by Becky McGraw
Earlier when everyone had introduced themselves and given their background information, she quickly figured out that most of the people in here had either done this before in their line of work, or had field experience.
Rocky had neither. She could ride a horse, had camped with her dad a lot when she was a kid and had been taught to hunt and shoot. That was the extent of her 'field experience'. She wasn't a park ranger, policeman, paramedic, fireman or helicopter pilot, she was a fricking horse trainer.
This was a horse of a different color, one she wasn't sure she wanted to ride, or could ride. She had never before been faced with something she couldn't do, Rocky had done a lot in her life, but she thought maybe she had met her waterloo with this search and rescue stuff.
When the instructor concluded his lesson, he motioned to the Ranger at the back of the classroom to turn on the lights. Conversations started all around her, as the students gathered their stuff to leave. Rocky stood up beside Wes to gather her own things and stuffed them into her knapsack. The level of noise in the room rose and she looked up when she heard loud whoops at the back.
Her eyes met cool green ones and her breath caught in her throat. Someone slapped Ethan on his back and he flinched, but turned his attention that way. Questions flew at him from all directions. "Where the hell have you been man?" one man asked loudly, then "Why weren't you teaching this class?" another of the men in the group surrounding him asked, before someone else yelled over the man in front of him, "I heard about your accident, how are you doing?"
It was like a football huddle at the back of the room, and Rocky was shocked when the instructor smiled broadly, then headed back there to join the crowd too. She heard him tell Ethan excitedly, "I saw your name on the roster man, and got a little concerned when you didn't show."
"I had a meeting in Henrietta and was a little delayed, Clay," Ethan told him with a warm man-hug. It was then she noticed he was on his crutches again, and she noticed a bandage above his left eye, and a cut at the bridge of his nose. "You know how I love your classes."
"A little delayed?" Clay hooted then told him, "Class is over, dude, so you missed naptime."
"Well, I would have been here, but I had a little car trouble," Ethan told him then glanced at her again over the man's shoulder.
"Looks like you had more than a little. What the hell happened to you now?"
The crowd parted and Rocky saw a bandage on his left forearm.
"Aaah, just a scratch," he said and held up his arm for a second. "Had to ditch the truck."
"You need to cut back on the excitement, or you're gonna kill yourself."
"I can second that," Ethan told him with a short laugh. "I've had enough excitement in the last five months to last me a lifetime."
"So when are you going to be back on the Task Force?" he asked.
"Not coming back," Ethan told him with a shake in his voice. "Can't go back to the fire department either, I'm done."
"Wow, that's awful, man. I hadn't heard...we're going to miss you."
"Ya'll will be fine, and besides I'll be around to pester the crap out of you."
"Really?" he asked.
"Yeah, I've been invited to join the new equine search and rescue team that Wes Jepson is starting, and I'll be the ranch medic at my sister's ranch."
"You ride horses?" the man asked with amazement in his tone.
"Thanks to that little lady over there," he began with a nod at her. Rocky felt her face heat when all eyes turned her way. "I know which end to face when I get up on one. If any of you ever need riding lessons, she's the woman to see."
"Well, I'm sure glad you'll still be in the rescue business, and that you're going to be okay. I heard about what happened and then when we tried to stop by to see you..."
Ethan's eyes moved around the crowd, before swinging back to Clay. He sucked in a deep breath then said loudly. "I want to apologize to each and every one of you for being an ass when you tried to come by and see me in Henrietta. Thank you for caring enough to brave the lion's den, I appreciate it."
"Hey, we know how it is..." one of them started, but Ethan cut him off.
"No, I have no excuse for how I acted other than I was being a self-pitying butthead, and I am truly sorry for that," Ethan told them firmly.
Rocky was shocked at the humility and sincerity in his apology. And even though she was still mad as a hornet at him, and his apology didn't extend to her, grudging respect built up inside of her. It was a first step, and it was a good one, in her opinion.
