Hunter (Stud Ranch 2)

She didn’t even know why he was being such an ass. She’d thought maybe he had a God complex and he treated all his interns this way. At least until last Monday when one of his former interns dropped by the clinic. He and Hunter had laughed together and sounded like best friends. In fact, with the receptionist, with clients, with everybody else in the universe that Hunter interacted with, he was the friendly, nice guy she’d first met at the bar.

Until it came to her.

She didn’t get it. Yeah, so she’d slept with him and okay, she hadn’t been one hundred percent transparent about where she was from when she first met him. But so what? Get over it already. They had a professional relationship and it was time he started treating her with the respect she deserved as his assistant.

She wanted to say all that to his face.

She’d been about to.

She really had.

But then they’d arrived at the Newton’s farm and she saw the gelding that was in pain from colic.

Colic was scary and life-threatening. It was a build up of gas in a horse’s stomach that they had no natural way to get out on their own. Isobel hated seeing the horse suffering. But it was something she felt confident she knew how to treat.

“I’m going to help you with this case,” she announced to Hunter as he grabbed the tubing and plunger from the equipment box at the back of his truck.

She was ready for an argument but all he did was toss her a big plastic bucket and say, “Okay.”

Infuriating man.

He hadn’t thrown her into the deep end on her own again. They’d actually worked together. He’d gloved up and then felt inside the back end of the horse, then gestured for her to do the same. She winced when she felt how much gas had built up inside the poor gelding. It felt like a bunch of balloons pressing against her arm.

Hunter let her feed the tubing up the horse’s nose and down into its stomach. He filled the bucket up with water.

Then she started flushing a mixture of water and mineral oil into the horse’s system. She had to hold the plunger and tubing over her head in order to get the leverage she needed since the horse was so tall. She worked until her arms were exhausted from holding them up. Then, without a word, Hunter took over.

They worked and worked while the owner held the horse’s reins. The horse was sweaty and his eyes were wide with pain. He stomped where he stood, trying to get relief. No gas was passing, though. One time he looked like he was going to go down and Hunter took over the reins, pulling at the horse until he came back to his feet. They both knew that if a horse went down with colic, chances of recovery diminished dramatically.

After several hours, there was nothing more they could do. They had to leave the horses and farmer behind to wait it out. It was a horrible feeling, driving away, not knowing if the horse would live or die.

Hunter hadn’t turned on the radio when they got back in the truck, so the ride had been silent for the hour-long drive home, both of them stinking of horse sweat and their clothes half-soaked with the water and mineral oil solution.

He’d pulled up in front of the clinic where her truck was parked.

She had opened her door and was about to step out when she paused. “Do you think he’ll be okay?”

Hunter just kept staring ahead out the windshield. “The horse or his owner?”

“Either. Both.”

Hunter shrugged briefly. “It’ll be a long night. It’s hard to say goodbye to the ones you love.”

She frowned. He said that like he had some experience with it.

“You getting out?” He finally turned her way, looking annoyed. “I don’t have all night.”

Her eyes narrowed and she held up her hands. “I’m gone.” She’d gotten out of the truck and slammed the door behind her.

She turned around so the shower spray blasted her face. God, she could use some ice cream. She’d grabbed a plate of steamed vegetables and some brown rice from the fare set up for dinner on her way upstairs and been proud of herself. Look how good I’m being. These pounds are going to keep flying off. Her fat pants were finally starting to fit more loosely with all the hard work and running around she was doing now.

But… ice cream.

She wondered if there was any left or if the boys had demolished it all already like last time. Mel shopped on Thursdays but that was no guarantee there’d be any ice cream left now that it was Friday.

She turned off the water and flipped her hair over to twist a towel around it. She dressed in record time, pulling on leggings and an oversized tee and socks. Then she jogged downstairs and toward the kitchen.

Maybe none would be left. Then there wouldn’t be any temptation. She’d already had her allotted sweets for the day. Two sticks of gum earlier. She didn’t need ice cream. That would blow all her extra ‘cheat’ calories for the week… and she’d sorta already spent them on Tuesday with the two Snickers bars she’d shoved in her face after an especially stressful afternoon of farm calls with Hunter.