Forgetting the past, facing the future

Stephanie Phillips is sick of charm. And Clint Morgan, the newest resident of Covenant Falls, has it in spades. Stephanie knows she should run the other way because the former Blackhawk pilot is too good-looking, too charismatic…and much too sexy.

As the town veterinarian, Stephanie has truly found her home here. Clint, on the other hand, is staying for only a short time while he recovers from an injury. But when he starts to fit seamlessly into the close-knit community, the irresistible risk-taker makes his way into her heart.

“What are you afraid of?” Clint asked in a low, gentle voice.

Stephanie couldn’t answer. She couldn’t say “you” because that would be admitting there was something there between them, something so strong that she still hadn’t moved when she should be running like hell.

“I don’t want to get involved with anyone,” she finally said.

“Why?”

“You’re here just for a short time,” she said, seeking a more logical reason than fear. “It makes no sense to start something. It’s not…practical.”

His fingers moved to the back of her neck again. “And you’re big on practicality?”

Go. Go. Go…

She swallowed hard, then summoning all the self-control she had left, she moved away from him and stood on trembling legs. “I try to be,” she said in what she feared was not a very convincing tone.

“I don’t give up easily,” he said.

Dear Reader,

When I first envisioned my previous book, The Soldier’s Promise (Mills & Boon Superromance April 2014), and created the fictional Colorado town of Covenant Falls, I thought it would be a stand-alone book, a story about a wounded soldier returning home and a military dog with PTSD and how they healed each other.

But I fell in love with the town and its citizens who believe baked goodies cure all ills, who have an infinite curiosity about newcomers and who band together in times of trouble. From Maude, who runs the diner, to Doc Bradley, the irascible town doctor, they did not want to go quietly into the night.

Most of all, I fell in love with Stephanie, the town’s veterinarian with the big but very cautious heart. It would take a very special guy to break the barriers she’d constructed against the opposite sex, and Clint Morgan, an army helicopter pilot with a mild traumatic brain injury, was just the man to do it as he tried to rebuild his life.

And no story in Covenant Falls would be complete without a cast of animals. Braveheart is back and plays no small part in matchmaking.

Enjoy!

Patricia Potter

Tempted by the Soldier

USA TODAY Bestselling Author

Patricia Potter

www.millsandboon.co.uk

PATRICIA POTTER is a bestselling and award-wining author of more than sixty books. Her Western romances and romantic suspense novels have received numerous awards, including an RT Book Reviews Storyteller of the Year Award, a Career Achievement Award for Western Historical Romance and a Best Hero of the Year Award. She is a seven-time RITA® Award finalist for RWA and a three-time Maggie Award winner. She is a past president of Romance Writers of America. Patricia is also a passionate animal lover, which is reflected in many of her books, but never more so than in her Covenant Falls series. She believes curiosity is the most important trait of any writer, and she’s often led far astray when researching a subject.

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Dedicated to the volunteers in our society, from the volunteer firefighters, to the search-and-rescue teams, to people who deliver meals to the homebound.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

Pueblo, Colorado

FASTER. FASTER. HE ran the gears, his foot heavy as he edged up to ninety miles an hour. The road ahead was straight and empty. Plains stretched in every direction. He relished the power of the used Corvette that had cost him nearly every penny he had and hundreds of hours of work.

The road was perfect for his purpose. Rarely, if ever used, it connected one Texas ghost town to another. A fellow chopper pilot, who was also a car enthusiast, had told him about it. A forty-mile strip of pavement from nowhere to nowhere.

He had finished restoring the car two weeks earlier. In ten days, he would be back in Afghanistan. This was his last chance to put the Corvette through its paces.

The sun danced and shimmered on the pavement ahead. His foot lightened on the gas pedal as the road took a turn and mounted an incline. An old battered truck appeared from nowhere, turning into... He slammed on the brakes...

