Hard-Headed Texan

Sutton seemed to become aware of the peculiarity of their situation in the same moment. Quickly he set her down and stepped back.

“I…ah…” He fixed his eyes on a point just over her shoulder. “Sorry. Got a little carried away, I guess.”

“Yes. This kind of thing doesn’t happen every day,” Antonia agreed, trying to smooth over the awkward moment. Her heart pounding against her ribs, she turned back to the mare, who was now engaged in licking her foal clean. The foal lay there, adjusting to its new world, its mother’s lifeblood still filling it through the umbilical cord. Antonia never cut the cord right away, as it would deprive the foal of much-needed nourishment.

“It looks as if everything’s proceeding normally,” she went on, aware that her voice sounded a trifle prissy, but she felt as though she had to say something, with the sudden, awkward silence settling around them.

“Yeah. I—usually Doc uses the shower out here in the barn to clean up. But—” He glanced doubtfully down the wide hallway. “Maybe you ought to use the one in the house. I’ll take this one. I mean…that is, if you have something to change into. I could loan you a shirt, of course, but…” His eyes fell to her slender legs, encased in denim. “Course you’re pretty tall. I reckon you could, you know, wear something of mine…if you wanted…you could roll them up—Oh, Lord, why don’t you just shoot me and shut me up before I make a complete fool of myself?”

Antonia had to smile. “A shower would be very nice, thank you. I appreciate it. I’m sure the one here in the barn is perfectly fine. And I carry a change of clothes in the truck. Unfortunately for the state of my clothes, I often wind up looking like this.”

They waited for the expulsion of the afterbirth, to make sure the mare was all right; then Antonia cut the umbilical cord, and they watched in fascination as the little foal staggered to its feet and wobbled to its mother and began to nurse. Antonia grinned, warmth flooding through her. No matter how many times she saw this sight, it never failed to fill her with happiness. She glanced over at Daniel Sutton and saw the same feeling reflected on his face.

Afterward, he directed her to the shower down the central hallway. It was small and spartan, but it was clean, and the water was hot and plentiful, which was enough for Antonia. She had many times made do with much less. Once again clean and dressed in a faded T-shirt and an old pair of jeans, she pushed her feet back into her boots, brushed through her long hair and neatly rebraided it, then made her way to the side door of the farmhouse.

She knocked on the door, then entered when a voice called to come in. Daniel Sutton stood at the kitchen counter in clean jeans and a fresh shirt, his hair slicked back wetly. He was pouring water into the coffeemaker, and he glanced over his shoulder at her as she came in.

“Cup of coffee?” he asked.

“That sounds nice,” Antonia replied, feeling a little shy. There was a certain intimacy to the scene—both of them obviously fresh from the shower and him making coffee—that was rather suggestive. She told herself that it was foolish to think that way, but she could not suppress the feeling.

She sat down at the table and glanced around. It was a large, old-fashioned kitchen, but, like the rest of the place, neat and well-kept. She wondered if there was a Mrs. Sutton and was a little surprised to realize that she hoped there was not.

“I was at another Sutton’s last week,” she said, deciding to probe a little. “Inoculating calves.”

“That’d be my dad, Marshall. Just up the road.” He nodded in the direction of his father’s ranch. “This was a piece of land I bought from my grandmother.”

“It’s nice. You run a good operation, I’d say.”

“Thanks.” He had finished with the coffee and now stood facing her, leaning back against the counter, arms crossed in front of him.

“Nice house, too. I like your kitchen.”

“Thank you.” He glanced around, then shrugged. “James isn’t messy. We manage to keep it up okay. It helps not to cook a lot.”

Antonia relaxed a little. That statement didn’t sound as if there was a woman living here. “James?”

“My son. He’s a teenager, but he’s a good kid.”

Antonia smiled. “You sound as if the two terms are contradictory.”

He grinned. “Well…”

“How old is James?” And where is his mother? She could think of no polite way to ask it.

“Eighteen. This is his senior year. He’ll be graduating in a few weeks. Next thing you know, he’ll be in college.” He made a face. “Whew, makes me feel old, saying that.”

“You must have married young.”

“Straight out of high school. Our parents thought we were stupid, and, of course, we were.” He shrugged. “But I guess we all have to make our own mistakes. We split up before James was three.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Long time ago,” he replied briefly, his face shuttered.

