been here only five years,” she said with a trace of a grin. It was the first time she’d lowered her guard with him. He knew about that. He had his own walls and recognized them in others.
“Just what does he want? Why is he doing this?”
“Josh inherited the cabin from a fallen friend, a fellow soldier, and rehabbed it. It was a mess when he arrived. Time and partying kids had pretty well destroyed it. He worked like hell to fix it, and he doesn’t want it to fall into disrepair again.”
“Couldn’t he rent it?”
“Covenant Falls isn’t exactly on the tourism map,” Stephanie said. “Josh and his wife hope to change that, but in the meantime, he wants someone to use it, and who better than a vet.”
“And the town?” Clint asked. “I looked it up. It’s pretty small.”
“It is. And quite elderly on the whole. A little over three thousand people spread over a large space. Most have lived there all their lives.”
“Where are you from?”
Her lips tightened. “Pennsylvania. Once upon a time.”
“What brought you here?”
“What brought you to the army?”
A deflection. Interesting. But then everything about her was interesting. Contradictory. There was a standoffishness, a message that said “hands off,” yet she had been very easy with the rancher. And his being stomped on by a heifer had apparently broken through some kind of barrier. She wasn’t a bundle of warmth, but she was communicative. Progress.
He shrugged. “I wanted to fly. The army was the fastest and cheapest way to do that.”
“Risky, though.”
“Not if you know what you’re doing.”
“What did you fly?”
“Choppers. Black Hawks mostly.”
“How long?”
“Seventeen years.”
He waited for the next question. Why had he left? It didn’t come, which either meant she wasn’t interested or she already knew. He tried to tamp his growing interest in her. He couldn’t even get from point A to point B without help. It was galling. He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. His foot throbbed, but it was a minor annoyance. It was the emptiness ahead that was agonizing.
* * *
WHY HAD SHE asked so many questions? It only invited more conversation and questions of his own.
Still, curiosity tickled her. She glanced at him. His eyes were closed. Resting? Dang it, but he was...
Remember your first reaction. That smile. The compliment. Remember Mark’s smile.
Still, it was her fault he was injured. She’d needed him, true, but she and Hardy could have handled the cow alone. It would have taken longer, been riskier. She hadn’t truly given Clint a choice, though, knowing full well she had challenged him. She’d known he would take it, having judged in the first few minutes of their meeting that he couldn’t ignore a challenge. However, she hadn’t expected him to get stomped on and, when he had been, to laugh.
Her passenger stirred as she slowed and she wondered whether he had been feigning sleep. Either way, it was fine with her. As soon as she delivered him, even if not totally intact, to Josh, the happier she would be. He was...disturbing. She pushed aside any notion of being attracted to him. She was just...worried about that foot. She had made conversation to keep his mind from it. Didn’t mean anything.
As she pulled in front of the doctor’s office, she noticed Josh’s Jeep. He had probably decided to see for himself how much damage had been done. It never ceased to amaze her how he had gone from being the angry loner to one of the town’s best liked citizens. Her friend, Eve, was much better at magic than she’d ever been.
Clint straightened up and blinked at her. He glanced around at Main Street, and the two-story building flanked by businesses. A sign proclaimed it the “Covenant Falls Medical Clinic.” Josh Manning leaned against a wall.
She cut the engine. “That’s Josh. He can help you inside.”
“I would rather you did,” he said. “I’m becoming accustomed to your shoulder.”
She had to smile. His quirky, self-deprecating sense of humor was appealing. “I expect Josh will be more help than I was.”
He gave her a long steady look. No smile. Just a glance that seemed to see right through her. Then he nodded. “I appreciate the ride, ma’am.”
She knew that “ma’am” was a common address to women by soldiers. It also distanced them. Huh. He hadn’t been resting at all. He opened the passenger door as she stepped out of the van. Josh approached them, introduced himself to Clint and offered his arm. Josh nodded to her, and she mouthed “Sorry.” They headed inside and she fought the urge to go with them. She overcame it and hurried to her office down the street. Guilt and confusion swamped her. She should have stayed with him.
She went inside the reception area, and her golden retriever, Sherry, frantically wagged her tail in welcome. Stephanie leaned down and gave her dog a big hug. “Missed you,” she said.
“She hasn’t moved from the window since you left,” Beth, her vet tech, said. “What is the new guy like?”
“Pleasant enough.” And because she knew everyone in town would shortly know what happened at the ranch, she told Beth about Clint and the cow.
“By one of Hardy’s? I hope he didn’t hurt him.”
“She. A heifer, but a rather large one. But it’s just a minor wound, I think. Josh is with him now at Doc’s office.”
“Oh my,” Beth said. “Is he anything like Josh?”
“No, not at all. Were there any calls?”
Beth got the message and didn’t ask any more questions. “Some appointments for tomorrow, Wednesday. Annual shots and physicals. Thurday and Friday are pretty booked up, too. Mr. Crane called about this weekend’s search-and-rescue training program.”
“Thanks.” She looked at her watch. Nearly six. “Why don’t you go home? I have a few things to do here.”
Beth nodded, then obviously couldn’t restrain herself from asking one more question. “The new guy...is he married?”
“I’m pretty sure he isn’t.”
“Good-looking?”
“Some might think so.”
“Maybe I should take him a casserole.”
Stephanie sighed. Beth was nineteen and pretty. She was smart and liked both people and animals, and they liked her, which were great qualities for a vet tech. But Beth had made no secret that her life goal was marriage and a houseful of kids.