Clint Morgan, former army warrant officer and military helicopter pilot, jerked awake as the bus stopped. It took him several seconds to realize where he was. Some place going to no place.

“Hey, mister,” the bus driver said. “Your stop.”

Clint reluctantly stepped through the open doors into the first day of the rest of his life.

He was the last passenger to leave the bus, an indication of his total lack of enthusiasm for his new reality. He glanced around. He had been told someone named Josh Manning, also a vet, would meet him at the bus in Pueblo. But Clint saw no former-military-looking guy.

Damn but he hated being dependent on a stranger, even a fellow vet. It was bad enough that occasional blackouts and blinding headaches kept him from driving, but the helplessness he felt now was searing. What in the hell was he doing standing here in the middle of nowhere on a blistering September day?

The other bus passengers quickly dispersed. He was alone with a large duffel at his side. As he contemplated his alternatives, which were few, a van roared onto the street and squeezed into a parking spot. A woman emerged and strode quickly toward him.

“Clinton Morgan?” she asked.

“Clint,” he corrected. This woman did not look like a Josh.

“Sorry to be late,” she said. “I hope you haven’t been here long.” She thrust out her hand. “I’m Stephanie.”

He took her hand, and her grip was as strong as his. She was nearly as tall as his own six feet. No makeup, but then she didn’t seem to need any. Her eyes were a dark blue, and her skin was tanned, the kind that came from working outdoors. Her hair was a mass of unruly rich copper curls, some of which escaped the braid that reached below her shoulders. Clad in jeans and a checkered cotton shirt splotched with dirt, her body was more lean than curved. Athletic.

“I volunteered to pick you up since I was inoculating some cattle not far away,” she continued. “I had a bit of a problem and ran late. Thus, my less-than-suitable chauffeur attire. I had planned to change and wash. I’m afraid I smell like cow and sweat.”

She said it all in a hurry and without apology, although her tone was friendly. Husky. Sexy as hell.

Things were looking up, even if the odor of cow was strong. He was intrigued. She was good-looking now, but add a bit of lipstick and a dress, and she would be striking.

“But a very pretty chauffeur,” he said with a grin that usually had a positive effect on the opposite sex.

The friendliness seeped from her eyes, replaced with something like wariness.

“Is the duffel all your luggage?” she asked, ignoring the compliment. Her question had a definite edge to it.

He felt duly kicked in the rear. “That and my laptop,” he said. “You learn to travel light in the army.”

She started for the duffel, but he beat her to it and hefted it over his shoulder.

Without another word, she led the way to the dusty red van with the words “Langford Animal Practice” on the door. “I hope you don’t mind dog hair,” she said in a businesslike tone. “My dog, Sherry, usually rides with me.”

“Fine with me. It’s not as if I’m going to the opera,” he quipped. “And I like dogs.” He went to the passenger’s side. The door was unlocked and he climbed inside.

“Darn good thing,” he heard her mutter in a barely audible voice.

Before he could respond, she started the van and roared out of the parking lot, obviously ignoring the thirty-miles-per-hour speed-limit sign. He glanced at her, but she concentrated on the road ahead. He admired a good driver, and she was that. He looked at the speedometer. The van had a hundred and fifty thousand plus miles on it, and she was going over the speed limit. Both said something about her.

He felt an immediate kinship. Interest sparked in him, the first since the accident that doomed his military career. He definitely wanted to know more about her. Particularly whether she was already taken. Not that he was interested in any long-term involvement. He sure as hell didn’t have anything to offer a woman. Struggling for conversation—strange as it usually came easier—he asked, “Are you the Langford in Langford Animal Practice?”

She shrugged. “I’m not Langford, but I do own the vet practice or at least the small part that’s paid off. I bought it from Tom Langford and never changed the name on the van. Never really saw a good reason to do it. I’m Stephanie Phillips.”

“Dr. Phillips?”

“No one calls me that. It’s just Stephanie.” Her tone seemed to cut off any other questions.

