BEFORE TEN O’CLOCK Kaylee had already dealt with a parakeet that had a fever, a ferret with a bad skin condition and an old dog that had gotten into some foxtails.
Business was never slow at Valley Veterinary, which was a good thing in many ways.
But at the moment Kaylee would kill for another cup of coffee and a moment to sit down.
And that was when Bennett walked in, looking like her salvation with his strong hands wrapped around two cups of coffee from Sugar Cup.
“Thank God you’re here,” she said, stretching her arm out.
“That’s quite the greeting.”
“I didn’t mean you. I meant coffee. Hand it over, Dodge. I’m dying.”
“Well, we can’t have that, Kay.” He thrust the cup into her hand, and she took it greedily, taking a cautious sip. It was scalding hot. Just the way she liked it.
She looked up at the clock, and then looked at the schedule sitting on the desk. Unless there was another emergency, she was clear for the day.
“Have you been out to check on the calf?”
“Yep,” he said, “first thing I did this morning. Everything looks good. But it’s just the start of busy season for me.”
“Right,” Kaylee responded. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The time of year where you spend half your time shoulder deep in cows.”
He chuckled and lifted his coffee cup to his lips. “It’s a living.”
“Indeed. Not jealous of you, just FYI. I prefer the small and fuzzy to the large and smelly.”
Usually, she didn’t have to assist with many births. Occasionally there were some breed-specific issues, and she would have to do something like give a bulldog a C-section, but that wasn’t very common around here.
“Did you end up finishing your date last night?” Bennett asked.
It was a weird question, and there was something weighted in his voice.
“Did I end up...finishing my date?” She blinked. “I didn’t go back to the restaurant at 9:30, if that’s what you’re asking. My steak would’ve been cold.”
“That’s not what I’m asking.”
Heat flew into her cheeks, her heart slamming against her breastbone. “Bennett, are you asking if I brought the man home?”
His expression was overly bland. Overly casual. “Just out of curiosity.”
“I have never asked you such question in my life,” she pointed out.
“Well, no. And you probably never would.”
Because the idea of Bennett with another woman burned her with jealousy, and she would have maybe had a blackout and stabbed him with the nearest medical instrument, but she wasn’t going to say that.
Bennett was not asking out of the burning jealousy of his heart. Not even a little.
In fact, that Bennett was asking at all proved how much the thought of her being with someone else didn’t matter to him.
She blamed Olivia Logan for all of this. Yes, him being with her had hurt. Knowing that he was probably going to marry her had hurt. But she had also seen...the end.
If Bennett were married then there really wouldn’t be a them. Not like part of her stupid heart had hoped there would be since junior high. If he married another woman then it really wasn’t going to happen between them. So yes, it had been indescribably painful to know that was finally coming.
But it had been a relief in some strange ways. A relief because it would finally kill her hope dead.
And then the golden couple of Gold Valley had broken up.
Bennett being single forced her to ponder all the what-ifs again.
Which was why she had gone out on that date.
She hadn’t been on a date in forever—it had been even longer since she had been with anyone, and she had just been...tired of that. Tired of the fact that her emotions, her body, seemed to be completely held hostage by a man who didn’t want them.
“Normally I wouldn’t,” he said, “but the whole thing with Olivia has me thinking.”
Everything inside Kaylee drew in tight, the breath in her lungs, her stomach, even her pulse seemed to narrow down to the tip of the pen, stabbing at her with each beat.
She swallowed hard. “You mean, you’re looking for someone else to marry?”
She had survived the selection process of Olivia. Had survived that relationship and near-marriage. She wasn’t sure if she was going to survive it again.
The corner of Bennett’s mouth tipped upward, the expression on his face turning wicked, which was not an expression normally present on Bennett’s face. “Or maybe I just need to hook up.”
Their eyes clashed and held over the tops of their coffee cups, and something seemed to spark the air, to catch and hold. They both took a sip of their coffee, as if to prolong the moment or let it settle, she wasn’t sure. But it was something. Something to do. But she didn’t look away from him. She felt like she couldn’t. Like there was a magnet holding her gaze to his, and she couldn’t fight it. Didn’t want to.
The door to the clinic opened, and they both looked over quickly. A rush of breath left Kaylee’s body, a strange dizziness washing over her as the tension broke.
