by Eve Gaddy
Dylan tucked his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “Our breakup was mutual. Mostly.”
Mostly? What the hell did that mean? “Are you telling me you still have the hots for her? Because if you are—”
Dylan laughed, cutting him off. “No. Honey’s great, but—no. I’m just offering a word of advice.”
“Yeah, well you can take your advice and shove it.”
That comment, naturally, didn’t bother Dylan in the least. “No need to get pissy. Honey’s a great girl. But she’s not going to stick around. She’ll be off to the next rodeo before you can spit.”
“So? What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing. As long as you’re good with it, nothing at all.”
Good with it? After last night? How could he not be good? Hell, Honey was exactly what he needed after the fiasco of his last relationship. He had no intention of falling for a woman again. Not for a long time, if ever.
And Honey, thank you, Jesus and praise the saints, apparently felt the same way.
Chapter Six
Sean met his brother Jack and his family at the rodeo. Wyatt was working, and Dylan was supposed to show up later. Jack and Maya each had a teenage girl from a previous marriage. A few months ago, they had announced they were having a baby. They were both so excited he’d have thought it was their first kid. Come to think of it, the baby would be their first child together. Sean hadn’t seen his brother this happy in a long time.
“Uncle Sean,” Gina said. “Did Maya and Dad tell you the baby is a boy?”
“They did. What do you two think about it?” he asked, including Carmen in the conversation.
“It’s kind of weird,” Carmen said. “But I like babies.”
“Yeah, but by the time he’s born, we’re going to be almost seventeen years older than he is,” Gina added. “That’s a lot. But Dad and Maya are happy, so I guess it’s okay.”
His niece, nieces now, were sixteen. God, he felt old.
Sixteen. And Honey was damn near that much younger than him.
That hadn’t mattered a bit last night. Neither of them had thought of anything but ripping their clothes off and getting naked together. If the age difference didn’t bother Honey, he wasn’t going to let it bother him.
“Welcome to the 78th annual Copper Mountain Rodeo.” The announcer waited as everyone cheered. “I have a special announcement. A few weeks ago, Harry Monroe lost his life when he stopped on Highway 89 to change a flat tire for a stranded couple. As one of our firefighters from the Marietta Fire Department, as well as an EMT, Harry cared for many people and was responsible for saving a number of lives. Harry’s generous spirit extended to everything, whether as a firefighter, an EMT or simply a Good Samaritan. Please take a moment of silence in remembrance of Harry Monroe.”
Harry Monroe. Sean couldn’t think of him without wondering what else he could have done to save him.
Sean hadn’t been practicing at Marietta Regional for more than a few weeks when an emergency came in involving a person struck by a car. Car accidents were nothing new to Sean, and neither was a person being struck by a vehicle. But until he moved back to Marietta, he’d never treated someone he knew. The announcer’s words threw him back into the moment.
“Paging Dr. Gallagher. Dr. Sean Gallagher to the ER.”
The call came through the overhead speaker.
He knew it was bad. If it had been something simple, he would have gotten a personal page, and he would have called the ER nurse, who would then have filled him in. But the immediate page to the emergency room meant something critical was coming in.
“What is it?” he asked the desk clerk, Amy Tidwell, when he entered Emergency.
“A man hit by a car. He was changing a tire on the side of the road. A hit and run. They’re setting up room two right now. I have the EMTs on the phone for you.”
He took the phone from her and asked, “What can you tell me?”
“Rick Pride here, Doctor. We have a multiple trauma victim with internal injuries in profound shock. We’re stabilizing him now.”
“Page Dr. Striker,” he told the receptionist. He was definitely going to need the trauma surgeon.
Rick said, “It’s Harry Monroe, Dr. Gallagher.”
Harry? One of their own. No wonder Rick had sounded like he was having a hard time. As a firefighter and EMT with the Marietta Fire Department, Harry knew everyone. Everyone liked him. It was hard not to. One of those people who’d never met a stranger, he never passed up a chance to help others. He was one of the Monroes, the family who owned the largest grocery store in Marietta.