He took a deep breath and shifted restlessly. He ached to take her place at the wheel. Just as everything in him ached to reach for the controls of a chopper. Ached to be in the house he shared with other chopper pilots on the base or even a tent in Afghanistan. Sitting in a passenger seat, dependent on a driver—even an interesting woman—was his idea of hell.

He stared out at the plains spread out in front of him. Arid desert.

The blurb he had read online called this area of Colorado high desert. To him, it resembled parts of Iraq and Afghanistan. So did the heat.

“Is it always this warm?” he asked.

“This is a bit unusual. It’s usually in the low nineties in July and then starts going down. This year, it’s hanging around. It’s a bit cooler in Covenant Falls. We’re higher, altitudewise, from here, and the town is nestled next to the mountains.” Her tone was cool. It had lost something since he’d said she was pretty.

He shifted uncomfortably in the seat and stared ahead. He had been doing that a lot since leaving the hospital. The journey to Pueblo from Denver had been agonizingly long, or maybe it had just seemed that way. He had been a passenger on a plane, in a car and on a long-distance bus. Brutal. He yearned for his seat in a chopper, in controlling a complex machine that both protected and destroyed. He had been doing both for most of his adult life. Flying was his life. His identity. At gut level, being a pilot was who he was. Who he had been since he was seventeen.

Now he might never fly again. Or even drive a car. Worse, he didn’t have a goal for the first time in his life. A driving force. A purpose.

Stop it!

He was a fighter. Always had been. Since he was eight years old and his stepmother decided she didn’t want him in her house any longer, he’d looked ahead, determined to plot his own path.

“You’ll like the cabin,” Stephanie said, interrupting his thoughts. “Josh did a great job in rehabbing it.”

“I’m not sure how long I’m staying.”

She turned to him and gave him a wry smile. “Neither did Josh when he came. Covenant Falls can get to you.”

“Have you lived there long?”

“Five years, but even if I’d lived there twenty years, I would still be a newcomer. You should know that everyone is rather curious about new residents, and gossip spreads faster than a sky full of locusts.”

Her cell phone rang. The thunderous tone was the theme music from the movie The Magnificent Seven.

She glanced down at it, then steered to the side of the road and stopped the car. Quick questions. Something to do with a cow. When she hung up, she turned to him. “A short detour,” she said.

“Something wrong?”

“An ailing heifer. She’s not far from here. Shouldn’t take more than an hour. Okay?”

“Fine,” he said. He didn’t really have much choice. He was hitching a ride, after all. He was at the driver’s mercy. But he had to ask: “The Magnificent Seven? That’s an interesting ringtone.”

She shrugged.

“Dr. Phillips to the rescue?”

“Stephanie,” she reminded him.

“I beg your pardon,” he replied with a quick grin.

She frowned. “That’s not why I have it. I just like the tune. It’s hard to ignore. Very effective in cutting off conversations.”

Wry humor. It intrigued him. “You like cutting off conversations?”

“Inane ones, yes.”

Well, she had put him in his place. Neatly. Maybe Covenant Falls wouldn’t be as dull as he’d thought it would be. That prick of interest was expanding.

He tried another tactic. “What’s wrong with the cow?” he asked.

She shrugged. “A rancher says one of his heifers isn’t eating, which could mean a number of troubles. All bad. Like I said, the ranch isn’t far from here.”

It was an obvious though unspoken question.

Clint settled back. “I have nothing pressing in mind.”

“Good.” She turned back to the road. “I’ll call Josh and tell him we’ll be late. He’s going to meet us at the cabin to give you the keys and probably tell you the best way to piss off the town. He did a great job when he first came to Covenant Falls.”

Clint grinned. “Are you saying diplomacy is not one of his virtues?”

“You could say that, but he’s learning. Too bad.” There was amusement in her voice again. He was discovering she didn’t go out of her way to be diplomatic, either. He liked that. No bullshit. No false sympathy or concern.

