Return of Dr Irresistible

He scowled at her. What did that mean? A longer look at her arm told her why he looked so sour, but to his credit he squatted beside Gordy and got him up again, just as she’d asked. Which didn’t make up for anything. He would probably pitch some kind of fit when this was over. He was a showman after all. Doctor. Showman. Jerkface.

She’d been upset with him for years, but had thought she’d finally let go of it a few years ago. The strength of her anger at seeing him now surprised her.

Not that she could spare time for reflection. To hell with Reece. She’d help Gordy—they’d help him. He’d survive. Get him up. Get the vet to cast his leg. Take care of him. Not a detailed plan, but it was as good as she had right now. And when Gordy’s leg was in a cast, she’d figure out what the next step was. And then the next. She had a job, and right now Gordy was it.

‘Hurry...’ Reece said through clamped lips, doing his best to keep his head away from Gordy’s mouth, should he get bitey again, but he managed to get the little stallion on his hooves and support his chest.

Jolie ducked around the other side and in a few seconds had threaded the makeshift harness through, clipped the ends together and thrown the long tail up and over the wood.

Good thing they were all pretty much acrobats...and that she was good at jumping. Her small stature made her the perfect size for tossing and flying, but made reaching objects in tall cabinets or shelves difficult. Made hauling herself to the stall top require a hop first.

She grabbed the top of the stall with both hands. Pain shot up her left arm and she let go again. It took a few seconds for the buzzing to subside so she could try again.

‘Jolie?’

‘I’m okay. It’s...probably not broken.’

He swore under his breath. Like he cared that much. Like someone who’d cut those he’d supposedly loved out of his life for a decade could care at all, let alone enough to swear.

A burst of anger at the bitter memory gave her the strength she needed to pull herself up on the second attempt. She maneuvered herself between the lumber Reece had slatted across the top of the stall, balanced and reached for the leather dangling over the lumber.

As she worked, she looked down and saw Reece scowling up at her again. ‘What?’

‘Hurry,’ he said.

‘You carried him all the way in there, is supporting one end such a chore now?’ She looked down, noticed red on Gordy’s white fur and howled, ‘Is he bleeding?’

‘Dammit, Jolie, that’s your blood.’

‘Oh.’ She swallowed back down another wave of hysteria and fastened the belts until the little horse was lifted ever so slightly from the floor.

‘Too high,’ he called. ‘His front hooves aren’t on the ground.’

‘I think the next notch will put too much weight on his leg, though... This is the best we can do. Maybe we can find a tile or bit of wood, something to slide under his good foot so he can stand but keep the weight off the other.’

‘After we clean your arm.’

Back to the arm. ‘Later. What happened out there? You saw it, right?’ Should she give him a sedative? Could she even do the math right now to figure out the right dose, or find a vein to inject it?

‘He hurdled a little leap and just landed badly.’ He let go of Gordy slowly, letting him test the sling, and she waited to climb down until she was certain she wouldn’t have to adjust the buckles.

Reece got to that decision before she did then stood and plucked her off the top of the stall. Picking her up again.

She’d forgotten he did that, just picked her up whenever he wanted to. And now that he was twelve gazillion feet tall, he might be even worse about it.

‘Good grief, put me down.’ Being this close to him made her feel more breathless than she wanted to sound. She wanted to sound angry. Angry was better than fragile and girly.

‘I’m helping you down.’

She couldn’t kick him because he might drop her and she already hurt. Though in a way she was grateful for the pain as having something else to focus on had to help keep her from thinking too hard about the past and just what Reece was there to do. ‘I climbed up on my own, I could’ve climbed down without your help too.’

‘You’re hurt, and you’re too stubborn to let me take care of you...your wound.’ He set her in the straw, and when Gordy whinnied and tugged at the sling, he lowered his voice. ‘It needs to be cleaned at the very least. Animal mouths...’

‘I know. But it’s waited this long. If I’m going to catch some dreaded horse-bite disease, then I’m pretty sure there is no difference in waiting fifteen minutes to clean it or fifty.’

Gordy thrashed about, trying to escape the makeshift sling, causing the lumber above to skid on the stall. Jolie watched the wood move enough to be convinced: Gordy definitely needed a tranquilizer. And she needed a shot of something too. Like whiskey.

