“Miguel, have you met Dr. Dalton?” she asked.
He nodded coolly at her and the young, blond vet. The man was tall and slim with a walrus mustache that drooped around his mouth. Miguel couldn’t help but wonder if she thought him handsome. She’d certainly been smiling at the doctor a moment ago when he and Elmer had driven up.
“We’ve met.”
Anna frowned at his brusque response. “One of the horses is lame. You were gone, so I thought I’d better have Dr. Dalton look at him.”
“And what did he find?” Miguel asked her, rather than acknowledge the vet.
“He’s afraid it might be a hairline fracture. I’m going to need to drive him in for an X ray tomorrow.”
Miguel’s narrowed eyes darted over to the other man. “Why don’t you take the horse back with you now and save Anna a trip into Ruidoso? You have your stock trailer with you.”
He shrugged in a noncommittal way and tugged uncomfortably at the brim of his straw hat. “I’d rather not put the horse in my trailer. I’ve had some distempered animals in it this morning.”
Miguel’s face grew so dark, Anna actually believed he was going to explode.
“Then get it the hell out of here!” he practically shouted. “And I’ll tell you another thing, Dalton. If one of Anna’s horses so much as sneezes I’m going to hold you personally responsible!”
Anna watched the young vet open his mouth to defend himself, but then he must have decided a quick exit would be the best recourse. He snapped his mouth shut and stalked off to his pickup.
After he’d started the engine and pulled away, Anna whirled on Miguel. “What do you think you’re doing!”
“Trying to save Chloe’s horses. The damn idiot! What did he think he was doing coming out here with an infected trailer?”
“Maybe he’s disinfected it before he drove out here and simply wanted to be extra careful,” she reasoned.
He rolled his eyes with disbelief. “Maybe you should have been paying more attention to it than him. The thing was full of horse manure!”
Anna flushed. She hadn’t noticed the nasty condition of the trailer. But Miguel needn’t be so smug about it.
“Okay. So he shouldn’t have been up here spreading germs. You didn’t have to talk to him like he was...a piece of trash.”
“As far as I’m concerned that’s just what he is.”
Anna gasped. Then before she could respond, Miguel turned and stalked off into the stables. Stunned, she stared at the spot where he’d disappeared, then anger propelled her to race into the barn after him.
“What is that suppose to mean?” she hurled at him once she’d gotten within earshot of his back.
Not pausing in his stride, he continued on toward the tack room. “Just what I said. And tomorrow you’ll not take that horse in by yourself. I’ll be going with you!”
She grabbed him by the arm and forced him to stop and face her. “Why?”
His eyes took the time to roam her face. Bright color burned across her cheeks, and her green eyes were sparking like burning pinon. Miguel fought desperately with himself to keep from taking her into his arms and kissing her breathless. He wanted to possess her body and soul. But to do so would be asking for a heartache far worse than Charlene had ever caused him. “Because I don’t want you to be alone with him.”
Anna’s lips parted as she stared at him in stunned wonderment. “Are you...jealous, Miguel?”
His nostrils flared. “No! I simply don’t want Chloe coming home and finding her daughter mixed up with a man like him.”
Anna didn’t know what sort of man Dr. Dalton was. She really didn’t care. All she wanted was her horse’s ailment tended to. And as for her getting mixed up with a man. She already was. With him. Didn’t he realize that? Or did he just not want to?
“You really think I’m a silly nitwit, don’t you? You have this notion if someone wasn’t around to tell me what to do, I wouldn’t know how to take care of myself.”
“I’m beginning to wonder if you do,” he snapped. “Thirty more minutes and you’d have probably been making a date with Dr. Dalton. And this from a woman I heard swearing off men forever!” he added nastily.
Fury turned her face scarlet. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! Dr. Dalton and I discussed nothing but my horses. And even if we had discussed more, why should you care? You don’t want me!”
It was all the goading Miguel could take. Grabbing her by the shoulders, he pulled her to within an inch of him.
