The Doctor's Cowboy

Dr. Brody crossed her arms. “So how are you feeling this morning?”

He glanced toward the window and saw that it was indeed daylight. “How long was I out?”

“Overnight and most of the morning. And you’re feeling?” she asked again.

“Better than when I got here, but I bet that has a lot to do with whatever is in that.” He pointed toward the IV pole that held two bags of liquids that were attached to his arm via tubes.

“Yeah, we kind of have to drug you up when you battle a bull and the bull wins.”

He grinned at her. She was so unlike any doctor he’d ever met, funny and friendly. He pointed toward her name tag. “So what’s the C for?”

“My first name.”

He lifted a brow. “And that would be?”

“You know, I think I’ll let you guess. That’ll give you something to do while you recuperate.”

“Caroline.”

“Nope.” With a self-satisfied smile, she turned to head toward the door again.

“Charlotte.”

“No more guesses today,” she called out as she slipped into the hallway and out of sight.

He might be less than twenty-four hours away from nearly getting his guts ripped out, but he found himself smiling. He liked a good challenge, and it seemed the lovely Dr. Brody was giving him exactly that.

* * *

CHLOE FINISHED HER hospital rounds several minutes later after listening to Henry Stillwater complain about everything from how the IV was hurting his hand to the inedible quality of the hospital food. She had to admit, the barely touched lunch on his table didn’t look particularly appetizing. She wasn’t even sure what the glob of yellowish orange goo was supposed to be.

As soon as she made her escape from Henry’s room, her gaze shifted across the nurses’ station to the first room she’d visited on her rounds. Wyatt’s room. She tried telling herself that she was simply glad to see him awake and on the mend, but she could still feel the buzz in her middle that had started the moment she’d looked at him to find him watching her. The buzz that had only increased when she’d helped him grip the cup of water. A strange giddiness had blossomed to life within her when he’d tried to guess her name and she’d decided to keep him guessing.

While she was friendly and often teased her patients in the hope of taking their minds off their pain, her few minutes with Wyatt had felt different. And that wasn’t wise because as soon as he was discharged he’d go home, a home that wasn’t in Blue Falls. She didn’t really know him and shouldn’t care if he left as long as she’d done her job and set him on a path to recovery. But as soon as she’d exited his room, she’d started thinking about the next time she’d see him. Because she would see him once more, tomorrow when she was due to make hospital rounds again.

“You okay?”

Chloe jerked her attention away from Wyatt’s doorway to where Sophie stood on the other side of the desk giving her a curious stare.

“Yeah, just remembered a call I have to make later this afternoon.”

Sophie glanced over her shoulder, straight toward Wyatt’s doorway. “Uh-huh.”

Ignoring the suspicion in Sophie’s voice, Chloe made a show of pulling her phone from her pocket and checking it. “Well, I have appointments at the clinic beginning in ten minutes.” She nodded toward Henry’s room. “You might want to get Henry something sweet from the vending machine. It’ll probably make the rest of your shift more pleasant.”

Sophie nodded. After all, it wasn’t the first time they’d dealt with Henry’s crankiness. “Good idea.”

Chloe made her escape before Sophie could shift her focus back to Wyatt again. Though the left-hand corridor was closer to the exit next to the clinic, it also led past Wyatt’s door. So Chloe made an unnecessary stop by the restroom located down the right-side corridor to give herself an excuse for going that direction. She wasn’t normally a coward, but she’d never been crazy attracted to a patient before, either.

Once inside the restroom, she crossed to the sink and stared at herself in the mirror. Was that heightened color in her cheeks? She shook her head as she turned on the cold water and splashed some onto her face. She had to set aside the attraction before she saw him again. The last thing she needed was to blush like this in front of Wyatt. She could be cool and professional one more day, and then she was off work the following two days. Maybe Wyatt would be discharged by the time she had to walk these halls again.

