The Maverick Cowboy Read online

  She barely waited for her mom to make some kind of agreeing noise before she said an airy good-bye and put the phone down. She loved her mom, but sometimes it was like trying to stop a river in flood. Not that her dad was any better, but at least he tried to listen to her occasionally and had been instrumental in finding her the job with his brother at the most northern end of California, far from her mother and hypersuccessful sisters.

  “Jenna?” Meg, one of the veterinary techs put her head around the door. She was an older woman who’d been with the practice for years and had saved Jenna’s ass on several occasions already. “You okay to start seeing folks? You’re the only one here.”

  “Sure.” She grabbed her white coat and slid her reading glasses on top of her head. “Do we have many waiting?”

  Unlike most modern veterinary practices, her uncle preferred to let the afternoon clinic remain a free-for-all, which meant sometimes there were twenty people crammed into the small waiting room and other days it was crickets. Jenna didn’t mind. It was all new to her, and every appointment helped her gain valuable knowledge. Most large animal veterinary practices didn’t deal with the smaller pet stuff, but they were the only clinic for forty miles, so they happily coped with everything.

  “Only three so far. I’ve put Monica Flaherty in exam room one, so you can start there. Files on the outside of the door.”

  “Got it.”

  Jenna went into the exam room, closing the door quickly behind her because she never knew exactly what she’d be facing. There were many desperate escapees who didn’t want to be there—and that was just the humans.

  Ha.

  “Hey, Monica. What’s up?”

  The teenager frowned. “Where’s Dave?”

  “He’s out on a call.” Inwardly Jenna sighed. Her cousin was thirty-one and single and the cause of intense local feminine interest. “Do you want to go back to the front desk and make an appointment to see him specifically?”

  Monica’s sigh was almost loud enough to rattle the window glass. “No. It’s okay. I found this by the side of the highway.” She pointed at a box on the metal exam table.

  Jenna cautiously opened the lid and peered inside. There was a towel covering the bottom of the box, and coiled within it was a large white and brown patterned snake.

  “Did you find this guy in the actual box, or on the road?”

  “On the road. I put him on the damp towel and sat him on top of the water heater last night.”

  “Great idea. He was probably way too cold out there to survive.” Jenna checked over what she could see of the snake’s lean coils.

  Monica came to look over her shoulder. “What kind is it?”

  “It’s a California king snake, I think. He’s not poisonous or anything, but he is a powerful constrictor.” Jenna glanced at Monica. “You probably know that, seeing as you picked him up.”

  “I made Finn do it. He thought it was a rattlesnake.”

  “They sometimes rattle their tails to scare predators into thinking they are rattlesnakes.” Jenna closed the lid of the box. “I assume you don’t want to keep him?”

  “I’d like to, but my mom said no.” Monica pouted. “Can you find him a good home?”

  “I can certainly ask around, but he could survive in the wild. He’s native to California and he’s not called the king for nothing.”

  Monica fiddled with the box. “Dave knows a lot about snakes, doesn’t he?”

  Which was probably why Monica had made her boyfriend pick the snake up in the first place. The poor guy. “He sure does. I’ll check in with him when he comes back. Do you want me to call and let you know what happens?”

  “When you talk to Dave?” Monica perked up. “Maybe he could call me himself?”

  “Someone will definitely call you when we’ve made a decision.” Jenna hid a smile as she washed her hands. “Thanks for bringing the big guy in.”

  “Okay.”

  Jenna patted the teen’s shoulder as she left the exam room and belatedly picked up the chart Meg had left in a slot by the door. She wrote a quick summary of the visit. It was weird going back to writing notes with a real pen after the tablets at her last job. Attempting to decipher her colleagues’ handwriting was another head-numbing task altogether.

  Meg came out of the second exam room and Jenna handed her the file. “Monica found a California king snake by the side of the road. I don’t know enough about them to tell if it’s injured or not. Can we put it out back in the heated terrarium until Dave comes in?”

