Country Courtship (The Texas Two-Step Series, Book 2) (6 page)

But then, that was the thing about her. She wasn't at all ladylike. She was determined. She was stubborn. And she enjoyed hard work more than she liked shopping.

Carefully carrying the small rabbit back into the examination room, she nodded at the little girl who owned the bunny. "Peter's fine. Only had a little indigestion and dehydration."

The child answered with a huge, gap-toothed smile as she clasped her bunny into her arms. "Thankth Docthor."

Kelli turned to the girl's mom. "You do know that Peter is short for Petunia, right?"

"Oh, no," answered the mother with a distressed expression on her face.

"Oh, yes. You'll want to bring her back for a pre-natal checkup next week."

"She's pregnant?" asked the mother.

Using lay-person jargon, Kelli explained that the bunny would have her litter of babies within a couple of weeks.

"Baby bunnies," cried the little girl happily, clapping her hands together.

Even the girl's mother wasn't all that unhappy. She smiled at the bunny and gave it a quick pet.

Kelli led them out to the waiting area and headed toward the next examination room, where someone was waiting with a—she checked the chart—sick kitten.

She clicked open the door, and stopped in her tracks. The cowboy in question stood there with one of the scrawniest and most active gray tabbies she'd ever seen.

Bobby Gray's face looked like someone had Sharpied eight thin, red stripes down it, but on closer observation, she suspected the kitten had meted out some feline discipline. Bobby Gray badly needed it, if you asked her.

"Mr. Nelson."

"So formal."

"Look, cowboy. I didn't return your calls for a reason. I'm not interested."

"You've wounded me again, Doc."

"You don't look the least bit wounded."

He held his free palm to his chest. "Can't you see I've got a dying kitten on my hands?"

The kitten's eyes were clear and alert. She glanced down at the chart, but didn't see anything there to indicate the animal was in jeopardy—other than being in the cowboy's possession, that is. He had probably brought the kitten in simply to get some time with her.

Some tiny part of her, perhaps her latent girlie-girl, was gratified that Bobby Gray hadn't given up. She liked persistence as a general trait, but it was a bad idea in his case because Lori wouldn't like what might develop between the two of them.

Kelli needed to send the man on his way, but couldn't resist first pointing out that she was onto his game. "The kitten may be a little skinny, but she looks healthy. I bet she's not even yours. Where'd you get her, the Humane Society?"

"I'm very attached to my kitten. Come here, Dolly." He pointed to his chin and the kitten licked it.

"So maybe Dolly knows you, but I'm not the only vet in the DFW area."

"The only vet I know," he lowered his voice, "and trust."

She wouldn't laugh. He was sooo bad. He was like dealing with a cute snake-oil salesman, if there was such a thing. Yet, at times she saw the man he could be lurking beneath the Stetson, and that was dangerous to her peace of mind. "What are your kitten's symptoms?"

"She's turned into an attack kitten. Watch a minute—you'll see."

He twitched his fingers in front of the tabby, and the kitten raised her back and hissed. Bobby Gray grinned at Kelli expectantly while the kitten danced on the examination table. Too cute.

The kitten.

Not the loopy cowboy.

"Are her shots up to date?"

"Shots?"

She pointed at the stripes on his face. "You know. Distemper." She paused for emphasis. "
Rabies
."

His face paled beneath his outdoor tan. "Rabies?"

"Don't tell me I have to send you to the hospital. Your kitten did have her shots, didn't she?"

The expressions crossing his not-so-poker face told Kelli what he was thinking. First panic. Then more ordinary fear—probably that he'd have to admit the kitten wasn't his. But then panic again. Then cunning.

He'd obviously come to some decision. The next words out of his mouth were likely to be whoppers. She just knew it.

"Let me call my sister."

"Oh, so the cat belongs to her?"

"No. She gave me Dolly. She'll know about the shots."

He shot her an I-one-upped-you smirk and flipped open his cell. Within seconds he said, "Charlie? Yeah. I'm at the vet's. When did you take little Dolly in to have her shots?"

"Yeah?" Again with the smirk. "Gotcha. Thanks." He snapped the phone shut again. "She had her beginner shots three weeks ago." He rattled off what she'd had and what she still needed and Kelli made a note on the chart. "So what do you think is wrong with her, Dr. Princess, to turn a sweet little girl like Dolly into an evil ol' demon cat?"

"It's normal feline behavior—and I wish you wouldn't call me that."

"What?"

"Call me Doctor, if you must call me—but I am so totally not a princess."

He gave her a stubborn look as she took the kitten from him, but she ignored it as the kitten squirmed in her arms. She began to examine her—wait a second—she examined
him
.

Kelli checked the chart again and saw that the cowboy had indeed said his kitten was a girl. This kitten was more of a Dick than a Dolly, though. What was this, mixed-up sex day?

She knew the kitten was no more Bobby Gray's than she was his girlfriend. Whoops—what dim recess of her subconscious had that come from? Of course she wasn't his girlfriend. She'd never be his girlfriend. No way. Not interested.

As she silently checked the kitten, she considered her situation. Since her last boyfriend, she'd totally and forever sworn off men. She was tired of being used as a means to approach her family. No longer dating was the best way of making sure no using was going on.

"Is our girl gonna be okay?"