There was a long pause. Daniel looked down at the floor, then out the window. Finally he said, “Look. I’m sorry about earlier.”

Antonia gazed at him questioningly.

“You know, about wanting Doc Carmichael and all. I was wrong. You did a good job. I—I’m usually not, you know, all chauvinistic and thinking women can’t do things. I mean, I guess I am kinda old-fashioned in a lot of ways, but my sister’s put me straight any number of times. The thing was, I was worried about my mare.”

“I know.” Antonia was sure that was true, and she was inclined to give him a second chance. But it didn’t seem that she ought to let him off the hook quite yet.

“And I’m not used to women vets,” he went on. “I mean, well, actually, I never put much thought to the subject before. I just didn’t see how a woman could handle some of the things a horse doctor has to. It’s, well, you know, hard work.” He stopped, color rising in his cheeks. “Blast, that came out wrong, too. I meant, it takes a lot of physical strength and…”

He trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

Antonia relented. “Yes. It does. And women don’t usually go into a large animal practice because of that. But I’ve found that horses and cattle are pretty much stronger than men, too. It’s all a matter of degree. You just have to compensate for it. I haven’t yet had to turn an animal away because I wasn’t strong enough.” She grinned. “I have to admit, it might be different if I weren’t six feet tall. Long arms make a difference.”

He smiled. “I hope that means you accept my apology. I was wrong. And you did a great job. I hope you’ll work on my horses again.”

“I’d be happy to.”

After that, she couldn’t think of anything to say, and silence grew uncomfortably. Fortunately, the coffeemaker finished, and Daniel was able to turn his attention to pouring them cups of coffee. He set the cups down on the table and added a carton of milk from the refrigerator and a canister of sugar from the counter.

“Sorry.” He cast a rueful eye on the sugar and milk. “I’m afraid we don’t have those things…”

“Sugar and creamer?”

“Right.” He quirked an eyebrow. “We’re kind of plain here. Bachelor household.”

“That’s okay. I’m kind of plain myself.”

“That’s hard to believe.”

Antonia’s eyebrows sailed upward. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He glanced up at her, looking uncomfortable. “Sorry. Have I put my foot in my mouth again? You can see I don’t get out much. I didn’t mean anything bad. It’s just that you look—I don’t know, not plain, anyway. You look sort of like Grace Kelly, like some guy in a tux ought to step out onto the veranda and take you back inside to the Harvest Ball.”

Antonia chuckled. “Is that a compliment or a putdown?”

“I meant it as a compliment. You’re beautiful,” he replied simply.

Antonia felt herself blushing. “I…uh…”

“Don’t worry. I’m not coming on to you. Just a statement of fact,” he said quickly, then sighed. “I’m making a real mess of it, aren’t I? James would despair of me if he were here. He thinks I’m the lamest when it comes to women, and he’s probably right.”

“It’s okay,” Antonia said with a smile. “I don’t mind being told I’m beautiful. It’s a lot better than saying I look like a city girl or like I’ve never gotten my hands dirty in my life, which are also things people have told me.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I was cursed with a country club background. I can’t even tell people how wrong they are. I was, sorry to say, a debutante.”

“Really?” He looked surprised. “You’re kidding. I didn’t know they had those anymore.”

“Oh, yes, still going strong in Richmond, Virginia. It was part of my bargain with my parents—I’d have my coming out if they would let me go to the University of Virginia and get a science degree instead of going to Sweet Briar, like a proper young lady.” Antonia was a little surprised at her words. She didn’t usually reveal that much of herself to strangers.

Daniel’s grin lit up the rugged planes of his face, and Antonia noticed with some surprise that it caused the nerves of her stomach to go into a crazy little dance. It occurred to her that she was feeling about the same age as a debutante.

“Well, I’d say you’re about as far as you could get from Sweet Briar now.”

“You’re right.”

“So how you’d wind up in Angel Eye, Texas?”

“I went to veterinary school at Texas A&M,” she explained. No need to go into the reasons why she had wound up there. She had found that Texans rarely questioned why anyone would have chosen to come to Texas or to remain once they had lived there a while. They considered that obvious; they were usually curious only about how it had happened. “After that, I wanted to stay in Texas.”

Proving her point, Sutton nodded in agreement.