“You don’t know what wanting is, Anna,” he growled. “You—”
The rest of his words lodged somewhere in his throat as she suddenly pressed herself against him and grabbed his face between her palms. “And you think you do?” she whispered, her lips hovering a breath away from his. “If you did, you would know how I’m feeling right now. How I feel every time I look at you.”
Heartbreak or not, Miguel could not withstand her or the white-hot desire pounding through him like a pagan war dance.
“You shouldn’t be saying such things to me, Anna,” he whispered roughly. “And I shouldn’t be listening.”
She closed the minute space between their lips, and he was helpless to resist. He stood motionless, his hands gripping her shoulders tightly as she tasted, searched the hard contours of his mouth. It was both heaven and hell to let her kiss him. And he was trembling with a need as old as time when she finally pulled her head away from his, shook back her tumbled hair and caught his eyes with hers.
“You think I’m young and foolish. You think deep down that all I’ll ever want is to play the piano for a crowd of people, to travel in the glittering world of entertainment. But that isn’t what I want, Miguel. I want you.”
Hearing her say the words left him feeling naked and more exposed than he ever had in his life. Because he was sure if she looked, really looked inside him she would see just how deep and wide his desire for her had grown.
He glanced away from her and drew in a ragged breath. He couldn’t lose himself to this woman. Charlene had stomped his heart. Now so little of it was capable of feeling, loving. If Anna went away, and she would surely go, the last of himself would go with her and he’d be a ruined man.
“We don’t always want what we need, Anna. You’ll realize that...when you get older...and away from here.”
She wanted to ask him what he needed. If not her, then his son? But at that moment two men noisily entered the opposite end of the long barn and they were forced to break apart.
Anna turned her back to him, breathed deeply and tried to compose her scattered senses. She hadn’t really meant to throw herself at Miguel like she had. She hadn’t planned to actually tell him in words how she wanted him. But in the heat of the moment her feelings had burst from her. Now she couldn’t hide from herself or him.
“I’m not sure what’s wrong with the horse,” she said, deliberately getting back to the point at hand. “If you would, I’d like for you to look at him and give me your opinion.”
“Why bother with my opinion now? You’ve already called in a professional.”
She turned back to him, her expression full of disbelief. “Surely you can’t fault me for that! It would be negligent of me to take risks with one of Mother’s best runners!”
Miguel knew his jealousy was unreasonable. He had no right to throw such accusations at her. But his heart was already forming the idea that she belonged to him, and he didn’t have a clue as to how to stop it.
Heaving out a heavy breath, he said in a gentler tone, “I’ll take a look at the horse, Anna. But you need to remember I haven’t had eight years of medical schooling like Dalton.”
She turned to him and smiled as though he’d just plucked a star from the sky and presented it to her on a silver platter. “No. You’ve had many more years of experience. In my opinion that counts for much more.”
Miguel had never felt he had an ego. Especially one that needed to be fed. But Anna’s words swelled his ch
est with a strange sort of pride.
“Come on. He’s down here at the end of the barn,” she invited, then turned and headed down the wide alleyway covered ankle-deep in clean wood shavings.
Miguel followed and joined her in the horse’s stall.
“I haven’t done anything different with him,” she said. “Yesterday I took him around the track a couple of times. He never so much as stumbled, and later, on the walker, his gait was fine. But this morning his ankle is swollen and he’s limping noticeably.”
Miguel approached the brown horse with gentle words of greeting, then after a few pats on the nose and neck to let him know he was a friend, Miguel lifted the horse’s ailing foot.
He examined the bottom of the hoof, then slipping a small knife from his jeans pocket, he gently tapped it against the metal shoe. The horse immediately flinched and tried to jerk his foot away from Miguel’s grasp.
Miguel looked up at Anna who was hovering a step away. A worried expression marred her face. “When was this horse last shod?” he asked her. “These shoes look new.”
“I—” She shook her head as she tried to remember exactly. “The farrier has been here twice since my parents left. I think he shod this horse yesterday afternoon. Yes, I’m sure of it now. He’d already been exercised.”
