Chapter 2

“It’s not Doc’s truck.” Lizzie watched the black pickup crew cab pull into the drive.

Used to Doc Brewster’s ancient red vehicle, Allison observed this strange one as it rolled up to the barn. She’d only gotten the answering machine when she’d called the clinic this morning, and Murray at the feed store had told her last week Doc wasn’t feeling well. Had he finally gotten someone to help him out? He’d been the family vet forever, but he was nearing eighty. Well, she just hoped he was okay and that this vet had Doc’s way with horses.

Gypsy took off like a bullet, barking at the unfamiliar truck. Allison called her back as the driver parked in the spot closest to the barn.

“Sit. Stay.”

The collie took up her place beside her, glancing up as if waiting for an explanation of this new intruder. Allison shielded her eyes against the bright morning and waited, too.

The man who stepped from inside the truck was definitely not Doc. Tall, with shoulders stretching the faded fabric of his denim shirt and shiny black hair that glistened in the sunlight, he would have towered over Doc’s stocky figure. As he started toward the barn, she couldn’t see his face, but the easy swagger to his walk, the way he rolled his booted feet from heel to toe, spoke to her of things she thought she had forgotten. Had worked very hard to forget. Feelings she’d buried ten years ago. Uncomfortable, she dropped her gaze to her daughter who had come to stand next to Gypsy.

“Is he Doc’s helper, you think?” Lizzie scrunched her nose. “I don’t think I know him.”

Sudden awareness clutched Allison’s heart, giving it an extra beat, as if to prove the man walking toward her was still easy on the eyes but hard on the heart. He’d certainly been hard on hers.

It would stand to reason Doc might call on him to give a hand.

But why does it have to be my barn that needs visiting this morning?

Her heart thumped hard in her chest as Shane McBride came closer, stopped short, and tilted his head back to get a better look at her. For a second, surprise lit his eyes to the color of the sky, then, sticking his hands into his denim pockets, he shook his head. A slow grin touched his mouth. The mouth she remembered so well.

“Allison,” he said in his slow, sexy way. “I…wasn’t sure it was you who called.”

Her throat closed up, and she had to clear it twice to speak. “I left the message on the machine. Do I sound so different?” After ten years, she supposed she did. Ten years could rob you of a lot of things, a lot of memories, especially if the memories meant nothing to you.

“Sandy called and gave me the message, so I could come straight out without stopping at the clinic.”

Doc’s receptionist—efficiency in person.

Allison nodded, words still sticking in her throat. After this many years, how did you talk to your first love? She glanced at her daughter and noticed the curious stares bouncing between them.

“What’s your name anyway?” Lizzie piped up.

He looked down and lifted one brow a little, as if surprised at the forthright question. Then he stuck out his hand and politely introduced himself. “Dr. Shane McBride. And you are?”

The small hand fit into his big one. “Lizzie Delaney. And this is my mom. But, I guess you know that.”

As he shook her hand, his gaze flicked from her daughter to herself and back again. “Nice to meet you, Lizzie. I hear you’ve got a horse I need to see. Maybe you can show me the way.”

Finding her voice again, Allison stepped aside from the door of the barn. “Go ahead and take him to Pride’s stall, honey. I’ll be done feeding the others in a minute.”

When they walked past, Gypsy looked up at her and whined, as if asking to follow them. Though normally wary of strangers, the collie didn’t seem to mind the one walking the aisle of their barn this morning.

“Traitor,” she muttered but motioned for her dog to go.

She finished handing out hay and grain to the rest of the horses and filled buckets with water. By the time she made it back to Pride’s stall, Shane had gone to his truck for an injection. Outside the stall, Lizzie kept watch over the buckskin, who had calmed down since last night and hungrily pulled breakfast from his hay net.

“The new doc says you did a pretty good job on the cut.” Her daughter hung on the wooden half-door. “It won’t need stitches or anything, but he said Pride needs to stay inside today.”

Which would go over like a lead balloon when they let the other horses out. But then, considering she still didn’t know what had happened to the buckskin, maybe keeping all the horses in today wasn’t a bad idea.

“Did he say where Doc Brewster is?” Allison brushed wisps of hay from her T-shirt.

“He’s in the hospital. He…he might need an operation.” Lizzie jumped down from the door and looked up at her, uncertainty shimmering in her sky-blue eyes. “That’s scary, isn’t it, Mom?”

Allison nodded and tried to tamp down her own fear for the old man’s well-being. “Very scary.” She’d known Doc all her life, remembered when he and Pop went fishing together up north, and all the times he came to the barn to treat a sick horse. He and Pop had been the best of buddies. A jolt of fear clutched at her. To think they might lose him, too, was simply unacceptable. “I’m sure he’ll have the very best doctors,” she tried to reassure them both.

