain air and Mimi’s good food made him feel better physically than an entire year in Vegas put together.
By now, Liz had filed those divorce papers, and he was well on his way to freedom. And Big John must have accepted the truck and what cash his guys stole as payment—either that or his power didn’t reach all the way to Colorado.
As Dane pitched a bale of hay onto the wagon, strands scattered over his arms and clung to his plaid shirt.
“I love the smell of hay, even if it makes me itch like hell,” he said to Zayden.
“Two more and we’re done.”
Dane turned to him. “You feelin’ that old rivalry rise up in you, bro?”
They both swung back to look at the two bales left in the field.
All of a sudden, they shared a grin and shot toward the bales in a race to get there first. In the old days, Zayden always won, being taller and more built than him and Asher. But those days were over, and Dane was just as filled out now.
He skidded the last three feet to the bales and threw himself over both of them, arms outstretched. Zayden slid to a stop, just short of reaching the bales first. “Dammit!”
Dane burst out laughing and hooked his gloved fingers under the baler twine of each heavy block of hay. He lifted them, but he didn’t go five steps before the size and weight were too much.
“I got it.” Zayden took one off his hands.
“Only after I gave it up to you. Just for the record.”
“Next time I won’t let ya win the race so easy.” Zayden shot him a crooked smile, rare on his brother’s face.
Dane stared at him harder. He’d changed since returning to the Moon Ranch. Maybe their father’s death did it. Or it could be Esme’s doing—the love of a good woman and all that, though Dane didn’t know how much he believed of the myth.
“You’re actually happy, Z.”
Zayden narrowed his eyes on him. Silent, he continued to the wagon to stack the bale with the rest. Dane tossed his up as well, and without a word, they got into the truck to haul the wagon back to the dry shed.
They bumped across the field, past the one linking the Moon Ranch to the Connally place. Dane stared across the land, thinking of the woman who’d kicked him out of her barn a few months back. He wasn’t proud of the moment—but
he wasn’t one to dwell on past mistakes either. No Moon ever did. They lived rough and in the moment.
But Zayden might have broken that mold.
Dane glanced over at him. His brother’s gaze settled on the field, his mouth a hard line like always. Maybe he hadn’t changed as much as Dane first thought.
Suddenly, his brother flicked a look his way. “I am happier.”
“Well”—he studied his unsmiling face—“ya sure look it.”
Zayden laughed, and the serious moment faded. “It was the old man’s death, I think.”
Dane nodded. “The bastard deserved much worse, but at least we’re free now. And he left us this.” He waved a hand at the glorious view of the field dotted with horses, pale blue sky above and mountains in the distance.
“How long you plan to stay?” Zayden asked.
Dane released a heavy sigh. “Got nowhere else to go. Things in Vegas turned sour.”
“Sorry to hear it.”
He eyed his brother. “Why? I’m not.”
“Fair enough.”
Silence descended for the rest of the drive to the hay shed. Zayden backed the wagon inside. “We’ll unload later this afternoon. I got someplace to be, and I have errands in town too.”
Dane pulled off his Stetson and ran his gloved fingers through his sweat-damp hair. “What sort of errands?”
“Feed run, tack shop. The usual.”
“I can take care of those for you. If you don’t mind lending me your old truck.”
They turned to look at Zayden’s ancient and dilapidated truck. The tailgate had been replaced and sported a different color than the rest of the body. Zayden had put some work into the engine, enough to keep the beater running as a ranch vehicle, but the old girl wasn’t reliable enough for mountain roads, so he’d purchased a good used one instead.
“Keys are on the hook by the front door.” Zayden did a jaw-lift in the direction of the house. “If you’ll do the errands, I’d appreciate it.”
Dane tried not to feel like a kid getting a kind word from the big brother he admired, but he failed. He liked being relied on again, and months had passed before he earned his trust.