by Jeannie Watt
“Oh, let’s see...I was the one right before the one he married.” She smiled as she shrugged philosophically. “I had no illusions where I fit into the scheme of his life, but boy howdy, it was hard to walk away. He is hot. H-O-T—”
“We get it,” Andie said. “Have you made the appointment reminder calls today?”
“Getting right on that,” Etta said, reaching for the phone. Andie shook her head and went into her office, taking care not to look at Liv.
Why? Did she feel sorry for her?
Liv knocked on the open door frame and then walked inside, closing the door after her. Andie looked up from the lab report she was reading. “I don’t want to encourage her. Etta is good with the patients, but she gossips too much and I don’t like it.”
“Right,” Liv said. “And now I have a question for you. Most of McElroy’s patients were jocks or athletes of some kind, right?”
“They were people who were more interested in numbing pain than dealing with the cause.” Andie set down the report. “And he does this—” she gestured with one hand as she made a disgusted face “—growth hormone stuff that’s supposed to regenerate cartilage. Nothing proven or even approved by the FDA. I don’t like it.”
“Great.”
“Yeah. And honestly? He creeped me out. So-o-o smarmy.” The phone rang, and Andie automatically reached for it. “Give me a minute, then send him in,” she said. Liv headed for the door. She didn’t like this one bit, even though it was so not her business what Matt Montoya did to himself.
“Hey,” Andie called and Liv turned back. “Can I bum a ride to practice tonight? My trailer has a flat.”
“I’ll pick you up at six.”
“Thanks.”
* * *
DON’T DO THIS.
After a near paralyzing moment of indecision, Liv blew off her cautious inner voice and, instead of turning right at the Y, turned left and began traveling toward where Matt’s place should be. He’d said he was only two miles away and surely she’d be able to see his truck—unless, of course, he parked it in a garage.
He didn’t. She’d traveled for less than a mile when she spotted the silver-and-black truck near a house that was dwarfed by the indoor arena next to it. Liv slowed as she regarded the canvas-covered building.
An arena of his own.
Apparently, world titles paid well.
There was a white utility truck parked next to Matt’s Dodge, and as Liv slowed to pull into the driveway, her heart beating harder than it should have been, Matt and another man came out of the barn followed by a teenage kid.
She hadn’t planned on a crowd. Definitely bad timing on her part, but it was too late to drive on—especially since all three of them were now staring at her.
She parked on the opposite side of Matt’s Dodge and got out of the car as if stopping by his house were the most natural thing in the world.
“Liv,” Matt said as she approached, his expression less than welcoming. “This is a surprise.”
“Matt.”
The guy standing beside Matt had to be a vet, judging from the bright yellow Betadine stains on his shirt and the kit in his hand.
“Dr. Hoss,” Matt nodded at the vet. “Liv Bailey, Tim’s daughter.”
The vet stuck out his free hand, which was only slightly bloody. Liv took it. “Good to meet you,” he said as her fingers were swallowed up in his large hand.
“Are you a horse vet?” she asked.
“Hoss for hosses. That’s me.” The vet smiled congenially, released her hand, then turned back to Matt. “Everything should be fine, but give me a call if there’re any problems. I’ve got another call, so...”
“Yeah, well, thanks for coming.” Matt walked the vet to his truck, the two of them continuing to talk in low voices, the kid, who Matt had never introduced, trailing along behind them. Liv shoved her hands in her back pockets, feeling awkward. This time her cautious voice had been correct. In a few seconds they were going to be alone and some of the steam had gone out of her—the steam that was supposed to get her through this before sanity set in.
Dr. Hoss opened the truck door and got inside. Liv waited for the teen to jump in the passenger side, but instead he continued to stand beside Matt. The truck started up, and with a quick wave, the vet pulled away.
Yeah. Definitely a bad time for a semiprofessional visit.
“This is Willa’s boy, Craig,” Matt said after the vet’s truck crossed the culvert on the other side of the house. “You remember Willa, right?”
Who could forget the girl who’d beaten up the freshman quarterback when he’d teased her about her name? “Uh, yes. I do,” Liv said. “I can see the resemblance.” Craig did have his mother’s piercing blue eyes, but their similarities ended there. Willa’s hair was pale blond and Craig’s was reddish-brown, her face round and his narrow and angular.
Craig gave her a candid once-over. “You and my mom must have gotten along okay,” he said.
“I think so,” she said cautiously, cutting a quick look at Matt, who was studying her intently, his expression hard and unwelcoming. Why? Because she’d dared to tread on his turf? Because he knew why she was there and didn’t want to hear her lecture him?
“Just saying, because sometimes people get this weird look when they find out who my mom is.” He smiled as if quite comfortable with that circumstance, perhaps even a little proud.