“I hope so.” Lizzie leaned against her side. “Doc McBride is here to help out for the summer. He seems really nice.”

She smoothed one hand over her daughter’s dark braids. “Does he now?”

“Yeah. He just got here in Michigan yesterday. We’re his first barn call.”

Lucky us.

“What else did he say?” A twinge of guilt for pumping her daughter for information twisted her stomach, but there were some things she had a right to know.

“Mmmmm…” Lizzie twirled one of her braids with her fingers, then shrugged. “He drove here from Wyoming. I guess it’s a long way.”

Wyoming? Last I heard, he lived in Montana. “Well, good thing he was here to fill in for Doc.” She could have called the other vet in the county who treated large animals, but she trusted her horses to Matthew Brewster. Today, she’d have to trust his replacement to treat her animals well, even if she’d learned the hard way not to trust that same man with her heart.

The sound of his boots echoed through the barn but stopped when Priscilla attempted to curl around his ankles. Instead of nudging her aside, he stooped to give the tabby a scratch behind the ears. Allison heard him talking to the feline and swore she could also hear the cat purring. Twenty minutes and he’d already won them all over—dog, cat, horses, her daughter…

When he stood before them again, Lizzie moved aside but stayed to watch what would happen with Pride. Allison clenched her hands at her sides, determined to keep the situation under control.

“I’m going to give the big guy a shot to prevent any infection from setting in. Maybe we best bring him out to the cross ties.”

She took Pride’s halter from its hook and slipped it over his head, led the buckskin out, and stood by him while Shane gave the injection. When they finished, Pride rubbed his head against her arm.

“Looking for sympathy, huh? Guess you’ve come to the right place.” She rubbed his velvety nose and slipped him a piece of carrot from her pocket. “You know a sucker when you see one don’t you?”

“He’s a nice-looking fella.” Shane came around to face the buckskin. He ran a big hand over the thick neck, pausing to comb out a tangle in the dark mane with his fingers. “Is he yours or a boarder?”

“Oh, he’s ours,” Lizzie piped in. “Mom bought him at auction last winter. She’s training him to be a lesson horse. When we got him, he was really skinny. Mom said someone had neglected him. But she’s got him in pretty good shape now.” She stood next to Shane and peered up. “You’re really tall, aren’t you?”

Allison flushed at her daughter’s boldness, but what the imp said was true. Even at five foot-nine, she’d always had to look up at Shane. She glanced up at him now, wondering what he thought about the girl with the dark braids and very blue eyes.

A slow grin hitched up one corner of his mouth. “Yeah, I guess I am. Doc used to say I could sprout half a foot overnight.”

Those blue eyes grew round. “You knew Doc when you were a kid?”

His gaze lifted to meet Allison’s, and at its touch a frisson of awareness rippled down her spine, setting even her fingertips to tingling.

So many years, so many dreams ago.

“I did. I worked in the clinic during summers, and sometimes I went out to the farms with him.”

“Is that why you’re a vet?”

“Lizzie, enough questions for now.” Breaking the sudden reverie that threatened to take her back in time, Allison unhooked Pride from the cross ties and led him back to his stall. None of the horses would be happy cooped up all day, but until she figured out what had happened in her pasture yesterday, they would stay in the barn. She turned up the radio to keep the horses happy.

Outside, Shane packed up his supplies in the covered back of the truck. Lizzie still shadowed him, standing on one sneakered foot and then the other, while she peered at all the wondrous things a vet carried around. Allison had the distinct feeling she needed to squelch this fascination in the bud.

“Why don’t you go on up and fix yourself some breakfast, honey?” She nodded to the house. “There’s a new box of cereal. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Reluctant to leave, her daughter scuffed the toe of one sneaker in the dust. “I’ll bet you didn’t have breakfast yet either. Would you like some coffee?” She gave Shane her squinty look.

Allison could have screamed. She really just wanted to get rid of the man before things got sticky. Before she started to remember too much. “Lizzie, I’m sure the doctor has other calls to make. We’re holding him up.”

Shane shrugged. “I actually could use the coffee. My next stop is Johnson’s hog farm.”

A memory popped into her head, of Shane wrinkling his nose at the hogs she’d raised for the fair one summer. She kept them scrupulously clean, but he said they still smelled like hogs. He obviously still would much rather work with horses.

Man and child both looked expectantly at her.

“Come on up to the house,” she finally murmured.

They took turns washing up in the downstairs bathroom. Allison poured two mugs of coffee while Lizzie poured juice and cereal then pushed a bowl in front of Shane.

