REFUSED to look in his rearview mirror as he drove his rig toward the exit.
Calm down, Nick. It was just a job offer.
And yet he still felt rattled. And, darn it, there he went looking in his rearview mirror. The woman with the corporate-raider attire and the sweet-as-honey Texas accent walked to her car, looking as out of place at the Los Molina Rodeo grounds as a show horse at a racetrack.
The gooseneck stock trailer groaned as he slowed, riveted by the sight of her feet. She wore some kind of shoes with thin straps that crisscrossed and wrapped around her very delicate ankles. He didn’t know what surprised him more, the feminine shoes or that she looked nothing like he’d envisioned. Beautiful in an ice queen sort of way, with gray-blue eyes.
Thump.
Boom!
Bam, bam, bam.
Nick groaned. Damn it, he’d forgotten to tie his horse, something that wasn’t a problem—as long as the trailer wasn’t moving.
He shook his head and stopped the trailer.
His own research staff.
Yeah, well, he thought, as he got out of his truck, spurs clinking against the door frame, he was through with that dream. From now on he’d patch up cowboys at rodeos—the kind of doctoring his father had wanted him to do in the first place. No more burn victims. No more crying parents.
No more children.
“Hold on,” he said, slapping the side of the trailer to get the horse’s attention. Damn thing. He’d hurt himself if he didn’t stop scrambling around.
Out on the road, a car flew by, blowing Nick’s cowboy hat up in the back. The driver honked, which meant Nick probably knew him, but he was too busy to look up to see who it was.
“Hold on, Boy. Let me tie your fool head down.”
At the back of the trailer he swung the door wide, put out a hand and touched the horse’s flank, trying to soothe him. In a few seconds he had him contained. When he stepped out of the trailer, it was to hear the unmistakable ch-ch-ch-chu of a car engine, one that didn’t want to start.
For half a second Nick considered pretending he didn’t hear.
Ch-ch-ch-chu.
Son of a—
His boots kicked up little pebbles as he crossed over to where she was.
Send Bill, the local mechanic, out to help her.
She started when he tapped her window.
Tell her about the pay phone.
Her expression conveyed relief, dismay and the most endearing damsel-in-distress look he’d ever seen.
Nick almost smiled.
“Need a ride?” he asked after she rolled down the window.
To give her credit, she said, “No. I’ll make do on my own.”
He shook his head. “C’mon. I’ll give you a ride into town.”
“I’ve got a cell phone,” she said, reaching for the thing and then waving it in his face.
“No service.”
Her gray eyes widened as she quickly looked at the phone. “Well, I’ll be.”
“Service is spotty out here.”
“Is there a pay phone nearby?”
“Someone stole the handset.”
She raised her brows.
“C’mon,” he said again.
She just gave him a big smile. “That’s okay. I can flag someone down.”
She was starting to irritate him. “I’m not leaving you.”
She opened the door, unfolded her pretty legs with those frilly shoes and stood. Their two bodies almost touched.
“I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me?” she asked.
“I didn’t say that,” he said softly, feeling an unexpected stir of interest as he gazed down at her. She had hair like the Barbie dolls his sister used to play with. Not dark blond, not light blond, but a bunch of blonds all mixed together.
“You didn’t have to,” she said.
Didn’t have to what? He took a breath, inhaling a citrus-like smell that he knew wasn’t perfume but rather a soap of some sort.
Nick backed up. “Look,” he said. “I’m not leaving you alone. Your cell phone won’t work, there’s no pay phone and I sure as heck refuse to leave you while I go call a tow truck. Sometimes we get crazies stopping by here.”
Her eyes widened again.
“Tell me what hotel you’re at and I’ll give you a ride.”
Her thick eyelashes concealed her eyes. “Look, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather you just called a tow truck for me.”
He let out a curse. “What do I have to do? Pick you up and throw you over my shoulder?”
She looked up sharply. “No, but maybe you could loan me your horse?”
Amazing how she’d done that, irritated and amused him practically in the same breath.
“Look, just hop on in. Heck, you can ride in the back with Boy if you want to.”
“Boy?”
He nodded.
“Your horse’s name is Boy?”
“Yeah, it is. C’mon,” he said, gritting his teeth. But three steps later, he realized she still hadn’t moved.
“What now?”
She didn’t blink. “You’re not going to like where I’m staying.”
“I’m not?”
She shook her head.
“Why not?”
She didn’t say anything.
And Nick knew.
“You’re staying at my parents’ dude ranch, aren’t you?”
She smiled again, a mischievous, fun-loving smile he might have found cute if her next words hadn’t made his jaw pop in anger.
“I am.”
Chapter
