Chloe's Secret

by Shelley K. Wall

  Tess sat on a bench by the door, her hands bound in white gauze, her face splotchy and hair tussled everywhere. She was drop dead gorgeous. He really didn’t like the gnawing feeling that realization brought on.

  He plopped beside her on the bench. “Well, I’ve dragged you through the rain, then a herd of cattle, and now the hospital. Where next, Lucky Bird?”

  Sheer exhaustion shadowed her features and he wondered if she felt similar to the days when he had emergencies in his clinic that lasted through the night. Something inside him told him to tread carefully, but he ignored it. He slid her back into him, placed both palms against her shoulders, and kneaded against the knots that had accumulated.

  “You’re tired,” he said and registered her nod in agreement. When she closed her eyes and leaned her head back, he smelled the shampoo that hinted at cucumbers even after all the rain. The anger she so often held onto had disappeared, but the knots showed how strongly it had ingrained. “How about home?”

  She nodded and let out a very soft groan.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  She was almost asleep when he loaded her into his pickup, which he’d retrieved from the clinic two blocks away. Whatever pain meds she’d been given, she and Grams were both in la-la land. He had no choice but to take her home. His home. Well, technically it was Grams’ place, but he’d been there since she went into the hospital.

  The horses needed someone close by.

  Chapter 15

  “There’s a woman passed out on the couch,” James Scott said nonchalantly the following morning as he pulled the milk from the fridge and doused the bowl of cereal he’d poured.

  Colton started at his presence, expecting the house to be empty, or at least almost empty. “Where’d you come from?”

  “The barn. I loaded Goliath into the trailer, but Bullwhip didn’t like it much. I’m headed downtown. You need anything?”

  “You don’t have to do that, Dad.”

  “Someone has to.”

  “Yeah, me. This isn’t your thing.” It irritated him that his father had waltzed back into the family heritage as if he’d been there all along. Grams wouldn’t like it.

  “Well, seems to me that’s your thing.” He hooked a thumb toward the couch in the other room. “Just might need some tending to. I’d be happy to take over for you if you’d rather handle the carriage, but somehow I doubt you’d stand a chance if I did.”

  “Yeah, seeing as how you’re so charming and everything.” Colton was only half sarcastic, remembering that she did say she liked his Dad.

  “What’d you do to her hands?”

  “She laid her motorcycle down.”

  For some reason, his dad found that funny. He snickered, “Well, that’ll teach her to take lessons from you.”

  Colton picked up the pile of blankets on the counter and tossed them at him. “Get going if you’re going to, smartass.”

  When the door slammed behind his dad, Colton turned to clean the cereal bowl he’d knocked over. She was already there, sopping it with a napkin . . . and her bandages.

  “Hey.” She yawned. “You kidnapped me.”

  “I didn’t have a choice. You were passed out and your house keys were nowhere to be found.”

  “Hmmm. So, this is where the horses stay?” She watched the trailer creep from the fenced lot.

  “Uh-huh.” The scrubs they’d put on her at the hospital had fallen low on her hips and she’d donned her sweater, which she obviously found folded by the bed. His bed. Or at least the one he’d used as a kid. Staring at the skin exposed between the two pieces of clothing was hard to avoid. He exhaled a sharp curse seeing the giant bruise on her hip.

  “Wow.” She rubbed it in disbelief.

  “Must have been your phone. They found it in your pocket. It was obliterated, came out in pieces.”

  “Well, I hope no one tried to call me.”

  “Not much you can do about it. You hungry or should I just take you home?” He realized he was still staring at the bruise, or actually at the skin adjacent to it. Smooth, soft skin he wanted to touch. Needed to touch.

  “You’re nice, Colton,” she said.

  “No, I’m not.” He knew where she was going and it was wrong. He wasn’t nice, and the thoughts he had at the moment proved it. They included pulling her out of that sweater and scrubs and doing things she likely wouldn’t want him to.

