Her Four Cowboys

In all of her following me around, chattering and contradicting me about how I cared for my animals, she’d been right. More often than not, I was correcting my own work when she was still in high school, and I was doing my own studies late into the night, reading whatever discounted veterinary textbooks I could get online secondhand and shadowing Doc Boyd every time he came out to the ranch so that I could learn everything I possibly could.

I knew that the annoyances were going to be starting again any day now. Doc Boyd was getting up there. After all, and it wouldn’t be long before he’d have to officially retire from making house calls, and the thought of it was making my stomach twist uncomfortably.

“How’s it been at the clinic so far, Lucy?” I asked, crossing my arms and leaning forward, so that I could turn my attention to her fully.

When she turned her attention back to me, I was struck once more by the impression I’d gotten when I’d first walked in. The blonde woman sitting at the bar was one of the most attractive people I’d ever seen. I’d toyed with the idea of coming up with a decent come-on with which to approach the hot new girl in town… until she’d turned to face my little brother, and her identity had smacked me across the face.

There was a whole barrage of complicated thoughts swirling through my head as I thought of her whip-smart, know-it-all little sass-mouth contradicting me all over the ranch, and how furious it had made me. I thought of the few one-night stands I’d had over the last few years since my marriage to Katie had fallen apart, and how none of them—not a one—had made me feel like a single look out of Lucy’s challenging green eyes did.

She turned back to look at me, drawing her finger up the slender neck of her beer bottle with a deliberate gesture that made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Things have been good! Everything’s been so nuts since I got back here that I haven’t really had a chance to take on a big case from Doc, so it’s mostly been me settling in and learning the ropes.”

“It’s gotta be a big change from school, right?” I asked, settling in and fixing her with my own gaze, so that hopefully, she wouldn’t be able to see just how much her appearance had caught me off guard.

“Oh yeah, huge,” she said, nodding eagerly. “But that’s why I’m so thankful for my residency. I would’ve hated to come back here with no practical experience… not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t have been able to sit for my boards if I hadn’t had the hours.”

I nodded.

“Still,” she said, a completely earnest look on her pretty face, “I don’t think anything will ever compete with my first residency.”

I raised my eyebrow at her, unsure of what she was talking about before I turned to look at all of my brothers. The three of them looked back at me in equal confusion, with Adam going so far as to give me a little shrug.

“Following you around your parents’ ranch and figuring out what was going on with all of your horses,” she said, the serious mask finally cracking just a little bit as the corner of her mouth turned up in a quarter of a smile.

My brothers laughed, and I couldn’t help smiling in response. All of them remembered how aggravated I’d been at her effortless ability to prove me wrong every single time, even though she was years younger.

“Hey,” I said, holding up my hands in a surrendering shrug, “not all of us can be science prodigies. Didn’t you take AP Biology as a sophomore?”

“Maybe,” she said, taking a sip of her beer.

“That’s a yes,” Adam said, grinning. “I definitely wouldn’t have survived regular ol’ chemistry without you holding my hand through it. I think you practically did all of my lab reports.”

“Ah,” I said, looking over at my baby brother. “The truth finally comes out.”

“I did not do your lab reports, and I definitely didn’t take your finals for you,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I just… helped you out a little.”

“Are you really still worried about getting caught for helping me too much?” Adam said, reaching over and punching her softly on the shoulder. “Nerd.”

“I have literally never denied being a nerd,” she replied, primly lifting the bottle to her full lips and taking a sip. “In fact, I think that there have been more than a few occasions when I proudly proclaimed that I was a nerd for the whole grade to hear.”

I laughed. “I think I remember that, on more than one occasion. You weren’t shy about proving me wrong.”