Her afternoon was filled with so many appointments that she didn’t have time to think about Wyatt or her attraction to the unlucky cowboy. But as she left the clinic at the end of the day, she had to fight the urge to go back to the hospital to check on him. Instead, she turned toward her car. When she was in the driver’s seat, she didn’t immediately start the engine. Though she was tired from a long day, part of her didn’t want to go home, not when she was still feeling strange about a man she barely knew. The last thing she needed was her dad or either of her brothers sensing something was off about her and digging until they found out what it was.

She glanced at herself in the rearview mirror. “Stop being an idiot.”

Even though she told herself to stop thinking about Wyatt, her thoughts kept going back to that grin of his, the one he shot in her direction despite the pain he was experiencing. She’d seen his type before, tough as thick leather and used to charming the pants right off a gal. Well, she wasn’t a buckle bunny happy to draw a cowboy’s attention. If she wanted a cowboy, she didn’t have to wait for one to stroll into town, or be wheeled into her ER. This was Texas, after all. Cowboys were a dime a dozen, even without the regular rodeos bringing them to Blue Falls.

It was a ten-mile drive out to her family’s ranch, and she told herself that she could think about Wyatt and his grin until she pulled into the driveway. Then she needed to leave those memories behind. Her thoughts wandered back to how he’d flirted with her in the ER, the fine cut of his chest and abdomen that she’d noticed despite his injuries, the way his eyes crinkled at the edges when he smiled. Though she’d never seen him standing, she imagined he was one of those guys who had a sexy saunter, the kind that made women think losing their pants might not be such a bad idea.

The moment the entrance to the ranch came into view, she forced thoughts of Wyatt Kelley from her mind, replacing them with anything she could think of—the acreage of the ranch, the book she was reading, trying to remember the names of all the women her brother Owen had dated. That last one took long enough that she was parking next to the house by the time she ran out of names.

Once inside, she changed into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then mixed up a batch of cornbread muffins to go with the roast she’d put in the Crock-Pot that morning. The delicious smells filling the kitchen reminded her of Henry’s complaints about his hospital food, which of course led her to wondering if Wyatt hated it, too. Or was he so used to eating junk on the road that hospital meals were actually a step up?

Damn it, here she was thinking about him again.

The back door opening caused her to jump, but thankfully her dad and brothers didn’t notice as they hung their hats on the rack by the door and slipped off their dirty boots.

“That sure smells good,” her dad said as he crossed to the refrigerator and pulled out a cold root beer, his favorite drink. He downed about half the bottle in one go, following it with a satisfied smack of his lips. “How was your day?”

“Fine, long. Henry Stillwater’s in the hospital again.”

Garrett, her older brother, walked to the kitchen island and nabbed a couple of the white chocolate-covered pretzels she’d been snacking on. “That old coot is in the hospital so much, I’m beginning to think he has a crush on you.”

Chloe snorted. “More like he should stop smoking, but I’d be less surprised if UT decided to get rid of their football team.”

Owen, her younger brother, snatched the pretzel bag from Garrett. “So, did that bull rider survive last night?”

A momentary flare of panic hit her right in the chest, fear that he’d somehow found out about her attraction to Wyatt. But unless Owen had suddenly developed the ability to read minds, there was no way he could know. Unless one of the nurses made some comment about her flirting in the ER.

“Yeah. Dr. Pierce had to sew him up, but he’ll make it.”

“Huh. I thought he might be a goner after what that bull did to him.”

Chloe didn’t want to encourage her brother to share any gory details so she turned to the Crock-Pot and started dishing up bowls of roast.

While her family ate dinner, as they had countless times before, Chloe found it hard to pay attention to what her dad and brothers were saying. She kept thinking about how close Wyatt had come to dying. She might not know him beyond a few minutes of conversation, but the idea that his life might have been snuffed out the night before bothered her. Really bothered her.

Of course it did. She was a doctor, charged with saving lives.

Even the lives of ridiculously good-looking cowboys.

“Earth to Chloe,” Owen said as he waved a hand in front of her face.

“What? Sorry.”

“How are things in la-la land?”

She swatted his hand away. “I’m just tired. Didn’t sleep well last night.”