“We didn’t know each other well, but yes, we got along okay.”
“Glad to hear it,” Craig said. He bounced a look between Matt and Liv then said, “I have a computer game I need to get back to.”
“Nice meeting you,” Liv called. Craig lifted a hand in acknowledgment as he headed for the house.
“Seems like a nice kid,” Liv said, turning back to Matt, wondering why she couldn’t have just gone home. Going home would have made her life so much easier. Why make it harder by doing this?
Because she had some things to say and she was no longer the kind of person who avoided unpleasantness in order to keep other people happy.
Because she hated to see anyone give a guy like “Dr.” McElroy money. Or destroy their joints by numbing them with painkillers so they could compete—not that she knew for a fact that Matt was going to do any of those things, but from what she understood from Andie, toward the end of his practice, people only saw McElroy for one reason.
And because part of her wanted to tell Matt that she knew what he was doing and that it was wrong. Just plain wrong.
“Word travels fast,” Matt said.
Liv frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“My horse.”
“I’m not here about a horse,” Liv said. “I’m here about a quack.”
* * *
OH, YEAH. THIS WAS TURNING out to be one fine day.
“McElroy?” Matt asked wearily. This was why she was here all fired up? He was glad it wasn’t about the horse, but still...
“Got it in one,” she replied with the same quiet intensity she’d had when she was trying to explain a math concept that he just wasn’t getting. “I don’t know if anyone else is going to tell you that seeing McElroy is stupid and unethical, so I am.”
“Really.”
She nodded.
“Well, first of all, you don’t know what I’m going to do. Second, it’s none of your business and third, why do you care?”
Her color rose on the third point, in a rather fascinating way,
actually. Anger or self-consciousness?
“Fourth,” he continued in a low voice, refusing to let himself be fascinated by the woman who wouldn’t return his horse, “how do you know I’m going to see McElroy?”
“Our receptionist was concerned about you.”
Matt snorted. “I think your receptionist wouldn’t mind seeing me in hell.”
“She did mention something about heat,” Liv muttered.
“You know, Liv, you may have helped me through calculus, but you really don’t have much say in what I do.”
“But I know what’s ethical and what people should and shouldn’t do to their body. And who they should and shouldn’t give money to. You’re supporting a quasicriminal if you go to this guy.”
He moved a step closer, not much liking her point about supporting a quasicriminal because he had a feeling she was probably right. “Just what is it you think I’m going to do to my body?”
From the way her lips parted then closed, Matt once again got the feeling that she was more aware of him, in a man-woman sense, than she wanted to be. Which would have been an interesting circumstance in another time or place.
“I think you’re going to numb the pain in your knee so that you can compete. And then I think you’re going to destroy the joint.”
“But you aren’t a doctor. McElroy is.”
“Allegedly.”
“I need to get back into the game before it’s too late,” he finally said. “I can only be competitive for so long and the clock’s ticking.”
“Maybe it’s ticked past midnight.”
“Thanks, Liv.”
“It’s possible.”
“And it’s also possible that the guys I’ve seen about my knee have approached the matter with a closed mind. They know the norm. They don’t know me.”
“How many therapists and doctors have you seen with closed minds?”
“Two. One doctor. One therapist.”
“Don’t make McElroy number three.”
“So maybe I should come to you? Would you approach things with an open mind?”
“I would tell you the truth.”
“Yeah?” He tilted his hat back slightly so that he could see her face better. “Seems to me that you went a long time without telling me the truth.”
It took a moment for his meaning to sink in. “That doesn’t count,” she snapped, blushing again. “I shouldn’t have come. You just go ahead and do what you have to do.” Liv turned to walk back to her truck, but Matt reached out and took her arm, his hand sliding down to her wrist to stop her.
She jerked back at his touch and he instantly let go. “Don’t go, Liv.”
“Why?”
“We have things to settle.” Before she could respond, he said, “Things other than doctors, alleged or otherwise, and old crushes.”
“What things?” Liv asked, her expression dead. He was touching too many nerves, but it worked both ways. If she could come here and shove health advice at him, then he could settle another matter.
“What do you think?”
“Beckett is mine,” she said.
“Do you think I hurt him?” he asked. It was very important to him that she know he hadn’t hurt the horse. She hadn’t given him a straight answer last time and he needed one.
She appeared to fight with herself for a moment before she confessed in a low voice, “I no longer believe you hurt him.” She let out a breath, as if the admission had hurt, then once again met his gaze. “So, if that’s settled, I need to get home and cook for Dad.”
“Yeah. I wanted to ask about that, too.”
“What?” Her eyes widened, making him wonder how back in the day he’d managed to miss the fact that she had gorgeous eyes. Probably because he’d been a self-centered jerk. “Cooking?”
“Your dad. The ranch is a wreck, Liv.”
