A Bride For Liam Brand. Joanna Sims

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СКАЧАТЬ with Callie, making sure all of her measurements were accurate, before she headed back to the barn. The barn, the ranch, was both her albatross and her solace. When she was angry or upset, there was nothing better for it than mucking out stalls. But the work was never ending and there was always something that needed to be fixed.

      “Well, Visa.” She had ended hours of work back at the injured horse’s stall. Now that he was stall bound, she spent more time with him. He was a young horse and to be stuck in a twelve by twelve space for months was going to be tough for him.

      Kate rubbed the space between Visa’s eyes, then twirled his long, black forelock around her finger.

      “Guess who’s coming for dinner?” The horse trainer frowned at the thought.

      Halfway through her work, she had thought to call Liam and give him a chance to get off the hook. But in the end, she thought better of it. Liam was a smart man; he’d figure out that she was trying to revoke her daughter’s invitation. No, if he wanted out, he’d let her know. She knew that she had a reputation in Bozeman for being private and a bit standoffish, but no one could legitimately pin rudeness on her and she’d like to keep it that way. All she could really do was hope that Liam’s schedule would prevent him from coming all the way out to the Triple K. The rest of the afternoon, while she paid bills in the office above the barn, Kate hoped that her phone would ring. But often times, hoping wasn’t enough to make something happen.

      * * *

      “Howdy!” Liam Brand had been looking forward to heading out to the Triple K all day.

      In fact, the day didn’t seem to go by fast enough.

      “Hi, Dr. Brand.” Kate was kneeling at the front of the barn, surrounded by a pride of ragtag barn cats who had seen better days.

      Liam sensed that the horse trainer was still in the process of warming up to the idea of him having dinner at her ranch for the second night in a row; even when she wasn’t smiling, with the light of a smile reaching her eyes, Liam still thought she was mighty pretty.

      “I’d appreciate you callin’ me Liam.” He stopped a few feet away from her. “We go back an awful long way.”

      Instead of responding, Kate finished feeding her barn cats. “I have to have the oldest barn cats ever. I’ve got to feed them now—they’re too old to catch mice anymore.”

      Liam laughed. Kate’s cats were bony from old age, with noticeable cataracts, scraggly fur and weak meows. One brown tabby cat with narrow shoulders, curled white whiskers and a barrel belly broke away from the group to greet him. Her scratchy meow touched his heart as he knelt to pet her.

      “Sissy.” Kate glanced up from her chore. “She’s the flirt of the barn.”

      The old feline rubbed her face and body against Liam’s knee, purring hard and loud, before falling onto her side at his feet. Sissy gave him a slow blink, a sign of love from a cat, while her paws curled under happily.

      “Love has always been more important to her than food.”

      Liam petted the retired mouser until the feline decided it was, indeed, time to fill her belly. Kate stood and he joined her. They watched the ex-mousers make short work of the food she had put down for them.

      “I can’t seem to get her eyes cleared up,” Kate said after a minute or two. “They’re always so swollen. Allergies, I suppose.”

      “I’ll give you one of the ointments I like to use with cats before I leave.”

      “Thanks.” She seemed surprised when she said, “I’d really appreciate that.”

      Liam wanted to check on his patient, swinging by Visa’s stall before he strode beside Kate back to the house. It occurred to him, as he walked next to the horse trainer, that he didn’t have to measure his stride. She had some long legs of her own, and it was nice to walk beside her.

      “Look who I found!” Kate said to her daughter when they entered the small ranch house.

      “Hi, Dr. Brand!” Callie immediately met them just inside the door and hugged him in that friendly way of hers.

      “It smells mighty good in here again, Calico,” Liam told the young lady.

      “She’s been cooking all day.” Kate shut the door.

      “I’ve been thinking about your cookin’ all day,” he said.

      “I hope you brought your appetite,” the pretty rancher said. “I think my daughter cooked for ten.”

      “Trust me.” He took his place at the kitchen island. “I brought my appetite.”

      For the second night in a row, Liam sat in the King home and felt right at home. He liked watching the mother and daughter, so close in their relationship, work together to get ready for dinner. Now that it was his second time sitting at their dinner table, Kate handed him a stack of plates with the silverware so he could help set the table. That gesture alone made him feel even more “a part of it.”

      They sat down together, held hands for a prayer, and then Liam dug into the incredible fare Callie had prepared. He didn’t stop eating even when he began to feel stuffed. The only time he got this kind of cooking was any Sunday he made it out to the family ranch for breakfast. Home-cooked dinners were far and few between for him. So was the conversation they had during dinner. It had been a long time since he had someone to share his day with, talk about his passion of caring for animals. Kate got it. They weren’t exactly in the same business, but the animals on her ranch were more than just part of her business—they were part of her family.

      “I’ll have Callie fix you some leftovers,” Kate said with a laugh. She must have noticed him still eyeing the food on the table after had already filled his plate twice.

      “Are you sure?”

      The horse trainer smiled at him again, and this time the smile reached her eyes. “I’m sure. It’ll give the chef an excuse to cook something new tomorrow. Isn’t that right, Callie?”

      The young woman nodded, but her attention was distracted by the sound of a video call coming in on a tablet on the counter. Kate’s daughter jumped up, ran to the counter looked at the screen and then squealed with excitement.

      “I-it’s Tony!” Callie snatched the tablet off the counter, accepted the call and hurried down the narrow hallway leading to the three small bedrooms at the back of the house.

      Kate sighed, staring after her daughter.

      “Tony?”

      She stared down the hallway a moment longer before she responded. Kate’s shoulders lifted ever so slightly. Was it a sign of frustration or resignation? He couldn’t be sure.

      “Callie’s boyfriend. They met in an online support group for young adults with Down syndrome. If I had known this was going to happen, I’m not sure I would have been so excited to sign her up.”

      That shocked him. Just like Callie’s amazing talent in the kitchen, it hadn’t crossed his mind that she would have a boyfriend.

      They began to clear the table with the sound of Callie’s laughter and excited talking СКАЧАТЬ