He had a lot more to make though, and she wasn't sure even a private apology to her was going to fix anything between them. If he even decided to make one that is, or if she decided to listen.
"Rox, we need to go, honey," West stepped up beside her to say. "I got a call from one of my clients, his mare is in labor and she's not doing well."
Rocky was off tonight, so she offered, "Need some help?"
She knew Wes needed the help, because he didn't have an assistant right now. Going with him would also keep her away from the ranch tonight, so she could get her head straight before she confronted Ethan.
His smile spread ear to ear as he told her, "Heck yeah, I could use help," then dropped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed. "Let's go."
The crowd was thinning as they made their way toward the door of the class room, but Ethan was still standing there talking to a few men. When she and Wes tried to make their way past them to squeeze out into the hallway, someone grabbed her arm tightly.
"I need to talk to you, Rox," Ethan hissed angrily by her ear, then he let go of her arm to look back at the man who had been talking to him. Wes didn't seem to notice that Ethan had stopped her. When she didn't come out into the hallway, he just reached back inside and grabbed her hand, pulling until she was beside him.
"Excuse me," she heard Ethan say behind her, before he came out into the hall too. "Wes, would you mind giving me a ride back to Amarillo?" Ethan asked with a sideways glance at her. "My truck is probably totaled and I don't have a ride back."
"What happened?" Wes asked with concern. "When you didn't show up I figured you'd changed your mind about joining the team."
"No, I didn't change my mind, I stayed in Henrietta last night for a meeting this morning, then had an accident on my way here."
"You alright?" Wes asked with concern.
"Yeah, just a few bumps and scratches. Thankfully, there was another accident, so I was able to get help pretty quickly, and get a tow truck out there."
"I don't mind giving you a ride, but I have a ranch call I need to go to first," he informed.
"No problem," Ethan said with a smile then cut sly eyes toward Rocky. "I'm in no hurry, I'll just keep Roxanne company while you work."
"She's going to help me, so you can just wait in the truck," Wes replied.
Rocky wanted to laugh at the thunderclouds that gathered in Ethan's expression, but he nodded, and followed Wes as he walked toward the front door.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
When they made it out to the truck, Wes got behind the wheel. Instead of letting her slide into the passenger side first to sit between them, Ethan pushed his crutches at her, then worked his way up into the truck to sit by Wes. From his grimaces and slow movement, she figured out he must be hurting from his wreck.
With a growl, Rocky went to the bed of the truck and threw his crutches inside, then stomped back to the front to get up on the seat beside him, before slamming the door.
Noticing Ethan's fists were clenched on his thighs, Rocky asked grumpily, because she didn't want to care, but she did, "You need some Ibuprofen?"
"Yeah, that would be good, if you have some," he replied tersely.
Wes cranked the truck, while she rifled through her knapsack, until she found the bottle. Opening it, Rocky poured out four pills into her hand, then handed them to him with the bottle of water she'd opened earlier.
Ethan looked at her for a second, then spread his palm to drop the
pills into his mouth, before he swigged the water to wash them down.
"You sure those aren't arsenic tablets," he asked under his breath with a chuckle, as he handed the bottle back to her.
"Fine time to ask now that you've swallowed them," she said smartly, shoving the bottle back into her knapsack, before she sat it down between her legs.
"It would be no less than I deserve," he told her and she felt his eyes on her again.
"I don't want to talk about that right now," she gritted out through her teeth, with a glance at Wes.
"Oh, yeah right, not in front of the boyfriend," he said with a derisive snort.
Rocky didn't reply, she folded her arms over her chest and stared out the window. The only way she was going to avoid a blowup here in front of Wes was by not engaging Ethan. It was going to be tough, but she thought she could handle it.
What she couldn't handle was Ethan gripping her thigh very near ground zero every time Wes hit a bump on their drive back to Amarillo. What made it worse, was that each time he did it, he looked at her to let her know it wasn't an accident. His hand lingered there until she peeled his fingers off of her thigh and put his hand back in his lap.
