Claimed By The Cowboy

Never in her nine years as a practicing oncologist had she run into such a stubborn set of relatives. She adored her job and Chicago, but days like these had her muttering “city folk” to herself and longing for the wide-open spaces of Cedar Point, Iowa. Even cows were more reasonable than this.

“I understand that you’re not interested in doing your job,” Eve Winchester said in a tight voice.

“There’s no need to be rude,” Carson Newport snapped. “The good doctor is doing her job. No one lives forever—especially not bitter old men.”

Eve wheeled on Carson and most likely would have demolished him in a verbal barrage of slings and arrows, but a voice interrupted them. “What seems to be the trouble?”

Lucinda froze. Absolutely, completely froze as a voice out of her past floated up from out of nowhere and made her blood run hot and cold at the same time.

It couldn’t be. It simply wasn’t possible that she’d heard him. Not after all this time. Not right now, when she was barely keeping herself together in the face of one of her most challenging cases yet.

But then Carson turned and said, “Josh!”

And a little bit of Lucinda died because she wasn’t imagining this. She couldn’t be. Josh Calhoun himself had walked out of her nightmares and into her line of sight.

Oh, God. Her breath caught in her throat as Josh approached. He looked exactly the same as he had the last time she’d seen him. He was wearing jeans and a red plaid shirt. His longish brown hair stuck out around the base of his ratty-looking ball cap that looked exactly like the one he’d worn every single day back in school.

No, no, no. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be.

Josh Calhoun—a ghost from her past that she never wanted to face again—smiled widely at their small group.

Until his gaze landed on her.

Lucinda wasn’t surprised when that good-time grin of his died on the vine. After all, they hadn’t exactly parted on the best of terms when Lucinda had made an absolute fool of herself on the worst day of her life and Josh had turned her down flat.

They stared at each other and Lucinda was at least a little relieved that he was just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

And then everything got worse. Because Josh Calhoun, the boy who’d shattered her already broken heart, lifted one corner of his mouth in what she knew all too well was his real smile.

Oh. Oh, my. Something about him had changed. He was a little taller and a heck of a lot more broad in the shoulders. His chin was sharper now and his eyes...

Josh Calhoun had grown up.

Lucinda did not allow herself to feel a rush of instant attraction. Lust had no place in her life. It was an inconvenient emotion at best, and she only had so much emotional energy to spare after spending her days as the head of the oncology department at Midwest Regional Medical Center. She couldn’t waste a bit of it, certainly not on the likes of Josh Calhoun, the last person she had allowed herself to lust over.

But watching Josh’s lips curve into that real smile instead of the big one he used when he was befriending every single person in the room? Lust hit her low and hard, and she wasn’t ready for it. She wasn’t ready for him. Not now, not ever.

But she refused to let any of that show. She didn’t suck in air, even though her lungs were burning. She didn’t allow her skin and circulatory system to betray her in any way. She didn’t even bat a single eyelash at him.

He was nothing to her. She didn’t need him; she didn’t want him, and she’d be damned if she let him know how much he’d hurt her back in high school.

Carson’s scowl broke into a wide smile as he said, “You made it!” Then he and Josh wrapped their arms around each other and performed a few manly thumps on each other’s back.

Lucinda couldn’t help but glance at Eve during this display of masculine affection. Eve was rolling her eyes.

“Man, I’m glad to see you,” Carson said to Josh. “Josh, this is Eve Winchester—it turns out that she’s my sister.”

“Stop telling people that,” Eve snapped.

Lucinda sighed heavily. She’d heard variations on this particular theme over and over again whenever it came time to make a decision about Sutton Winchester’s care. The Winchester daughters—Nora, Eve and Grace—refused to acknowledge that Carson was their half brother and did everything within their power to make sure that he did not have any say in family decisions.

But Carson Newport wasn’t exactly taking this decision lying down.

Just as he did every time Eve threw this insult in his face, Carson opened his mouth to retort that she didn’t have any choice in the situation. Lucinda knew the script by heart.