Normally, sleeping like a log wasn’t a problem, especially on days when she worked a twelve-hour shift. But for some reason, she’d woken up several times the night before. She’d gotten the sense she’d been dreaming a lot, but she couldn’t remember about what. Now she wondered if it might have been about a certain injured bull rider.

“I think I’m going to turn in early if someone else can handle the dishes.”

“Go on,” Garrett said. “I’ll get them.”

She gave him a tired smile. “Thanks.”

“Good, because I got a hot date,” Owen said as he scooted away from the table.

“You always have a hot date,” Garrett said.

“You should try it sometime, big brother.”

Not really in the mood to talk about her brothers’ dating lives or lack thereof, Chloe headed to the bathroom. After a quick shower to wash away the day, she trudged into her bedroom and climbed into bed. But despite the fact that she really was tired, sleep seemed far away as she stared out the window at the sliver of moon.

The tug of loneliness made a reappearance, as it had several times recently. It didn’t make much sense considering she was around people all day long and still lived at home with her family. When she’d first started feeling as if something was missing a couple of weeks earlier, she’d wondered if for some reason she’d started missing her mother again. Honestly, she missed her mom every day if she thought about it, despite the fact it’d been more than twenty years since her death.

But as she thought about that loss now, it didn’t seem to match the empty spot that had opened up inside Chloe. Not knowing how to tackle the unfamiliar and unwanted feeling proved frustrating. She was the type of person who saw a problem or obstacle and faced it head-on. But how did you do that if you couldn’t identify the culprit?

She listened to the movements of her dad and brother downstairs, and it hit her that they were every bit as alone as she was. Only Owen had an active love life, but even he showed no signs of getting serious with anyone.

Chloe laid the back of her hand against her forehead and searched for the moment when she’d first noticed the emptiness. She realized after several minutes that it had been shortly after her friend Linnea had announced her engagement and started planning her dream wedding. Is that what Chloe wanted—the big wedding, the happily ever after?

Of course she did. So did most women. But it had always been a “someday” sort of thing. It seemed as if someday were catching up with her, but getting married and having a family of her own wasn’t as simple as it sounded, either. You couldn’t just go shopping for a husband like you could a new car. Not to mention that her schedule was always crazy busy between working at the clinic and hospital and helping out her family.

Still, she couldn’t dispel that line of thought as she tried to force herself to go to sleep. Her mind began to manufacture scenes as she started to drift, scenes of her with her own house, a big yard where two small children laughed and played. She looked toward a barn in the distance, saw someone walk out of it and head toward her. Her heart leaped and the excitement of anticipation rushed through her. As the man drew closer, the thought that he was her husband, the love of her life, settled comfortably within her.

When he came near enough for her to see his face, she smiled. Wyatt didn’t stop until he pulled her into his arms and kissed her with so much passion that she knew in the deepest part of her heart that she was the luckiest woman in the world.

Chapter Three

Wyatt flipped through the channels on the TV for what had to be the tenth time. Still nothing remotely interesting. He was beginning to look forward to a nurse coming to check his vitals just so he’d have something to do.

As if the cosmos had heard his plea, someone walked into his room. Fate had taken pity on him because it was pretty Dr. Brody. She glanced at the TV, where he’d paused on some sort of infomercial for jewelry cleaner, and smiled.

“Got a lot of silver you need to clean?”

He flicked off the TV. “Daytime TV is garbage.”

“Yeah, sorry we don’t have any decent movie channels.”

“Is it possible to die of boredom?”

She lifted his chart from the end of the bed. “Afraid not, though I’m sure it feels that way.” She made a couple of notations on the chart before returning it to its previous spot.

“So, I think I’ve figured out your name.”

“That so?” Dr. Brody walked around to the side of his bed and checked the fluids in his IV bags.

“Yeah. You look like a Carly.”

“Swing and a miss.”

“Christa.”

“Nope.”

When he started to guess again, she shook her head. “Only two guesses a day.”

He lifted a brow. “Just how long do you think I’m going to be in here?”

“That’s partly up to Dr. Pierce.” She pointed toward the IV bags. “But we’ll start gradually lowering the dosage on these as well as the painkiller.”

