Once and for All

by Jeannie Watt

“We’ve had seventeen live calves and all the heifers are doing fine. The only loss was a stillborn twin.”

  “Lucas was good with calving,” Joe admitted grudgingly. “How much did Eriksson charge for the horse?”

  “He wasn’t the one who sewed up Bronson. Sam Hyatt did.”

  “Sam—”

  “He also treated a bull for hardware disease.”

  “Hardware…” For a moment her father simply stared at her.

  “Sometimes cattle swallow bits of metal and—”

  “I know what hardware disease is. I’m working on the part where you had Hyatt out here instead of Eriksson. What in the hell were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking Sam was the only vet I could talk into coming out here. I had to beg, Dad.”

  “You begged Sam Hyatt.”

  Among other things. “Yes.”

  Joe shook his head, then pressed his lips together tightly. “We’ll talk about this later.”

  “Dr. Eriksson was out of the office for two weeks. He wasn’t available, so I did the only thing I could to save the horse.”

  “Maybe it would have been better if he’d died,” Joe snapped.

  Jodie turned and walked out of the room. It was the only thing she could do when her father got like this.

  Jodie and her mother ate lunch together without Joe, who was touring the ranch, and Nadine practically glowed as she continued to describe the trip. It was the first time in a decade she’d had her husband’s full attention and she’d loved every minute. Meanwhile Jodie was thinking, Oh, there will be hell to pay for the Sam Hyatt issue.

  “I wish your father could have joined us,” Nadine said, as if reading Jodie’s thoughts. “But you know how he is.”

  Yes. Stewing about Jodie’s poor decision making. But eventually Joe did come back into the house, and Jodie was impressed when he put an arm around his wife and gave her a quick, affectionate squeeze before he faced his daughter and the deep freeze set in.

  “I need to take care of a few things online,” Jodie said, excusing herself. She was almost at the office when Lucas came into the living room, his battered felt hat in one hand. He nodded nervously at Joe, who sucked in a breath and nodded back.

  “I have some bad news.” He spoke to Joe, but his eyes were on Jodie. “One of the bulls is dead.”

  “Which one?” Joe asked in a frighteningly calm tone.

  “The black one from Oklahoma.”

  THE ENTIRE FAMILY BUNDLED up and went out to the pasture, even Nadine, who rarely set foot outside the house except for her morning walk and to paint landscapes or flowers.

  The bull was indeed dead, lying on his side, eyes rolled back in his head.

  “He’d recovered,” Jodie said faintly, causing her dad to give her a sharp look.

  “Did Sam Hyatt treat this bull?”

  Jodie rounded on her father. “He didn’t die from what Sam treated him for.”

  “How in the hell do you know that?” Color flooded into Joe’s face, and his voice was like a volcanic eruption. “I still cannot believe you had Sam Hyatt out here treating my animals.”

  “They would have died if he hadn’t,” Jodie shouted back.

  “Well, it looks like one died, anyway.” Joe’s voice dripped sarcasm.

  “He was the only vet who would come out here, and you’re damned lucky he did.”

  “There had to be other options.”

  “Joe,” Nadine said, “be reasonable.” She was close to tears, but both Joe and Jodie ignored her plea.

  “There weren’t,” Jodie stated flatly. She had done the only thing possible. “He saved Bronson and he saved more than one calf for you because your wonder cowboy Mike refused to come back to work for you.”

  Joe’s mouth clamped into a tight line.

  “Come on, Dad. What else could I do?”

  “Called Eriksson. Did it never occur to you that incompetent son of a bitch Hyatt might screw up and kill my bull?”

  “The bull recovered.”

  “He’s dead! And it’s your fault!”

  Enough. Jodie’s stomach was in a tight knot, but she’d had it. “No. It’s your fault for alienating all the vets in the area. More than one of them told you Sam had followed the proper course of action with the horse. But you couldn’t accept that. Someone had to take the blame.”

