by Box Set
Besides, she was Dr. McCoy now. There had to be a Mr. McCoy. She’d moved on.
“So?” He drew the word out, unsure how to broach the subject of their past. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t even bother to turn his direction. “Not long enough.”
He rolled his lips inward, trying to keep from smiling. Same smart mouth, as always. He glanced at her hand, but there was no ring on her finger. He felt his curiosity piqued but quickly tamped it back down. It was likely she just didn’t wear it when she was working. It wasn’t easy to palpate a cow with a rock on one hand.
“You made it to vet school, huh?”
She turned toward him this time, her eyes flashing with annoyance. “How very observant of you, Ty. Do you have any other brilliant deductions to impress me with?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the side of the truck as she retrieved a syringe. “I understand if you’re not exactly happy to see me, Rayne.”
She walked back to where the horse was tied. “What would ever give you that impression, Ty? Doesn’t every woman want to spend time with her ex, especially when that ex proved himself to be a horse’s ass? Just let me do my job, okay?”
He held up his hands in front of him, palms out, but wandered back to hold Boogie’s head as she administered the sedative. “I’m sure I deserve that.”
“You think?”
He knew he deserved every bit of the animosity she was tossing at him but, shit, it’d been twelve years. That was a long time to hold on to this much bitterness. He definitely owed her an apology for the way he’d gone about things, but Rayne had never been one to hold a grudge. What happened to the young woman he remembered? She’d been serious, but she had a smile that would dazzle the stars from the sky and a laugh that would make you feel ten pounds lighter just hearing it. The woman in front of him was all business. She might look like his Rayne, but she didn’t act like her in the slightest.
Ty wasn’t going to give up easily and gave her his most winning smile, the one that never seemed to fail to charm, whether he was trying to beg for forgiveness or bed a woman.
“Do you really think that’ll work?” She glared at him before inserting the suture needle into his gelding’s neck to begin stitching the wound. “Why did you even bother coming back, Ty? I’m sure there were far more interesting places for you to settle down.”
He heard the unspoken words in her tone—places far from Saddle Creek.
“This is home.”
The guffaw that burst from her surprised him. “Since when?” She shook her head as she tied off the stitches. “You got as far from here as you could, as quickly as possible. Don’t act like you’ve ever looked back.”
Surprised by the intensity of her resentment, Ty’s brows shot high on his forehead. Whether she wanted to believe him or not, this was the only place he considered home. The simple fact was that Saddle Creek was the only place with anyone that he could call family. His blood relatives were long gone, but Rayne and John were here, and that was enough for him to want to return. The simple fact was that, thanks to John, he’d turned his life around and achieved more than he’d ever thought possible.
“Like it or not, Rayne, I’m here to stay. My roots in Saddle Creek go deeper than you think.”
“Pshh,” she scoffed. “Really?” She arched a brow in disbelief. “Then I’m sure you know where to find John?”
“Of course. I already checked. He’s still running the boys’ ranch.”
She blew out a breath and shook her head. “Deep roots, huh?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Rayne ignored his question and clipped the end of the absorbable suture, swabbing medication over the area. “There. Just keep Vaseline over it and flies off of it. Don’t ride him until it’s healed up.” She ran a hand over the gelding’s shoulder. “He’s going to be fine.”
Rayne turned her back on him and headed toward her truck. Ty dogged her steps, unsure what to say next. There was no logical reason for her to stay any longer, but he didn’t want her to leave yet. “Um, how much do I owe you?”
She looked back at him for a quick second before shutting the box in the bed of her truck. “This one’s on the house, Ty. Just do me a favor and find a different clinic to call next time. Call Dr. Wilson. I’m sure she’d put up with you.” She locked the box on the other side and slid behind the wheel, twisting the key in the ignition. “And go visit John at Mercy General. I think he’d really like to see you.”
Mercy General?
“The hospital?”
“Yes, Ty, the hospital. John had a stroke. Maybe a visit from someone with roots will help.”
Chapter 2
Ty stood in the doorway of the ICU room and stared at John, lying immobile in the bed. He barely resembled the father-figure who’d spent so many days gruffly ordering them around, reminding them what it meant to be a man. So many days sweating it out in the pasture, mending fences and herding the cattle that helped fund the facility that turned wayward boys into men. It hadn’t mattered to John whether the boys came from money or poverty; when they were with him, they all had one standard to live up to—John’s.
The antiseptic smell of the room couldn’t hide the underlying scent of despair. Ty’s heart beat in time with the steady beep of the heart monitor and the whoosh of the respirator, but he felt little hope as he stared at the sagging sallow face of the man who’d once demanded his respect, forcing him to stack and restack hay until he confessed to stealing a piggin string from the local feed store to practice calf roping on his own. His charm might have worked on the woman behind the counter that day, but it hadn’t worked on John any better than it had Rayne yesterday.
“If a man can’t be trusted, his word is worth nothing, and that’s all you have in this world, Ty. A real man never lies, especially to a woman.”