It was Beatrix Leighton. Her sister-in-law Sabrina Parker ran the tasting room for Grassroots Winery in the neighboring town of Copper Ridge, and Bea lived on the winery property, which was owned by her other sister-in-law, Lindy. Both Sabrina and Lindy were polished and immaculate. Beatrix was...not.
She had a tangle of carrot-colored curls that always seemed to move independently of the rest of her, her cheeks often pink from the sun, her nose peeling because she had spent too much time outdoors. Kaylee had the vague idea that Beatrix was in her early twenties, but her slightly feral nature made it difficult to say.
In Beatrix’s arms was a box. And in that box was what looked to be a mass of blankets.
“Can I help you?” Laura the receptionist asked Beatrix, who looked from her to Kaylee and then to Bennett.
“I found him this morning on the side of the road,” she said, her eyes looking incredibly round and dewy.
“Found what?” Kaylee asked.
“Him,” Beatrix said, setting the box on the counter and revealing the contents.
A tiny baby raccoon nestled down beneath the pale blue blanket, his little claws wrapped tightly around the woolen fabric like it was his safety.
“His mother was dead,” Beatrix said. “And another baby. Hit by a car. But he was all right. I thought I saw movement, so I pulled the car over and got out. I think he might be injured, so I thought I should bring him to you.”
Beatrix had dropped by the clinic often over the past few years for just this very thing. She was a chronic rescuer of wild animals. And Kaylee could never bring herself to charge for the service of helping the younger woman rescue them. Anyway, usually Beatrix ended up doing most of the work, as long as Kaylee could provide an antibiotic or set a broken limb.
She shot Laura a glance. “Your schedule is clear right now.”
Kaylee looked at the mournful little creature, and then back at Beatrix. “Let’s get a look at him.”
Bennett was watching the entire thing with a kind of bemused expression on his face. Bennett was a veterinarian who cared deeply about saving animals. But Bennett was also a rancher from a long line of ranching stock, and when it came to offering medical aid to varmints, his opinion on the subject was more neutral than that it was a necessity.
Kaylee had spent a lot of her life feeling helpless. Useless. She hadn’t had resources to control or help anyone or anything when she’d been growing up. And now that she could? She could no more turn down the raccoon than she could Beatrix.
“Let’s take him into an exam room,” she said, picking up the box and leading the way back to one of the enclosed patient rooms.
Beatrix followed, and Bennett followed slowly behind her.
Now his presence was just starting to irritate her. That weird moment from earlier was making a mess of her insides, combined with the fact that she had it in her head now that Bennett wanted to...hook up. With some woman. Any woman but her, clearly. That always seemed to be the case.
What’s the alternative? He hooks up with you and then what? He’s going to marry you? What will happen to your friendship?
All those typical questions came tumbling down on her head. The questions that she always asked herself when she got into a Bennett loop.
But she didn’t just have a wayward heart and an overly excitable body. She had a brain.
And her brain knew a few things about Bennett Dodge. The first being that if he wanted her at all, he would have made a move. He was decisive. Honest. Not the type to sit and stew about hidden feelings.
The second being that she didn’t really know how to have a long-term relationship. Her attempts so far had been unsuccessful.
A recipe for disaster.
And anyway, they had made the decision years ago to go into business together, which further complicated...everything.
Bennett was deeply ingrained in her life. Her friend, her business partner and a staple in the community.
They were tangled around each other. And untangling even one portion of it had the potential to unravel her entire life.
A good thing to remember whenever she got a little bit too wistful about him.
She had made her choices a long time ago.
What she needed was a man to tangle all up in her personal life.
What she needed was to call Michael because he had left that door open, and she needed to walk through it.
Kaylee got some gloves and carefully ensconced the tiny raccoon in a blanket before lifting it up and examining it. He was in fact a he, as Beatrix had stated upon first entry. Kaylee looked up from the raccoon and at Bennett, who was leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed, his muscles shifting interestingly, displayed nicely by the tight black T-shirt he was wearing. His typical uniform, and one that was really getting to her today.
“If you have commentary on my treatment of a baby raccoon, Bennett, I will thank you to take it in the other room,” she said pointedly.
Beatrix turned to look at him. “You don’t think we should treat the baby raccoon?” Her tone was almost comically accusatory.