  Joe glared at her, as if he couldn’t believe she was arguing this point, then turned and stalked back toward the ranch house. Nadine put her arms around Jodie, making peace as always.

  “He’ll come around.”

  Jodie gently stepped out of her mother’s embrace. “He shouldn’t have to come around. He should be able to see that I did what I had to do.”

  “The bull and the horse…that’s not what he expected when he came back.”

  “It’s a ranch, Mom. These things happen.” And, boy, did they. “If he can’t accept that, he needs to find another retirement gig.” Jodie shook her head. “I need to take care of this.”

  “What are you going to do?” Nadine asked as they started for the house.

  “I’m going to do what I should have done before. I’m calling Eriksson.”

  Dr. Eriksson was free, since it was a weekend, and he flew in later that day, as Jodie arranged. The autopsy was going to cost her a bundle, and there was always the chance that the vet would say, yes, Sam had been negligent. But there was a chance he wouldn’t, and Jodie wanted this matter put to rest.

  Joe paced the fence as Eriksson cut into his prize bull. Thankfully, it was warm enough outside that the animal had not frozen solid. It didn’t take long before the vet shook his head. “It had nothing to do with the magnet,” he said, pulling the bullet-shaped piece of metal out of the animal’s rumen. “In fact, it was exactly the right treatment.”

  Jodie, who was not watching for obvious reasons, felt a swell of vindication. There.

  Joe wouldn’t accept the vet’s conclusion. “Well, then why the hell is this animal dead?”

  “I’ll have to take a liver swab, but right now, I’d say red water disease.”

  “Shouldn’t Hyatt have caught that?”

  Eriksson shook his head. “Don’t see how he could have. It wouldn’t have shown up in blood tests and has nothing to do with the metal in the rumen.”

  Jodie had heard enough. She left the pens and headed back to the warmth of the house. Half an hour after Dr. Eriksson’s plane left the runway, Jodie sought out Joe in his den.

  “Well?” She wanted him to tell her he’d been wrong, but knew by the stubborn look on his face that he wasn’t giving in.

  “You made me look foolish, having Sam Hyatt back on the place. I mean, can you imagine how much fun the locals are having with this? And then he kills my bull?”

  “He did not kill your bull.”

  “I’ll wait for the blood test results before I believe that.” Joe ran a hand over the back of his neck and Jodie saw that his features were as tight, if not tighter, than before he’d left on vacation. All the hell she’d been through was for nothing…except for connecting with Sam. That was worthwhile. Maybe this was simply the price she had to pay for finding a decent man to spend some time with.

  Joe wasn’t finished. “The horse I understand,” he said grimly, “but Eriksson would have flown in for everything else.”

  “Not the bull. I called him. He was on vacation.”

  “And due back the next day. I checked! He would have taken over. He told me. You had no business bringing Sam Hyatt onto this property for more than that one emergency.”

  Would it never end? “I did the best I could under the circumstances.”

  “You could have done a hell of a lot better than you did.”

  Jodie felt the instinctive tightening in the pit of her stomach that always followed those words. She was not good enough. Be the best or don’t bother.

  She was thirty years old, no longer a girl who needed to please her father, so it pissed her off that the words still stung.


  “If you didn’t plan to respect what’s important to me, you shouldn’t have volunteered to take over the ranch.”

  She opened her mouth to answer, and was surprised that she couldn’t find any words. She was a lawyer, for heaven’s sake. Words were her business. Finally, she just shook her head and walked out of the office and down the hall to her room, where she finished the packing she’d started that morning.

  There was no question of Joe coming in to make nice. That wasn’t the way he operated. And since her mother had no idea of what had just happened, she would hopefully assume that Jodie was simply leaving a bit early, anxious to get back to her job.

  But she’d had it. She would not be back at the ranch anytime soon. She’d meet her mom in Vegas for shopping and that would be enough family for her. She was so damned sick of feeling like a failure for things out of her control. She couldn’t help it if some other student was better than her and she couldn’t help it if Joe had managed to get himself blackballed with every vet in northeastern Nevada.