Sean told the receptionist to call Harry’s parents, as well as his fiancée, who was a nurse at the hospital.
He stayed on the phone until the ambulance arrived. The EMTs were bagging him as they wheeled his gurney through the doorway. Harry wore a cervical collar and they’d put him in MAST trousers, the compression suit used to squeeze the blood up to the heart.
Everyone who had the slightest reason to be in the room was there, trying to help. Harry had a lot of friends at the hospital, and word of the accident had gotten around quickly.
Unconscious, Sean noted. Head trauma. Internal injuries, broken bones. He took his blood pressure, but as with the EMTs earlier, Sean had a hard time obtaining one. “Hang two units of O-neg, STAT,” he told the one of the nurses. Pray God, they could pump enough blood into him to keep him alive long enough to get him to the OR.
Sean debated ordering a CT scan, but not for long. Harry’s injuries were so severe, Sean knew he had to go to the OR if there was to be a chance of survival. Just then Samantha Striker, the trauma surgeon, came in.
“Sorry, I was in surgery when I got the page. What have we got?” She glanced at him. “Oh, shit, it’s Harry Monroe.”
Sean updated her then said, “I was about to send him up to surgery.”
“Doctor, his blood pressure dropped,” a nurse said, “and now I can’t get it.”
“Let me,” Dr. Striker said, pushing the nurse aside as she took it herself.
“Damn it!” She looked at Sean and shook her head. “He’s got no blood pressure.”
Sean looked at the monitors. “Shit, he’s flat-lining. We need more blood.”
“Uncle Sean?”
He dragged himself back to the present and looked at his niece. “What did you say, Gina?”
“Um, can I have the schedule?”
He looked down at the program magazine crumpled in his hands. “Sorry,” he said, trying to smooth it out before handing it to her.
“Are you okay, Uncle Sean?”
Not really, but he would be. Eventually. He tousled her hair. “Right as rain. Look, they’ve started the Grand Entry.”
Sean was no stranger to death. He worked in an ER. People died. They died from stabbing, gunshot wounds, cancer, heart attacks, car wrecks, and myriad other ways. They died when they were the victims of a hit and run. Like Jack’s first wife, Brianna. Or Harry Monroe.
It was never easy losing a patient. He figured the day it became easy was the day he quit practicing medicine. But he dealt with it. He had no choice. Not if he wanted to survive and be able to do his job. An emergency room doctor who couldn’t deal with death was pretty damn worthless.
But Harry’s death weighed on him. He knew he’d done everything possible to save him. He’d known from the time he first talked to the EMTs that Harry’s injuries were severe. There was a chance, a good one, that he wouldn’t even make it to the hospital. But he had.
Maybe it was because he knew Harry. Not well, but he’d run into him a number of times, both through work and elsewhere. Or because Harry had died so young. Or because a goddamned coward had run over him and left him to die. Whatever the reason, Harry’s death was one he wouldn’t forget.
*
Honey led Halo into the holding area of the arena, near the small alley where most of the barrel racers waited. Spying her friend, she stopped beside her. “Martha, did you fi
nd someone to keep an eye on Candy so you can go to the dinner and the dance?” Candy was Martha’s horse, short for Cotton Candy. Honey didn’t know why she’d named her that. Especially since she was a black and white paint.
“Yes, I did. One of the high school girls, so I can’t be too late. But that’s okay. I’m going with Eddie tonight,” she said, naming one of her buddies she often hung out with, a nationally ranked saddle bronc rider. “Want to come with?”
“I have a… thing. Thanks, though.” She checked Halo’s girth and tightened it a little.
“A thing? You mean a date?” Martha finished going over her saddle, making sure everything was right for the run.
Remembering her earlier conversation with Sean, she smiled. “Not exactly. But I’m going with someone.”
“I don’t understand.” Martha came around the horses, where she could see Honey instead of simply hearing her voice. Honey’s smile widened, but she didn’t explain. “Are you going with that hunk I saw you with last night? OMG, he was hot.” Martha fanned herself with an imaginary fan.
