Claiming Her Innocence

by Vivian Wood

  There was only one other seated table at this hour, though it got packed on weekends.

  Sawyer let Shiloh slide down off his back. Watching him go was like watching a miniature version of his father running across the restaurant.

  “It’s crazy how much like you he looks,” Colt said, following Sawyer and Shiloh.

  “I know, I’ve got a Mini-Me,” Sawyer said, tickling Shiloh as he climbed into the booth of his choosing.

  Shiloh screamed, and Sawyer shushed him a little.

  “I know. It’s hard to believe that you didn’t know about… things… for so long,” Colt said as he and Sawyer sat down.

  He was alluding to the fact that Remy had kept Shiloh a secret for the first four years of his life.

  Sawyer cleared his throat and looked at Shiloh meaningfully. Colt shrugged and picked up a menu, even though he always ordered the same thing.

  “People have their reasons,” Sawyer said, defensive of his wife.

  “I was just kidding. Hey, Shiloh, are you gonna get pancakes?”

  “One pancake,” Shiloh said somberly. “One egg, one sausage link.”

  “Oh man, that sounds good.”

  Roxie came over and took their order. Sawyer got a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich; Colt ordered the Greek omelette.

  Roxie brought Shiloh crayons and a coloring book, and he was soon totally absorbed with his kindergarten artistry.

  While Roxie was taking their order, the Jackson brothers came in. A few years older than the Roman brothers, the Jacksons were short, blond, and perpetually sunburned.

  “Hey, Sawyer, Colt,” Greg Jackson said.

  “Hey,” said Sawyer.

  “How’d the rodeo go?” Colt asked.

  “Good. We sold two broncos afterward, second and third place champions,” Will Jackson said, grinning.

  They sat down at the next booth over, happy to chat about the horses they were selling this season, and what kind of prices the Romans should be expecting when they were ready to look at the horse market.

  Colt’s attention drifted away. He’d heard all of this already, since he’d called Will out to look at one of the horses. Of course, now that there was a new vet in town…

  He let his mind wander. Specifically, he found himself wondering what she liked, what kind of things he’d have to do to make her flush the same color as he’d seen earlier.

  He imagined picking her up, stripping the towel from her body, and kissing his way down to a place that would make her moan…

  “Saw the new vet on the way over here,” Greg said, pulling him from his thoughts.

  “Oh yeah?” Sawyer asked.

  Greg whistled low. “She’s a fox, tell you what. Little Indian princess.”

  Colt looked at him sideways. That last bit was more than a little bit racist, which made him bristle.

  Sawyer spotted his discomfort, and changed the topic before Colt could say a word.

  “Colt saw her, too,” he said. “Said she’s worth looking at.”

  “Yeah. I’d do her, but she probably ain’t into guys her own height,” Will said, looking bummed.

  “Probably not guys missing some of their leg, either,” Colt muttered.

  “I don’t know what y’all are talking about,” Greg said. “I think I’m just the kind of man she needs.”

  Colt's fists tightened. He liked Greg, but for some reason his face was looking really punchable right now.

  Luckily their food arrived just then, and the Jackson brothers turned around to give them privacy.

  Colt dug into his breakfast, thinking about her. She wasn’t exactly soliciting that kind of attention or interest, but there it was.

  She was four-alarm fire kind of hot. She certainly wouldn’t be interested in a busted up half of a soldier like him.

  She could definitely get whoever she wanted, with no issues. She might even have a boyfriend, for all Colt knew.

  One thing he was sure of was that he shouldn’t even be thinking that way. He rubbed his prosthetic under the table, feeling the familiar ridges between his shoe and where his leg started.

  His fake leg might do okay with girls he went to high school with, or the pretty divorcees he liked. They sort of went for the hometown hero thing, and he… well, he dealt with it.

  But it wouldn’t work with her. Or rather, he wasn’t even going to try.

  No matter how breathtaking she might be…

  “You okay?” Sawyer said.