‘Who’s going to take care of him if you’re sick?’

‘I won’t get sick. You’re the one who’s been looking like you were going to throw up.’

He ignored her vomit talk. ‘This is ridiculous. He is in the sling. There is absolutely nothing else you can do for him until the vet arrives. Come with me to Mom’s RV and let me treat it.’

‘No.’ She redirected his attention. ‘I have some sedative but I need some help with the math. You do medicine dosage calculations all the time, right?’

‘I don’t know the dosage for horses,’ Reece muttered, but reached up to hold the lumber steady.

‘I know the dosage for a big horse and the weight differences, so you should be able to figure out what to give Gordy if I tell you that, right?’

‘Fine, then we’ll deal with your arm.’ He looked at her, but direct eye contact did something to her insides and she had enough to worry about.

She looked away, told him the dosage for a full-sized horse and the weight differences, and then left him thinking and holding the lumber to run to her trailer where she had the medication in her fridge. When she came back, he stood there still and immediately told her the number.

Flipping the cap back on the needle, she plunged it into the vial and extracted a slightly smaller amount than Reece had told her. Just to be safe. ‘You can treat my arm when the vet gets here. Gordy needs me. He needs reassurance. The last thing he needs is to be alone and scared.’

‘Jolivetta Chriselle Ra—’

‘You just stop right there, Dr. Reece I’m-Going-To-Act-Like-The-Boss Keightly.’ She’d poke him in the chest if her arm didn’t hurt so much and she didn’t have a needle in the other. ‘I’m not going anywhere. The vet or someone might come in and get the idea of putting him down if I’m not here to stop them. Now, let go of the wood and hold him still. This medicine isn’t great in the muscle—it eats it up. Has to go into the vein.’

‘Do you want me to do it?’ Reece asked. Like she hadn’t done this a hundred times before.

‘No. I want you to hold Gordy.’ And stop being bossy. And stop being around. And stop being...everything else.

Reece let go of the wood, rubbed a hand over his face like he could wipe off frustration, and slung his arms around Gordy’s chest again, his voice gentling a little too. ‘Why are you so convinced they’re going to put him down?’

‘He’s got leg problems.’

‘Explain.’

‘Really bad circulation.’ Jolie maneuvered to the other side of the horse before adding, ‘And he’s broken that leg before. It was very hard to heal the first time...’

‘So it might be kinder if they come to that decision now rather than after—’

‘No!’ She shouted, causing the horse to flinch. She took a breath and calmed her voice. ‘It’s not going to come to that. Horses can survive broken legs. And the circus is closing anyway! He has time to recuperate.’

She went for a vein she had found before, back of the neck, easier to get to and somewhere where she could talk softly and provide comfort. Not that she felt calm and comforting right now. She felt way too much of everything. Worry. Fear. Betrayal. Anger. A disconcerting awareness at Reece’s foreign manly scent in the stable... But she channeled worry away for Gordy’s benefit and gentled her tone. ‘We’re leaving here and going back to the farm in a few days, and he’ll have space to relax and get better. He doesn’t need to get better fast so that he can perform.’

‘It’s nothing to do with performing.’

‘No, it’s about taking the easy way out. Gordy’s part of the family, and you don’t just shoot your family if they get a hangnail.’ She threaded the needle into the vein, pulled back to make sure blood came into the cartridge, and then injected slowly. ‘You take care of your family. At least, that’s how it’s done in my family. You might not be willing to fight for yours, but I am.’

The sedation worked almost instantly. She hadn’t given Gordy enough to knock him out, but he did stop thrashing and mellowed significantly. With the safety cap back in place, she waved Reece off Gordy’s back. ‘You can go now.’

‘You know no one is going to put him down if he has a chance to recover.’ He moved to the door of the stall but didn’t leave. ‘I’m not leaving until you stop acting like a crazy woman and let me get a look at your arm.’

If he didn’t stop going on about her arm and about Gordy’s leg, she might hit him. From the angle she’d have to swing up to hit his chin, and might even be able to knock him out. Providing his jaw was more glass than the granite it looked like. ‘He has a chance.’

‘Just wait for the vet.’ Reece leaned against the jamb.