“I hope you like them. They’re my favorite.”

He nodded, picked up one brightly colored loop with his fingers, and popped it in his mouth. “Love ‘em.”

His gaze locked with Allison’s again. Blue as the morning sky, it sparkled with mischief. She had to turn away when her face grew warm.

So far, practically everything the man said dredged up some forbidden memory. Sitting on the front porch, eating morning cereal, Shane teasing her, stealing a bite from her. Stealing a kiss.

Her cheeks burned hotter.

Oh, for heaven’s sake!

She downed her juice and coffee while standing at the counter. Lizzie didn’t seem to notice the tension simmering in the kitchen. Between gulps of her breakfast, her daughter asked more questions, and patiently, Shane answered them all.

When they’d finished, Allison snatched their dishes and put them in the dishwasher. Now he would leave. Now she could regain some sense of composure and think about what she must do today.

He rose from the table and gave Lizzie’s upturned nose a tweak. “Okay, Shortstuff, I really need to get going. Thank you, and your mom, for your hospitality.”

For a moment, his gaze traveled around the cozy country kitchen with its blue and white gingham curtains and casual clutter. Did he also remember? The dinners she’d cooked for him and Pop after Grandma Ellie passed. His helping her with dishes while Pop read the newspaper. Sitting on the porch swing later, listening to the whip-poor-will. Watching for the will o’ the wisp. Sharing a sweet iced tea…and kisses even sweeter.

Ten years had not diminished those memories, and heat like a shot of noonday sun flowed through her limbs. Dammit! After this long, she hated he could still do this to her. And she wouldn’t let him.

“Go upstairs and make your bed, Lizzie.”

“Ah, Mom!”

“Do it now. We have to go into town today. I have some work to finish up at the store before the weekend.”

Dragging her feet, Lizzie made to leave the kitchen but paused in the doorway. “’Bye, Doc. Are you coming back to check on Pride?”

“Maybe. But I’m sure he’ll be fine. See you, Shortstuff.” He gave her a quick wave.

Allison saw him out to the porch where they stood for a moment staring out over the land that had once produced bushels of apples and peaches and crates of strawberries. She had first met Shane when he’d come to help pick the summer harvest. The orchards were long past their prime now, and the berries had gone wild.

He stuck his hands in his back pockets and cleared his throat. “I…was sorry to hear about Jason. And Pop. Must have been hard on you, losing them so close together.”

She lifted her chin and faced him. “It was. But I had a child to take care of, so I had to keep going.”

He nodded, a frown creasing his wide brow. “How come you didn’t pack up and move down to your parents’ place?”

“To a condo in Florida? Not my kind of living. Besides, where would the horses go?” The horses she’d taken in, the horses nobody else wanted and would no doubt have gone to slaughter. The horses that had always given meaning to her life.

It always came down to that. Even as a child, she’d much preferred living here with her grandparents to traveling with her corporate executive parents whose lives revolved around their work and each other. They were retired now, and while Allison had taken Lizzie to visit them last year, she had no desire to live the country club life her parents did.

She shifted uncomfortably, wishing he would take his leave so she could get on with the day’s work. Murray expected her to get the payroll done today…and she still had to check the pasture.

“Well, it looks like you’ve done all right for yourself with your boarding business and lessons. Doc Brewster told me. Pop would be proud.”

When he stepped down from the porch, Gypsy suddenly blocked his path. Hair bristling again, she growled low in her throat.

“Hey, old girl, in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been here the better part of an hour and you didn’t seem to mind. What’s up?”

The collie’s gaze fixed on the place farther on where the open field met the woods.

“It isn’t you.” Allison lowered her voice. “They’ve all been restless lately, and I can’t figure out what it is. It’s almost spooky, especially with Pride getting hurt yesterday.”

Shane stepped back up beside her, and his arm brushed hers. A shiver climbed Allison’s backbone. Was it because of the strange disturbances of the past few nights…or the appearance here this morning of the man she never thought to see again? Combined, they were enough to rattle her for sure. She rubbed her arms to drive away the chill.

Shane must have noticed because he offered, “Hey, you know how horses are. They love to kick and bite each other. I’m sure that’s what happened.”

She glanced up at him, hating the fact she suddenly needed reassurance and it would have to come from, of all people, Shane McBride.

“I think it’s more than that. I’ve just had this weird feeling lately.” She regretted the words the moment they left her mouth. He would think her crazy for sure. Allison Delaney going a little nutty living all alone out here with her kid and her horses. “I just mean, I think there might have been someone in the pasture yesterday. Something sent them running scared, and I think that might be how Pride got hurt.”

“Well then, maybe we should take a look.”

