Joanna Sims – A Bride For Liam Brand (страница 3)

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here any sooner,” the large-animal vet told her.

“We’re just so grateful that you could come.” Kate offered her hand. “I know you’ve already had a long day.”

Liam Brand was over six feet tall with a slender physique of a man who took care of his health. His hair, cut short, had turned a dark honey color over the years, which offset, in a very appealing way, the sky blue of his eyes and the golden color of his skin. He was wearing jeans, stained from a day on the job, with the logo of his vet clinic embroidered on the left chest of a light-blue cotton top.

“Hello, Calico.” Dr. Brand took the time to acknowledge her daughter.

Liam knew that her daughter’s nickname was Callie, but he had always used her formal, given name “Calico” whenever he spoke to her.

Callie smiled shyly at Liam; Kate knew that look in her daughter’s large, brown eyes. The young woman developed crushes in the blink of an eye and Liam Brand, Kate observed, was Callie’s official new crush.

“Hi,” Callie said, ducking her head to the side and gave an embarrassed laugh.

“Let’s go see what’s going on with Visa,” Dr. Brand said after he lifted his rolling mobile-vet kit out of the back of his truck, which had been outfitted with everything a traveling large-animal vet would need to do his or her job.

Dr. Brand wanted to see Visa walk on the concrete; the horse had taken only a few steps before the vet nodded. He asked that they put Visa in cross ties, and then, silently, methodically, with the seriousness Kate appreciated, the vet began his physical exam of the Hanoverian mix. After a thorough exam, Dr. Brand offered some possible diagnoses. The possible culprits for Visa’s lameness had all occurred to Kate as well—it could be laminitis, it could be a soft tissue injury, there was a possibility of an abscess in the hoof. But the last possibility that Dr. Brand mentioned, a fracture of the short pastern bone, the bone right above the hoof, was the diagnosis Kate feared the most. Most equine ailments could be healed with the right care and the right perseverance. A fracture? That was a whole different ball of wax. Kate didn’t hesitate to agree to get Visa x-rayed.

Kate and Callie stood by Visa’s head, offering him encouraging words as the vet set up the portable X-ray machine. If she had wondered about Liam’s ability as a veterinarian, watching him now dispelled all of those notions. No, he wasn’t as experienced as Dr. McGee, but he was thorough, deliberate and spoke as if he had memorized every textbook he read. While he worked, Liam discussed the recent literature and findings from current research. There wasn’t a question she asked him that he didn’t answer with the breadth and depth of a man who knew his business. When Liam had as many years of practice under his belt as Dr. McGee, he was going to be a top-notch veterinarian.

Dr. Brand released Visa back to his stall, and by the time Kate returned, the vet was ready to discuss the results of the X-ray. With her arm around Callie’s shoulders, as much for her own support as to comfort her daughter, Kate stood close to Dr. Brand so she could see the X-ray of Visa’s hind leg projected on the screen. The news wasn’t good—she could see that before he even began to point to the hairline fracture in the short pastern bone.

“I-is he going to b-be okay?” Callie already had tears in her eyes; yes, her daughter had a serious intellectual disability, but she understood much more about life than most people would give her credit for.

Kate tightened her arm to hold her daughter to comfort her.

“Well.” Dr. Brand’s words were measured as he addressed them both. “If Visa was going to have a fracture on his leg, this is the best place to do it.”

She had been holding her breath again; Kate told herself to keep on breathing. She was fully expecting Liam to tell her that Visa, only five and so young, would have to be put down.

“If you keep him on stall rest for two months, I can come back and take another X-ray to see if he’s done some healing,” Dr. Brand said. “Of course, Dr. McGee would be able to help you with that, as well.”

Kate took a second to process the information before she replied, “You’ve started with him. I’d feel better if you just stayed with this case.”

“I’d be happy to do it.”

All three of them turned to walk in the direction of the vet’s truck; Kate already had her checkbook in her back pocket to pay.

“How much do we owe you?”