“He is. Very. Extremely.” Her stomach fluttered in anticipation. “And yes, that’s who I’m going with. His name is Sean.”
Martha peered at her closely. “You have beard burn on your neck.”
“I do?” Honey put her hand to her neck, then realized Martha was teasing. “Ha-ha. No, I don’t.”
“But you checked. I knew it! You slept with him.”
She knew her friend expected her to deny it, so it was satisfying to confound her. “Yes, I did. And I’m going to do it again.”
Martha goggled at her, then knocked her palm against her ear. “Say that again. You had sex with a guy you just met? You?”
“Technically, I had met him before. Once. But it was a while ago.”
“Define a while ago. Recently? Years ago? Months?”
Honey bit her lip. “When I was dating Dylan.”
“Dylan Gallagher? Your old boyfriend? Sean knows him?”
“He should. He’s one of his brothers.”
“His brother? Oh, my God.” Martha let loose with a peal of laughter. “This is so totally not like you. You just met the guy. Once a long time ago doesn’t count. You don’t ever do things like that.”
“It’s no big deal, Martha. We just hit it off and decided to… have some fun.”
Martha clapped her hands together. “Was it love at first sight?”
Honey laughed. “Of course not. It was more like lust at first sight.”
“Are you still going to the Crimson Rodeo two weeks from now? Because if you’re not, I need to find someone to go with me.”
“Why wouldn’t I be going?”
Her friend put her finger to her cheek. “Let me see. Hot guy, hot sex. You can bet your sweet ass I’d hang around here for a while.”
“I can’t,” Honey said flatly. “And you know why.” Martha knew all about Honey’s issues with her father. She could hardly help it since they traveled to so many rodeos together. “Besides, we’re just having a fling.”
“If you say so. But it seems awfully shortsighted. What if you two fall madly in love?”
“In two weeks? Give me a break, Martha.”
“It could happen,” her friend insisted.
“We’re having a fling,” Honey repeated. “Sean isn’t interested in anything more either.”
“How do you know? Did you discuss it?”
No. But maybe they should. She shrugged. “He’s a guy. He’s single. We’re having a no strings attached, hot sex fling. What guy is going to turn that down?”
Martha shook her head. “All right. But it sure seems out of character. For you, anyway.”
“Maybe I’m tired of being so predictable.” She would talk to Sean tonight and make sure they were on the same page. In the meantime, her run was coming up.
Chapter Seven
The rodeo was much as Sean remembered it. Excitement reverberated throughout the stands. The sights and sounds and definitely, the smells, reminded him of what it had been like to be part of the rodeo. When he’d been young he’d competed in some of the events. All of his siblings had. Glenna, he remembered, had always complained that it wasn’t fair that just because she wasn’t a boy, she couldn’t be a saddle bronc rider. She’d had a point. The girl could sit a horse and stay on a horse better than anyone he’d ever seen. Sean had ridden a few broncs and done a little calf-roping, but he’d ridden bareback more than anything else.
At intermission there was a “mutton busting”. Little kids got all decked out with padding and helmets and tried to ride the sheep. Most of them fell off almost immediately, but there were a few who hung on for the entire ride.
Shortly after the mutton busting, Maya and the girls went to get food, leaving Sean and Jack in the grandstands. Somehow Jack had wangled seats in the shade under the overhang, three rows up and near the center chute.
“You seemed to be having a good time last night,” Jack commented.
Suspicious, Sean shot him a glance. Jack sounded nonchalant and looked way too innocent to suit Sean. Brothers had a way of getting under your skin.
“Yeah. I had fun.”
“Hard not to with such a beautiful woman.”
“Very subtle, Jack.”
“I wasn’t trying to be subtle.”
“Good, because you’re not.”
Jack smiled and lifted an eyebrow. “I talked to Dylan, you know. You work fast.”
Already? He’d left Dylan two hours ago, and his little brother was already running his mouth. “Dylan gossips like a girl. He needs to get a life.”
“Hey, you’d be interested if she was your ex-girlfriend.”