“I’m aware,” she said stiffly, making it pretty easy to follow her thoughts. The ranch...none of his business. Just like McElroy was really none of hers. “I need to get going,” she said again.
“Yeah. You go on home. But we have more to talk about. In the future.”
“I don’t think so.”
Matt didn’t say another word so she walked to her truck, her back stiff. No “goodbye” or “see you later.” But he would see her later—and not entirely because of Beckett.
Liv put the truck into Reverse and swung it around. Matt stood at the edge of the gravel drive, and he couldn’t help but notice that she gave him one last long look in the rearview mirror before putting the rig into a forward gear and pulling away.
* * *
AS LIV PULLED out onto the county road, she glanced toward the house one last time. Willa’s boy came out to meet Matt on the deck and Matt shook his head at something the kid said.
What was the boy doing there? Matt did not look like the babysitting type.
And what was that about a horse?
Liv had been so flustered before she hadn’t asked why on earth Matt had thought she was there about a horse. Something to do with the vet, no doubt. What had he thought? That she’d heard another of his horses had gotten injured and come swooping down on him like a vigilante posse of one?
He gave her more credit than she deserved, although she had kind of swooped down on him, but for a different reason. And rightly so. Guys like McElroy preyed on other people’s needs and dreams. The football player trying to advance his career, the coach who needed that player. The rodeo rider who needs just a couple more wins to move up in the world standings. McElroy could help them do just that—for a price, both physical and financial.
Liv gritted her teeth. She really hated slimy doctors.
And she was trying hard not to think about how Matt had jangled her nerves. If she hadn’t been driving, she would have thunked her head on the steering wheel. She’d delivered her message and felt a sense of satisfaction there, but she’d also received a message that left her feeling edgy and uncertain.
They had more to talk about.
What?
It had to be Beckett.
In that case, she was fine.
Except for that part where she’d kept noticing all the little things about Matt that had distracted her back when she’d been trying to teach him calculus. Things she didn’t want to notice again.
CHAPTER TEN
MATT WAS STILL mulling over Liv’s visit the next morning when he pulled into the parking lot of Murdoch’s Western supply store to pick up some vet wrap to doctor Ready’s leg. She’d come on a mission, but he wasn’t exactly sure if it had been to save him from the dangers of the needle or to keep McElroy from getting more business. Or maybe just to beat him up some more.
Regardless of why she came, he knew why she’d left. Because he’d rattled her. Which felt satisfying and he wasn’t certain why. He smiled a little, watching the ground as he crossed the parking lot, when a familiar voice said, “Careful where you’re going.”
The smile instantly evaporated as Matt found himself facing his father. And as always, even after all these years, he felt a prickle of betrayal. Betrayal wasn’t compatible with warm fuzzy feelings, and Matt had never tried to pretend. If Charles Montoya wondered what had happened between himself and his son, he never said anything, but at times that Matt could sense his frustration. There wasn’t much he could do about it. There was no way in hell Matt was going to say, “I know your dirty secret.”
Well, actually he’d lov
e to say those words, but feared repercussions. What if his father felt compelled to do something about it once confronted with the knowledge that Matt knew? What if he confessed to his wife? Matt couldn’t handle hurting his mom.
“How’re you feeling?” Charles asked in his gruff way, which meant he felt self-conscious. He shoved his big hands into his denim jacket as he waited for Matt’s response.
Matt gave a careless shrug. “Fine.” His dad was nearly two inches taller than him, his hair now almost entirely silver, but looking at his dad was like seeing himself in the future. He was practically a clone of his old man...which bugged the hell out of him sometimes.
“The knee?”
“I’m working on it.”
“Meaning?”
“I’m working on it,” Matt said with a spurt of impatience.
“That doesn’t tell me a damned thing.”
“I’m doing exercises to strengthen it and wearing a brace. It’s getting better. I’m roping.”
“Maybe you should give it a rest this year.”
“I don’t think so,” Matt said.
“What would it hurt?”
“Well, for one thing it’d hurt my pocketbook.”
“You still have cows.”
Matt narrowed his eyes. When they had these conversations, part of Matt instantly assumed his father was trying to make things easier for Ryan. It wasn’t logical, but the thought always sneaked in, accompanied by the ghost of a devastated fifteen-year-old boy who should have been where he’d said he’d be.
“I’m roping. I’m competing. It’s what I do.”
“Maybe it’s time you did something else,” his father said.
“Why?”
“Why?” Charles echoed incredulously. “Because you’re beat to hell and it’s the sane thing to do. You could come to work on the ranch. Your ma’s been after me to draw up papers, make you a partner.”
“I don’t think so.” Like he was going to put himself through that.
Charles just shook his head. “What are you going to do for a living then? Sell cars?”