Page 2 of Heal Me
Coco was oblivious to Ric’s plight and wagged her tail furiously as she sniffed Kate’s legs.
“Are you okay?” Kate asked, meeting his eyes.
Ric stood six-two and he judged Kate to be around five-eight or five-nine; tall for a woman. Her grip on his bicep was firm and her hands were strong, yet feminine. She smelled like hay, horse, and lilac. Hunger stole through him as he glanced at her full lips. It had been a few weeks without a woman and Kate was causing his libido to dance in delighted want and need.
Realizing that she was expecting an answer, Ric pulled it together. “Yeah. I’ll live.”
She didn’t move and their eyes locked for a few moments. Then she seemed to come back to herself with a start. “I’ll get your crutch.”
Before she bent to retrieve it, Ric saw that she was blushing and smiled to himself. Either his pain meds were making him loopy or they’d shared a moment of mutual attraction. He hoped it was the latter.
“Are you sure that you’re all right?” she asked as she handed him the crutch.
“Yeah. I’m just glad there was a wall there. It’s the strangest thing.” He smiled self-deprecatingly. “You’d think a champion roper would have more coordination on these things. I guess I need more practice.”
Kate’s mouth curved upwards in response to his smile. A dimple in her right cheek winked at him and he was fascinated by it. “Take your time. You don’t need to break anything else. I’ll examine Coco in the kitchen. Why don’t you go sit down? There’s really nothing you can do to help me.”
“You sure?”
Kate nodded. “Positive. I’ll hold Coco until you get settled.”
“Thanks.”
Ric’s ankle throbbed as he carefully made his way to the living room. He felt bad for leaving Kate to deal with Coco, but she was a veterinarian, so she was used to subduing excited animals. He went over to the recliner he’d been set up in and sat down in it. Some of the pain in his ankle was alleviated when he raised the footrest.
A bottle of hydrocodone sat on the stand by the chair. Ric hated taking the pain meds, but the two fractures hurt like a bitch at times and the drug at least took the edge off and helped him sleep. Sighing, he took two out of the bottle and took them with the homemade lemonade Emily had left him early that afternoon.
He heard Kate talking to Coco out in the kitchen. The slightly smoky timber of her voice was pleasant to the ear and she had a great laugh. Did she have a boyfriend? Was she married? He hadn’t noticed if she wore a ring. Although he might be a womanizer, Ric was no homewrecker.
Secretly a romantic, he firmly believed in fidelity and wouldn’t even think of getting involved with someone who was in a committed relationship. After seeing how happy his sister and her husband Tyler were, Ric had been thinking more about settling down himself. He loved his niece, Hayley, to death and he wanted a whole passel of kids of his own. Trouble was, finding the right women. He knew the pain that came of bad choices. He’d loved a woman once who’d led him a merry dance. When he finally gave up on her, she got herself killed and he still wondered if he could have done more…If somehow he might have saved her.
Kate was definitely not a ‘wildcat,’ the type of women his sister accused him of dating to protect himself from hurt. She’d pointed out that he’d never fall in love with that sort of woman.
While he definitely found the sexy vet attractive, he instinctively knew she was not the type of woman who indulged in one-night stands, and he definitely wasn’t sure he was ready for more just yet. He was enjoying New York. Enjoying the fast pace of the investment world and the respected place his firm, Horizon Enterprises, held in it.
Kate was the type of woman Emily would try to fix him up with. If Emily didn’t love this puppy so much he’d almost imagine her setting this scenario up.
His morose musings were interrupted by Kate’s reappearance. “Well, the good news is that Coco will be fine.”
“What about the blood in her poop?”
Kate cocked her head. “Are there any trashcans around that Coco can get into?”
Ric gave her a startled look. “Yeah. All over the house. Uh oh. Are you saying she’s eaten something she shouldn’t? What did she eat?”
“I’m not sure, but it caused some inflammation. Most likely, the worst is over. I palpated her abdomen, but it wasn’t tender. Her temperature was normal, too. I’ll let Emily know the culture results, but I think she just got into something she shouldn’t have. Just try to keep her out of the waste cans,” Kate replied.
“You can see I’m on crutches. Keeping Coco from doing anything at the moment is a bit tricky.”
Kate laughed and the sound went straight to his groin. He wished he could cross his legs. “Perhaps until you’re healed, keep the bins out of her reach.”
Ric’s vision was starting to get fuzzy. The damn pills were kicking in already. “All right. I’ll make sure to tell Emily and Tyler. I guess we’ll have to make sure that our bedroom doors are shut. I appreciate you coming over like this.”
She smiled and Ric’s stomach did a funny little flip. “I don’t mind. I was at the Jones’s farm. Jack wanted me to be there while he was breeding someone’s mare to Prince Phillip.”
Ric smiled. “He still has him, huh? We always busted Jack’s ass about that name. No Quarter horse stallion should be named Prince Phillip.” His eyes were growing heavier by the second and he shook his head to clear it. “I’m sorry. I don’t usually fall asleep when a beautiful woman is talking to me. It’s the meds.”
She laughed, her cheeks turning pink. “Thank you. Well, I should go and let you get some rest. Do you want me to put Coco in her crate?”