Bennett looked somewhat thunderstruck by that. It was the complete lack of guile in Beatrix’s question, the absolute shock that he might not think a raccoon was worthy of saving.
He looked between Beatrix and Kaylee.
“Treat the baby raccoon if you need to,” he said, putting his hands up.
“The baby raccoon needs to be treated,” Beatrix pointed out.
“Yeah, Bennett,” Kaylee said. “The baby raccoon needs it.”
Bennett suppressed what looked to be an eye roll, but continued to stand there and watch as Kaylee conducted an examination on the tiny creature.
“He looks like he’s in decent health,” Kaylee said. “All things considered. Though, I’m sure he’s a little bit shocky. Was he behaving like he was injured when you took him home?”
Beatrix shook her head. “I haven’t taken him home yet. I just pulled him off the road. I keep a blanket and a box in my truck just in case.”
Of course she did.
“Well, I think he can probably go to your house. If you’re up to round-the-clock feedings. I would assume that you could treat a small raccoon like a runt puppy. A little bit of evaporated milk and an eyedropper might help him pull through.”
“That’s reassuring,” Beatrix said.
“Do you want me to give him some vaccinations?”
“Can you?”
“I don’t see why not,” Kaylee said, working her way through her supply. “I’ll just make sure he gets his rabies shot, and then I’ll send you on your way. Hopefully he makes it through.”
“Well, if he does, then I’ll have a rabies-free raccoon as a pet,” Beatrix pointed out. “Lindy may not appreciate a raccoon living at the winery.”
Kaylee suppressed a smile. “That is between you and your sister-in-law. I’m just going to treat the raccoon.”
Kaylee took care of the vaccination under the watchful eye of Beatrix and the overly amused Bennett. Then she bundled up the tiny animal and put him back in his box and handed the box back to its owner.
“Good luck, Beatrix,” she said.
“That was nice of you,” Bennett said once Beatrix had left.
“It wasn’t nice of me,” Kaylee said. “It’s my job.”
“No, your job is to work on people’s pets for profit. You don’t have to patch up every sickly critter that Beatrix Leighton brings in on a whim.”
“Why not? It’s a small thing. But it’s something.”
“I suppose so.”
“I’m very giving,” she said. “The kind of woman who leaves her date to help a baby calf.”
He chuckled. “Yes, you are. And I do owe you a massive thank-you for that.”
“You’re soft too, Bennett Dodge. Maybe not for raccoons. But for other creatures.”
“Yeah,” he said, “I’m less soft toward animals that are going to make themselves nuisances because Beatrix ends up turning them loose once they grow up, and they view people as their natural source of food. If I have to pry that raccoon repeatedly out of my garbage cans I’m going to be irritated.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Kaylee said. “First of all, Beatrix is probably going to keep it. Second of all, it will wreak havoc at the winery, not your place.”
“Well, Wyatt will be happy about that.”
“Why would Wyatt care?”
“He has some kind of uneasy alliance with Lindy. Funneling business between the places.”
“Uneasy?”
“They do not like each other. But then, Wyatt used to be buddies with Lindy’s ex-husband. He did PR on the rodeo circuit back when Wyatt was still riding. So they used to be friends, and I think Lindy wants to castrate him.”
“I can see where that would cause a rift.”
“Yep.”
“Wyatt wants to drive business to Get Out of Dodge so badly that he’s willing to work with a woman who hates him?”
Bennett chuckled. “My brother used to ride bulls for a living. Drooling, angry, two-ton monsters that wanted to rip his guts out. I think one ragey blonde who wants to gut him doesn’t scare him much.”
“Well, that must be fun to be around.”
“Fortunately,” Bennett said, “I have my own business to keep me busy. And I’m about to go out on a call, so I will see you later.”
“See you later.”
When Bennett walked out of the clinic, her stomach bottomed out, the aftershock of everything that had happened in the past hour moving over her in a wave.
Why was it like this? All the time.
Why were there these moments? Thunder and lightning without the rain. A storm brewing that never seemed to break open. Tension. So much tension and nothing to ease it.
Maybe the tension was only on her side. Because it wasn’t coming from him. And it all felt so big and real and raw to her, and he didn’t seem to feel a thing.
The door opened again and she had to suppress a sigh, until she looked up and saw that it was Michael, holding Clarence in his arms.
