Outlaw Hartes: The Valentine Two-Step / Cassidy Harte And The Comeback Kid

* * *

Dylan clutched her glee to her chest only until they were outside the barn and she had carefully shut the door behind them, then she grabbed Lucy’s coat, nearly toppling her into the snow. She pulled her into a tight hug and hopped them both around in wild circles. “Did you see that? Did you see it?”

“What? Mystic? She looked fine, like nothing had happened. Your mom is really something.”

She gave Lucy a little shake. “No, silly! Didn’t you see them? My mom and your dad?”

“Well, yeah. We just talked to them two seconds ago.” Lucy looked at her as if her brain had slid out.

“Don’t you get it, Lucy? This is huge. It’s working! I know it’s working! I think he kissed her!”

“Eww.” Lucy’s mouth twisted in disgust like Dylan had just made her eat an earwig.

“Come on, Luce. Grow up. They have to get mushy! It’s part of the plan.”

Her mouth dropped open like she’d never even considered the possibility. For a moment she stared at Dylan, then snapped her jaws shut. “How do you know? What makes you think they were kissing? They seemed just like normal.”

Dylan thought of her mother’s pink cheeks and the way Lucy’s dad kept sneaking looks at Ellie when he didn’t think any of them were watching him. “I don’t know. I just think they were.”

She wanted to yell and jump up and down and twirl around in circles with her arms wide until she got too dizzy and had to stop. A funny, sparkling excitement filled her chest, and she almost couldn’t breathe around it. She was going to have a father, just like everybody else!

“I can’t believe it. Our brilliant plan is working! Your dad likes her. I told you he would. He just needed the chance to get to know her.”

She pulled Lucy toward her for another hug. “If your dad likes my mom enough to kiss her, it won’t be long before he likes her enough to marry her. We’re going to be sisters, Luce. I just know we are.”

Lucy still couldn’t seem to get over the kissing. Her face still looked all squishy and funny. “Now what?”

“I guess we keep doing what we’re doing. Trying everything we can think of to push them together. Why mess with it when everything seems to be working out just like we planned?”

* * *

As soon as the girls left the barn, Ellie wished fiercely that she could slither out behind them. Or hide away among the hay bales. Or crawl into the nearest stall and bury her head in her hands.

Anything so she wouldn’t have to face the tight-lipped man in front of her. Or so she wouldn’t have to face herself and the weakness for soft-spoken, hard-eyed cowboys that had apparently been lurking inside her all this time without her knowledge.

And why was he glowering, anyway, like the whole bloody thing was her fault? He was the one who kissed her. She was an innocent victim, just standing here minding her own business.

And lusting over him, like she’d been doing for weeks.

The thought made her cringe inwardly. So she was attracted to him. So what? Who wouldn’t be? The man was gorgeous. Big and masculine and gorgeous.

Anyway, it wasn’t like she had begged him to kiss her. No, he’d done that all on his own. One minute they had been talking, the next thing she knew he pulled her into his arms without any advance warning and covered her mouth with his.

She shivered, remembering. The man kissed like he meant it. Her knees started to feel all wobbly again, but she sternly ordered them to behave. She had better things to do then go weak-kneed over a gruff, distrustful rancher who seemed content to remain mired in a rut of tradition.

Still, he had unbent enough to let her treat Mystic, despite his obvious misgivings. He deserved points for that, at least. Of course, then he had completely distracted her with a fiery kiss that washed all thoughts of her patient out of her head.

But no more. She took a deep breath. She had a job to do here. The mare wasn’t out of the woods yet, and she needed to make sure Mystic didn’t lose her foal. To do it, she needed to focus only on the horse and not on her owner.

“I’d better take another look at Mystic to make sure the contractions have completely stopped.”

“You think she still might be in danger?”

“Like I told the girls, it’s too early to say. We’ll have to wait and see.”

With a great deal of effort, she turned her back on him and focused on the horse again. Somehow she managed to put thoughts of that kiss out of her head enough to concentrate on what she was doing.

She was working so hard at it, centering all her energy on the horse, that she didn’t hear Matt come up behind her until she turned to pick her stethoscope out of her bag and bumped into hard, immovable man.

She backed up until she butted against the horse and clutched her chest. “Oh. You startled me.”

A muscle worked in his jaw. “Look, Doc. I owe you an apology. I had no business doing that.”

She deliberately misconstrued his meaning. “Startling me? Don’t worry about it. Just make a little more noise next time.”

“No,” he snapped impatiently. “You know that’s not what I mean. I’m talking about before. About what happened before the girls came in.”

Heat soaked her cheekbones. “You don’t have to worry about that, either.”

He pressed doggedly forward. “I shouldn’t have kissed you. It was crazy. Completely crazy. I, uh, don’t know what came over me.”

Uncontrollable lust? She seriously doubted it. Still, it wasn’t very flattering for him to look as astounded at his own actions as a pup did when he found out his new best friend was a porcupine.

“You shouldn’t have,” she said as curtly, hoping he would let the whole thing drop.

Out of the corner of her gaze, she watched that muscle twitch along his jaw again, but the blasted man plodded forward stubbornly. “I apologize,” he repeated. “It won’t happen again.”

“Good. Then let’s get back to business.”

“I just don’t want what happened here to affect our working relationship.”

“We don’t have a working relationship, Matt. Not really. We’re running a school carnival together, but that will be over in a few months. Then we can go back to ignoring each other.”

“I’d like us to. Have a working relationship, I mean. And not just with the stupid Valentine’s carnival, either.” He paused. “The thing is, I was impressed by what you did for Mystic. Hell, who wouldn’t have been impressed? It was amazing.”

Okay, she could forgive him for calling their kiss crazy, she decided, as warmth rushed through her at the praise.

He rubbed a hand along Mystic’s withers, avoiding her gaze. “If you’re interested, I’d like to contract with you to treat the rest of my horses.”

She stared at him, stunned by the offer. “All of them?”

“Yeah. We generally have anywhere from twenty to thirty, depending on the time of the year. The ranch hands usually have at least a couple each in their remudas, and I usually pay for their care, too.”

She was flabbergasted and couldn’t seem to think straight. How could the man kiss her one minute, then calmly talk business the next while her hormones still lurched and bucked? It wasn’t fair. She could barely keep a thought in her head, even ten minutes later. How was she supposed to have a coherent conversation about this?

“What about Steve?” she finally asked.

“Nichols is a competent vet.” He paused, as if trying to figure out just the right words. “He’s competent, but not passionate. Not like Ben. Or like you.