Still holding on to the horse’s hoof, he nodded grimly. “I think his hoof has been cut back too short or he’s been quicked with a nail. Get me a pair of pliers from the tack room. This shoe needs to come off.”
Anna hurried after the tool, then back in the stall she watched Miguel carefully pry the shoe with its running cleat off the horse’s hoof.
“See this,” he told her pointing out one of the nail holes. “The farrier missed the wall and went into the sole. From the looks of this drainage it’s already infected.”
“Oh, my! I’m so glad you found it, Miguel. The poor animal was in misery! Why didn’t Dr. Dalton have the foresight to remove the shoe?”
Because he’d been too busy looking at you, Miguel thought, but kept the opinion to himself. He’d already shown too much of the green monster inside him. He lowered the horse’s hoof to the ground.
“The vet told me he believed the horse might have a hairline fracture or a torn ligament!” Anna exclaimed without waiting for his reply. “Now I won’t have to haul him into Ruidoso tomorrow for X rays.”
“Yes you will. The horse still needs treatment.”
“Just tell me what to do to him,” she said.
Anna’s confidence in him was something he’d never expected, and he was overwhelmed at the pleasure it gave him. Charlene had never thought him clever or admirable. She’d simply liked the way he looked in a pair of jeans and cowboy hat. She’d never bothered to find out what was underneath. She hadn’t cared what was underneath, he thought bitterly.
“It’s—” He cleared his throat as his voice threatened to go husky with emotion. “I could tell you a few things to do. But I prefer you take him into the vet. The horse will probably need to be prescribed antibiotics. I can’t do that.”
She stuffed her hands into the front pockets of her jeans. “When can you go with me?”
He looked at her sheepishly. “I’m not going.”
Anna’s mouth popped open. “But you said...”
“Forget what I said. I was out of line.”
His gaze fell to his boots, and Anna studied his downcast face. If he’d felt a streak of jealousy over her earlier, he was obviously regretting it now.
“I’ve grown used to you getting out of line,” she said with as much teasing humor as she could. “I’d think you were sick if you weren’t trying to boss me.”
He couldn’t think of any other time Anna had teased him or smiled at him in just the way she was doing now. And though he wanted to be cool and unaffected, he was actually floundering like a lost goose.
Miguel knew, just as Anna knew, that in the past few minutes things had forever changed between them. No matter what happened in the future, he would never be able to look at her again without feeling her hands upon his face, her lips pressed to his, her voice whispering she wanted him.
“I’ll see you when you get back tomorrow,” he said abruptly, then left the stall without giving her the chance to argue. Or provoke him into another kiss.
The next day it was nearly noon by the time Anna drove the lame horse into Ruidoso, waited for Dr. Dalton to examine him, then drive back to the Bar M.
Driving up the lane to the ranch, she glanced grimly at the sack of medicine on the seat beside her. There was a bottle of liquid antibiotics to be injected, plus a solution to spray on the wound itself. The doctor had appeared a bit annoyed that Miguel had taken it upon himself to remove the horse’s shoe and make his own diagnosis, but in the end the veterinarian had agreed, albeit reluctantly, the foreman was correct. Anna could see he’d been embarrassed by his own oversight.
At the ranch, she was surprised when she pulled down to the stables and parked. Her cousin Emily and little second cousin Harlan walked out of the building to greet her. Even more amazing was to see Miguel a step behind the two of them. But then she should have known the man knew her family better than she did.
“Anna!” Emily exclaimed as she fiercely hugged her cousin. “Every time I see you you’ve grown more gorgeous!”
This was the first Anna had seen her older cousin since she’d come home last Valentine’s Day for Charlie’s wedding to Violet. Little Harlan had only been a newborn then. Now he was a chunky toddler, and Emily looked radiant with happiness. Anna was thrilled for her cousin. She’d suffered through many hard years before she’d been reunited with her true love.
Laughing, Anna gestured to her dusty jeans and plaid work shirt. “Oh, I’m sure I look good like this! But thanks for the compliment, anyway.”