Bastard, she thought for the umpteenth time, as Wes pulled onto the rutted road that led up to the farm where they were headed.
When Wes stopped the truck in front of the barn, Rocky flung the door open and got out of the truck, almost slamming the door on Ethan who had scooted over the seat to get out too.
"Stay in the damned truck," she spat then added over her shoulder as she walked toward the barn door beside Wes, "You'll just get in the way."
That's exactly where Ethan wanted to be, in the way.
Because there was no way he was going to sit back and watch that vet make a move on her, not before he explained himself to her. If she still hated him after that, he would just have to accept it, and take his punishment.
If he wanted her to listen though, he figured he had better sit tight like she asked. Later he wouldn't be so docile. Before this night was over, they would talk.
Two hours later, Ethan had enough of playing the waiting game.
He hopped down from the truck and groaned when he jarred his back. Even after the pain reliever, every muscle in his body ached and he wanted nothing more than to sit in the whirlpool at the ranch for an hour. He thought it would go a long way to soothing his new aches and pains. He welcomed the soreness though, because it meant he was still alive.
According to the tow truck driver, his brake cylinder was empty of fluid, because the plug had been removed. Awfully coincidental since his truck had been fine before the fire, and had been sitting at his parent's house in Amarillo since then. Ethan didn't have solid proof yet, but he felt sure this was connected to the other attempts on his life. He was calling the inspector to go look at the truck tomorrow.
The accident could have been a lot worse for sure. Ethan was damned lucky the truck had slowed to ten miles an hour before it hit the culvert. Any faster, and he could have wound up back in the hospital, and back to square one with his rehab, or dead.
Other than getting banged up a little from the impact and the airbag deploying, he was okay. As a precaution, he put the back brace on and was using the crutches temporarily, but he thought for sure by tomorrow he would feel better, or hoped he would anyway. The medic at the scene had recommended he go and get checked out at the hospital, but Ethan refused. He was done with hospitals, had enough of them, and he was fine.
He had also been determined to make it to that damned class. The only reason he made it before everyone left was because he had hitched a ride with one of the officers leaving the scene, who happened to be headed back to the Ranger station.
Holding onto the truck, Ethan edged his way to the bed then leaned over the side feeling around for the crutches. He could only reach one of them, the other was in the middle of the bed, so he left it. Hobbling to the brightly lit barn, Ethan scanned the ground as he went to make sure he didn't step in a hole and do a facer in the dirt.
That would be the cherry on top his manure pile of a day.
He walked through the wide barn door and only saw horses, no people and no open doors to indicate anyone was inside one of the stalls. When he moved further inside, a few of the horses stuck their heads over the doors curiously. Stopping a few times at the stalls, he give a scratch or two, before continuing down the aisle.
Finally, he heard faint voices on the other side of the barn, then a man walked out of a room there. He was tall, middle-aged and looked worried and wrung out. He pushed back his cowboy hat and swiped his brow with his forearm, then looked up and saw Ethan.
"Can I help you?" the man asked loudly as he walked over to him.
"I was looking for Wes and Rocky?" Ethan told him and tried to move faster to meet him, but a pain shot through his hip, so he slowed down again.
The man tossed his thumb over his shoulder toward the room he'd just exited. "They're in the birthing stall with my mare," he informed.
Birthing stall? Ethan wondered if that was like a human maternity ward. He slowed down a little more in his forward progress, because he wasn't sure he wanted to see a birthing. Even though he had been a paramedic for years, had personally delivered several babies himself, that was his least favorite kind of call.
Tiredness poured through him and he decided to at least see what the holdup was, to find out when they would be done. He also wanted to make sure Rocky and the vet weren't bonding over the birthing experience.
When he made it to the door, Ethan sucked in a breath then quietly went inside. The mare was laying on her side, and Wes was at her rear, Rocky was at her head soothing her, talking as gentle as he'd ever heard her talk to human or animal.
