he needs is to be alone and scared.’
‘Jolivetta Chriselle Ra—’
‘You just stop right there, Dr. Reece I’m-Going-To-Act-Like-The-Boss Keightly.’ She’d poke him in the chest if her arm didn’t hurt so much and she didn’t have a needle in the other. ‘I’m not going anywhere. The vet or someone might come in and get the idea of putting him down if I’m not here to stop them. Now, let go of the wood and hold him still. This medicine isn’t great in the muscle—it eats it up. Has to go into the vein.’
‘Do you want me to do it?’ Reece asked. Like she hadn’t done this a hundred times before.
‘No. I want you to hold Gordy.’ And stop being bossy. And stop being around. And stop being...everything else.
Reece let go of the wood, rubbed a hand over his face like he could wipe off frustration, and slung his arms around Gordy’s chest again, his voice gentling a little too. ‘Why are you so convinced they’re going to put him down?’
‘He’s got leg problems.’
‘Explain.’
‘Really bad circulation.’ Jolie maneuvered to the other side of the horse before adding, ‘And he’s broken that leg before. It was very hard to heal the first time...’
‘So it might be kinder if they come to that decision now rather than after—’
‘No!’ She shouted, causing the horse to flinch. She took a breath and calmed her voice. ‘It’s not going to come to that. Horses can survive broken legs. And the circus is closing anyway! He has time to recuperate.’
She went for a vein she had found before, back of the neck, easier to get to and somewhere where she could talk softly and provide comfort. Not that she felt calm and comforting right now. She felt way too much of everything. Worry. Fear. Betrayal. Anger. A disconcerting awareness at Reece’s foreign manly scent in the stable... But she channeled worry away for Gordy’s benefit and gentled her tone. ‘We’re leaving here and going back to the farm in a few days, and he’ll have space to relax and get better. He doesn’t need to get better fast so that he can perform.’
‘It’s nothing to do with performing.’
‘No, it’s about taking the easy way out. Gordy’s part of the family, and you don’t just shoot your family if they get a hangnail.’ She threaded the needle into the vein, pulled back to make sure blood came into the cartridge, and then injected slowly. ‘You take care of your family. At least, that’s how it’s done in my family. You might not be willing to fight for yours, but I am.’
The sedation worked almost instantly. She hadn’t given Gordy enough to knock him out, but he did stop thrashing and mellowed significantly. With the safety cap back in place, she waved Reece off Gordy’s back. ‘You can go now.’
‘You know no one is going to put him down if he has a chance to recover.’ He moved to the door of the stall but didn’t leave. ‘I’m not leaving until you stop acting like a crazy woman and let me get a look at your arm.’
If he didn’t stop going on about her arm and about Gordy’s leg, she might hit him. From the angle she’d have to swing up to hit his chin, and might even be able to knock him out. Providing his jaw was more glass than the granite it looked like. ‘He has a chance.’
‘Just wait for the vet.’ Reece leaned against the jamb.
She slid past him to grab a stool and moved it back into the stall. ‘I have been taking care of horses forever.’ Okay, she might be acting crazy—she’d never felt moved to violence before—but Gordy was important. ‘And I take care of people too. I know what I’m talking about. He can be casted. Sometimes a kind of exoskeleton can be built to support a broken leg. I’ve read about it, and we have the slings for the big horses. We have one who has a metabolic condition that causes him to get laminitis, and we had to sling him once. This little makeshift sling is taking weight off that leg, and we can get a better one for him set up. It’s temporary. So stop preparing me for the worst.’
Her throbbing arm needed a break, and so did she. She scooted the stool toward Gordy’s head with her feet. He might be sedated but he’d feel her there. She’d comfort him. And maybe she’d absorb a little comfort from keeping near him too. A little comfort would be good right now. ‘I hope you’re not so fast on the plug-pulling for your people patients.’
REECE RUBBED HIS HEAD, a headache starting between his brows. This was not how he’d pictured their reunion going. That had gone entirely differently. She’d been wearing something sparkly for starters.
‘Hey...’ His brain caught up with the situation now that the immediate emergency had passed. ‘You’re not dressed.’
‘I’m dressed just fine,’ she bit at him, and then her voice turned honey-sweet as she began to pet Gordy’s face and talk to him. ‘It’s going to be okay. I won’t let anyone hurt you.’
‘For the show,’ he cut in. He’d been waiting at the show the whole time to see her perform, and only now did it register with him that she wasn’t dressed for the ring at all. Jeans and a pink T-shirt with a white unicorn and a rainbow coming from its butt, while funny, wasn’t performance attire. ‘You haven’t performed yet. I figured you’d come at the end, the aerial act maybe, but you’re not dressed.’
‘I don’t perform any more.’
‘Why not?’
‘None of your business.’ Her words were angry, but she kept her tone sweet. Not for him, he realized. She looked back at Gordy and ruffled his ears. The sedative had taken the fight out of the little horse, but her touch and proximity soothed him. Despite the drug, he tilted his head against hers and accepted the comfort.
She had the touch. Reece forgot his irritation for a few seconds, remembering the way she’d sat with his head in her lap after the accident, petting his temples in much the same way she that she petted the horse’s face now too.
Two people in one body. In the ring she came alive—so full of energy that even when a trick failed she still held the audience in her hands. And the rest of the time she had that gentle touch that soothed any kind of animal. Even teenage boys. She’d been the only one he’d wanted around him after Dad had died.
The pink T-shirt had a growing spot of red on it where she’d clamped her arm to her side, cradling it protectively against her and using her other arm for Gordy.
‘Hurts?’
‘Adrenalin is wearing off,’ she murmured, ‘but I can wait.’
‘No doubt.’ He made a note to ask Mom all the things about Jolie that he’d never let her tell him before, when he had been trying so hard to stay in school and keep Jolie off his mind. Something was up with her, and it wasn’t just upset about Gordy’s accident. It might even be about more than his reason for being there, and the myriad other reasons she had to be angry with him. Not performing any more wasn’t something she’d have decided for the last week of the circus. It was older than his decision to close the show down. How much older, he had no idea.
He was saved from thinking further about what kind of knots Jolie might have worked herself into while he’d been away when Mack Bohannon escorted the vet into the stable and ushered Reece and Jolie out—two too many people for the small stall.
‘I know that’s not a proper sling.’ Jolie said, gesturing to the small injured horse from the gate, ‘but I couldn’t think of anything else we could do for him that might keep his digestion working properly and keep weight off that leg. We don’t have a sling small enough for him.’
‘I have one.’ The vet pulled a backpack off his shoulder and handed it to Mack, Jolie’s uncle and head of the Bohannon clan. Ultimately, Gordy’s future rested with Mack, who dug into the pack and