He tried to remember exactly what Dr. Payne had said about the cabin and its owner.

The psychologist hadn’t been very forthcoming about the cabin or his new landlord, although he’d been good at prying into Clint’s life. Dr. Payne’s first visit had been to introduce himself and say he was available. The second had been two weeks before Clint’s discharge. He’d asked about his future plans, and the fact was, Clint had none.

He closed his eyes and thought of their meeting.

“No family?” the shrink had asked, and Clint suspected the man knew he’d had no visitors.

“No,” he said, but his records proved otherwise.

“No support system?”

“I don’t need one. It’s just a headache now and then.”

Dr. Payne stared at him. Waited. “Well, maybe you can do a favor for me, then. A friend of mine, a former patient here, is looking for someone to look after his cabin. He just married and moved in with his wife. He rehabbed the cabin after it was vandalized, and he doesn’t want it to happen again. It’s in a small town with a lot of veterans. You can walk to nearly every business in town, and there’s both a lake and mountains.”

“What’s the rent?”

“Just the utilities. And keeping it in good shape.”

“Where is it?”

“A little town named Covenant Falls in Colorado. It’ll give you time to decide what you want to do...”

Clint suspected there was more to it than that, but hell, he had nowhere else to go and Payne knew it. He couldn’t pilot or drive because of recurring blackouts. His career was over, even if the injury to his brain healed. There were too many young guys coming up behind him. And family? That was opening another can of worms. Despite some doubts, he’d accepted...

“We’re here.” Stephanie turned into a long driveway, drove past a sprawling ranch house and parked in front of the barn. She made a quick phone call, apparently to Josh, explaining there would be a slight delay in reaching the cabin. Then she turned to him. “You can stay inside the van if you want.”

No way. He was damned tired of being passive. He shook his head.

She eyed him speculatively. “Your clothes are a little fancy for a ranch.”

He looked at his chinos and dark blue polo shirt. They were new because he’d lost weight in the hospital. He kind of liked them. He also liked the comfortable loafers. A welcome relief from heavy combat boots. But fancy? Not in his wildest imagination.

Clint stepped out of the van and waited as Stephanie grabbed a medical bag, then they both strode over to a weathered-looking man who walked up to meet them.

“You got new help, Stephanie?” The rancher’s gaze measured Clint.

“Nope,” Stephanie said. “A passenger headed for Covenant Falls. Clint Morgan. A friend of Josh.” She turned to Clint. “This is Hardy Pearson. He breeds the best cattle in this part of Colorado.”

Hardy held out his hand. “The most troublesome, anyway. Good to meet you, son,” he said. Then he turned to Stephanie, his eyes worried.

“She’s in the barn. My best heifer. Hasn’t been eating. I’ve seen this twice before. Pretty sure it’s a twisted stomach.”

“How long since she ate?”

“She didn’t look good yesterday, and I brought her into the barn. I put hay out and she wouldn’t have any part of it. Can’t tell you how unusual that is.”

“Did she calve recently?”

“Three months ago.”

The questions and answers came quick. Clint observed the trust between the rancher and Stephanie. She was all efficiency as she threw him one question after another. He followed as Hardy led the way into a big barn where a large cow was tethered by a rope halter to a post. The animal stood on a pile of hay. Stephanie retrieved a stethoscope from the medical bag and examined the heifer’s stomach.

She glanced up at Hardy, “You were right. It’s a twisted stomach. The ping is definitely there. There’s a lot of gas.”

Hardy sighed. “What do you recommend?”

She hesitated. “I think we should roll her stomach. It might not work, and it could be dangerous for the heifer, but the alternatives are worse.”

“An operation would be just as dangerous, wouldn’t it?

She nodded. “And expensive.”

“Let’s roll ’er.”

“You got anyone else who can help?” she asked.

He shook his head. “My son’s at a cattle auction. And my wife’s been ailing.”