Bobby Gray looked worried and Kelli realized she might have been quiet for too long. "I think so, with a little more time and TLC.

"We need to do a couple of tests." She gestured for him to keep Dolly on the exam table, then said, "I'll be right back."

She poked her head out of the room and into the inner treatment area. "Dax, can I have some help, please?"

The assistant sashayed his way up to Kelli, looked over her head to check Bobby Gray out and winked at him.

Bobby Gray took a step back. When they returned with several needles, he shuddered.

The assistant injected the kitten with a couple of vaccines and left, much to Bobby Gray's relief.

Kelli returned her attention to him.

"Here's the thing, Mr. Nelson."

"Bobby Gray."

"The thing is, Dolly is not your cat."

"How can you say such a thing?" He gingerly pulled the kitten to his chest. He was somewhat worried the cat was still possessed by a slasher, so he protected his face with his other hand.

"I can say this because your cat is not Dolly."

"Huh?"

"She's Dick. And if you intend to keep him, rather than returning him to your sister's barn, I strongly suggest you get him fixed in about six weeks."

Bobby Gray didn't know what to say, other than, "Touché, Doctor."

"Now it's your turn." She took a step toward him with a bottle and cotton balls in her hands.

"What?"

"You'll become infected if you don't clean those wounds properly." She nodded toward his face. "Allow me?"

What could he say?

For a moment he felt like the quintessential
big strong male
next to her petite feminism because she stepped close enough for him to pull her into his arms—and he would have if he'd been sure she wouldn't jujitsu him. He gulped. "That's not going to hurt, is it?"

"Shouldn't," she replied and her sweet breath tingled where it touched his skin. As she stroked his face with the ointment, he had a sudden flashback to when he was a kid, seated on top of the counter in the kitchen at the Nelson Ranch. His mother had treated some facial wound he'd gotten doing the normal boy-thing. She'd been gentle and tender—like Kelli now.

Tenderness. It was one of the traits that most appealed to him about Kelli. Every action she took made him think of caring, warmth and healing. They weren't common traits in today's world and if he hadn't met her, he wasn't sure he would have noticed their absence in his life. But for the most part they had been. He started to reach for her.

"Careful," said Kelli softly, as she reached up to tilt his chin and dab at a difficult spot.

Surely she felt whatever it was that he was feeling? A sense of belonging?

It was time for step three in Plan B. Or was it setting the stage for step four? "So, would you like to grab a cup of coffee? We could talk about Dick and his sexual identity crisis."

"Sorry. I have to work."

"Afterward, then?"

"No way." She stepped back, eyes large, and he knew without a doubt she'd experienced the same elusive but familiar feeling as he had.

"Why not?"

"Can't you just take no as an answer?"

"Can't you accept that we definitely are maybe soul mates?"

"Give me a break, cowboy."

"I think you should seriously consider going with me for coffee. We can talk. I assure you, I'm likeable." He gave her his lopsided slow smile. It was certain to work.

"You may be extremely likeable, but I'm not ready to find out."

"I can tell you've been hurt." Her tight lips told him that. "I wouldn't do that to you."

"It's not you, Bobby Gray. There was a guy. Ed—" She broke off and waved her hand in the air. "I don't want to talk about him. Suffice it to say, after he was done with me, I haven't been eager to jump into any relationship. He was only interested in the fact my mother is a princess."

"I'm not like him." Her mother being a royal princess wasn't the only reason Bobby Gray was interested in her. There was always that possibility they were soul mates. She appealed to him more than any other woman he'd met and the idea of not getting to know her better made his stomach clench.

There was apparently more at stake here than merely business interests and he wasn't sure how to deal with that internally. It wasn't as if he'd been in this situation before.

"Even if that never happened, my sister is too important to me to risk damaging our relationship."

"I recognize how important your relationship with your sister is to you. But we're just friends. Going out with me will not damage it."

"Nothing personal, Bobby Gray. It's just not going to happen." Kelli shrugged. "Stop at the desk to pay on your way out."

Chapter 4

Kelli Palmer needed to get the goofy cowboy out of her mind. Early the next morning, she drove to the stable where her paint, Cheeto, was housed. He was a rescue gelding she'd nursed back to health and she'd thought it best to keep him at the stable where he'd been temporarily housed instead of moving him to the family stable immediately.

She couldn't spoil Cheeto with the sugar cubes most horses love. His favorite snack was the cheese stick made by Frito-Lay. Go figure. At least their corporate office was local.

Her walk through the barn was brisk. The stalls were arranged in a T-shape, with the boxes on each side of the T. Her horse was stabled down the shaft of the T and she made a right turn just past another woman tacking up her pony.

"Morning," Kelli called.

The woman answered with a nod and a grin.

When Kelli entered Cheeto's stall, he greeted her softly. The aroma of fresh hay mixed with oats was heady and, as usual, added to her anticipation of the ride ahead. She stroked Cheeto's silky muzzle, took a few minutes to pick dirt from his hooves, then began brushing him.

Her mind wandered back to her talk with Lori on the Fourth of July. It dawned on Kelli that Lori had never said she and Bobby Gray were dating. With Bobby Gray insisting they weren't, Kelli didn't know what to think. It wasn't an issue of who to believe. Kelli just wished her sister would give her blessing for Kelli to date Bobby Gray.