The Rancher's Family Thanksgiving. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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СКАЧАТЬ being held, and tried not to be so obvious about watching over the feistiest, most vulnerable woman he had ever known.

      “Who’s the guy she’s been talking to?” Tyler asked.

      It was clear from the range of expressions on Susie’s face that the stranger was one of the guys her parents had hoped to match her up with.

      “New doctor at Laramie Community Hospital. Name is Whit Jenkins. Susie’s parents introduced the two of them soon after Whit arrived.”

      Tyler could see why Meg and Luke would hope the two would hit it off. Whit Jenkins was thirty-something, decent looking, personable. In the twenty minutes, Susie had been talking to him over by the arbor, her expression had gone from pleasantly irritated—an expression Tyler knew well himself—to wary, to somewhat interested. He could tell by the way she was holding herself that she wasn’t drawn to Whit in the way her parents were probably hoping, but the night was young and the man showed no sign of leaving her side, especially now that Susie’s brother, Jeremy, fellow LCH physician, had joined the conversation.

      “Do you know something I don’t?” Teddy continued.

      “Meg and Luke are fixing Susie up with five different guys in the next two weeks.”

      Teddy lifted a brow in surprise. “She agreed to that?”

      Tyler nodded, recalling his phone conversation with Susie after the dreaded summit with her folks. She’d sounded remarkably chipper for someone who had lost the battle to keep any and all matchmaking out of her life, but Tyler wasn’t fooled. Susie might go along with Meg and Luke Carrigan’s wishes to keep the family peace, but she’d be privately gritting her teeth in resentment the whole time.

      “So why is it bothering you?” Teddy asked.

      Tyler looked at his brother. Teddy, Trevor and he were triplets, but the identical part only went so far as their basic looks. Teddy bred horses on his ranch, the Silverado. Trevor ran cattle on his place, the Wind Creek. Tyler’s Healing Meadow Ranch was a large animal veterinary hospital.

      Now the once fiercely independent Trevor was married.

      The irrepressible Teddy was openly lamenting not having a wife and family.

      Only Tyler knew he was not destined for the altar, now or at any time in the future.

      “We both know if Susie turns to anyone, she turns to you.”

      “In crisis,” Tyler qualified. What happened when Susie wanted more than that? Would someone like Whit Jenkins step in to claim Susie as his own? And even if Whit did, what did it matter to Tyler?

      It wasn’t as if he and Susie shared a romantic love. The affection they felt for each other was much deeper, and just as difficult to define. They’d never officially dated. They had tumbled into bed with each other, at last count, four times. If they both remained single, Tyler did not doubt it would happen again. And be followed, just as swiftly, by indecision and regret.

      “The two of you hang out together for fun sometimes.”

      Tyler shrugged as he polished off the potato salad and beans on his plate. “In a group. Never alone.”

      “Not that hard to change—if you so desire,” Teddy murmured with a probing sidelong glance.

       The question was, what did he want?

      Tyler put down his plate and walked back out into the crowd to say hello to everyone he had yet to talk with at the party. He and Susie were a hell of a lot more than casual friends, yet they didn’t see each other all that often. They had the ability to talk in shorthand no one else understood, and yet there were times when he didn’t know what she was thinking or feeling or doing to save his life. He was always happy when he saw her. And he thought about her more than he knew he should. The two of them had cried on each other’s shoulders, slept together. And stayed up all night long exchanging confidences. Yet they’d never had a single date in all the time they had known each other.

      And up until now, Tyler thought, as Susie finally broke away from Whit Jenkins, that had been okay, too.

      Catching Tyler’s glance, Susie smiled and headed toward him.

      And as usual, when he was anywhere in her radius, Tyler found he could not keep his eyes off her.

      When working as a landscape architect or at the garden center she owned, she wore clothes that were ranch-hand rugged and yet sophisticated, too. Tonight, instead of the usual denim skirt or jeans, she had a soft flowing skirt of turquoise and dusty blue flowers with a ruffled hem and a silk-trimmed V-neck white knit shirt. Her small feet were encased with sturdy brown leather boots that just peeked from beneath the ruffled hem. A simple blue-and-white necklace encircled her throat, matching earrings adorned her ears.

      As perfectly as the clothing draped her tall, slender frame, it was nothing compared to the captivating beauty of her face. Shoulder-length honey blond hair caught the evening light and framed her pretty face in a tumble of soft, mussed waves. Insightful amber-brown eyes gleamed beneath thin, elegant brows, the same shade as her hair. Her nose was long and straight; her high cheek-bones well defined; her lips soft, pink and perfectly drawn. Her normally fair skin bore the golden hint of summer sun, and a job that had her outdoors a great deal of the time.

      His pulse picked up as her favorite fragrance—a combination of flowers and citrus—engulfed him.

      She linked arms with him and drew him close. Smiling up at him, she said, “I need you to come with me. Now.”

      “I’M GUESSING WHIT JENKINS was bachelor number one,” Tyler said, as they let themselves out the back gate of the Carrigans’ yard.

      Susie cut across the front grass, toward the sidewalk. “Fortunately, yes.”

      “Why fortunately?” Tyler asked, telling himself what he felt deep in his gut was definitely not jealousy.

      The edges of Susie’s soft lips turned up in a triumphant smile as she waited for Tyler to catch up. “Because as it turns out Whit isn’t the least bit interested in dating me. He’s looking for a more dependent type of woman—someone who’s more interested in staying home than running her own business.”

      That had been a stroke of luck. “Then why’d he agree to the meeting?” Tyler asked, unable to help but note how pretty Susie looked in the dusky evening light.

      She shrugged. “He’s new in town. Doesn’t know anyone outside the hospital. Or he didn’t, until this evening.”

      Tyler followed her over to her bright blue pickup truck. “You think your parents want you to hook up with a doctor?” It made sense, since Luke was a family physician and Meg a registered nurse.

      “That’s not why they chose Whit,” Susie said with a frown. She motioned for him to get in the passenger side while she circled the front and climbed behind the wheel.

      Curious, Tyler settled beside her.

      “Although Whit’s being a physician is part of it,” Susie continued, making no effort to put her keys in the ignition. Which meant they were there to talk, not go anywhere.

      Tyler shifted toward her. “I don’t get it.”

      Susie СКАЧАТЬ