  Colt looked at him, and at Shiloh sitting beside him, demolishing the pancake. He felt a twinge of jealousy, mixed with sadness.

  Maybe Sawyer’s road had been a twisted one, with lots of breakneck turns… but at least he’d had one.

  Colt was never going to have that. Never.

  He smiled, covering it all up. “Yep. Thinking about which of the mares to put to pasture.”

  Sawyer nodded, distracted suddenly by what Shiloh was doing.

  “Buddy…” he said, exasperated. He pulled out his napkin and wiped Shiloh’s face.

  “I’m gonna finish all of it, Daddy!” Shiloh cried.

  “Okay, let me help you…”

  Colt pushed his plate back and watched them, wishing that his pang of envy would go away. He could hang with Shiloh anytime, and soon he’d have another one around to spoil.

  That will be enough, he told himself.

  He looked out the window, wondering if that was really true.

  5

  Rose was unlocking the door to the vet clinic when Colt showed up. She immediately blushed; part of her had hoped that he would just decide she wasn’t worth it.

  Instead, he was here, smiling that movie star smile. Peering at her dogs, momentarily corralled in the Volvo.

  Too good to be true! shouted a voice inside her head.

  She scowled at him.

  “Hey,” he said, holding up two toolboxes. “I’m not sure what we’re doing, exactly.”

  “Uhhh…” was all she managed.

  He walked up beside where she had unlocked the doors, and put down the toolboxes. She didn’t mean to, but she took a step back.

  There was something about Colt that reminded her of him, of Jared Chalke. She wasn’t sure if it was that he was self-assured, or handsome… God, was he handsome.

  But there was something about the tall, dark, and muscle-bound type that she just couldn’t trust.

  “Maybe you should go,” she blurted out.

  The words were out of her mouth before she could tame them.

  He looked confused.

  “No, I’m like… free labor,” he explained, as if she misunderstood his presence. “The welcoming committee, like. I’m here to help.”

  She bit her lip, and looked at the clinic. Yeah, it would be emotionally easier for him to go… but it would be practical for him to stay.

  “Okay…” she said, blowing out a breath. “Let me get the dogs out of the car.”

  She walked over to the car and let the dogs out. When she turned around, he was backing up toward the building, looking wary.

  “They’re well-behaved,” she said. “Promise.”

  “Ehhh…” he said, brows raised. “It’s not that. It’s just that no matter how well-behaved big dogs are, they want to sniff… That can throw me off balance.”

  The dogs crowded him, sniffing but not harming him in any way.

  She stopped, confused. “What do you mean, throw you off balance?”

  She watched as he looked down, then back at her.

  “Uh… I’m missing a foot,” he said. “All the way to the shin.”

  Rose put a hand to her heart, looking at his feet. She whistled to the dogs, who came and sat near her feet obediently.

  He looked perfectly normal. When she continued to study him, he grimaced and pulled his pant leg up. She couldn’t see the foot, as it was in the shoe, but the leg was assuredly cool, hard metal.

  And all she could come up with was, “Oh!”

  He dropped the pant leg
with a shrug.

  “It’s not a big deal.”

  Rose felt her face grow pink again.

  “I didn’t mean… that is, you shouldn’t have had to show me your injury.”

  His lips twitched.

  “It happened when I was serving overseas, in the SEALs.” He seemed to inflate slightly at that.

  “You were in the military?”

  He screwed up his face. “Yeah.”

  “Well… thank you for your service,” she said, feeling a bit lame as she said it.

  “Yeah, well… Anyway…”

  He looked as if he would rather not get into it.

  She shook herself. “Yeah. Yes. Ummm…”

  He gave her that million-dollar smile again.

  “Where do we start, boss lady?”

  Boss lady… that’s me, she thought.

  “Umm, I have a list,” she said, waving him inside. He gave the dogs a watchful eye, then followed. “We’ll need to sweep and dust, paint… reline and redo the driveway… clean the gutters…”

  He raised his brow.

  “That’s a lot,” he said.