“Miguel tells me you have a lame racehorse. Does your mother know about him yet?”
Anna nodded. “I told her last night when she called.” She glanced at Miguel, who’d yet to say anything. “She says as long as she knows Miguel is keeping an eye on him, she won’t worry.”
“Chloe’s confidence is misplaced,” Miguel spoke up. “Anna is quite capable of seeing after the horse.”
His remark floored Anna, but Emily seemed to accept it as genuine.
“Well, I’m just glad Chloe’s not fretting,” the older woman said. “I’d hate for her vacation to be ruined. I can’t ever remember her taking off like this. Wyatt makes business trips at times, but your mother rarely leaves the ranch. She was due for a break.” She arched a brow at Anna. “What about you? How does it feel being home again?”
“It feels wonderful,” Anna said, and then realizing how very much she meant it, she knelt down to greet Harlan. He had pale blond hair and blue eyes like his mother. At the moment one hand was clinging to a fold in the leg of her jeans, the other went straight to his mouth where he immediately began to chew on his forefingers as he studied Anna carefully.
“Hi, Harlan,” she spoke gently to the child. “I’m your second cousin, Anna. Are you saying words yet? Can you say Mama or Dada?”
The toddler continued to look Anna over, then glanced at Miguel and finally his mother to make sure the woman kneeling in front of him was acceptable. Once he decided she was safe, he pointed a finger over her shoulder and blurted, “Horse!”
Anna laughed heartily while Emily made a helpless gesture with her hands. “What can I say, it’s in his genes.”
“Do you like to ride a horse, Harlan?” Anna asked the child.
He pointed eagerly again to the pen behind her, which was filled with working cow ponies. Emily said in a hushed tone to Anna. “Don’t get him started. Once he gets on a horse, you can’t get him off.”
Laughing again, Anna smiled at the boy, then patted his rotund little tummy. “You just wait, Harlan. When you get a bit bigger, you can ride with me all day long.”
Emily groaned with fond humor. “That’s right. Be just like Coop and spoil him rotten.
I’ll pay you back when you have a child, Anna.”
Feeling like an interloper, Miguel slipped away while the two women continued to visit. As it had before, the sight of Anna with her family bothered him. Especially the sight of her with little Harlan. He didn’t want to picture her as a warm, loving mother. It was easier to think she’d never fit the role. But the adoration in her eyes for Emily’s child was already stuck in his mind. Along with many other things he didn’t know how to forget.
At Anna’s truck and tailer, he unloaded the lame horse, put him back in his stall and placed the antibiotic in a small refrigerator in the tack room. As for discussing the animal’s treatment with Anna, he decided he could do that later after her cousin went home. He had plenty of work to do himself, and anything to get Anna out of his mind would be a relief.
Outside the north end of the stables, the two women continued to catch up on their family news. Until Emily looked around in sudden horror.
“Where’s Harlan? He was standing right here beside us just a minute ago!”
“I don’t know! I didn’t see him move away,” Anna exclaimed.
Both women spotted the child at the same moment. Emily screamed and Anna gasped with sheer terror. The toddler had wandered past the pen of cow ponies, then crawled beneath the metal rail fence and into another holding pen where a stallion had been let loose to exercise. The animal was huge in size and possessed a testy disposition. Anna had no idea how he might react to the child.
Anna and Emily raced toward the baby at the same time the stallion noticed the little intruder inside his domain.
“Harlan! Harlan come to Mommy!” Emily shouted.
The frantic tone of his mother’s voice only frightened Harlan. The baby stopped in his tracks and began to cry in earnest. Behind the baby, the stallion began to paw the ground and snort.
There were two fences separating the women from the toddler. They both climbed as fast as they could, but Anna had the horrible fear they would never reach the baby in time. Then out of nowhere she heard Miguel shouting for them to get out of the way. He flew past her and Emily and leaped into the holding pen just as the stallion started to charge.
The Cowboy And The Debutante Page 11