Page 49 of Inheriting Miss Fortune

FIFTEEN

TULLY

Instead of watching the vet, I watched Dev. His face was pale, and his hands shook.

“Is it colic?” he asked as he stood quickly and approached the doctor.

The man was smaller than Dev and had to look up to meet his eyes. “We’re pretty sure it is, but I’m going to put in a nasogastric tube to do more investigation. I just need you to sign the consent first.”

Dev quickly strode across to take the electronic tablet before scribbling his name and handing it back. “Whatever you need to do. You know that.”

The vet nodded and turned around, not wasting another moment on small talk. Dev returned to the seating area but remained standing for a beat before pacing across the small space.

“You trust this guy?” I asked. “Because we could find someone in a bigger city if we needed to. I could?—”

He shook his head. “Pete’s great. I’ve worked with him for a year now. He’s been out at the ranch for some difficult deliveries and various situations with the trail horse stock. He’s as good as any large-animal vet I’ve worked with.”

I’d noticed the man hadn’t mentioned the cost of treatment. Since this was Dev’s personal mount instead of a ranch-owned animal, the treatment burden was probably on Dev. “It could be expensive.”

“Yeah.”

“No, like… it could bereallyexpensive. Sometimes colic requires surgery, Dev.”

He stopped and furrowed his brows. “I know. It’s okay. Pete knows I’ll pay whatever it takes.”

Dev worked on a ranch. Yes, he was in charge of the breeding program, but even a ranch manager job in rural midwestern areas only paid around fifty grand a year. It wasn’t the kind of salary that could easily swallow a ten-thousand-dollar surgery.

He went back to pacing. After a few minutes, he stopped and glanced at me. He was obviously nervous.

“I’ve been thinking about keeping Lellie.”

I blinked at him.

“Because of the money?”

It was his turn to blink at me. “What?”

The timing was too coincidental. Anger crackled under my skin. “You’re going to keep her so you can afford to take care of your horse? Are you kidding?”

“What are you talking about?” he snapped. “What does one thing have to do with the other?”

“We were talking about how expensive Trigger’s treatment might be, and then you suddenly decided to keep custody of your daughter and her fortune! What do you expect me to think, Dev?”

He curled his hands into fists at his side. “I expect you to think I’m better than the lowest scum on the fucking planet. I expect you to understand that while I love that fucking horse and would do anything for him, I wouldn’t use my daughter that way. I expect you to… to… to care about me even the smallest amount,just enough to give me the benefit of the doubt. Jesus fucking Christ. Is this what you think of me?”

My body went cold, and I realized in an instant what a huge mistake I’d made. I’d seen how much he cared for Lellie. I knew that whatever decision he made about her, it would have nothing to do with her money. Didn’t I know better than to make assumptions about him like the ones he’d made about me?

I stood up to reach for him, to make a physical connection, but he whipped away from me and strode out of the waiting room.

I stared at the empty doorway, frozen in shock and regret. What had I done? How could I fix it? Should I go after him?

Before I could make a move, his phone pinged from the chair he’d been sitting in before the vet had come in. Way’s golden-boy face appeared in the contact image on the screen. Since I knew he and Silas had Lellie, I answered it quickly.

“It’s Tully. Dev went to stretch his legs. You want me to find him?”

“First, how’s Trigger?”

“They suspect colic. Starting a nasal tube first. Dev’s stressed, but he says he’s in good hands.”

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