  “Sure.” Meg nodded. “I’ll take it right out and then come back to assist you. Pet rabbit in two.”

  “Got it.” This time Jenna remembered to pick up the clipboard and went into the room. She found one of the Hayes family that ran the local hotel clutching a large black and white rabbit to his chest. “Hey, Wade, who’s this?”

  The boy cuddled the rabbit even closer. He was the youngest boy in the big Hayes family and Jenna reckoned he was around twelve. “Duke.”

  “That’s a great name.” Jenna perched on the edge of the table and gently stroked Duke’s nose. “So what’s up with him?”

  “He’s been, like, acting really strange.”

  “In what way?”

  “Getting cranky with me, trying to dig his way out of the cage and, like, moving stuff around the place into big piles in the corners.”

  “Weird,” Jenna said. “Can I take a good look at him?”

  “He’s like real grumpy at the moment.”

  “I’ll be careful,” Jenna promised as she set the rabbit on the exam table. She kept petting him with one hand as she palpated his abdomen with the other. “Do you have any other rabbits?”

  “Yeah, one more called Stan, short for Stanford.”

  “Do they share a cage?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  Jenna looked at Wade over Duke’s head. “Is your mom here with you?”

  To her dismay, the boy’s eyes teared up. “Duke’s going to die, isn’t he? You can tell me. I don’t need my mom here. I’m almost twelve.”

  “He’s not going to die.” Jenna held his gaze. “Duke’s going to be a mother.”

  “What?”

  “He’s female and he’s pregnant.”

  A dull red color rose from Wade’s neck to cover his face. “He’s a . . . girl? Do you mean, like that he and Stan . . . ?”

  Jenna nodded. “Yeah, I think they did, and judging from the size of Duke’s belly, she’s going to give birth fairly soon.”

  Almost before the words left her mouth, Wade was running for the door. Jenna waited for a minute and then started to smile. Meg came in and raised her eyebrows.

  “What did you say to Wade? He ran past me like he was being chased by something with teeth. Is there something wrong with Duke?”

  “Duke’s a girl and she’s pregnant,” Jenna said, patting the rabbit. “Wade was horrified by every single word in that sentence.” She grinned at Meg, and they both burst out laughing.

  “The poor kid.” Jenna eventually recollected herself. “Can you see if Mrs. Hayes is out there so I can talk to her?”

  “Will do,” Meg said.

  While Jenna waited for Mrs. Hayes, her thoughts flew back to her parents. They would probably never understand how a day like today could make her love her job even more. They thrived on order, and the life Jenna had chosen wasn’t like that at all. To say that she loved a challenge was an understatement. After years of knowing exactly what was expected and obeying every demand made on her, surely she was entitled to enjoy a little bit of chaos?

  * * *

  Much later she was sitting in the back office writing notes about the cases she’d seen when the back door banged and opened to admit her cousin Dave. He stomped in looking tired and rumpled. The veterinary offices were housed in the original McDonald homestead, and the family had moved up the hill into a larger, more convenient house. It made the commute to work fairly straightforward, although they spent most of thei
r time on the road visiting the various ranches around Morgantown.

  Uncle Ron kept saying he was going to rebuild the clinic, but he’d never gotten around to it and Jenna doubted he ever would. Which meant that they all put up with the inconvenient old ranch house and made the best of the space available.

  Jenna wrinkled her nose. “What did you fall into?”

  “Pig shit. I did shower.”

  “Still eew.”

  “I was on a call near Morgan Ranch, so I went to check out the new arrivals.” Dave dumped his bag on the table and turned to take off his coat and wash his hands. He’d already removed his boots in the mudroom and wore mismatched socks. “The darling little piggies tripped me, and the mama pig sat on me when I was down.”

  “I don’t suppose Roy got that on camera?”

  “I hope not. I think he was laughing too hard.” With a groan, Dave sat down and shoved his hands through his spiky black hair. “Sometimes I wonder why I do this job.”

  Jenna patted his shoulder. “Because you love it?”

  “There is that.”