  “You are. I wish I didn’t have to lie to you.” She turned and left the room. Huh?

  When he caught up to her, she had already put her shoes on and was headed toward his truck. He followed.

  “Lie about what?”

  “I tried to tell you but, well, you just wouldn’t listen.”

  “You mean about Grams?” Was she still loaded on meds? She didn’t acknowledge.

  “Just remember, I tried to tell you.”

  He drove her home. She jumped out of the truck before he had rolled to a stop, pressed the door shut, and leaned through the window.

  “Happy Thanksgiving, Colton. And thanks. Really.”

  She walked toward the man waiting on her steps. Waiting for her. The man who cursed loudly when he saw her hands. He obviously didn’t appreciate Colton returning her with bandages and bruises.

  Chapter 16

  The following day, Colton’s workload started with a series of emergencies and went downhill from there. Two dogs that tangled with cars and a cat which likely wouldn’t make it through the day had to fit in among his regular appointments. Those were always sad, fortunately he’d also had a cute litter of puppies to check, and a call to deliver a foal. Still, it wore heavily.

  When Abby popped in with her latest rescue he was already tired, and it wasn’t even noon. He dropped the prescriptions on the reception desk for one of the accident dogs that he patched up. She ran a hand up the back of his scrub shirt and dug into the tenseness of his neck. It startled him. He narrowed his eyes and slid a glance over his shoulder.

  It was at that moment, the guy from Tess’ front step walked into his clinic. He took stock of the woman rubbing Colton’s back and frowned.

  “You want to tell me how Tess ended up with those bandages on her hands and my dad’s bike in a heap of dents? What kind of instructor are you?”

  “Excuse me?” His dad?

  “You heard me.”

  Abby, obviously enjoying the scene, leaned against the counter and planted her arm against him. Colton wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed at her invasion of his personal space or at the misconception of the man that walked in.

  “You’re Tess’ brother?”

  “That’s right. And I won’t stand by and have her kill herself just to fill some sort of obligation to our dad. Or let you help her do it.” The man looked Abby up and down, and flicked his gaze back to Colton.

  “She just has a little road rash.” Behind the man, his next appointment entered. A spaying.

  “She said she hit a cow.”

  Abby apparently thought that was funny. Both men scowled when she giggled, and she sobered up quickly.

  Colton strode toward the man, held out a hand, and introduced himself—hoping to get a name that would go with the face. Tanner Richmond had the same angry eyes, more angry now than hers normally were. He had a ruddier color to his hair and skin, though. Colton assumed he spent a lot of time outdoors.

  His assistant cleared her throat to remind him that he had a tight schedule and it was already backed up.

  “I have to get back to work. You want to talk, come back at noon and we’ll do it over lunch.”

  “She’s not as tough as she pretends to be,” Tanner said. Colton assumed he meant Tess.

  “And she’s not as fragile as you seem to think either.” Colton turned and trudged down the hall to his waiting client.

  “Is he always like that?” Colton heard Tanner ask Abby before the door closed behind him.

  When he made it back into the reception area at noon, the guy was gone and so was Abby. His receptio
nist had rescheduled her to accommodate the busy day and the holiday. They had agreed to try to shut the clinic down by two. He skipped lunch and attended to one of the accident victims.

  When he pulled his keys from his pocket at two-thirty and headed out the back door to his truck, his mind was focused only on getting to the carriage stand. The holidays were a busy time and there was always a stream of visitors that wanted to see the city by carriage.

  He stopped in his tracks at the sight of Tanner leaned against his truck, waiting. “You have a lot of customers.” He rose from the vehicle and slipped his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Young female customers.”

  “Not really.” Colton nodded at Garrett Porter, the elderly gentleman carrying his Pomeranian to a car at the front of their building. They observed his assistant locking the door and leaving as well.

  “And staff.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “I’m not saying anything, just making an observation. Guess being a vet’s pretty good for the social life.”