She slid past him to grab a stool and moved it back into the stall. ‘I have been taking care of horses forever.’ Okay, she might be acting crazy—she’d never felt moved to violence before—but Gordy was important. ‘And I take care of people too. I know what I’m talking about. He can be casted. Sometimes a kind of exoskeleton can be built to support a broken leg. I’ve read about it, and we have the slings for the big horses. We have one who has a metabolic condition that causes him to get laminitis, and we had to sling him once. This little makeshift sling is taking weight off that leg, and we can get a better one for him set up. It’s temporary. So stop preparing me for the worst.’

Her throbbing arm needed a break, and so did she. She scooted the stool toward Gordy’s head with her feet. He might be sedated but he’d feel her there. She’d comfort him. And maybe she’d absorb a little comfort from keeping near him too. A little comfort would be good right now. ‘I hope you’re not so fast on the plug-pulling for your people patients.’

CHAPTER TWO

REECE RUBBED HIS HEAD, a headache starting between his brows. This was not how he’d pictured their reunion going. That had gone entirely differently. She’d been wearing something sparkly for starters.

‘Hey...’ His brain caught up with the situation now that the immediate emergency had passed. ‘You’re not dressed.’

‘I’m dressed just fine,’ she bit at him, and then her voice turned honey-sweet as she began to pet Gordy’s face and talk to him. ‘It’s going to be okay. I won’t let anyone hurt you.’

‘For the show,’ he cut in. He’d been waiting at the show the whole time to see her perform, and only now did it register with him that she wasn’t dressed for the ring at all. Jeans and a pink T-shirt with a white unicorn and a rainbow coming from its butt, while funny, wasn’t performance attire. ‘You haven’t performed yet. I figured you’d come at the end, the aerial act maybe, but you’re not dressed.’

‘I don’t perform any more.’

‘Why not?’

‘None of your business.’ Her words were angry, but she kept her tone sweet. Not for him, he realized. She looked back at Gordy and ruffled his ears. The sedative had taken the fight out of the little horse, but her touch and proximity soothed him. Despite the drug, he tilted his head against hers and accepted the comfort.

She had the touch. Reece forgot his irritation for a few seconds, remembering the way she’d sat with his head in her lap after the accident, petting his temples in much the same way she that she petted the horse’s face now too.

Two people in one body. In the ring she came alive—so full of energy that even when a trick failed she still held the audience in her hands. And the rest of the time she had that gentle touch that soothed any kind of animal. Even teenage boys. She’d been the only one he’d wanted around him after Dad had died.

The pink T-shirt had a growing spot of red on it where she’d clamped her arm to her side, cradling it protectively against her and using her other arm for Gordy.

‘Hurts?’

‘Adrenalin is wearing off,’ she murmured, ‘but I can wait.’

‘No doubt.’ He made a note to ask Mom all the things about Jolie that he’d never let her tell him before, when he had been trying so hard to stay in school and keep Jolie off his mind. Something was up with her, and it wasn’t just upset about Gordy’s accident. It might even be about more than his reason for being there, and the myriad other reasons she had to be angry with him. Not performing any more wasn’t something she’d have decided for the last week of the circus. It was older than his decision to close the show down. How much older, he had no idea.

He was saved from thinking further about what kind of knots Jolie might have worked herself into while he’d been away when Mack Bohannon escorted the vet into the stable and ushered Reece and Jolie out—two too many people for the small stall.

‘I know that’s not a proper sling.’ Jolie said, gesturing to the small injured horse from the gate, ‘but I couldn’t think of anything else we could do for him that might keep his digestion working properly and keep weight off that leg. We don’t have a sling small enough for him.’

‘I have one.’ The vet pulled a backpack off his shoulder and handed it to Mack, Jolie’s uncle and head of the Bohannon clan. Ultimately, Gordy’s future rested with Mack, who dug into the pack and retrieved the sling then proceeded to help the vet swap it with the makeshift one.

‘He’s going to be okay. He can heal this,’ Jolie said to Mack, who looked grim. Not the right look. Not one Reece wanted to see any more than Jolie did. Whatever her protestations, she didn’t need to watch the play-by-play.

He reached for her shoulder and tried to pivot her toward the door. ‘Let’s get your arm tended to.’