“No, I wouldn’t. My ex-girlfriend soured me on women.” Lying and cheating would do that to a man.
“You didn’t look too sour last night.”
Sean propped a booted foot on the bleacher seat in front of him and leaned an arm on his thigh. “Is there a point to this inquisition?”
Jack laughed. “I just wondered. Why Honey?”
“What kind of a dumbshit question is that? Are you blind? Or has marriage screwed up your vision so you can only see your wife?” His sister-in-law, Maya, was a former model who now ran a modeling headhunting firm. She was also, he admitted, a knockout.
“Honey is very pretty—”
“Not pretty. Gorgeous.”
“Point taken,” Jack said with a grin. “If the gossip is to be believed, you haven’t dated anyone in Marietta since you got here. I can’t say I’ve noticed it either.” When Sean scowled at him, Jack continued, “Does gossip lie?”
“No, smartass. I haven’t dated anyone here for a very good reason.” Even though he was cynical about women, that didn’t mean he would consciously set out to hurt someone. “The women around here are looking for more than I have to give.”
“And Honey isn’t.”
He snorted. “Honey is more interested in her next barrel race than she is in sticking around Marietta. In case you’re wondering, she told me she’s only going to be in town for a couple of weeks.”
“Which is what you want.”
“Yes, that’s what I want.” A smoking hot woman, hot sex, and no strings sounded perfect to him.
Unless he was mistaken, and he didn’t think he was, Honey was on the same wavelength. “So if you’re finished being a giant pain in my ass, can we talk about something else?”
“Sure. Here come Maya and the girls.” He shot Sean a calculated glance. “I have to say, bro, I thought getting laid would improve your disposition, but you’re as cranky as ever.”
Sean opened his mouth to tell him to fuck off, but since his nieces walked up at that moment, of course he couldn’t. Which, judging by the shit-eating grin on his brother’s face, Jack had timed perfectly.
Honey’s event was next to last, and she and her horse were the last pair to compete. Although he didn’t keep up with the National Finals Rodeo circuit, he suspected she’d be good, and he
wasn’t disappointed. Honey and Halo burst out of the gate in a flurry of hooves and dust. They looked good together, Sean thought. Horse and rider moved as one. Clearly, they understood each other. Her mare, Halo, was a beauty too. A palomino quarter horse with a cream mane, she was compact, agile and fast. Having grown up on a ranch in Marietta, he knew horses. It looked like Honey had herself a winner.
He heard the crowd roaring and knew Honey must be running a good race, but he didn’t take his eyes off her until she and Halo rounded the third barrel and thundered home through the gate and into the alley. Then he looked at her time. She was the new leader by a fairly substantial margin. Substantial for barrel racing, anyway. Not only would her time stand but it would help her tomorrow as well, since the competition combined times from the two days together and the lowest combined total won.
*
Early that evening after the rodeo, Honey had just finished dressing when she heard a knock at her door. Trying to hook her second earring, she called out “just a minute,” clipped the wire into place, and smoothed down her skirt. Glancing at herself critically in the mirror, she decided she looked as good as she was going to get. She wore a new outfit, one she’d bought on a whim, a short, form-fitting, multicolored striped skirt with a Southwest pattern, and a short-sleeved, silky black blouse, along with her favorite boots. Turquoise, black and white, with a tooled leather image of a barrel horse and rider imprinted on them. She’d worried that her legs might be too banged up to wear a skirt, one reason she’d yet to wear it. But either the skirt or the boots covered the major bruises, so she figured what the heck and wore it anyway. Her mother had left Honey her turquoise jewelry, a silver squash blossom necklace, matching earrings and a wide silver and turquoise bracelet, and she finished off the outfit with that.
Honey laughed at herself. Normally, if she was going out, she slapped on a little make-up, tried to find a decent pair of jeans and a clean shirt—something nicer than a T-shirt—brushed her hair, and called herself ready. Tonight, it had taken her half an hour just to choose what to wear.
Of course, normally she didn’t have a date with Sean Gallagher. Or a not-a-date.