“So I got a job with a vet in Katy.” She named a suburb of Houston on the west side of the city. “His practice had a lot of show horse farms, tax write-off cattle places, that kind of thing. I didn’t want to live in the city, but I wanted to work with horses, and, well, most large animal vets weren’t interested in hiring a woman.”

“Chauvinistic pigs,” Daniel commented, his black eyes twinkling.

“I know. Terrible, isn’t it? Anyway, Dr. Carmichael knew Matt Ventura, the head of the clinic, and he asked him if any of his associates would be interested in moving to Angel Eye and eventually taking over a practice. I was the only one. I wanted to live in the country, and I prefer real working ranches and farms. You know? Where you actually talk to the owner, not some manager hired by a bank president or some cardiologist whose tax lawyer told him to buy a farm for a write-off. Real people who care more about their animals than about how picturesque all the white rail fences look.”

“You won’t find much of anything picturesque in Angel Eye.”

“There’s its name,” Antonia pointed out. “The Spanish calling it Los Ojos de Los Angeles for the stars.”

“And Anglos shortening and anglicizing it,” Daniel added. “Yeah, I guess that’s pretty unique.”

“Angel Eye is real. It has its own unique charm. I like it. Fortunately Dr. Carmichael was getting pretty desperate by that time, so he was willing to take a chance on a woman vet.”

“I’m glad.” His eyes were warm on her for a moment, reminding Antonia of that moment in the barn when his arms had enfolded her and she had thought about kissing him.

She glanced away from him quickly. “Me too. Well…” She took a last sip of her coffee and stood up. “I’d better be going. I’ll be way behind at the clinic.”

“I’m sorry.”

Antonia shrugged. “It happens all the time. We have emergencies. Dr. Carmichael will have taken up as much of the slack as he can.” She hesitated, then said, “It was nice meeting you—well, maybe not nice, but I’m glad we met.”

“Me too.” He had risen when she did and stood, hands hooked in his back pockets, looking undecided and faintly uncomfortable.

“Thanks for the coffee.”

“Any time. I…uh, I reckon the clinic’ll just bill me, like they usually do.”

Antonia nodded. In a moment, she thought, the two of them would start shuffling their feet and hemming and hawing around like first-graders. Reminding herself that she was a poised, confident adult on a business footing with Daniel Sutton, she stuck out her hand to shake his.

Daniel glanced from her face down to her hand. He reached out and enfolded her hand in his. His was warm and large, the palm roughened by years of calluses. Antonia was startled by the surge of electricity that shot through her at his touch. She raised her eyes to his a little wonderingly, and for a brief moment they looked at each other, unsure, pulses quickening in a way that was a little foreign to both of them.

Then, suddenly, he dropped her hand and stepped forward, his hands going to her shoulders. He pulled her to him, and his mouth swooped down to claim hers.

Chapter 2

Antonia stood stock still, stunned by the sensations that flooded her body. She had dated casually a few times in the four years since Alan, but she had never felt with any of those men the sudden, searing heat that rushed through her now. Her lips beneath Daniel’s tingled and burned; her skin was fiercely, instantaneously hot. Her hands came up and curled into the front of his shirt. She trembled; it was as if she were standing on the edge of a precipice, and she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to step back or forward.

Just as suddenly, Daniel’s mouth left hers. He pulled back and stared down into her eyes, his face mirroring her own confusion. Antonia could feel her blood racing through her veins; she could hear the rasp of her own breath, strained and too fast. Her hands fell away from his shirt. She turned, faintly surprised to find that her legs still worked, and hurried across the room and out the door. By the time she reached the small side stoop, she was running. She dashed across the yard and jumped into the mobile van, never looking back.

She turned the truck around and drove far too fast down the dirt road. As she neared the end of the drive, the electronic gate opened for her. She gunned the engine and rattled out onto the highway. She drove automatically, braking and turning on instinct alone, while her brain tumbled chaotically.

Whatever was she doing—kissing a man she scarcely knew! And a client, at that! And why had it felt so wonderful and scary? Why did she feel as if she might fly apart at any moment?

Her life was calm, even, uneventful. Antonia had worked hard to make it that way, to avoid the chaos that had marked her marriage. Today, in a matter of moments, Daniel Sutton had turned all that hard work upside down. Antonia could not decide whether that more excited, irritated or scared her.