‘I’m not leaving yet.’ Mack looked back at her and she shook her head, her chin lifting, ‘I’m not leaving. You might need me.’

As easy as he’d like to be with Jolie of all people, he’d mistakenly thought perhaps time would have made her somewhat less stubborn. She’d always been this way when it came to Gordy, and Reece had started throwing his weight around to get her to mind him all those years ago when her mother had gotten her back when she’d been taken. That had been the first time his father had ever put him in charge of anyone in the company.

She thought him bossy? Well, she made him bossy.

The vet needed room to work and, knowing very well how hard it was to treat a patient when being hovered over, Reece made his decision. He scooped her legs from under her as his other arm caught across her back, and he carried her out of the stable.

* * *

Too stunned to say anything for a few seconds, it took them actually leaving the stables for Jolie’s indignation and terror to kick back in. ‘Reece! Reece, put me down. I need to stay with Gordy.’

‘You need your arm cleaned and inspected.’ Reece tightened his arms lest she take a mind to thrash free of his grip. ‘I’m done talking about it. Mom will have first-aid supplies in her RV.’

‘No. What if they decide to put him down while I’m gone? He needs an advocate. He needs me there to promise to take care of him. See him through this again. I know he can heal.’ She twisted, testing his hold, and then locked onto him with a baleful glare. ‘Please.’ The word didn’t go well with the glare or the tone.

‘It won’t take long.’

‘It will take five minutes to walk to your mom’s RV. If you must have your way, my trailer is closer!’ As the words tumbled out, she realized what would convince him. ‘I have all the medical supplies anyway, I’m the EMT on staff. And I won’t fight you if you go there and we do this fast. Or just let me go do it myself and—’

‘You’re an EMT?’ He stopped walking and looked down at her, his eyes going from hers to her mouth long enough to distract her. Kissing...would be bad.

Don’t look at his mouth. ‘Can’t you walk and talk at the same time?’ Jolie barked at him, startling his gaze back to hers. ‘I am an EMT, yes.’ With the stable now officially out of sight, the firm heat of his big body and the prospect of being alone with Reece began to scare her more than Gordy’s plight. One crisis at a time, that’s all she could deal with. Not knowing what she might say or how she might react when she got her emotions sorted out? Well, that could cause another crisis. ‘Put me down and let me clean it myself, or start walking. Don’t just stand here while they might be making decisions without me!’

‘Didn’t you have to leave the circus to attend classes to become and EMT?’ What the hell? Why did he care so much about this?

‘Do you see my face? This is the face of someone who is freaking out. Put me down or I swear I will belt you with my broken arm...which isn’t broken...’

Reece scowled, but he started walking again and she almost relaxed. At least she stopped gritting her teeth.

‘I took a course over the summer when we were between seasons.’

It figured that he’d focus on her dislike of the outside world, like that was important right now. She could do things outside the circus, she just didn’t care to. When the circus off-seasoned at Bohannon Farm, as it did every year, it was like living at the circus. The only difference with the summer she’d gone to school had been that she’d had to spend time with a bunch of possibly dangerous weirdos who’d thought mowing the lawn every Saturday, frequenting the mall, and driving an SUV was something to brag about. ‘My trailer is that way.’ She pointed with her good arm, and he veered off, following the directions she supplied.

Within two minutes she was inside her cozy little home. ‘There’s supplies in the skinny cabinet above the sink.’

Reece put her down in front of the sink and the first thing he did was wash his hands. ‘Paper towels?’

She gestured to the other side of the counter and then opened the cabinet to start getting out supplies with her good arm, then thought better of it and stuck the bad one under the faucet. It would hurt, but if she was going to have pain she’d either control it or be the one in control of inflicting it.

Number-one rule or dealing with Reece? Don’t let him hurt her again. Even if it was that for-her-own-good kind of hurt.

No, especially the for-her-own-good kind of hurt. She’d had enough of that, thank you very much.

‘This doesn’t look good,’ he muttered, as he wrapped his hand around her wrist to take control of the flow of water over the wound. In that second she forgot all about her fear for Gordy and about the pain. She even forgot about how angry she was at him for what he was about to do to them all. Skin-to-skin contact was more potent than being carried, especially when it reminded her of how big he’d gotten. Hadn’t he supposed to have been full grown when he’d gone off to school? When did men stop getting bigger? Was he still growing? This was ridiculous.

