Take Me Home (40 page)

The mare whickered and sucked the water out of Claire’s hands. When Claire offered her the bucket again, Willow drank it down to the bottom. She licked the last drops off the metal and nosed around looking for more.

“Can she have more?” Claire asked, her eyes pleading.

“In about fifteen minutes.” He winced as he looked at his watch. He was already over an hour behind schedule, despite all the rearranging Estelle had managed. Perversely, he wanted to stay here and torture himself by being near Claire even though he couldn’t touch her. “I have to go back to my appointments, but I’ll see you in an hour.”

“We’ll be fine.”

Somehow he knew she would make that true. And he began to think it could even happen to him.

Four hours later, he sat at his desk, eating a sandwich and watching the video feed from the recovery stall on his computer. Claire sat cross-legged on a dog bed someone had brought her, reading one of the magazines from the waiting room. She was wearing jeans and a light-blue T-shirt, with her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. She looked so beautiful it made him ache.

Willow stood placidly in front of her with the intravenous line taped to her neck. Every now and then, Claire would reach up and pet the horse’s nose, or Willow would arch her neck to snuffle at Claire’s hair.

As he watched, Ed came into the stall and said something to Claire, who nodded, stood up, and stretched before she slipped out the door. She must be going home to get some much-needed rest now that Willow seemed stable.

Tim’s pulse sped up at the prospect of Claire stopping to talk with him before she left the building. He wasn’t sure what he would say, but it didn’t matter. He wolfed down the rest of his sandwich as he watched Ed check over the horse and prop himself up against the padded wall. That was odd because Ed knew the video was constantly monitored, so no one had to stay with the mare.

Tim wiped his mouth and hands on a paper napkin and combed his fingers through his hair. Then he picked up a patient’s folder and pretended to read it. Footsteps and voices passed his door, but no one knocked.

After several long minutes, he slapped the folder closed, disappointment clogging his throat. She had left without saying good-bye. He couldn’t blame her. Now that the crisis was over, she probably preferred to keep contact with him to a minimum.

As he shoved away from the desk, movement in the monitor caught his eye. Claire had reappeared in Willow’s stall,
and Ed departed. Relief flooded through him. As he stood and shrugged back into his white coat, he watched Claire touch her forehead against Willow’s before she settled back on her improvised seat.

Something seemed to shift inside him, making him feel off balance as he walked out of his office. He put his hand against the wall, resting a moment as he took a deep breath, then kept walking toward his next appointment.

Claire was wishing she had brought a book when the stall door opened and Sharon walked in. “I hear Willow’s doing okay and you refuse to leave her alone.”

Claire laughed as she stood up. “I guess that sums it up nicely. I’m glad you came. I’ve read every magazine from the waiting room, including
Ranger Rick
. I could use some conversation.”

Sharon ran her hands over the mare, looking in the horse’s eyes and putting her ear against her belly. “Why don’t you take a break, and I’ll sit with her for half an hour?”

“That’s a really nice offer, but you have a stable to run. I was supposed to be in New York anyway, so I have no commitments here for the next twenty-four hours.”

“Yeah, but it’s making Dr. Tim crazy having you here.”

“It is?” Claire was stunned. Tim didn’t seem worried by her presence when he came to the stall. “I didn’t mean to be a problem. It’s just that Willow has been through so much, I didn’t want to leave her all alone.”

“Hon, she’s not alone. Dr. Tim employs half the vet techs in the county. This place is crawling with staff.”

“I know but...Well, I guess I should leave if it bothers him to have me here.” Claire felt stricken. Tim found her company so distressing he didn’t want to even have her in the same building.

“I didn’t mean it that way. He’s worried about you, thinks you need to get outside and breathe some fresh air. That sort of thing. So git!” Sharon made shooing motions, causing Willow to throw her head up before she dropped it back down. “See, Willow agrees.”

“Oh, fine,” Claire said. “I’ll run down to the bookstore and get something to read. Do you want anything while I’m out?”

Sharon shook her head as she lowered herself gingerly onto the dog bed.

Ten minutes later, Tim rolled open the stall door, surprise and disappointment hitting him at the same time when he spotted Sharon. “Where’s Claire?”

“I talked her into taking a short break.”

His surprise mixed with a pang of injured pride. Claire hadn’t listened to him when he suggested the same thing. “You’re the only person who’s been able to. How did you do it?”

“Used you for leverage.” Sharon hauled herself up off the floor and dusted off her seat. “Couldn’t you spare a chair for in here?”

“Claire didn’t want anything Willow could hurt herself on, in case she started rolling. What do you mean, you used me for leverage?”

“I told her you were worried about her, so she felt guilty and agreed to leave for half an hour.”

“I guess that’s okay.” He didn’t like being the cause of any more distress to Claire, even if it was for her own good. He automatically went to the horse and checked her vital signs and bowel sounds. “It’s extraordinary how well Willow is doing. I thought she would die on the operating table.”