And that had been just one of the many rules he’d learned under John’s tutelage. John could have written a book with the many lessons he’d taught them on being men. Lessons about honor, dignity, and justice. Values that most people ignored, John drove home, producing men who would do more good than harm. Unlike many of the boys sent to the ranch by their rich parents to learn a lesson or two, Ty had arrived a juvenile delinquent ward of the state, full of rage and determined to take a shot at his drunk-ass, abusive father. If not for John, he'd have landed himself in jail a long time ago. Instead, Ty tried to get his father help and, when the man drank himself to death a few years ago, Ty had paid for the funeral. He might not have been able to forgive his father enough to attend, but he'd taken care of all of the arrangements for a proper burial from the road because, as John would have reminded him, it was the right thing to do.
“You actually showed up?” Ty spun to see Rayne slip through the door and let it shut behind her with a soft click. “I didn't think you would.”
He felt a sharp stab in his chest. It was his own fault if she saw him as heartless, and after the way he’d left, it was no wonder. He had been heartless in the way he treated her that night. He glanced back at the bed, at the man who'd tried to teach him to never lie. If he'd listened to John, he wouldn’t be in this mess now.
***
Rayne tried to ignore the heavy weight of Ty's scrutiny. The nurses didn't even question her presence in John's room anymore. She was a regular visitor, coming almost every day to read to him, or tell him about the animals she was treating and the people who owned them, most his long time neighbors. But having Ty in the room made her uncomfortable. She was second-guessing every movement and she certainly wasn't about to have her usual one-sided conversation with Ty sitting there listening.
“I'll just come back later,” she muttered, reaching for the purse she’d laid on the rolling table in the corner.
“Stay. Please.” Ty looked back at John and ran a hand over his face.
She heard his palm rasp over the stubble on his jaw and cou
ld see the powerlessness weighing on him. As angry as she wanted to be at him for leaving, for turning his back on both of them and disappearing without a word, she could see the regret in his eyes. He didn't need her to remind him of what he'd left behind, of what he'd given up, when he made his escape twelve years ago. Seeing John in his current state was all the reminder he needed of just what he’d sacrificed, being gone.
Rayne wanted to move closer to Ty, to reach out to comfort him as he tried to process John's condition. The man had been like a father to them both. Instead she sank into the chair by John’s bedside with a sigh, clenching her fists into tight balls in her lap to keep from allowing herself to touch him, to soothe the pain she could see etched in his face.
“How long has he been like this?”
She avoided looking at Ty, even if she was answering his question. “About five days. I've been trying to get a hold of all of the guys, but some of the numbers on John's phone were no good, and I haven't exactly had time to spend tracking everyone down.”
Most of the guys who’d been at John’s ranch with them had left Saddle Creek behind. She didn’t fault them for wanting to move on and look toward their futures, especially since most of them didn’t have a lot to hold them here. Except for Ty. He'd had her; he just hadn't wanted her enough.
“I might have numbers and emails for some of them,” he muttered, pulling out his phone.
She shrugged, as if it didn't matter, but she knew she was minimizing the situation. Rayne had been trying to stall letting the doctors make any decisions about his condition until she made sure all of the guys had the opportunity to say their final goodbyes to John. She had a feeling John somehow understood her predicament and was only hanging on until then. It didn't make logical sense but, in her gut, it felt true, and something John would be stubborn enough to do.
“I’ll get them later,” she offered.
It was easier to focus on John. Easier to talk about his condition, rather than admit the hurt she still felt, caught in the broken pieces of her heart. She’d tried to mend them, but Ty’s departure had left her with shards that had never quite fit back together. As if he could read her mind, Ty cleared his throat.
“I'm sorry, Rayne.” Ty scrubbed his hand over his jaw, in desperate need of a shave, looking almost as pale and haggard as the old man in the hospital bed. “I should have...” He let his hands drop to his sides, helpless.
She hated the way her heart clenched, pained by the agony and regret she could see in his face. She wanted to believe that he wished he could have been here, for John. Or for her. But his silence over the years spoke far louder than his apologies.
“I don't know what I could have done, but I should have been here.”
“For who, Ty? Me or John?” Her hands gripped the wooden arms of her chair tightly, trying to control her emotions. Anger and sympathy battled for a place in her heart. She didn't want to feel sorry for him, and she certainly didn't want him to know she was still drawn to him. As far as Ty was concerned, she wanted him to think he didn't matter to her at all.
But her body wasn't about to accept the lie. The fury she could still feel welling in her chest at his abandonment did nothing to still the way her heart raced as he moved closer to where she sat. Or to stop her breath from catching as he reached out to her. It did nothing to still the jolt of electricity that shot up her fingers and into her arm as he touched her hand, making every nerve ending sizzle in response.
“I should have been here for both of you.”
His eyes practically pleaded with her to forgive him, to understand. The problem was that she couldn't understand how he’d been able to just walk away, pretend that they hadn't been in love for three years. How could he have left her behind without ever once looking back? How could he never call or come back? Not a day had gone by that she hadn’t thought of him, wondered how he’d been.