By the time she reached the clinic in town, she had managed to calm her shaking nerves, but she did not have a handle yet on her confused feelings. As she had predicted, her clientele had built up in the waiting room while she was on her emergency call. Almost as soon as she stepped in the back door, Lilian came hurrying down the hall.

“Sorry. We’ve got a ton of people waiting. Dr. Carmichael tried to take up the slack, but he had a full load this morning. I managed to get a couple of them to just leave their animals, so we could work them in as we can, but you know how most people are. We had one emergency. Doc Carmichael took him.” She continued to talk as Antonia washed her hands and put on her white lab coat, checking in the small mirror above the sink to make sure that she looked more together than she felt.

Antonia sighed and smoothed down her coat. A lot of work, she thought, would take her mind off her inner turmoil. “All right,” she said. “Let’s get to them.”

There was far too great a rush for Antonia to take a lunch break, but finally, around two o’clock, one of the techs who had gone out to eat brought her back a burger, and she gratefully took the bag down to the employee lounge.

The only other person in the lounge was Rita Delgado, one of the technicians and also Antonia’s friend. Rita was short, with a voluptuous build, and she was constantly fighting a battle with calories. Today, as was often the case, she was eating a lunch brought from home, consisting of an apple and a carton of nonfat yogurt. Antonia knew that the odds were that Rita would be hitting the snack machines by four o’clock.

Rita glanced up when Antonia entered the room and smiled. “Hey, come sit down. I haven’t seen you all day. What a rush, huh?”

Antonia nodded, going over to the table and setting down her bag. Rita was exactly the person to see if one wanted information. She had a huge circle of family and friends and was always abreast of all the latest gossip. She was also, unfortunately, like a bloodhound once she scented news.

“So…” Antonia sat down in her chair and with studied casualness began to unwrap her burger.

“So?” Rita prodded, eyeing Antonia’s sandwich with envy. With a sigh, she dug her spoon into her own cup of fat-free yogurt.

Antonia shrugged. “I don’t know. Just a conversation opener.”

“What conversation?”

“An awkward one,” Antonia admitted, a smile touching her lips as she looked at her technician. “I want to ask you something, but I know you’ll go all big-eyed and pushy on me.”

“Me?” Rita brought her hand up to her chest dramatically, opening her expressive brown eyes wider, until they looked almost round. “Big-eyed? Pushy? How can you say that?”

Antonia quirked an eyebrow at her. Rita leaned forward.

“So what’s the conversation? You can’t just throw out a line like that and stop! What’s going on?”

“I wanted to ask you a question.” Antonia hesitated. “Now, don’t read too much into this. I’m only asking out of curiosity.”

“Sure. Sure. I know the spiel. Are we talking about a guy here?”

Antonia took a deep breath and plunged in. “Daniel Sutton.”

“Daniel Sutton!” Rita sucked in her breath. She stared at Antonia, apparently rendered speechless by Antonia’s words.

“Yes, Daniel Sutton,” Antonia retorted with some asperity. “Why are you looking at me like that? Is he the local ax murderer or something?”

Rita made a face at her. “Of course not. He’s gorgeous—well, not as gorgeous as Cater. Now, that one is the kind that could make a person forget she’s a happily married woman.”

“Cater? Who’s Cater? What are we talking about here?”

“The Suttons, silly.”

“How many are there? I met his father last week.”

“Oh, there are a bunch of them, all male. Well, except for one sister. Beth. Four boys. They’re all gorgeous, even Cory, who’s just a baby—he’s still in college. Daniel is the oldest, then Cater, then Quinn—he’s the sheriff. He’s a charmer, too, that one, and there’s something about a uniform…” Rita’s voice trailed off dreamily, then she shook herself and went on. “But he’s got that red hair, and I’ve never been much for redheaded men, myself. Now, my cousin Lena, she’s the evening dispatcher over at the sheriff’s office, and she says he’s sexy as hell. She has the hugest crush on him. But give me a black-haired guy any day, like Cater and Daniel. Cater doesn’t live here, though. He’s a big writer now, and he lives in Austin.”

“Cater Sutton!” Antonia straightened. “The mystery writer? He’s Daniel’s brother?”

“That’s what I just said. I don’t read much, but Roberto says he’s famous.”

“He is. Definitely. I’ve read all his books.”