  “Well… I mean, I can pay for someone to do the heavy stuff…”

  “Pfft, that’s what I’m here for,” he said.

  “Well, what about your…”

  She stopped, unsure how to continue.

  “My disability?” he said, lips twitching again. “Other than not having a leg from the ankle down, there’s not a whole heck of a lot that I can’t do. Trust me, people have tried to keep me out of things, and failed.”

  He said the last with a note of determined pride.

  Rose nodded. “Okay. Well… let’s do some things, then.”

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “I guess we should clean the gutters first,” she said, walking out a little so she could see them.

  “I can do that, if you want.”

  “Yeah… that’d be nice. I can start dusting and sweeping. Honestly, there’s a couple days worth of work there, at least.”

  “Okay,” Colt said. “I guess I’ll get to work. Is there a ladder?”

  “Around the side of building.”

  “Okay. I’ll get to it, then.”

  Rose nodded. She watched him walk over and pick up the only ladder from the side of the building. Noticed the way his muscles rippled as he lifted it…

  She turned away. Yeah, like you need a hot guy in the mix right now, she thought. She rolled her eyes at herself as she headed inside.

  She looked around. Best to start dusting up high, that way when she swept she would carry it away. She grabbed her feather duster.

  Climbing up on a chair, she prepared herself for a lot of dust in her hair and on her clothes.

  She set about dusting the ceiling first, then the top half of the wall. She sectioned off the walls as she went.

  By the fifth small section of wall, she was sneezing and sweating. She looked at her watch. She’d been working for nearly an hour. The dust she couldn’t do anything about, but with any luck the air conditioner worked.

  Rose climbed down off the chair, walking by the entrance to the air conditioner, an old window unit. She stopped midstep, staring.

  He was drinking from a water bottle, looking away from her. That wasn’t the bad part, though.

  Colt had taken his shirt off… and looking at him was absolutely devastating. He was ripped and tattooed, from the smoking hot line of his shoulders to the dip in his back, the one that made his ass look so…

  Delicious.

  He turned around and caught her staring. “I got hot. You don’t mind, I hope?”

  “N-no,” she said, forcing her gaze away.

  That was all right, because she’d gotten enough of a look at his pecs, his arms, and his washboard abs to be turned on.

  Holy shit, she thought. I’m turned on. I didn’t think after… I didn’t think I could be…

  He looked at her funny, and then wordlessly pulled his shirt back on.

  She spoke up. “It’s really okay…”

  Colt looked at his watch.

  “It’s not that,” he said. “It’s just, I see my brother Sawyer and his son Shiloh coming over here. I figure my brother probably wants to talk business. We own a dude ranch.”

  “Oh,” she said, shoulders sagging a little. “I mean… of course. You should go.”

  “Let me introduce you real quick,” he said.

  He buttoned his shirt as he waited for the other two to join them. She looked at the man approaching, did a double take.

  “Are y’all twins?” she asked.

  “Nah,” Colt said.

  She called the dogs over, ordering them to sit and stay. Colt waited for his brother, introducing her when he was close enough.

  “Sawyer, this is Rose Elliott. She’s the new veterinarian.” He put a hand on the boy, who was clearly related. “And this is Shiloh.”

  “Nice to—” she started, only to have Shiloh shock her by running to her and hugging her knees. “Meet you…”

  “Hi. I’m sorry, he’s a little…” Sawyer tried to explain, then trailed off. “Shiloh, let the nice lady go…”

  He let go, only to launch himself at the dogs, who wagged their tails in excitement. Luckily they were well-trained, so they stayed put.

  “Dogs!” Shiloh squawked.

  Colt swooped in and grabbed Shiloh. “Sorry.”

  “It’s not a problem,” Rose said, smiling a little. “I wish that all my customers were so enthusiastic.”

  “I’ll be by on Wednesday morning,” Colt said. “The weekend’s pretty laid back around these parts, and then I have some ranch business to attend to.”

  “Okay.” She bit back the retort she was going to make, about how she’d grown up an hour from here.