  “I didn’t know Ruth was thinking of keeping pigs,” Jenna said as she got up to make some more coffee.

  “She wasn’t. It’s all Roy’s idea. Apparently, he’s always wanted to keep pigs, and Ruth decided it would add authenticity to the idea of a self-sufficient historical ranch.”

  Jenna tended to the old coffee percolator, which needed a firm hand, and got out two clean mugs. “Do you think the Morgans are going to make that idea work?”

  “The historical dude ranch guest house thing?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t see why not. With Chase Morgan’s financial connections, and Ruth and Roy’s experience, it could work out really well.”

  Jenna put one of the mugs in front of Dave, who added three spoonfuls of sugar. “And don’t forget January and the Morgantown Historical Society.”

  “How could I when my parents are on the board?” Dave groaned. “Next thing you know I’ll be dressed up like a cowboy and be expected to fake being an old-fashioned veterinarian or some such crap.”

  “Ruth would probably love that.” Jenna took a sip of her coffee. “Was January back or was she still in San Francisco with Chase?”

  “She’s back, but she and Ruth had to dash off to the Marine place near Bridgeport. Apparently, BB was in an accident.”

  “Blue Morgan? Oh wow, what happened?” Jenna hadn’t taken to the arrogant Marine when she’d met him at spring branding, but she still hoped he was okay.

  “BB was in the base hospital with concussion after a fall from a cliff or something. Ruth was going to go by herself, but January offered to drive her.”

  “Why do you call him BB rather than Blue?”

  “It’s his name.”

  Jenna raised her eyebrows. “His actual name?”

  “His initials are BB. His full name is Blue Boy.”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Jenna started to grin. “The big tough Marine is little boy blue?”

  Dave shuddered. “We stopped saying that around second grade after he’d beaten the crap out of us a few times. His dad named him after a TV cowboy show, I think. You’ll have to ask him which one. I’m not doing it.”

  The Marine did have very blue eyes. She remembered that. She also remembered his Internet-derived assumptions about her profession. She hated being talked down to. But he had at least tried to apologize before she’d brushed him off. She’d appreciated the gesture, which had taken her by surprise.

  “Monica Flaherty brought in a snake for you.”

  Dave perked up. “What kind?”

  “California king, I think. I’m not sure if there’s something wrong with it or if Monica just saw the darn thing and wanted an excuse to come in and see you.”

  “Where’s the snake?”

  “In the terrarium next to the vaccine refrigerator. Where else would it be?”

  Dave was already moving, his mug gripped in his hand. Jenna sensed he got tired of dealing with horses, cattle, and various large animals sometimes. She followed him into the other room and waited as he took his first gander at the snake.

  “Looks in pretty good shape to me,” Dave commented.

  “I couldn’t see any obvious injuries, but I don’t know a lot about snakes,” Jenna confessed. “She did find him out at night, so he might have gotten cold.”

  “True.” Dave opened the terrarium and ran his fingertip over the coils of the snake. “We can keep an eye on him for a day or two. If he’s capable of eating live food, we can probably release him back into the wild.” He replaced the lid and washed his hands.

  “Do you want to call Monica and tell her?” Jenna asked.

  “No thanks.” Dave mock frowned at her. “There’s no need to encourage her.”

  Jenna snorted. “From what I’ve seen, you don’t need to do anything to encourage them. They all just fall in love with you at first sight.”

  Dave refilled his coffee mug. “God knows why. Vets aren’t exactly a catch. We’re usually covered in shit, unavailable at the weekends, and always in debt.”

  “They should go after the Morgans,” Jenna said. “Local gossip says they have all the money.”

  “Well, Chase does. But he’s engaged to January, BB’s in the military, and the twins haven’t been back for years and are pretty wild.” Dave lingered by the door. “Are you coming up to the main house?”

  Jenna looked at her pile of paper. “I’m just about done, so I should go and eat. Amy said something about a nut casserole.”

  “Then you’ve got to come right now. Ma makes a really good one.” Dave held open the door. “And I want to talk to you about Morgan Ranch.”