Josh didn’t. Instead, he cut Carson off with a warm smile and an extended hand. “Ms. Winchester, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m sorry that we can’t meet under better circumstances, but Carson has told me how impressed he is with how you’ve been handling all the new developments.”

Lucinda had no idea if this was a true statement or not. Maybe it didn’t matter. Josh’s words went off like a little bomb in the conversation, completely resetting the discourse.

She shouldn’t be surprised. Josh Calhoun had always been the peacemaker of their high school. He had a way of finding the common ground and making everyone happy.

Everyone except her.

“He...what?” Eve stared down at Josh’s outstretched hand. “Who are you?”

If Josh was insulted by this lack of manners, he didn’t show it. “Beg your pardon—I’m Josh Calhoun, of the Calhoun Creamery. I went to college with the Newport boys and I count them as some of my oldest friends. I understand that things have been challenging recently and I wanted to stop by and see if I could do anything to help.” As he said this last bit, his gaze shifted back to Lucinda.

Oh, come on—was he seriously including her in that statement? If that’s what he thought, he had another think coming.

But he was the Newports’ oldest friend? Figured. As if the Winchester/Newport feud wasn’t enough of a tangled web to be caught in, Josh Calhoun had to go and add another thread. A big, fat, complicated thread.

Carson jumped in, taking advantage of Eve’s stunned silence. “Josh, this is Dr. Lucinda Wilde. She’s the oncologist who’s overseeing Sutton’s care. If there’s one thing that Eve and I can agree on...” At this, Eve snorted. “It’s that Dr. Wilde has managed to stabilize our father. Without her, he would probably already be dead.”

“Dr. Lucinda Wilde,” Josh said, rolling each of the words off his tongue as if he was trying to figure out which part was the strangest. He leaned forward, his hand out. “Lucinda? And you’re an oncologist now? I should have guessed.”

She did not want to touch him. So she nodded her head and stuck her hands behind her back. “Josh. Sorry,” she added in a not-sorry voice. “Germs, you know.”

Eve and Carson shared a look. “Do you two know each other?” Carson asked.

She didn’t answer. She didn’t want to cop to knowing Josh. She didn’t want anyone in Chicago to know about their tangled past, and she absolutely didn’t want to be thinking about Josh Calhoun, past or present.

Sadly, it seemed as though she didn’t have much of a choice. “Yeah,” Josh said, letting his hand hang out there for a second before he lowered it back to his side. “Well, I knew Lucy Wilde.”

She shuddered at the sound of her name. She’d left Lucy Wilde behind when she’d left Iowa, and there was no going back. “We went to the same high school,” she explained to Carson and Eve. “But only for two years.” She shot a warning glare at Josh because if he took it upon himself to add to that simple truth, she might have to kick him somewhere very important.

He notched an eyebrow at her and something in his eyes changed, and she knew—knew—that he remembered exactly how things had gone down between them. Or not gone down, as the case may be. But, thankfully, all he said was “Yup.”

“I’m very happy for the high school reunion, but none of this brings us any closer to getting my father out of the hospital,” Eve Winchester snapped.

Josh—without looking away from her—asked, “Is that a possibility?”

Right. Lucinda had a purpose here that had nothing to do with Josh Calhoun or Lucy Wilde. She had ventured out to this dusty, half-finished work site to try to talk some sense into Carson and Eve because they were the most invested players in this family drama.

Not that that was saying a lot.

“It would be best for the patient if he remained in the oncology ward at Midwest,” Lucinda said as all three looked at her. “I want to keep him under my direct supervision, and there are several experimental treatments I would like to try—with his consent—that have the potential to increase his life expectancy. There are promising developments with low-dose naltrexone...”

“I don’t understand why these experimental treatments have to be done in the hospital,” Eve snapped, cutting Lucinda off. “Every day that he’s in a public space—and no, you can’t promise me that his privacy will be respected in that hospital—it becomes that much more likely that someone will access his records, take pictures of him while he’s incapacitated or bribe a nurse for information they can use against him in the court of public opinion.” She paused and shot daggers at Carson. “I want him home where I know that he’ll be protected and safe.”