  “Nice to meet you,” Sawyer said.

  “You too.”

  She gestured to the dogs to stay put.

  Sawyer held out his arms to take Shiloh as they left. It was only then that she noticed Colt’s limp, more noticeable the farther away he got.

  She felt a pang. She might not know him that well, but he was obviously in some kind of pain.

  Rose turned to look at the gutters. They were clean as a whistle, a hard task for anyone to complete in just over an hour.

  She checked her watch, and then motioned for the dogs to move freely. After she took the dogs home, she would still have plenty of time to visit Shelby’s sick horse.

  She locked up the clinic and dropped the dogs off, leaving them outside with the gate to her yard closed.

  She drove out to Shelby’s farm, almost half an hour out from town. It was a scenic drive, with flat marshy land broken up by hills here and there.

  River Farm had waist-high sugarcane fields, something that Rose didn’t see too much these days. She spotted a two-story main house, done like a log cabin. Not many windows or doors on the house either; Shelby’s house was definitely old-school.

  Rose pulled into their circular drive, parking behind several large pickups. She got out, bringing her vet bag, and eyeing some ominous clouds that had sprung up while she’d been driving.

  It was early October, so it was still the rainy season here in Louisiana. Hoping it wouldn’t rain her out, she wished she’d had time to construct better shelter for the dogs.

  That thought in mind, she hurried up the path to the house. She didn’t even make it to the door, though. Shelby stuck her head out the front door. She was looking perfect in a t-shirt and short shorts, Rose noted with some jealousy.

  When Rose was a teenager, her mother had burned modesty into her brain. She got the if you got it, flaunt it thing, but she couldn’t do it.

  “Hey! One second,” Shelby said.

  She disappeared, only to reappear with a rain slicker on. She held a second one out to Rose.

  “Here, you might need this,” she said.

  “Oh, thanks…” Rose took it, tucking it under her arm.

  “The horses are
usually kept in a pasture way on the other side of the farm, but I had my brother Micah bring Stella into the barn out back,” Shelby said, gesturing past the house. “Come on.”

  Shelby led her around the corner of the house, across her wide backyard. She opened the big rolling door of a barn, then waved Rose in first.

  Stella was the only horse in the barn, and quite beautiful. Dark gray, with white dappling on her forelegs.

  “She’s pretty,” Rose said as they approached.

  “I know, right? Remy says I spoil her because of it.”

  They reached the stall, and once she opened the door to the stall Rose could see that the mare was fairly far along.

  “The mare’s testy.”

  “Gotcha. Let’s have a look.” She stepped into the stall and ran her hands over the mare, who was gentle and sweet. “She’s biddable, huh?”

  “Yeah. I used to ride her a lot.”

  Rose nodded, moving her hands down to the horse’s belly. She noticed that the horse’s ears went back, and Stella began to shift from foot to foot when she ran her hands underneath.

  She moved around, running her hands down each of the horse’s back legs. The shifting stopped. She ran her hands under the horse’s belly again.

  This time the horse practically danced, trying to get away from Rose’s touch. Rose stood up with a frown.

  “She seems healthy, but she’s doesn’t want me to touch her low in her belly,” she said.

  “So… what?”

  “So, there might be nothing wrong, but I would keep her close. I’ll come check on her in a week, if that’s all right.”

  Shelby pulled a face. “I told Micah and Sawyer that something was wrong with her. I can feel it.”

  “Sawyer?”

  “Sorry. Sawyer Roman. He’s married to Remy, so he’s my brother-in-law. And he’s really nice, but he thinks he knows everything there is to know about horses.”

  “Oh, I uh… met him. His brother Colt is helping me fix up my veterinary clinic. I guess he did something that made the local judge angry.”

  “Colt? Probably got into a fight at The Speckled Hen.”

  “A fight?” she said, raising a brow.

  “Yeah. He can’t seem to resist punching out guys who pick on him about his foot. It’s like… I get it, but how many times can you get into trouble over the same thing?”