“You underestimated the power of love.”

Something about Sharon’s tone made him look up at her. She wasn’t talking only about the horse.

“I’m going to stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong,” she continued, “but I can’t help myself. I hear Claire offered to stay here to see how things worked out between you two.”

He straightened and tried to stare Sharon down because he knew he wouldn’t enjoy whatever she was going to say. She kept talking.

“All I’m going to say is this. When a woman like Claire is willing to give up the life she worked her butt off to build, you better think long and hard before you turn her down. Someone that special isn’t going to come around again anytime soon.”

He felt that weird off-balance sensation again, and suddenly, he was angry. “Why the hell do you think I told her to go? Because I know she deserves to have that life.”

“Really? Is that why?” Sharon held his gaze with hers. “I’m thinking it might be something else.”

He reined in his temper, even trying to put a little humor in his voice as he said, “You’re right. You’re sticking your nose in where it’s not wanted.”

“Fair enough,” she said with a nod. “You’re a smart man, so I trust you to consider what I said. Now I’m done lecturing.”

“I wish I believed that,” he said.

She laughed and started back toward the dog bed.

“Don’t sit down,” Tim said. “I’ll watch Willow until Claire gets back.”

“Promise? She’ll never forgive me if she finds this horse alone.”

Tim’s gaze met Sharon’s, and she saw something that made her nod and head for the door. As she slid the door open, she turned and looked over her shoulder. “More than one person can talk to the same whisper horse, you know.” The door closed.

Tim snorted, and Willow raised her head to look him in the eye. “What? You expect me to bare my soul to you? I’m taking care of you, not the other way around.”

The horse shook her head, staggering a little at her own sudden movement.

“Careful there, girl,” he said, moving to brace her shoulder with his. She brought her head around to look at him again. “It’s just because I’m holding you up. You’re not really waiting for me to say something.”

She blew out a breath and let her head drop forward again. He gently eased away from her, making sure her balance was steady.

He waited a few minutes before he lowered himself onto the dog bed. It offered little cushioning for his big frame, but he wedged his shoulders against the wall and tried to get comfortable.

Willow snuffled at his boots.

“Sorry, I know you’re hungry, but they’re not edible.”

She took a little nip at one scuffed leather toe.

“Hey! That’s not on your convalescent diet.”

He tilted his head back against the wall, thinking about Sharon’s words and then about his own. Maybe he was wrong about who took care of whom. “Maybe it goes both ways.” He chuckled as he realized he’d spoken out loud. “So I’m talking to you, after all.”

He reached out and touched one of the horse’s sensitive ears. “What secrets has Claire poured in there? I wish you could tell me whether she’ll think I’m worth the mess of trouble I carry around with me.”

Willow flicked both ears forward. “She was going to New York today when you got sick, and I was going to let her do it.”

A giant fist seemed to grip his chest and squeeze. He had to make an effort to breathe. He sat frozen for a long moment before he jumped to his feet. “But now I won’t.”

Willow threw up her head in surprise. “Sorry,” he said, calming her with a touch. “I’m going to tell her all of it, ugly as it is, as soon as you’re out of the woods, girl. She deserves the truth, and after that, well, we’ll see what happens.”

The horse whinnied softly.

Tim grinned as he slid back down the wall. “I’ll bet that’s horse talk for ‘I told you so.’ ”

W
HEN CLAIRE WALKED
back into the building with a steaming cup of herbal tea in one hand and a bag of books in the other, an after-hours quiet had settled over the place. Estelle was gone, her desk as neat as pin. She nodded to a young woman who was stowing medicine in a refrigerator, but saw no one else on her journey to Willow’s stall.

She juggled her tea and shopping bag as she shoved the stall door open with her hip. “Hey, Sharon, sorry I took longer than...” She realized it wasn’t Sharon sitting on the dog bed. It was Tim, dressed in jeans and a green-and-gold plaid flannel shirt, his long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. He had a feverish gleam in his eyes. “Oh, sorry. I thought...”

He levered his big frame up off the floor. “I told her I’d wait until you got back.”

“Oh, darn, I bought her a book.” Claire winced as she heard how ungracious that sounded, but seeing Tim unexpectedly had thrown her. “Thank you for staying. I know you must be exhausted.”

“Which made it pleasant to just sit still and do nothing.” He shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Willow’s okay, isn’t she?”

“She’s doing miraculously well. Sharon says it’s the power of love.” He looked away and then back. “Claire, I hope you understand that when I said you should go to New York, it wasn’t
because I didn’t want you to stay here. It’s because you’ve worked so hard to get there, and I didn’t want to stand in the way of the dream you’ve built.”

“Thanks for saying that,” Claire said. So he was being noble and doing what was best for her. It lessened the pain of his rejection, but she didn’t want self-sacrifice. She wanted him to yank her into his arms and kiss her until the hurt melted away.