Brooks rounded the desk so he was face-to-face with his dad, or rather boot to boot. “Calm down, Dad.”
“Calm down? My own son is trying to humiliate me in front of the whole town!”
“I’m doing no such thing. I’m setting up a clinic to take some of your business away, so you’re not working twenty hours a day.”
“You’ve no right to interfere in my business.”
“Just as you have no right to interfere in my life?” Brooks asked, a bit of resentment in his tone.
Uh-oh, Jazzy thought. This argument could really damage father-son relations. Yet she didn’t feel she had the right to interfere.
“I’m older and wiser. I know best,” Barrett blustered.
“You’re older, but I don’t know how much wiser. You won’t see reason so I had to take matters into my own hands. We could see patients here today if we had to. We’ll definitely be open soon, then you won’t have to take all the night calls. If people in town start trusting me, we’ll both have enough business.”
“If they start trusting you? You’re only four years out of vet school.”
“Yes, and I know all the new techniques and new medications. Do you?”
“You think you know too much for your own good. If I put the word out that no one should come here, they won’t. Then what are you going to do?”
“You don’t have everybody under your thumb, Dad, including me. So just accept the inevitable and think about slowing down.”
“The only time I’m going to slow down is when I’m in my grave.” He pointed a finger at his son. “And you remember that. This isn’t over, but I have someplace I’ve got to be.” And with that, Barrett Smith left as brusquely as he’d come in.
“That went well, don’t you think?” Brooks muttered as his father slammed the door behind him. Then he added, “Maybe marrying someone would be easier than all this!”
Jazzy felt bad for Brooks and for his dad. “You knew he’d be upset.”
Brooks rubbed the back of his neck. “I should know better than to get into a shouting match with him. It never does either of us any good.”
“You weren’t shouting,” Jazzy reminded him.
“My father thought I was. I wanted to break it to him gently. Irene must have beamed it up to a satellite and disseminated it through the whole town.”
Jazzy bit back a smile at Brooks’s wry tone. “Did the two of you ever just sit down and talk?”
With a sad shake of his head, Brooks admitted, “No. We haven’t had a decent conversation in the past four years.”
She felt such a need to comfort him. “You know, our families just want the best for us.”
“What they think is the best for them is the best for us, and that’s not true. You asked if my parents had a good marriage. They seemed to. They didn’t fight. I saw them kiss each morning before Dad left for work. He wasn’t around that much because he was always working, but my mother never complained. She warmed up his suppers when he got home late. When he missed a school event because of an emergency, she was there for me and enjoyed it. She never wanted him to do anything else. When she was diagnosed with cancer, my grandmother lived with us to help out, but I hardly remember that time. In some ways, it seemed to last forever, and in others it was over in the blink of an eye. Three months after her diagnosis, she died.”
Jazzy came from around the back of the desk and stood near Brooks. “I’m so sorry. I can’t even imagine losing a mom. My mom...well, she’s our glue.”
“That’s exactly right,” Brooks said. “Mom was our glue, and when she was gone, it was as if Dad and I had nothing else to hold us together. I spent time with Dad with the animals just to be around him because I felt so adrift. But it’s not as if we talked about what we were feeling...how much we missed her. It’s not as if we talked about much of anything except the cases he took care of. When I wasn’t with Dad, I was spending time with the horses. We had three and we boarded a couple of others. I could ride and forget for a little while. I could ride and eventually start to feel happy again. But I felt guilty when I felt happy.”
“I don’t think that’s so unusual. Did you get over the guilt?”
“Eventually, but my dad... After my mom died, he changed. He became more rigid...harder. Sometimes I thought he expected perfection and I just never lived up to that. Now I think, like you said, he just wanted the best for me.”
“So when you were a teenager, did you rebel?”
“Nope. I didn’t want to give him a hard time. I wanted to keep the waters smooth. I played sports, told myself I didn’t care if he was at my games or not. I got scholarships and that seemed to make him happy. So we had a tentative peace until everything went south with Lynnette and I felt as if I had disappointed him all over again.”
Jazzy was more curious than ever to find out what had happened with his broken engagement, but he didn’t seem to want to talk about it. In fact, he turned the tables on her.
“So did you rebel when you were a teenager?”
“I put a few pink streaks in my hair, got a tattoo, but that was about it.”
“A tattoo?”
“It’s a butterfly,” she said. “But it’s not someplace that usually shows.” She wasn’t being provocative, but she saw him glancing at her arms. Maybe she hadn’t meant to be provocative, but his eyes got that dark look again.
“There’s much more to you than meets the eye,” he said as if that wasn’t a good thing.
“You like simple women?” she asked.
“I like women who are honest.”
That gave her food for thought. She was about to follow up and ask him if Lynnette had been dishonest, but her cell phone played, announcing a call. She’d laid it on the counter beside the computer. Now she reached for it and saw it was her sister.
“Family,” she said. “I’d better take this.”
“Go ahead. How about some lunch? I’ll go get take-out at Buffalo Bart’s Wings To Go.”
