Her Forever Cowboy

“Everyone can ride in Forever,” he told her. “Some of us just choose not to.” He stuck the dust cloth in his back pocket while he rearranged a few of the bottles.

“Understandable.” Olivia slid off her stool in a single fluid movement. “Well, I’ve got to be getting back. Come by the office when you get a chance so I can officially show you the will. I should have the deed transfer all squared away and notarized for you in a couple of days.”

Brett nodded, still trying to come to terms with what she’d just told him. Owning Murphy’s was something he’d just accepted as part of his heritage. Owning property—a ranch, no less—was something he was going to have to get used to.

“Will do,” he told her. And then a thought hit him. “Oh, Olivia?”

About to cross to the front door, Olivia turned to look at him, waiting. “Yes?”

He tried to make his question sound like a casual one. “What do you know about the new doc?”

Olivia smiled. “Other than the fact that Dan’s overjoyed she’s here, and Tina is now hopeful that she’ll see Dan sitting across from her at dinner at least a few times a week?”

Brett laughed. “Yes, other than that.”

“Not much,” she admitted.

The new doctor had been in town for a couple of weeks, and no one had struck up a casual conversation with her, as far as he knew.

“Dan says her credentials are impeccable, she graduated at close to the top of her class and her letters of recommendation are glowing, although I have a feeling that he would have hired her even if the letters had been only a tad better than mediocre. Right now she’s staying with Tina and Dan until she can find a place of her own, and according to Tina, she’s not exactly very talkative. Why?” she asked as it suddenly dawned on her why Brett was asking. “Are you interested?”

“I’m always interested in a pretty woman,” he answered. “Especially when I can’t figure out what she’s doing here.” He saw Olivia raise an eyebrow quizzically in response to his words. “Someone who looks like that doesn’t just pick up and move out to the middle of nowhere.”

Olivia pretended to be insulted. “Are you telling me that I’m not attractive?”

“You didn’t move out into the middle of nowhere. You came looking for your runaway sister,” he reminded her. “And while you were looking, you fell in love with Rick. Then you decided to stay. That’s different.”

Olivia considered his narrative. “Maybe she came here looking for something, too,” she suggested.

“Like what?” he asked.

“That would be something for an enterprising cowboy to find out,” Olivia told him with a knowing wink, looking at him significantly. “I’ll see you later.”

“Later,” Brett echoed.

Brett paused, thoughtfully watching Olivia leave. The last part of their conversation had intrigued him more than the first part of it had, despite the fact that he had apparently just inherited an entire ranch that he hadn’t a clue what to do with.

As with everything else that challenged his problem-solving skills, he pushed the matter temporarily from his mind. He’d much rather center his thoughts on the lovely, uncommunicative lady doc.

Now, there was a challenge he would more than willingly tackle.

The word tackle caused his smile to widen as he went about his work.

* * *

THE NOISE LEVEL in the bar that night made it difficult to carry on a decent conversation that went beyond a few simple words. As had become the habit on Friday nights, Liam and his band were providing the entertainment at Murphy’s. The band was in full swing, the music all but shaking the rafters. He could just see the few knickknacks in the apartment above slowly vibrating across the floor.

Listening, Brett had to admit, if only to himself for now, that his little brother was a damn fine performer. Liam played the guitar as if it was an extension of himself, and his voice wasn’t just tolerable; it was actually good.

And getting better all the time.

As far as he knew, Liam had been at this for about a year, finally finding the courage to play in front of the people he had known all his life. Fearing that his aspirations could never reach the heights he’d wished for himself, that he was good only in his own mind, Liam had even held back from playing for his own family. It wasn’t until both he and Finn had all but bullied their younger brother into giving them a demonstration that Liam had finally played for them. What began hesitantly had gone on to be a performance worthy of a budding professional—and Brett had been the first to realize that.

After a bit of soul-searching—he’d always been protective of his brothers, although the two really weren’t that aware of it—Brett had been the one to light a fire under Liam and encouraged his brother to bring his band and play at Murphy’s.

For now, the weekly performances were enough to satisfy the budding artist within Liam. But Brett knew in his heart that Liam wouldn’t be satisfied with this level of performing forever. Eventually, Liam would want to try his wings elsewhere. To see if he could fly.

As a rule, Brett didn’t much care for change, but at the same time, he understood that nothing ever really stayed the same. But that was his problem, not Liam’s. He just had to make his peace with that.

He wanted Liam to do whatever it took to make himself happy.

For a moment, Brett tuned out everything else in the bar and just listened to Liam play.

“He’s better than I thought he’d be.”

The comment, spoken in a normal tone of voice, still managed to cut through the din and his concentration to reach Brett. Half turning, Brett looked over to his right to see the woman who had voiced her opinion. He just wanted to verify that it was who he’d thought it was.

And he was right.

And surprised. She was the last person he would’ve expected to be here, given what she’d implied two weeks ago. And while he’d considered coming to Dan’s clinic with some bogus health complaint just to see her in action, he’d decided to hold off and see if the woman was actually staying—or if she couldn’t hack it and decided to turn tail and run.

So far, the jury was out on that decision.

“That makes two of us,” he told Alisha in a vague, preoccupied voice. And then he turned on his charm. It was never far from the surface. “First drink’s on the house,” he told her, “although I have to say, I’m surprised to see you here.”

That made two of them again, she thought. “No more surprised than I am to find myself here.”

“You’re sleepwalking?” Brett asked, tongue in cheek, although there was amusement in his eyes.

She didn’t bother answering that since they both knew she wasn’t sleepwalking, and the suggestion bordered on the absurd. She didn’t know just what she was supposed to say in response to something like that. Bantering wasn’t her forte and, as far as she knew, Pierce had next to no sense of humor. It probably couldn’t find a place for itself with his giant libido taking up so much space.

Rather than make small talk, which she had no patience with and was not very good at in any event, Alisha went directly to the heart of the matter that had brought her here to this dim little establishment with its scent of alcohol, noisy occupants and high spirits.

“I’m told you have an apartment,” she said to Brett. And with those words, Forever’s new physician managed to accomplish the rare feat of surprising Brett Murphy twice in the space of a few minutes.

Chapter Three (#ulink_597a6b18-5c93-5d24-ba11-2144fd6e4fa0)

The noise level being what it was, Brett decided that he couldn’t have heard her correctly. Leaning in closer, he said, “Excuse me?”

“An apartment,” Alisha repeated, raising her voice to be heard above the din. Maybe that rancher she’d treated this morning had misinformed her, and there wasn’t any unoccupied living quarters to be had in this town. Doubts as well as frustration began to set in. “Do you or don’t you have one?”

Had she asked that question of Finn, Brett was fairly certain that his younger brother would have thought that Forever’s new lady doc was hitting on him. But Brett had a few miles on him, not so much in age—he was just thirty-two—but in what he’d experienced during that time, and he knew the look of a woman who was coming on to a man. The lady doc was most certainly not hitting on him.

To be quite honest with himself, he didn’t think he could accurately describe the expression he saw on her attractive face.

From where he stood, Lady Doc was an enigma, a puzzle waiting to be solved. In a nutshell, the lady was a challenge, and it had been a while since he’d been challenged.

His interest level went up several notches.