Rescue Me

aggressive antibiotics, and he seemed more like himself today. Back to being cranky and crabby. But I’m still worried.”
    “He’s tough,” Tyrus assured her. “He’ll be right as rain.” He returned his attention to Vince. “It was nice to meet you. Good luck with the Gas and Go, and tell Luraleen I said hey when she gets back from Vegas.”
    “I will and thank you.” He turned slightly and watched Tyrus walk into the barn. “Special Forces have nothing on this town. Do you all have your own Lovett CENTCOM operating in the basement of the library?”
    Sadie laughed, and he knew her well enough to know it was the kind of fake laugh she used when she didn’t think something was very funny. “I think there’s something in the water, but we have our own well out here, so Daddy and I miss out on the gossip. Not that we like it anyway.” She looked out across the flat Texas plains and Vince lowered his gaze to the front of the “Cowboy Butts Drive Me Nuts” print on her T-shirt. “It’s weird being back. In some ways, it feels like I never left, and at the same time, I feel like I’ve been gone forever. I don’t know a lot that goes on around here these days.”
    He pointed to the herd of calves. “What’s going on over there?”
    “Just one of the hundred or so things that has to be done on a routine basis.” She adjusted the brim of her hat. “The hands herd each calf into the squeeze chute, tag their ear and weigh each one. Then they enter the information into their computers so they can keep track of them and make sure they’re healthy.”
    “You just said you don’t know what goes on around here.”
    She shrugged. “I lived on the JH for eighteen years. I’ve picked up a thing or two.” Her brows lowered as she looked out over the property. “Now I’m back, and I don’t know when my daddy will be well enough for me to leave again. I’d fooled myself into thinking it would be just a few weeks. Maybe a month and I’d be back to my real life. Selling houses, going out with friends, watering my plants and flowers. Now I don’t have a job. All my plants are dead and I’ll be stuck here through June. At least. June is castration season.” The corners of her mouth turned down and she shuddered. “God, I hate castration.”
    “Good to know.”
    She laughed as the horse hung her head over the top rail. A real laugh this time. The kind that slid across his skin and made him want to kiss her throat. Right there in front of half a dozen cowboys. In the light of day. When he was still half pissed for no reason.
    “You have nothing to worry about, sailor. I like your balls.”
    He looked into her face. At the corners of her tilted pink lips and smooth cheeks. He couldn’t recall if he’d every really noticed a woman’s smooth cheeks before. At least not the cheeks on her face. Nor did he remember why he’d been even mildly annoyed with her. “I like a couple things about you, too.”
    One blond brow rose up her forehead and she turned toward the corral. “Which two?”
    The two that filled his hands and bounced nicely when she rode his lap. He smiled. “Your blue eyes.”
    “Uh-huh.” Sadie raised her hand and scratched the side of Maribell’s head beneath the blue halter. “Tyrus says you’re gonna be a mama again. You doing okay, Maribell?”
    The horse nodded as if answering.
    “Diamond Dan is a rude asshole. We hate him, don’t we?” The horse didn’t nod and Sadie patted her nose.
    Vince leaned a hip into the fence and crossed his arms over the T-shirt covering his chest. “I don’t know anything about breeding horses, but shouldn’t there be some sort of precaution. Why was your dad close enough to get kicked?”
    “ ’Cause he’s set in his ways.” Sadie pulled off her sunglasses and set them atop the brim of her hat. “Have you ever seen horses breed—old school?”
    “Not in person. Maybe on a nature show when I was a kid.”
    “It’s violent. The mare is tethered and lead ropes hold the stallion. He mounts her from behind, and there’s a lot of screaming and thrashing about.”
    Sounded like a few women he’d known. He looked into the horse’s big black eyes set in her shiny black head. She didn’t appear to have suffered. “Maybe she likes it a little rough.” Horses mated in the wild. It couldn’t be too horrible for the mares or they’d run away. No way a stallion could mount a moving target.
    Sadie shook her head and her ponytail brushed