  Her hands were practically shaking by the time she finished shoving stuff into her two suitcases. She lugged them through the house and out the mudroom door to the Spitfire.

  “You won’t be here for dinner?” Margarite asked.

  Jodie smiled calmly. “No. I thought I’d better hit the road. There’s supposed to be a storm coming in.”

  “Day after tomorrow.”

  “And I want to be safely in Vegas when it hits.”

  Margarite gave her a shrewd look. “Yes,” she said ironically. “Better safe than sorry.”

  Jodie stowed her luggage, then went back to the house to find her mother and say goodbye.

  “You’re leaving early,” Nadine said, a note of sadness in her voice.

  “I have some unexpected loose ends I need to wrap up.”

  Nadine had watched the fireworks between Jodie and her father too often not to know what was really going on, although this was the first time Jodie had refused to placate Joe.

  No. She might be a failure in his eyes, but for once she wasn’t going to do anything to rectify his opinion.

  Joe came into the library then, his expression still stormy. “You’re leaving?”

  “I have to get back,” she said in a clipped voice.

  “I thought you were going to spend a couple days here with your mom.”

  Oh, yes. This was so like him. Make it look like she was falling short no matter what she did.

  “Mom and I can hook up in Vegas.”

  “Jodie—” There was no hint of remorse in his voice.

  “Look, Dad. I have to get back.” I did the best I could, and as usual, it wasn’t good enough.

  “When will we see you again?” he asked in a way that made her wonder if he even cared about the answer. It would be less painful for everyone if he didn’t.

  “I don’t know.”

  And Jodie meant it. She was damned tired of feeling like a failure when she knew she wasn’t. Why couldn’t her father accept her, warts and all? Why did he have to beat blame into her before he could forgive her? Before he could love her again? Enough.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  JODIE DROVE TO SAM’S place on autopilot. By some miracle, his truck was parked beside the clinic. He was there. Finally something had gone right today.

  She entered the clinic to see Sam behind the counter. The strawberry-blond receptionist who didn’t seem to think much of Jodie was nowhere in sight.

  “What happened?” Sam asked.

  “How do you know something happened?”

  “The reveal-nothing look on your face.”

  He was beginning to know her too well. “The bull died.”

  “The bull I treated?”

  “Yeah.” Sam came around the counter, a grim look on his face. “It wasn’t your fault,” Jodie said quickly. “I had Eriksson fly in and do an autopsy. He totally exonerated you, but Dad’s still…being Dad.”

  “I can imagine,” he muttered. “Am I going to get sued?”

  “If you do, I’ll defend you. Pro bono.”

  She thought Sam might smile, but he didn’t, probably because the scenario wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

  “What did Eriksson say?”

  “Red water disease.”

  “Shit.”

  “He said there was no reason you should have caught it.”

  Sam nodded, looking none too happy. “So what now?” he asked, finally reaching out to fold her into his arms, where she’d wanted to be from the instant she’d walked into the office. She returned the embrace, splaying her fingers over the solid muscles of his back.

  “Head off to my other life.”

  “Right now?”

  She glanced through the window at her packed car. “Yeah.”

  “Why don’t you leave tomorrow?”

  “Sam, putting it off isn’t going to—”

  He cut her words off with a kiss, and when he lifted his head, she wasn’t certain what point she was trying to make. “I want one last afternoon. Okay?”

  “The boys—”

  “Won’t be home until after seven-thirty. Think of it as a long goodbye.”

  When he put it that way… “All right.”

  “I have one call to make. Do you want to come?”

  “Yeah, maybe I would,” she said with a wavering smile.

  He put his hand on the back of her head and buried his face in her hair. “Sorry about your dad.”

  Jodie went with Sam to see about some goats. She played with a litter of fuzzy brown puppies that had come out of the barn to greet them, while Sam did whatever it was he’d come to do. Jodie nearly died of a cuteness overdose before getting back into the truck, and she hated saying no to the offer of a puppy of her very own, but for sanity’s sake had to. A puppy and a Vegas condo were not a good mix.

