The Heart of a Cowboy. Trish Milburn

close to the mare, shushing her when she tried to sidestep away. Running her hand along the same stretch of neck that Garrett had moments earlier, she said, “There’s a good girl.” She examined the injury as best she could in the dim light. “Bring her inside, but carefully. Try not to let her move any more than she has to.”

      Natalie led the way inside the barn, which smelled like a combination of hay, rain and smoke. She glanced up to where the back part of the building’s roof now sported a hole that would make the last two stalls unusable until repairs were made. Of course, one of those stalls also had damage of its own that had nothing to do with the roof damage. She had no doubt that the injured horse had been the one to splinter the wood on the front of the stall.

      She pointed toward the smallest stall near the front of the barn. “Put her in there.”

      “Won’t give you much room to work.”

      “Also won’t give her room to kick me into next week.”

      Natalie stayed clear until Garrett managed to get the animal into the stall. He did his best to soothe the mare, but she still didn’t go into the stall willingly.

      “Be careful,” he said when Natalie stepped into the stall. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

      She eased her hand along the horse’s side, gradually moving toward the spot where the sizable sliver of wood was protruding. “Try to keep her as calm as you can. Keep talking to her, draw her attention that direction.”

      Natalie went into a familiar autopilot mode, opening her bag of veterinary supplies and prepping everything she’d need. When she was ready to remove the mother of all splinters, she caught Garrett’s eye across the mare’s back. “Get ready. I’m going to pull out our offender.”

      Thankfully, the wood hadn’t gone too deep into the horse’s flesh, but that didn’t make much difference to the mare’s reaction when Natalie jerked it out. The animal threw her head back, showing her teeth, and sidestepped so suddenly that she slammed Natalie against the side of the stall.

      “You okay?” Garrett sounded so concerned that the lump made a return appearance in her throat.

      “Yeah, I’m good.” Deliberately not making eye contact with him, she went to work cleaning the wound, disinfecting and closing it up. “What’s this girl’s name anyway?”

      “Penelope.”

      “Interesting name for a horse.”

      “Chloe named it after a character in one of her favorite movies.”

      Before she could stop herself, she glanced toward Garrett and found him watching her. Even looking as if he’d been dumped in the lake, he still took her breath away. For a moment she forgot what she’d been about to say. It took forcing herself to break eye contact to get her brain functioning again. “The movie Penelope?”

      “Yeah. She’s probably seen that movie a hundred times.”

      “It’s a good one.” In fact, it was one of Natalie’s favorites, too. But instead of making her happy that she and her childhood friend still obviously had things in common, a heavy sadness welled up in her. She’d missed so much of Chloe’s life, so many adventures they might have had together if her father had simply not gotten in his car that night.

      She shoved away that thought because she needed to concentrate on her task. When she finally finished, she caressed the side of Penelope’s face and scratched between her ears. “Good girl. You’ve had a rough night, huh?”

      Seemingly calmer than she’d been since Natalie arrived, Penelope turned her head and nuzzled Natalie’s face.

      “Well, wonders never cease.”

      Natalie glanced toward the stall’s door and saw Garrett’s dad standing there with his forearms propped along the top of the door. Her heart ached in her chest. He looked so much older than she remembered. Even though that made perfect sense, the realization also made her sad.

      When he looked at her and smiled, she had to fight tears.

      “When Garrett told me you were in town and you were a vet, I couldn’t believe it.” He shook his head slowly. “You’re not that little girl I remember.”

      She made herself smile back. “Not for a long time.”

      “Lot’s changed since those days.” He nodded toward Penelope. “Looks like you could give Dr. Franklin a run for his money.”

      “So he’s really still the vet here?”

      “Yep.”

      As she packed up her supplies, she couldn’t help a small smile, a real one this time. She had fond memories of Dr. Franklin, of helping out around his vet practice when her mom had volunteered there one day a week. Those hours spent watching him take care of sick animals had been what set her on the path to becoming a veterinarian herself.

      She put the brakes on the trip down memory lane and slipped out of the stall, Garrett right behind her.

      “After this night, we all need a big slice of pie,” Garrett’s dad said.

      “That’s okay. I’ll just be going.” She needed to get away from the ranch, from the memories, from the way her pulse sped up every time she made eye contact with Garrett. Hell, every time she was within sight of him. It wasn’t helping that with his clothes plastered to his skin, she could see every well-defined muscle and wanted to skim her hands over them.

      Mr. Brody patted her on the shoulder. “I insist. Someone has to save me from Linnea’s baking.”

      She glanced at Garrett.

      “Owen’s new wife,” he said. “She really likes to bake when she’s nervous.”

      “And these last few days leading up to the wedding, she’s been going through sugar like we operate a sugar cane plantation instead of a cattle ranch.” Mr. Brody chuckled. “Not that I’m complaining.” He patted his middle. “But the girl is going to make me fat.”