“I don’t really handle that part of the deal. Go ahead and call the office tomorrow. Ask for Irene—she handles all the billing.” He pulled a card out of the console of his truck and handed it to her. “She’ll take care of you.”

“Okay,” Kate said, surprised that Liam didn’t take payment on the spot. “Are you sure?”

“Yep.” Liam opened one of the storage lockers built onto the back of his truck.

“Do you like chili?” Callie asked the vet.

“Sure do.” Dr. Brand loaded his mobile kit into the locker.

Kate liked that Liam didn’t disregard her daughter—he included her, he looked at her directly and spoke to her like she had value.

“Do you want to have chili with us? That’s what we’re having for dinner.”

Kate hadn’t expected her daughter to extend a dinner invitation to Liam; even more unexpected was her own follow-up to Callie’s invitation.

“We have plenty,” she told Liam. “It’s the least we could do. I’m sure you skipped dinner so you could come out here.”

Liam didn’t say yes or no as he loaded his equipment into his truck.

“Do you like orange or grape soda?” Callie asked Liam. “Which do you want?”

Kate put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “He hasn’t accepted your invitation yet.”

Liam locked the back of his truck. “I like grape.”

For the briefest of seconds, Liam caught Kate’s eye, and she saw something so strong and kind in those blue eyes that she had to remind herself to look away.

“I—I like grape, too!” Callie told the vet excitedly, as if she had just discovered that they had something very special in common.

Her daughter spun around and headed off in the direction of their modest ranch-style house with the new steel roof and fresh coat of moss green paint.

“I’m sorry,” Kate told him when her daughter was out of earshot. “I hope she didn’t put you on the spot.”

“I’m hungry, and all I’ve got in my icebox is a piece of suspicious cheese and condiments.” Liam adjusted his long legs so he could keep pace with her.

Kate cracked a smile. “Well, then, I’m glad she invited you.”

She caught Liam staring at her profile. “I don’t usually say yes. But we’re talking about chili and grape soda. An offer like that doesn’t come up every day.”

* * *

It had been a long day for Liam Brand; he was grateful and honored that a man like Dr. McGee—a man he admired—would send his clients to him when he was out sick. But the 50 percent increase in appointments, which entailed juggling his already booked days with Dr. McGee’s overflow, had put him under the gun and way behind. He was exhausted—and he usually wasn’t exhausted. If it had been anyone other than Kate King and Callie who invited him in for dinner, he would have gracefully declined and headed home.

“We weren’t expecting anyone,” Kate told him as she picked up random items on the way to the kitchen.

The King home was cozy and lived-in. The outside of the house had some updating recently, but the inside was like stepping back in time to the 1970s. Kate was known in the greater Bozeman area as one of the best horse trainers and breeders in the state of Montana. Her techniques for training horses and riders in a humane manner was the stuff of legends; on the other hand, homemaking did not seem to be much of a priority. The furniture hadn’t been updated since Kate was a kid. In fact, Liam remembered sitting on that same forest green and navy blue plaid couch back when he was in elementary school one summer when his father came out to the Triple K to buy some new horses from Kate’s father. It was obvious that every bit of her heart, her soul, her time and her money went to taking care of her daughter and her horses. That was her love, and he could appreciate that about her because that was exactly how he felt about life: family and horses mattered more than stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops.

“Something smells mighty good in here.” Liam sat at the small kitchen island with the sunshine-yellow laminate countertop.

What the King house lacked in decor, it more than made up for it in the homey feel and a tantalizing aroma permeating the kitchen.

“Grandpa taught me.” Callie lifted the lid off the large pot on the stove.

“I didn’t know you were the chef of the family,” Liam said to Kate’s daughter.

“Callie is the only chef in this house,” Kate gave her daughter a quick hug from behind. “Thank goodness she loves to cook, or we’d both starve. Isn’t that true, kiddo?”

Callie nodded seriously. “That is true. I-I have saved us from starving.”

Liam sat at Kate King’s counter, watching the horse trainer interact with her daughter, while he gulped down grape soda, which he hadn’t had since he was a kid. This visit to the Triple K Ranch was an unexpected blast into his past.