“So what do I get when I guess your name?”

A hint of a smile tugged at the edge of her mouth. “The satisfaction of a mystery solved.”

He laughed a little, and damn if it didn’t hurt his middle. “You must have gone to the medical school where they teach doctors to have an actual personality.”

“Oh, this is all me, there way before med school.”

“Naturally quick with comebacks, huh?”

“That’s what happens when you grow up with brothers. Couldn’t beat them up, couldn’t outrun them, but I could win in a smart-mouth contest any day.”

She shifted as if leaving already, and he caught himself just before he reached out and grabbed her arm. “Seriously, when can I get out of this place?”

Her light demeanor fell away. “You sustained significant injuries. If that horn had cut a little deeper, you might not be talking to me right now. You’d at the very best be feeling a lot worse. So you need to give your body time to repair itself.”

“That’s not a definite answer.”

“Because I don’t know a definite answer. It depends on how quickly and how well your injuries begin to heal.”

Frustration welled up within him. He was not good at lying around doing nothing, especially when he was pretty sure he’d exhausted his limited health-care coverage by the time he rolled out of surgery.

“Is there anyone we can call to let them know you’re here?” she asked. “Having visitors would make the days go by more quickly.”

He shook his head. Even if he were back in Wyoming, there wasn’t anyone close enough that he’d be able to call them up and have them sit in a hospital with him.

“Tell you what. I’m done with my rounds in a few minutes. I’ll bring you some magazines, maybe a crossword puzzle book. That will help pass the time until something decent comes on TV tonight.”

“Any chance I can at least go sit outside?”

He had to give her credit. She looked genuinely sorry when she shook her head. “Not yet.”

He was going to go stark-raving mad.

“I know it stinks. But I’ll be back with some issues of Woman’s Day before you know it.”

“You are evil,” he said, at least thankful that she was personable and he had her brief visits to look forward to.

“Who, me? I’m an angel.” She pretended to buff an invisible halo before laughing a little and heading for the door. “Hang in there, cowboy.”

She knew his name, but there was something about the way she called him “cowboy” that he liked. Still, part of him enjoyed imagining her saying his name right before he kissed those pink lips. Yeah, he’d been daydreaming about his doctor. That’s what happened when you were full of stitches, unable to get out of bed and had way too many hours of staring at the wall. Not to mention not having been on a date in a while.

Wyatt was pretty sure the minutes slowed after she left. He stared out the narrow window, but the view of the empty helipad lost his interest pretty quickly. He closed his eyes and tried to think of every possible female name that started with a C. He wanted to know the doc’s name, but he sure didn’t want to stay in the hospital long enough to guess it. Maybe he’d get lucky tomorrow. He settled on the two most likely choices then was left with nothing to do again. He finally resorted to turning on the TV and found an older-than-dirt action movie. It wasn’t a great film, but it was better than resorting to counting the divots in the ceiling tiles.

He was beginning to wonder how the movie even got made when Dr. Brody returned, the promised magazines in hand. He muted the TV as she placed the magazines on the rolling table and pushed it close so he could reach it.

“I behaved,” she said as he sifted through the stack of magazines. One about hunting and fishing, another about cars, Sports Illustrated and... “Mostly.”

He laughed at the copy of Cosmopolitan. “Maybe it’ll help me figure out how women’s minds work.”

“You mean you don’t think you know that already?”

“There’s not a man alive who’s figured that out.”

“Maybe you all just aren’t observant enough.”

Wyatt shook his head, not going down that road filled with land mines. “Thanks for the magazines.”

She reached into her coat pocket, pulled out a candy bar and set it beside the magazines and the crossword puzzle book. “Figured this might come in handy, too.”

“You were in my head.”

“No, I just see what passes for dessert here.”

Thunder rumbled outside, drawing their attention to the window. It had grown dark out, even though it was still a few hours from nightfall. Wyatt noticed that a weather broadcast had broken in on the movie. The radar image was several shades of red with lots of indications of lightning strikes.