“That would be great.”
Brooks gave her one last look before he grabbed his denim jacket from a chair and left the office.
“Hey, Jordyn,” she said as she answered her phone. “What’s up?”
“Mom told us you took a real job in Rust Creek Falls with a veterinarian. What’s he like?”
Leave it to Jordyn to hone in on that.
“He’s a veterinarian,” Jazzy said evenly, to stop her sister from wandering further.
“How old?”
“He’s twenty-nine.”
“Ooh, and you just turned thirty not so long ago. Same age. Now give me the real details. Is he tall, dark and handsome?”
“He’s tall,” Jazzy teased. “And he’s cowboy handsome. He’s really great with animals, and he’s a...gentleman.”
“Are you falling?”
“No, of course not. I’m working for him.”
“Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” Jordyn concluded.
“He’s a confirmed bachelor.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And his life is complicated right now. He and his dad are arguing and—”
Jordyn cut in, “I hear something in your voice I never heard when you talked about Griff.”
Out of all her family, Jordyn had probably been the least enthusiastic about her relationship with Griff. Maybe she’d sensed Jazzy’s uncertainty about it.
“I’m working for Brooks,” she said again. “Let’s leave it at that. How are Mom and Dad?”
“They’re fine. So is everybody else. But we’re concerned about you. Are you giving notice to Thunder Canyon Resort?”
Wasn’t that a good question?
“I should know in another week or so. I like working with Brooks and the animals. It’s great practice for that horse-resc
ue ranch I want to start.”
“You’ve given up on the business degree?”
“No, but for now, I don’t want to plan. I just want to go with the flow. I’m tired of trying to meet other people’s expectations of what my life should be.”
“You’re mad at the family because they wanted you to marry Griff.”
“I’m not mad. I just got exasperated and tired of being watched over. I want my own life. I don’t want to make finding a guy a priority because my family wants it for me. Do you know what I mean?”
“I know exactly what you mean. You want Prince Charming to drop out of the sky and land right at your feet.”
“Jordyn—” This sister could be just as exasperating as the others.
“I get it, Jazzy, believe me, I do. And whatever you want to do, you know you have my support. So take a picture of this veterinarian with your phone and send it to me. I’ll decide if he’s Prince Charming material or not.”
Chapter Six
On Friday, Jazzy printed out Mrs. Boyer’s bill as the woman stooped to her beagle, patted a chocolate patch on his head and cooed, “You’re going to feel better soon. I’ll take good care of you.” She looked up at Jazzy as Jazzy told her the amount of the office visit and waited as the woman wrote out her check.
It had only been a few days and Buckskin Veterinary Clinic was already seeing clients. Brooks had put a sign in the window that they were taking walk-in patients, and that had helped business, too.
“You know, your clinic is going to be convenient for me,” Mrs. Boyer said. “Barrett is hard to get a hold of in an emergency. And it will be nice to have a practice that focuses on the smaller pets, too.”
“I’m glad you decided to give us a try,” Jazzy said sincerely.
Brooks came into the reception area from the back, carrying a bag. He handed it to Mrs. Boyer, a brunette in her midforties, who seemed to love her beagle like a child. “If Hilda won’t take the whole pill,” Brooks explained, “you can open the capsule and sprinkle it on her food. Just mix it in. It’s supposed to have a liver and beef taste.”
Mrs. Boyer laughed. “Hilda will eat almost anything.”
“If anything comes up between now and your follow-up appointment, just give us a call.”
“I was just telling Jazzy it’s such a relief to know I can get a hold of you on short notice.”
Jazzy and Brooks had made a pact that they wouldn’t bad-mouth his dad, or say anything derogative about his practice. This was about building up Brooks’s practice, and providing service to their clients. If they did that well, they would be successful.
“I saw your father at the General Store,” Mrs. Boyer went on, glancing at Brooks. “I didn’t know if I should say anything, but he was looking a bit peaked. When he left, one of the men he’d been talking to said Barrett had been complaining because some of his clients were coming here.”
“We’re just trying to provide an alternative to Dad’s practice,” Brooks explained. “I think the area has room for both of us.”
Hilda began to whine. She obviously wasn’t getting the attention she thought she deserved.
“I’d better get Hilda home. I understand we could have bad weather later today, rain into sleet. I think I’d almost rather see snow than more rain.”
“A lot of other folks here would say the same thing,” Brooks agreed.
After Mrs. Boyer deposited her checkbook in her purse, she led Hilda out the door.
As soon as the woman left, Jazzy turned to Brooks. “Maybe you should have a talk with your father.”
“You saw what talking with Dad is like. It just raises his blood pressure.”
“But if he’s not looking well—”
“Jazzy, he won’t listen to me.”
“Do you think your practice really is starting to affect his?”