He ran his thumb over the back of her hand and heat swirled through her limbs, filling her belly with nervous fluttering, the way it had when she was a young girl, and warming the juncture of her thighs, the way it had when he'd taught her how to be a woman.
Damn him.
Rayne pulled her hand from his grasp, trying desperately to grasp the anger that was fading at his nearness, and heard him let out a long sigh. “What happened, Rayne? We used to be friends.”
The man must have balls made out of titanium to have the nerve to ask her that. It was enough to dredge up the disillusionment and heartache she’d once felt.
“Friends?” She rose from the chair and moved away from him, letting a bitter laugh fall from between her lips. “Is that how you remember it? Gee, I guess I must have misread our relationship. That ring you put on my finger said so much more to me. That night...”
She took a deep breath, stopping herself from saying anything more; she'd already said far more than she wanted to. “You know what? I'll just come back and see John later.”
She snatched her purse up and hurried for the door, just as Rebecca, one of John's regular nurses, opened it. “Oh! Sorry, Rayne. I didn't expect you until later.” Rayne took a step back, moving out of the way as Rebecca wheeled in her equipment. “And, I didn't realize you had company. Let me just take care of him and I’ll be out of your way.”
“We should just go,” Rayne said, glaring at Ty across the room.
“What are you doing?” Ty’s voice was quiet, but demanded an answer.
Rebecca looked at Rayne for confirmation. “Just taking his vitals. Are you family?”
“Not exactly.”
“Not exactly?” she repeated, her tone indicating that she wasn’t likely to share privileged information with non-family visitors. “Well, I'm sure Rayne can fill you in on anything you might need to know.”
Ty simply looked at Rayne and gave a quick scoff. “I'm sure she will.”
Rebecca looked from Rayne back to Ty. “Why don't you guys head down to the cafeteria? Don't worry, we'll be waiting for you when you get back. I'll give you a call when the doctor makes his rounds, Rayne.” Rebecca shot Rayne a sly wink as Ty held the door open for her.
Rayne couldn't hold it against her. What woman wouldn't want to spend time with a guy that looked like Ty Prescott? Rebecca had no idea what sort of hell she'd just sentenced Rayne to, and Rayne had little doubt the next few minutes would be anything short of torture.
Chapter 3
Ty’s studied Rayne as she carried her coffee to their table, letting his gaze slide over her, from her dark hair, pulled back in a ponytail, to the full lips that used to smile easily around him, down her body, taking in the luscious curves that had still been a lanky, coltish body twelve years ago. Her husband was a lucky, lucky man.
Rayne took her seat in the hard, plastic chair across from him. Her eyes might be clouded and unreadable, but her posture spoke volumes. She looked like she'd give almost anything to be rid of him again. She'd barely spoken to him since they left John's room, if the occasional grunt and one-word answers could even be called speaking. He turned the half-empty paper cup between his fingers, the bitter coffee growing colder by the second, trying to figure out what he could say that would help breach the chasm between them.
Rayne swiped her finger over the front of her phone, checking the time and letting out an exaggerated sigh. “Well, as scintillating as all this catching up has been, I have appointments this afternoon.” She unfolded her lithe frame from the chair and rose.
“No, you don’t. You were coming to see John until you saw me in the room.” She opened her mouth to deny it, but closed it just as quickly. “Just because we have a past doesn't mean we can't have a civil conversation, does it?”
She arched a saucy brow at him and he immediately dreaded the scathing answer he could see her formulating in her mind. What was it going to take for her to realize he'd give just about anything to go back and do things differently?
“I'm sorry for what I said to you that night, Rayne. I should have...”
T
old the truth. Told you that I needed you, but didn't want to stand in the way of your dreams.
“…gone about things differently.”
Her eyes narrowed, turning icy. “You think?”
“I know I can't make up for what a jerk I was in the past, but since I'm back and we only live a few miles from one another, we'll be in contact. I'd like us to at least get along, if not be friends again.”
“This town may be small, but I'm sure I can manage to avoid you.” She took a sip of her own coffee, trying to hide her grimace of distaste.
“Not when you're the only large animal vet in town, and I'm breeding horses,” he pointed out. The truth was, he wasn't entirely sure he would be breeding, but he wasn't about to tell her that. It was an excuse, but it seemed as good a reason as any right now. He’d say just about anything if it might help break down this wall between them.
She sighed. “What is it you really want from me, Ty? Because I doubt it’s my veterinary prowess. There are plenty of other vets you could call.”
He couldn't tell her the truth, that he'd returned hoping to find her and make her his. There were no words that could convey what he'd give to have her in his life again. The last twelve years had been empty without her beside him. But she was married now. So, he found himself faced with having to do the one thing he'd regretted for the last twelve years—lying to Rayne—and did it again.
“I just decided it was time to finally set down some roots, and there's no place else I'd rather do it.”
“Sure.” She didn't look even slightly convinced as she played with her cup. “That's obvious from the number of times you’ve visited.”