Her chest ached when she looked up at him. ‘You’re too tall. Makes my neck hurt.’ She pretended that was where the pain was. It was better than give in to the urge to press against him and lean into the strength she’d seen in action. Give in to the urge to keep forgetting the bad things. Soak in the comfort she knew waited in his arms.

Stupid.

That should be rule number two—don’t let Reece comfort her ever again.

She pulled her arm from under the water and ripped a fresh paper towel from the roll to blot at it, then applied pressure to staunch the blood that started flowing again. The ache deep in her arm had subsided but it surged back to life when she put pressure on it. If she mentioned that, he’d have her at the emergency room faster than she could say, ‘Don’t put me to sleep, it’s just a broken arm.’ It’d be her front left leg if she were a quadruped, mirroring Gordy’s injury. Fate’s twisted sense of humor...

He caught her arm again and directed it under the counter light where he could examine the bite. It was well on its way to bruising and there were several ugly punctures and a shallow gash.

‘It doesn’t need stitches. There are a couple of punctures that I might put a stitch or two into, but if you have butterflies, that can hold for now.’ He watched her, his voice having lost that edge of irritation as soon as he’d gotten his way. His mouth hadn’t got the news that he was less irritated, though. His lips pressed together, hard and cranky. ‘Probably better anyway, in case an infection does start up—which happens way more often in punctures than cuts, you realize. And the reason we should have gotten this treated faster.’

He unfurled his fingers from her arm and her thinking cleared a little. She needed more of that. ‘You know, I can do the medicine and bandaging. You visit your mom. I need...I need you to go and I can take care of this myself.’ Him going would help. It had to help.

‘I’m almost done.’ The way he no longer met her eyes said that he felt something at least. It might be a ghost of the connection that they’d once had, but he still felt something.

‘I don’t care if you’re almost done. I want you to be somewhere else. Somewhere I’m not. I will finish up and then go back to the stables. You’re messing everything up.’ Her voice rose as she spoke, reaching to near shrillness at the end. ‘Because...you’re still...’

‘You can be calm if you want to be calm.’ He sure sounded calm. But then she remembered—he didn’t really care about them. This was just Doctor Man, who lived to treat patients. Or something.

‘I’m trying to be calm. You could hurry up some. You know I need to get back.’ Gordy needed her. Focus on that. ‘Except I forgot that you’re good at leaving people waiting.’ No, don’t focus on that. Gordy. Get it together.

He gave her a look and snagged her wrist again—no doubt to keep her from getting away. She’d have to climb out the window in her bedroom or squeeze through the one over the sink if she wanted to get out. His big body blocked the tiny kitchenette. And he continued to work at his own pace.

She tried deep breaths to calm down. She really was trying, that was the problem. She’d thought she could always be calm, but right now she couldn’t. Her heart hammered against her sternum like the beat of so many hooves in the ring. She could hear it, see it pulsing in her vision, and she knew that wasn’t good. Her deep breaths got shallow and fast, outside her control.

Everything was out of control.

‘They won’t euthanize him while I’m gone, right?’ she blurted out. ‘That’s the kind of thing that takes time and preparation, right?’ More words tumbled from her lips.

Like he knew anything. Or maybe he did. Maybe he was keeping her there forever for a reason. ‘They’d wait long enough to let people say goodbye if it came to that, right?’

Right? Right? God, she really did sound crazy. And she’d had a plan for speaking to him on the farm, when the dust had settled after they’d all settled in. Later. In the future.

‘Take a deep breath. In through your nose,’ Reece said, his voice firm and demanding. He wanted to control everything. Even how she breathed!

‘Jolie,’ he said her name again. ‘I think you’re having a panic attack. Slow down your breathing.’

‘I’m not panic attacking.’ Was that even a term? She’d said it wrong. Everything was wrong. That’s exactly the kind of inarticulate nonsense that would make him think twice about even considering her request when she got round to making it. And probably everything she’d said and done since she’d seen him again would add to that thinking twice and thrice, and whatever fourth, fifth and sixth were... Sure, no problem, he’d hand over the reins of his birthright to someone who might be a babbling idiot.