"She's crowning, Rox...glad we got that colt turned when we did," he told her. His hair and shirt were slick with sweat. Pieces of hay and who knew what else covered him. Rocky didn't look any better.
"She's worn out, you need me to help push?" Rocky asked looking up at Wes, and he nodded. She moved away from the mare's head then went to her swollen stomach, positioned herself, before leaning into her.
The mare vocalized loudly, and Rocky dug in her heels and kept pushing until Wes told her, "Okay, head's out, take a rest." She fell to her butt breathing hard, resting against the horse's side.
"Okay again," Wes said and Rocky pushed up to her feet, got positioned again then pushed against the mare. "Keep it up, baby, we're almost there," he encouraged then said, "Shoulders and front feet are out, take a break."
Rocky huffed out a breath, knelt beside the mare, then scrambled down to her rear end to take a look. She smiled then said, "Pretty baby."
"He's not breathing yet," Wes said his voice a little concerned, then he told her, "Let's go again...hurry."
Rocky crawled back beside the mare and pushed harder against her this time, and Wes yelled, "He's out!"
Ethan heard sucking sounds he knew was the vet suctioning out the baby's nose and mouth. The mama horse tried to get up, but Rocky pushed her back down and went to her head to soothe her again.
"That's it little man, breathe," Wes encouraged and Ethan heard more suctioning. The mare whinnied loudly and flung her head, but Rocky soothed her then asked, "He okay, Wes?"
"He's a big 'un," Wes told her with a laugh. "It's a damn miracle we got him turned at all."
"That's what they should name him," Rocky suggested with a laugh. "Miracle."
"I'll mention it to Bill," Wes told her, then helped the colt stand. The small leggy animal wobbled and fell several times, before he got his legs under him. He was a beautiful black and white colt with a white stripe down his black face, and looked nothing like his mother who was a solid dark brown color.
"Can you take care of the colt, while I finish up here?" Wes asked her. "Help get her milk started."
"Sure," Rocky said and fiddled around the horse's belly for a minute or two.
"Okay, I'm done, you can let her up," he
told Rocky a few minutes later. She went to the mare's head and pulled on her halter to get her to stand, before she led the colt over to its mother and shoved its nose underneath her. Sucking sounds started again, but this time it was the colt finding his mother's milk. Ethan's heart twisted in his chest at the sight.
"That was amazing," Rocky told Wes exuberantly with excitement shining in her eyes. Neither Wes nor Rocky seemed to realize or care that he was standing there.
"Yes it was," Wes said reverently then pulled her into his arms for a tight squeeze. "You were amazing, I couldn't have done it without you."
Her arms went around his waist and she hugged him back, muttering against his chest, "Thanks for letting me help."
"Thanks for helping," he replied. "We make a damned good team, you should be my assistant permanently."
"I'm thinking about it...maybe part-time," she said and dropped her arms to step back. Ethan was relieved to finally see distance between them, but then his relief fled at Wes's next words.
"I'll take you any way I can get you, Rox," Wes told her and Ethan flinched when Rocky smiled widely. "I don't pay much, but you have to admit this was fun."
"The most fun I've had in forever," she told him.
Fishing and making love by the bank of a lake must pale in comparison.
Ethan felt the gulf between him and the earthy cowgirl widen as surely as he felt the connection she had with the vet strengthen. He and Rocky were very different, she and the vet were alike. They thought alike, lived a similar life, had a similar love of animals.
How the hell could he ever hope to compete with that?
Ethan swallowed hard and all the aches in his body converged in his chest. He rubbed it then turned around and walked out of the room, hoping they hadn't seen him. Ethan wasn't a quitter, but if the vet was the man that would make her happy, that's who Roxanne should be with.
So far, all Ethan had done so far was cause her trouble.
Most likely he would only cause her more if he stayed at the ranch. Someone was trying to kill him. If they were together, that could put her in danger too.