  Sam patted the seat next to him after starting the engine, and Jodie scooted over, fastening the middle belt around her. Sam held up his phone and hit the power button. Merry chimes sounded.

  “I’m off duty,” he said.

  “It’s about time.”

  They made love during the afternoon while the boys were at school, and then Jodie did something she almost never did, and fell asleep in the daytime, content to be in Sam’s arms. Tomorrow she’d be alone again, so she was going to savor every moment she had with him. After today, their affair—for want of a better word—would be over, because she was heading back to her old life, and she was not going to encourage Sam to visit her in Vegas.

  If her father couldn’t forgive her for a bull…well, then how would Sam ever forgive her for what she’d done to him?

  WHEN THREE O’CLOCK ROLLED around, the end of school and the beginning of basketball practice, Sam roused Jodie, who’d dozed off in his arms. She smiled sleepily and he brushed the hair out of her eyes, loving the warm feeling of their bodies pressed together.

  Neither had asked “what now?” because they both knew what was going to happen in the immediate future. Jodie would go off to Vegas, he would stay here. The next step was a mystery, but he suspected that it was going to involve a few trips to Vegas to see Jodie when he could manage the time. Maybe he wouldn’t work so many weekends. Maybe he’d have to take on a partner.

  “Anxious to get back to work?” he asked.

  “I am.” She ran her hand over the muscles of his shoulder. His body took that as an incentive to get busy again. “Don’t fight it,” Jodie said with a laugh, her hand dropping down to stroke him with the palm of her hand.

  It was official, he thought as he pulled her up on top of him, loving the way she welcomed him with her body, the way they fit together so perfectly. He just couldn’t get enough of her. Maybe it was because she was such a surprise to him after she’d dropped her protective facade. Or maybe he was just falling in love with her. He strongly suspected the latter and he liked the feeling.

  When Jodie finally collapsed on top of him, after letting out a long, shuddering s
igh of release, Sam wrapped his arms around her and held her until he slipped out of her. Only then did she roll off onto her back, smiling as she closed her eyes. Sam studied her, hating that in a matter of hours things would change. She’d be back in her life and he’d be here, surrogate father and overworked vet.

  “I guess we haven’t talked about what happens after this,” Sam said, propping his head on his elbow. “So what happens after this?”

  JODIE STARED UP AT THE ceiling, wishing he hadn’t asked that question. “I don’t know.” But she did. She wasn’t going to let herself fall for him, so she would have to keep her distance. Stay far, far away from Wesley. Obviously, short-term and physical were not working out as planned.

  “Do you still view what we have as transitory?”

  “That’s how I have to view it.” She spoke adamantly, knowing he wouldn’t understand why, but needing to get the point across that things had to end.

  “Would you do me a favor, Jodie?”

  “What?” she asked in a low voice, still staring upward.

  “Keep your options…about us…open.”

  “I don’t know if I can.”

  Instead of pushing the point, or asking why, Sam simply changed the subject. “When we did our counseling session this week, Paige told us to work on communication. Real communication.”

  He was talking about them, him and her, but Jodie took advantage of the opening to redirect the conversation. “You weren’t communicating with the boys before?”

  For a moment she thought he was going to persevere and try to talk about their future, their communication, but after a brief hesitation, he said, “There were topics we avoided. I thought I was protecting them by not bringing up their parents, but the boys seemed relieved to talk.” Sam laid his head back on the pillow and Jodie rolled so that they were eye to eye.

  “How was it for you? The talking?” Jodie had to know. She had to know how much pain she’d caused him. Inadvertent or not, she had a measure of responsibility here.

  “To tell you the truth, I hadn’t realized how deep down I’d pushed some of this in order to be strong for the boys. Dave and I were almost as close as Beau and Tyler. It was hell to lose him… I still miss him so much.”