“After just a few days, it’s hard to believe. Maybe he’s seeing something that isn’t there. He’s never had much time for small animals. Most people here call our practice in Kalispell for their dogs and cats and bunnies. But if he’s heard people are coming in here to us, maybe it’s a psychological thing. I don’t know. I just know the two of us can’t seem to have a conversation about anything that matters, not without his temper—or mine—flaring.”
“I haven’t said one bad word about his practice,” Jazzy assured him.
Brooks put his hand on her shoulder. “I know you haven’t. Thank you for that. I want to do this fair and square.”
The fact that Brooks was a man of integrity drew Jazzy to him as much as everything else about him. His hand on her shoulder felt warm. In fact, she could feel the heat from it all through her. Every time they were together, they seemed to have a rapport that went beyond words. She understood him a little better now since he’d told her about his childhood and about his broken engagement, though she still wondered why he’d broken up with Lynnette, or why she’d broken up with him. However, looking into his eyes right now, she didn’t care at all about his past, just about being with him.
“You did a great job getting the word out about the practice through Dean and the other volunteers at the elementary school,” Brooks said with appreciation. “I think that’s made a difference. Are you still volunteering there on Sunday?”
She’d told Dean she’d still help out when she could, so she didn’t mind giving up her day off to keep her word. “Yes, I am. I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but Dean says they can use anybody who knows how to swing a hammer.”
“You’ve had practice swinging a hammer?” Brooks’s hand still rested on her shoulder.
“Sure. Abby, Laila, Annabel and Jordyn never wanted to get dirty so I’d help Dad with his at-home projects like the shed in the backyard, or even work on the stalls and in the barn. I really am a Girl Friday. I can do a little bit of everything.”
“You’re proving that,” Brooks said, gazing into her eyes.
When Brooks looked at her like that, her tummy did flip-flops, her breath came faster, and sometimes she even felt a little dizzy. It happened at the oddest moments—after he treated a little patient, when they were sharing hot wings over lunch, when he dropped her off at Strickland’s. She wondered if that zing in the air whenever they were together was evident to anyone but her. She wondered what he thought about it.
He’s a confirmed bachelor, she warned herself again.
No sooner had she taken note of the warning, than Brooks dropped his hand from her shoulder. “I’m thinking about helping out over there on Sunday, too.”
“Really?”
“Don’t sound so surprised. I told the Kalispell practice I’d be on call for them, but I know how far behind the elementary school is on their progress. It can’t be easy for the teachers to be having classes in their homes. I think they’re going to have more than the usual volunteers this weekend. I spoke to Dallas Traub from the Triple T as well as Gage Christensen last night. They’re going to be at the school, too.” He paused then went on, “You said you had dinner with Gage and it didn’t go well. Is it awkward when you see him now?”
Was Brooks fishing to see if she might still be interested in Gage? If he was, he could put those thoughts to rest. “No, it’s not awkward. We had dinner and that was that. He’s a great guy. When anyone sees him with Lissa, it’s obvious they’re in love. I’m glad he’s happy.”
Just like her sisters were happy. Just like Willa and Shelby were happy. Sometimes Jazzy wanted what they had so badly that it hurt. Sometimes she could hear her biological clock ticking. Sometimes true love seemed to be a far-away dream that was never going to come true, at least not for her. She thought coming to someplace like Rust Creek Falls, she would stop the constant reminder. Maybe something was lacking in her that she couldn’t find the one, that Mr. Right might simply not be out there for her.
But Brooks shook his head. “I’ve never met a man more stubborn than my father. He’s solid rock once he’s made a decision. But I will call his friend Charlie and ask him to keep an eye on Dad for me.” He motioned to the phone. “Now see if we just picked up another client.”
Brooks was a good man, she thought as he headed for the back of the clinic.
And a man who never intends to marry, she warned herself again as she picked up the phone.
* * *
It never should have happened.
Jazzy’s dad had taught her to wear gloves when handling wood products. She usually did. But today, with Brooks working with her side by side, she didn’t seem to have her head on straight. So when the two-by-four slipped and the splinter cut her, she knew it went deep.
Brooks was beside her in an instant. “What happened? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said, unable to keep from grimacing in pain. “It’s a splinter, that’s all.”
Brooks’s steady gaze didn’t waver from hers. He took her hand in his and saw the injury immediately. “I’m sure someone has a first-aid kit.”
“Don’t make a big deal of it.”
“Jazzy, it needs to be looked after. Do you always try to fade into the woodwork and pretend everything’s okay?”
Brooks’s words shocked her somewhat until she realized they were sort of true. At home, she didn’t want to cause anyone any trouble. It was simple as that. That’s why she’d dated Griff as long as she had, even though she’d known there wasn’t enough passion there. Her family had liked him. He’d come to dinner. He talked sports with her dad. Her parents had liked the fact that his sporting-goods store was doing so well and he was financially secure. She hadn’t wanted to upset the family applecart. She’d wanted to be on the road they’d dreamed for her, and she’d dreamed for herself. But Griff hadn’t been right. Pretending she was happy hadn’t been right. Always standing in the background hadn’t been right.
Marrying Dr. Maverick Page 7