  That was a joke, considering he had virtually no social life at all. Colton had no idea what Tanner wanted, but he assumed it wasn’t good. Why else would he basically plant himself at the clinic and wait?

  “So what do you want from me? An apology? I’m sorry I took Tess riding on that road yesterday. If I had known some farmer would be moving his cattle, we’d have gone a different way. And if I’d known that a twenty percent chance of rain meant we were going to have a two hour downpour, we wouldn’t have gone at all.”

  “It rained on you, too?” Tanner cursed and his eyes, so much like hers, flared.

  “Yes, but you have to know. She was going any way. By herself. She’d already planned it and the only reason I was with her, was—.” He stopped because he didn’t know the reason. Maybe his Dad said to go? Because he thought he was invited? He’d never felt obligated to accept an invitation so that wasn’t necessarily the case.

  “I know why you were there.”

  Colton offered Tess’ explanation. “One of the things I teach my students is never ride alone.”

  Apparently that made her brother laugh, just before he glared at Colton again.

  “What else do you teach them? Seems to me between the vet clinic and motorcycle gig, you have a busy life.”

  He had no idea.

  “It must be exhausting to keep up with.”

  “Yeah well, I think I see where this is going. You know you two are a lot alike.” Colton opened the door of his truck and slipped behind the wheel.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Angry.” Colton closed the door and left.

  Chapter 17

  I had decided it was time to confront Mona about her secret. After all that had happened, she needed to tell her family. Perhaps I was selfish because I hated keeping it to myself, but regardless I was going to have a talk with the old woman. It wasn’t my secret to tell and I’d tried, but it didn’t go over well. Now was her time.

  I went to the hospital fully prepared to chastise her for keeping such an important thing secret. She wasn’t there; she’d been discharged earlier in the morning. I had a choice. I could go to her house where I risked seeing Colton, or just leave it alone. Seeing Colton didn’t exactly scare me so I opted for a personal visit.

  I’d never actually visited a working horse ranch before. Knotsberry Farm had been on my school field trip list in Junior High, but that didn’t count. I knocked on the door several times with no response, so I walked around the house. It wasn’t the normal type of house for the Midwest. A rambling porch surrounded it and I easily walked the entire house without stepping to the yard.

  However, when I reached the back and looked toward the barn a wide row of steps made it easy to step down and traverse toward the barn and horses.

  The loud sound of rock music filled the air—so loud it was difficult to hear anything else once I entered the barn. One of the horses looked over his stall, watching me. Bullwhip, I thought, but not sure. I was even less sure when I called out and two other horses looked out at me. There were small differences, but the horses were close in size, features, and stature, inviting me to give them my full attention.

  “Back here,” a voice called, a voice hidden in the shadows of the barn. I walked between the stalls until I reached an open gate. Water sprayed up into the sun and glistened like a fountain.

  I had expected to find Mona and the horses. I wasn’t sure what else, but it certainly wasn’t close to the picture that presented itself when I stepped to the gate. One of the horses stood tall and regal, tied to the fence, as he was being bathed. A man on the other side of him sponged and scrubbed him with a hose while the horse preened. The sun streaked over his wet hair, glistening as if oiled. He looked amazing . . . and he knew it.

  “Is that Goliad?” I asked of the legs on the other side of the horse. Goliad, the flirt.

  “Goliad’s in town. This is Felix. He’s one of the babies.” Colton’s husky voice already had my juices flowing, but when he rounded the horse as he spoke, my brain shut down.

  Colton was sin on a stick. His wet t-shirt hung from the top rail of the fence, obviously discarded during Felix’ bath. Water rolled lovingly down his chest and glistened almost as slickly as on the horse, though it beaded up in a few hairs that rested between his pecs and over his navel. His jeans were dark from the wetness of either sweat or water and his hair was black and also slick. My mouth fell open and I stared.

  “He’s no baby in my book,” I managed to mutter.