“Is Clarence all right?” she asked.
“He is,” Michael said, a smile spreading over his handsome face. “But I’m here to see you.”
Utter resoluteness washed over Kaylee. She was going to take this opportunity. She wasn’t going to let herself back out.
“I’m glad you did,” she said, forcing herself to smile. Hoping that it looked like a smile, and not a tragic grimace.
“Good,” he responded. “I’d like to try dinner again.”
“Me too,” she said quickly. “And this time I’ll make sure that I’m not inadvertently on call.”
“I like that you work,” Michael said. “I feel like a lot of people are so insecure with first date stuff they act out of character. But I think that was really you. And I liked it.”
“Well,” she said, smiling. “Good.”
She really needed to get a new life. Really, really. Not the whole thing. Because there were parts of it that she loved. But she needed something to fill that void her body, mind and heart kept insisting Bennett could fill. He wasn’t ever going to. That couldn’t have been made more apparent by their conversation this morning. He didn’t feel anything asking about whether or not she had slept with Michael. He saw nothing strange in telling her offhandedly that he needed to find a woman to hook up with.
She was in the friend zone, and she should be fine with that. She was the one who’d put herself there, after all. She’d decided forever ago that she wasn’t going to act on her feelings, so she needed to own that choice. Not in that intermittent, half-assed way that she had for more years than she wanted to count. But in a real way. A solid way.
And the only way she was going to do that was to actually try to have a relationship with a guy instead of simply sabotaging every opportunity that came her way.
“Dinner would be perfect,” she said.
And she felt like if she said it enough times to herself over the next few days it might just become true.
* * *
THE LAST THING Bennett expected when he pulled into his driveway that evening was to see a police car parked out in front of his ranch house.
His dogs—traitorous, useless beasts—were lying on the porch, long noses resting on their front paws, their floppy ears draped down in total relaxation. The old horses—retired rodeo animals, former pets that had outlived their usefulness—and his solitary llama were all looking equally unconcerned out in the field.
But Bennett didn’t feel as calm as any of the animals.
He was a rule follower, so there was no way that he had done anything wrong. Forgot to pay a parking ticket? No. Definitely not.
He had been so distracted by the sight of the cruiser that it had taken him a moment to realize that there was another car parked alongside it. An SUV with yellow plates and a gray-green color that those official-looking vehicles seemed to favor.
He frowned and got out of the car, and by the time he did the police officer was already rising up to meet him.
“Are you Bennett Dodge?”
“I suppose that all depends on whether or not I’m getting served.”
“Not getting served,” the officer said.
“Okay.”
If somebody were dead he would have been called already. If somebody had died Wyatt would be here. Unless it was Wyatt who was dead. But then Grant would be here. Or Jamie. And if something had happened to Jamie... Well, Grant and Wyatt would both be here.
In a fraction of a second his brain concocted a thousand different events that might have happened to wipe out every last one of his siblings.
Or maybe it was his dad. Who was currently in New Mexico with his new wife, Freda. Maybe something happened to one of them. An accident with that damned motor home of theirs.
“Just tell me nobody’s dead,” Bennett said.
The officer looked shocked for a moment. “Oh, no one’s dead,” he said. “But we’re here to talk to you about a matter of custody.”
“Custody?”
The only thing he could think that might mean was they needed to take him into custody, but he hadn’t done anything. He was sure he hadn’t. But of course, he found himself cataloging his every action from the past week. Whether or not somebody had seen him get in the car after his half a beer last night.
But that was ridiculous. Mostly.
“You look confused,” the police officer said.
“I am,” Bennett responded.
“It’s about your son, Mr. Dodge.”
Bennett frowned, no immediate emotional reaction bubbling up to the surface. Mostly because the guy was just plain wrong. He had to be.
“I don’t have a son,” Bennett said.
“The paperwork I have says you do. You’re welcome to contest that. But what I have is a kid that’s going to end up in a group home if he can’t stay with his father.”
As if on cue the door to that SUV opened and a woman in a severe-looking outfit got out, followed by a teenage boy. Fifteen years old or so, Bennett figured.
Brown hair, tall, lanky. And he looked up at Bennett with simmering fury in brown eyes that matched Bennett’s perfectly.
“Hi, Dad,” he said. “I guess it’s been a while.”