  * * *

  “You want me to do what?” Jenna asked.

  Dave sat back in his chair and let out a loud and very indiscreet belch. They’d eaten dinner together in the large pine kitchen and taken themselves into the den. There was no sign of Amy and Ron, who tended to go to bed early and watch TV until they fell asleep. If Dave’s groupies could see him in his natural habitat, smelly socks and all, Jenna doubted they’d be quite so infatuated with him.

  “Horses are your area of expertise, right?”

  “They’re supposed to be, but—”

  “Then you are the perfect person to help the Morgans out. Firstly, they need to assemble a stable of rideable horses for the guests, and then they need to keep them healthy. You can start by helping them select good stock.”

  “I suppose I could,” Jenna said doubtfully. “But won’t it take up a lot of my time?”

  “Look, I know Dad’s stepping back, but—” Dave sat up, dislodging his huge feet from the coffee table. “If you want to stay and Faith decides she wants to practice here when she graduates, we’re going to need all the work we can get to justify employing three vets. Don’t get me wrong, we want you to stay, we love you, but if it comes down to it and we don’t have enough clients, Dad’s going to pick his own daughter over you.”

  Jenna nodded. One thing she really liked about Dave was his honesty. “Do you think Morgan Ranch could end up being a really lucrative client?”

  “Yeah, with the grass-fed cattle and the dude ranch? Definitely.”

  “Then I’d be happy to do whatever needs doing.”

  Dave winked at her. “Good girl. I’m not kidding, it could become a full-time job if the ranch does well.”

  Jenna clinked her mug against his. “As long as the younger Morgan brothers keep away, I think I’ll do just fine.”

  Chapter Two

  Blue sucked in a great big lung full of Morgan Ranch air.

  Home.

  The place that had kept him sane through all the years of deployments and the terror and boredom of modern warfare. Whenever it had gotten too much for him, he would let his mind wander to the lush green pastures, the craggy heights of the Sierra mountain range, and the crisp bite of the morning air.

  His still-healing ribs gave a twinge of
warning, and he carefully exhaled. Sure he’d thought he was leaving it all behind forever when he’d left to join the Marines, but all he’d done was make the place more vivid in his memories. The bad times were almost forgotten, and the good ones replayed endlessly when he needed a boost.

  Separating from the military was even harder than leaving home. He’d accumulated a lot of leave because for some reason Uncle Sam didn’t like soldiers taking a few days off in the middle of a war zone. He’d got five days at the ranch now, and then he had to go back to his desk for another week. He hated that desk so much he was thinking of setting it on fire on his last day.

  Sitting around on his ass had never worked well for him. He got up to mischief.

  He took a turn around the wooden porch, checking the dainty Victorian railings as he passed. On his last leave he’d repaired and painted the deck. Now he needed to start on the rest of it. Chase had offered to pay for a crew to come in and fix everything, but Blue preferred to do it himself. He needed to be busy, and he’d always found working with his hands very soothing.

  Ruth said the saying “the devil finds work for idle hands” had been written with Blue in mind. Even as a kid he’d always wanted to know how everything worked, a curiosity he’d taken with him into the Marines, which had gotten him into and out of some fairly hairy situations.

  “BB?”

  He turned to see Ruth at the kitchen door.

  “You want some bacon?”

  He grinned at her. “Roy’s pigs are already producing?”

  “Not yet. They need some fattening up first. Jenna says it will take a while.”

  Blue followed his grandmother inside the homely kitchen, where nothing much had changed since he was a kid. “Jenna McDonald’s taking care of the pigs?”

  “She’s taking care of most of the stock these days since Big Mac decided to retire. Although as Ron’s only in his late fifties, I don’t know what he plans to do with the rest of his life. Golf, I suppose. He and Amy love doing that. I’ve never fancied it myself. Walking around hitting a little ball with a stick into a hole.” Ruth went back to flipping bacon in the cast iron skillet. “Want some eggs?”