  Colton turned his back to me, and my bottom lip quivered. His back, perfectly smooth rolled with muscle as he worked the sponge over the horse. Small drips of water trickled down the center of his spine and disappeared into the shadows of the low slung jeans. For the first time in my life, I imagined—

  “Tess?”

  I shook myself back to the present. “Ummm, what?”

  “Did you want something?” He stood, holding the water hose as it puddle under the horse’ hooves. Should I really answer that? Ummm, yeah, where’s that whipped cream?

  “I, uh, was looking for Mona. I went by the hospital and they’d sent her home. So, I thought I’d come by and check on her. Is she here?”

  He untied Felix then leaned down, giving me a really nice visual of his backside, and turned the water spigot off. “She’s in the house, sleeping. She’s still not doing too good, but they’d had enough of her. The door’s unlocked, go on in and say hi, she’ll be happy to have a guest.”

  “You live here too?”

  “No, I have an apartment . . . actually it’s near you. I’m just helping with the horses until she’s better.”

  He pulled the rag from his back pocket and walked toward his motorcycle, which sat on the concrete slab opposite the horse. When he leaned down and started wiping the water spots from it, I’d seen all I could stand.

  Yikes, I can’t take this, I thought as I turned and headed toward the house.

  “Can’t take what, lucky bird?” he asked.

  Uh-oh. I said that. I actually said it out loud.

  “Nothing.” I headed through the barn, making a quick escape. He caught me in front of one of the horse stalls. Bullwhip, it said below the door in handwritten letters on the wood. So, they’re marked. Colton pulled my arm around and grasped it tightly as he stared at me.

  “Can’t take what?” His delicious back was to the stall and the horse chose that moment to stick his head out. A big blockhead that shoved Colton right against me. Wet, fluid, dripping muscles smashed to my chest. I looked down at the hairs that glistened with water. I wanted to kiss them, or lick the water from them, I wasn’t sure which.

  Bullwhip nuzzled the back of Colton’s head, further pushing his head right into mine—mouth first. Sexy, wet, dripping mouth right against mine. Yum. Damned horse. Damned water. Damned—everything. Especially me, because I wanted that mouth and everything that went with it. That was the real something I wan
ted. Not Mona.

  Colton adjusted his head without pulling back and slipped his arms around me, slick wet chest and arms sticking to my cotton shirt. I opened my mouth and he kissed me deeper with his tongue sliding against mine. My head spun a little and I stepped backward, turning to position myself against the wall of the next stall. I needed stability. I needed—a lot of things but most importantly I craved more. I drew my hands up his chest, sliding fingers through the slippery wetness that oiled his abs.

  Apparently that turned him on, because he pressed into me, capturing me full against the stall door. He slid a hand up to cradle my head as he delved his tongue deeper. “I can’t take it either, Tess.”

  I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but I hoped I’d find out. Then a splintering crash occurred and I fell backward. Ooomph. Into a pile of straw, with yummy veterinarian bad boy’s full weight covering me.

  I opened my eyes long enough to glance around the inside of the horse stall with wide eyes.

  “You okay?” Colton asked.

  Hmmm, I have wet, sexy you on top of me. “Great,” I huffed, “really, great.” I captured both sides of his head with my hands and pulled him toward me, because he looked like he was going to get up. He was going to uncover me from all that testosterone and frankly, I wasn’t ready to be uncovered.

  Yet.

  He grinned and I flashed one back at him, then he brought that mouth back where I wanted it. “I’m crushing you,” he whispered against my mouth as the water on him melted into my skin.

  “Yeah.” I didn’t care. “Crush away, bad boy.” I had officially lost my mind. Gone delirious. And it was all his fault; no one should look that good wet. I pretty much threw my reserve to the wind at that point and mauled him. I’d never really been one to lose control, but I had officially done it. Gone over the deep end. I should have been embarrassed or disappointed, but that was not happening. I was simply hot. For him.