A Bride For Liam Brand. Joanna Sims

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СКАЧАТЬ and make sure it’s been cleaned.”

      While her daughter rushed back into the barn, lead rope in hand, Kate headed back to Visa.

      “This is going to be hard, Visa. But we’ll do it together.” She clipped the lead rope to the horse’s halter and began the painstaking walk back to the barn.

      Along the way, the rest of the herd, curious creatures, tried to join them in their journey, but Kate shooed them away. One of Visa’s pasture mates had seriously injured him, that much she knew, but she couldn’t pinpoint which horse had done the damage.

      Callie hurriedly opened the gate so Visa could limp through.

      “I-is he going to b-be okay? He looks like he’s hurt b-bad.” Tears had returned to Callie’s brown eyes.

      “It might be a broken leg, Callie. I’m not sure.” Kate had always told her daughter the truth. “But I do know that we have to be strong for Visa. We have to be calm so he can stay calm. You have to try, okay?”

      “Okay,” Callie said as she shut the gate behind them. “I—I’ll try.”

      It took a long time to get the lame horse back to his stall; once he was settled, Kate asked Callie to get Visa a pad of hay to keep him occupied while she called her regular vet.

      “Oh, Kate,” Dr. McGee’s receptionist, Dawn, said, “I’m so sorry, but Dr. McGee is out with the flu—sick as a dog, poor man.”

      Kate shook her head in frustration. Dr. McGee had been her vet for years, and she simply didn’t trust anyone else with her horses.

      “It sounds like you need someone right away.” The receptionist filled in the silence. “I can refer you to Dr. Brand. I have his number right here if you’d like to have it.”

      Kate had gone to school with Liam Brand, starting in kindergarten. Yes, she grew up with him, and yes, she ran into him every now and again in town. But she had no idea what kind of veterinarian skills Liam Brand had. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in a position to question her own vet’s referral. Kate took the number, thanked the receptionist for her time and then immediately called Dr. Brand.

      * * *

      “He-llo.” Liam Brand tapped the green telephone symbol to answer the phone quickly so he could still keep his eyes on the road.

      “May I speak with Dr. Brand, please?”

      “You got ’im.”

      “Hi, Dr. Brand. This is Kate King.” The woman on the other end of the line paused for a second. “Triple K Ranch?”

      Large-animal veterinarian Liam Brand didn’t want to let on, but he didn’t need any additional qualifiers beyond Kate’s name to identify who she was. He was a little old to have a crush, he supposed, but she certainly had caught his interest when their paths had crossed from time to time in the small Montana town of Bozeman. They had known each other all their lives, but Kate wasn’t much on small talk with old acquaintances, so he typically admired her from afar.

      “How can I help you, Ms. King?”

      “Kate,” she corrected. “One of my horses turned up lame this morning. Dr. McGee is out sick today, as I’m sure you know by now. I really need someone to come out to the ranch and x-ray Visa’s leg. Would you be able to fit me into your schedule? I know it’s short notice, but I’d really appreciate it.”

      Liam already knew that he had back-to-back appointments—it was foaling season, so he was typically booked dawn until dusk.

      “I do know about Dr. McGee—I’ve been getting calls all day from his clients. I’m double booked.”

      “Dr. Brand.” Liam could hear the stress in her voice. “I know you’re swamped, but any help you can give me would really be appreciated. It doesn’t matter how late you get here.” She paused before she added, “Visa is Callie’s favorite horse.”

      The minute Kate mentioned her daughter, Callie, Liam felt that familiar tug on his heartstrings. He’d watched Callie grow over the years; for a while there, before the divorce, his son had attended the same school. She was a special little girl—always smiling, always laughing. If Kate was trying to sway him by mentioning her daughter, it had worked.

      After taking a couple of moments to make a decision, Dr. Brand finally said, “Here—let me pull over so I can figure this out.”

      “Okay. Thank you.”

      Liam pulled his mobile-vet truck onto the side of the road so he could take a closer look at his schedule. All of his clients were so far apart that driving time made his logjammed schedule even more complicated.

      “Let’s do this,” he finally offered. “I’ll come to the Triple K after my last appointment. I’ll warn you now—it’s gonna be late. After dark, for sure.”

      “That’s not a problem! Whenever you can get here!” Kate exclaimed in a way that made him smile a bit. “I can’t thank you enough, Dr. Brand. Truly. Thank you.”

      * * *

      As he had predicted, Dr. Liam Brand arrived at the Triple K Ranch after dark. For Kate and Callie, it had been a long day of waiting. When they heard Dr. Brand’s truck wheels making a crunching noise on their gravel driveway, both Kate and her daughter abandoned their mucking and jogged to the entrance of the barn to greet Dr. Brand.

      “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 СКАЧАТЬ