“That doesn’t look good,” he said.

Dr. Brody sighed. “Just in time for my drive home.”

“Guess you’ll have to stay here until it passes.” When she glanced at him, he winked at her.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you ordered the storm.”

“If I had that much power, I’d heal myself so I could get out of this awful bed. My back feels like I fell off a building.”

“Here, let’s see if we can do something about that.” She crossed to the other side of the room, where an empty bed sat awaiting another unfortunate hospital guest. She grabbed a pillow and stepped close to his side. “Carefully lean forward.”

He bit his lip to keep from wincing, but then his breath caught for a different reason. Dr. Brody grasped his shoulder as she tucked the pillow so that it stretched from his lower back to his shoulders. She stood close enough that he could smell her feminine scent, something flowery but not overwhelming.

“You smell nice.”

She stopped moving for a moment, and he thought he heard her breath catch, too. But when she eased him back against the pillow and took a step away, she smiled.

“Well, you’re used to smelling antiseptic and bleach,” she said, deflecting his compliment.

A loud crash of thunder that sounded as if it were right above his room caused her to jump. Right on the heels of the thunder, the sky opened up and released a deluge of rain. In the space of a couple of seconds, the helipad became obscured.

“Even Mother Nature thinks you should stay and keep me company,” he said.

“Since I didn’t bring my canoe to work, I think you’re right.”

He was actually sort of surprised when the doc pulled up a chair and propped her feet on the end of his bed.

“So, Wyatt Kelley, tell me something about yourself.”

“Not much to tell.”

“Everyone has a story.”

“And some of them aren’t all that interesting. What about you?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Your name.”

She smiled, and he spotted a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Nice try.”

“Okay, are you originally from Blue Falls?”

“Yep, born and raised on a ranch outside of town. My turn. Where are you from?”

“Laramie, Wyoming.”

“Long way from home.”

He shrugged, irked that even that slight motion sent a twinge through his injured side. “Not really. I mainly live on the road.”

“Traveling from rodeo to rodeo.”

He nodded.

“I don’t know how you guys do that, especially climbing onto bulls. My younger brother did rodeo for a while, but he was a roper. At least he wasn’t cheating death every time he got in the chute.”

“Most of the time I don’t even think about it.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah. I’ve been around rodeo all my life. It’s nothing out of the ordinary.”

Dr. Brody shook her head slowly. “Maybe all of you have just had one too many concussions to know better.”

“Maybe, but the crowds love it. We crazy bull riders help to bring people in to events like your town’s rodeos.”

“Yeah, but I end up patching you guys up. Do you all have contests to see who can get the most broken bones or stitches in a year?”

“No, but maybe I should start that bet. I’d have a good chance of winning.”

She snorted a little laugh that told him just what she thought of that idea.

Another loud boom of thunder set off a car alarm outside, and in the next moment the electricity went out. Dr. Brody immediately jumped to her feet and headed for the door, but before she got there the backup generators kicked in.

“Be back in a bit,” she said then disappeared.

He listened to the flurry of footsteps out in the hall, as the staff checked on patients to make sure all the necessary monitors and equipment were operating correctly. Wyatt glanced at the TV and realized the angriest part of the storm sat right smack on top of Blue Falls. After a storm like this, there would no doubt be necessary cleanup. If only he weren’t a prisoner of his injuries, maybe he could pick up a couple days of work. Lord knew his wallet could always use the extra cash.

That thought took him back to Dr. Brody’s comments about how he put his life in danger every time he settled himself atop a bull. But it was all he knew beyond basic manual labor. Maybe he could have done something else if he’d applied himself, but rodeo had gotten into his blood early and he’d not thought much beyond it. Good damn thing that bull two nights ago hadn’t done anything that was irreparable.

But what if it had? He’d be totally screwed.

Maybe he needed to think about a plan for when his rodeo days were over. Even the best of the best had to quit riding sometime. If he started chatting up some of his contacts now, maybe he could plant the seed that would grow into some sort of rodeo-related job after he quit riding. Maybe he’d even follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become an announcer.