“If you’d rather hold out for him, he comes back to Angel Eye pretty often. He owns a little house off of Highway 43. Sometimes he stays there for weeks at a time. Roberto says he’s recharging his batteries, either that or he comes here to work out the hard parts of his plot. Roberto’s got several theories.”

“I am not ‘holding out’ for Cater Sutton or anybody else,” Antonia said repressively. “I was curious about Daniel, that’s all. I went to his farm today.”

Rita nodded. “Lilian told me. How’d it go?”

“I managed to deliver the foal. It was tough, but—”

“I know that.” Rita grimaced. “I meant how did it go with Daniel? Is he interested in you? Are you interested in him?”

“I just…wondered what the story was on him. He, uh, well, he was quite obnoxious at first, but then later we talked and—”

“Daniel Sutton?” Rita asked. “Obnoxious? Are you serious? Daniel is one of the most laid-back men I’ve ever met.”

“He wasn’t this morning. He was ticked off because I was a woman and he didn’t think I could handle his horse.”

“Oh.” Rita gave a dismissive shake of her head. “Just worried about his mare, I’ll bet. He’s a nice man. I’ve never even heard him raise his voice. He’s very quiet, doesn’t say much. But I’m guessing what you want to know is whether there is a Mrs. Daniel Sutton.”

“Rita…” Antonia was irritated to feel heat rising in her face. She hated the way her fair blonde’s skin gave her away all the time.

Rita chuckled. “Nothing wrong with that. Who wouldn’t want to know that if they met a hunk like him? Well, there used to be. He married his high school sweetheart is the way the story goes. I’m younger than them, so all I know is hearsay. But what I’ve heard is that he was crazy as could be about her—Lurleen was her name. Anyway, they got married right after they graduated from high school, and pretty soon they had a kid, James. James is a nice boy. He’s friends with my sister Lupe’s boy, and I’ve met him a few times. But Lurleen, they say, couldn’t stand life in a little town. She had always wanted to get out, but then she fell for Daniel, so she stayed and married him. Only she still hated it here, and after a while she left town.”

“Oh, no. She left her little boy, too?”

Rita nodded emphatically. “James was only three years old. Well, you might guess that didn’t make her too popular around here. I mean, a husband is one thing, but leaving your own child?”

“So Daniel’s raised him alone all these years?”

“Yeah. Did a good job of it, too, from what I’ve seen. But they say that he still carries a torch for Lurleen.”

“Really? After so long?” Antonia felt her heart sink a little within her, and she told herself that was foolish.

Rita nodded. “Yeah. It sounds kinda weird, but that’s what folks say.” She shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s true, of course. But what they say is that he never filed for divorce. Finally, after several years, she did.”

“Goodness.”

“’Course, if any guy’d be like that, it’d be Daniel Sutton. He’s a solid kind of man…steadfast…loyal.”

Antonia thought back to that morning, to the clean, neat farm and house, the obvious care that he had lavished on them, the feeling he had for his horses. She suspected that he was not a very expressive man, but she also would not be surprised to learn that he felt things deeply. She pictured him, a young man alone on that farm with a little boy, doing the best he could for him, always hoping that the woman he loved would return. A pang pierced Antonia’s heart.

“That’s so sad.”

“Yeah.” Her assistant cast a sidelong glance at Antonia and added, “I bet the love of a good woman is exactly what he needs. You know, to bring him out of it. I mean, it’s been, what fourteen, fifteen years now? He hasn’t ever dated much, but you can only carry a torch for so long. You know what I mean? He’s bound to be ready to drop it…for the right lady.”

“And you’re saying that I’m it?” Antonia smiled. “I doubt it.”

“Why not? You’re a single woman. He’s a single man. In a town the size of Angel Eye, there aren’t that many opportunities. If it were me, I would jump at a chance like that. Besides, think about all the family reunions—getting to look at all that male pulchritude.”

Antonia rolled her eyes. “I don’t think so. Number one, I’m not really looking to date anyone. And number two, I don’t think a man who’s still in love with the wife who deserted him fourteen years ago is the best choice if I were going to date. Men are trouble enough without getting one who’s still in love with his ex.”

“Maybe. But a guy like Daniel Sutton—I don’t know, he might be worth the extra effort.” Rita wiggled her eyebrows exaggeratedly.