Hunter (Stud Ranch 2)

Hunter finished his inspection of Beauty’s hind legs and stood back up. “The swelling has gone down some. Keep her on stall rest. Just ten minutes of walking a day to work out any soreness.”

“Will do,” Jeremiah said.

“What a beautiful, brave horse you are,” Isobel murmured, stroking down her mane. Then she turned sharply to Jeremiah. “She won’t go back to those people, will she? Even if she gets better?”

It was Hunter who shook his head. “Once you meet Xavier, you’ll understand. He’s not a man who puts up with cruelty to horses.”

“From what I hear, it was a good thing Mel was with him,” Jeremiah said. “Xavier was ready to pound that guy into the ground.”

The more I heard about him, the more I liked Mel’s husband.

“All right, everything looks good.”

Hunter pulled open the package of another syringe. “Do you want to jump right in or would you like another demonstration?”

For a second, her gaze connected with Hunter’s light blue eyes and she felt a flash of the…whatever it was that was so strong and overpowering last night. She didn’t even have words to describe it.

He looked away almost instantly, though, and she swallowed against the disappointment.

Not what you need right now.

There. Those were some words to describe it.

She squared her shoulders. “I’m ready.”

Hunter nodded and held out the syringe.

“Here we go, girl,” Isobel said, pinching the skin below her withers. Isobel administered the shot without a hitch. “There we go. That wasn’t so bad.”

Hunter pointed to a small plastic sharps bucket he’d also brought and she deposited the used syringe.

“Beauty’s ready for you, Mack,” Jeremiah called.

Mack came over and, without a word to any of them, took Beauty’s reins.

“Remember no more than ten minutes letting her walk around,” Hunter said. “Then she’s back on stall rest.”

Mack nodded, his face never changing expression. At least until he took ahold of Beauty’s reins. Isobel saw him sneak her a sugar cube and whisper something in the mare’s ear right before they left the barn.

They continued vaccinating the horses in assembly line fashion, Jeremiah bringing the horses out, her preparing the syringe, Hunter looking over the general health of the horse, then Mack taking them out to pasture after the shot was administered. After another few horses, Nicholas joined them in the stable and started the arduous task of mucking out stalls of the horses who had already had their turn.

With so many horses, one of whom had an abscess that needed to be drained, it took several hours before they were finished. While Jeremiah and Hunter had bantered back and forth, Hunter hadn’t spoken to her directly again the entire time. Jeremiah tried to include her in their conversation and he’d occasionally direct a

question her way, but Hunter would just move around the horse and pretend she didn’t exist.

After they finished with the last of the horses and Hunter had packed up and was heading for his truck, she went after him. She waited until they were around the front of the house almost to their vehicles before jogging up to him and grabbing his arm. “Hey.”

His nostrils flared as he looked down at her hand on his forearm. She yanked her hand back. Just the feel of his skin seemed so intimate after everything they’d shared last night.

He stared down at her stone-faced. “Was there something you needed?”

Her mouth dropped open. “So that’s it? We’re just not going to say anything about what happened last night? Look, I’m sorry for how I left this morning.” She lifted her hands and shrugged. “I figured you were a guy and you know, I was doing you a favor by leaving without any big morning after scene.”

His whole body went tense at her words and he let out a short huff of air through his nose. “Consider last night forgotten.” His words were clipped. “I’m just your boss and you’re just my intern. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

He reached in his pocket and pulled out his keys and his wallet. Opening his wallet, he slipped out a white business card that was slightly worn around the edges. It read Natrona County Veterinary and then had Hunter’s name, phone number, and the clinic’s address.

“Come to think of it, the office really does need tidying up,” he said. “I can handle the rest of today’s calls by myself. Why don’t you head in, do some cleaning, and see if you can make heads or tails of the filing system.”