He took the steps two at a time. Before she knew it, they were striding toward the pasture and perhaps whatever had spooked them all these past few nights.

Just as though ten years hadn’t stood between them, she walked the fence line beside him and hated to admit she felt suddenly safer. Time had certainly brought to maturity the man who had once been promised in a tall, lanky kid. She knew from Doc that while attending veterinary school, Shane had worked on ranches from Colorado to Montana, and the grueling work had no doubt helped increase the width of those football player shoulders, the strength of the muscles that rippled beneath the denim shirt. She also didn’t want to admit the way his body moved alongside hers was still pleasurable. From her fingertips to her toes, notes of awareness played up and down every nerve ending and settled low in her belly.

Well, okay—she was twenty-seven years old and had a perfect right to feel some kind of reaction to a guy as good-looking as Shane. But their history was just too explosive to allow it to go any further. There was too much pain…and too many secrets.

Allison strode a little faster and pulled ahead of him, until he called her back.

“There, look. Tire tracks alongside the fence, and scrambled hoof prints here, as if the horses suddenly took off running. The corral is at least thirty feet from the road. Why would someone drive in here?”

He went closer to inspect the tire tracks, studying them for a few minutes before rejoining her at the fence. “There are two sets. One’s pretty wide, but the other’s much narrower. Truck and trailer maybe? You can see where they circled around to go back out.”

Allison clenched her hands into fists. She had a pretty good idea who the culprits might be but would never mention them to Shane.

After following him back to his truck, she waited impatiently for him to get in.

As if reluctant to leave, he tapped his knuckles on the door handle. “Maybe you should call the sheriff.”

“And if my boarders get wind something strange is going on here, I’ll end up with an empty barn. I can’t afford to lose my customers.” She stuck her nervous hands in her back pockets. “You know how quickly things get blown out of proportion in this town.”

“But if someone is harassing the horses, you can’t afford another injury either. Next time, it could be serious.”

He had a point, but it’d been difficult enough to get her business off the ground, and she’d worked hard to earn the confidence and respect of her boarders as well as the parents who brought their children to her for lessons. Yet, all it took was one offhand remark by someone, and it could all go away.

“I’ll call him, if you want,” he offered.

“No, I can take care of it.” Hadn’t she taken care of things for some time now? “Thanks anyway. And…thanks…for coming out this morning.”

“Just helping out Doc. I owe him.” Shane slid into his truck. He paused before starting the engine, his blue eyes deepening to a serious hue. “If you need anything, at any time, you call, understand? I’m staying at Doc’s place.”

She didn’t acknowledge his offer but watched silently while he put the truck into gear and backed away from the barn. When a cold, wet nose inched its way into her hand she jumped a little and looked down to find Gypsy’s questioning gaze.

Allison let her hand rest on the collie’s head. “Where was he when I did need him?”

****

“Well, hell, some things never change,” Shane told himself as he pulled away from Allison’s Farm. Pop Tyler had named the place after the granddaughter he’d helped raise. He remembered the old man telling him that.

Since he’d stepped from his truck this morning, he’d had to deal with a multitude of memories and crazy emotions. A couple of miles down the road, he still couldn’t sort them out. They ran the gamut from surprise to apprehension to pure pleasure at seeing Allison again.

She didn’t look a bit different. Still tall and slim with incredible legs that looked especially good in soft faded jeans, and golden, honey-brown hair falling past her shoulders like silk. Ten years and he hadn’t forgotten how the strands drifting across his face always smelled like wildflowers. Of course this morning, she’d tied it back in a haphazard ponytail, and dark smudges had lurked beneath her wide brown eyes, making her appear tired and almost…afraid.

A word he would never connect to Allison. She’d never been afraid of anything. But when he’d known her, she hadn’t been a widow with a child to raise and a business to run.

The child. Jason’s child.

He’d tried to detect some trace of his best buddy in the skinny, coltish girl, but Lizzie was a miniature of her mother—except of course for the dark hair and blue eyes. A gift from Allison’s grandmother, perhaps? When he’d known Ellie and Pop Tyler, they’d both been white-haired.

The closer he got to Johnson’s hog farm, Shane had to acknowledge another emotion he thought he’d conquered but now realized ran rampant through his veins. Jealousy. Pure and simple.

He and Jason Delaney had been best friends who’d shared three interests—football, fishing…and Allison. When Shane had admitted to being in love with her, he and Jason had nearly come to blows. He still remembered Doc breaking up the confrontation. Jason had backed off at the time, but in the end, he’d gotten what Shane had wanted more than anything in the world—Allison as his wife, a child with her…and a home.

And even though Jason was dead, Shane knew he could never quite forgive him for what he’d done.