Two sets of eyes focused on Clint. He sensed that wasn’t a good thing.

“Sorry to hear that,” Stephanie said to Hardy even as she studied Clint. After a few seconds, she asked, “You game to help?”

“Help how?” he asked cautiously.

“Roll over that heifer. Putting it simply, she’s got three stomachs and one of them is in the wrong place. If it isn’t fixed, she’ll die.”

He hesitated, then shrugged. “What do I do?”

“We use some ropes to get her down. Then you help Hardy hold her down while I palpate her and move the wayward stomach into its rightful place. Then I suture it. Okay?”

He met her challenging gaze, then studied the cow. It was a damned big animal. Hell, he didn’t have anything to lose. He nodded. “I’m a city boy, but I’ll give it a go.”

She hesitated, tilting her head to the right. “Is there any medical reason you shouldn’t?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Hardy will help, but this really takes three bodies.” She looked at the old man. “Have a pair of muck boots he can use?”

The rancher nodded and hurried inside the house, returning with a pair of worn, heavy rubber boots. “Here, son, try these. Don’t want to get those new shoes messed up.”

Clint regarded the boots warily. Well, he’d worn worse. He removed his shoes and replaced them with the boots. What in the hell had he gotten himself into?

Stephanie crouched and ran her hands over the heifer’s belly. “We’ll do this together, girl,” she whispered. “You’ll feel better. Trust me.”

Her voice was surprisingly soft and gentle, and her hands stroked the cow’s stomach soothingly. Clint found himself envying the animal.

Stephanie and Hardy unwound a rope. She ran it under the cow and Hardy passed the end to Clint. Stephanie pulled it tight under the cow while Hardy stood at its side.

“We want to flip the heifer on its back,” she said.

Clint wasn’t sure about that. But when she said “flip,” he flipped the rope and felt a certain satisfaction when the heifer landed on her back.

Clint dodged two back hoofs.

“Tie them together and hold them,” Stephanie said. She palpated the stomach, then nodded to Hardy. “Place a knee on the abdomen. Not there, to the right. A little more to the right. Good.”

It took all of Clint’s strength to tie and hold on to the rear legs of a very unhappy and very big cow as Stephanie scrubbed an area of the stomach with what smelled like disinfectant. She gave the heifer a shot. “Antibiotic,” she explained. “And a local anesthesia. We should wait a few minutes until it starts to work. Can you two keep her in this position?”

Hardy nodded. Clint wasn’t so sure. The heifer wasn’t happy. She wanted up. He couldn’t blame her. It was an indelicate position. He dodged flailing legs. Barely. A damaged chopper was easier to hold steady than this cow.

After what seemed hours, Stephanie pulled on fresh medical gloves and took a deep breath. He remembered what she said about the procedure being dangerous.

She nodded at him. “Keep her steady.”

Hell of a lot easier said than done. She made a small, quick incision. Clint gagged as a nauseating odor escaped from the cow’s stomach, practically suffocating him. It was as bad a smell as any he’d experienced in Afghanistan. He held the cow’s legs tighter. He might not be able to do a lot of things, but, by damn, he could hold on to a cow. Hardy, a man twice his age and more, was doing just fine with his knee on the cow’s abdomen.

Stephanie palpated the heifer’s stomach, then sutured the wound before standing. She nodded to Hardy and turned to Clint. “You can let her go.”

As he did, the cow scrambled up, and before Clint could move out of the way, it stepped hard on the instep of his left foot. He fell, sprawling in the hay as his foot exploded in pain. “Damn!” The cow relieved herself on Clint’s leg, mooed indignantly and ambled away as if nothing had happened.

Hardy looked on in horror. “I’m real sorry, son. I’ve never known Isobel to kick. She’s a pretty docile heifer.”

“Can’t say I wouldn’t have kicked, too, if I was tackled, held down and had someone messing with my stomach,” Clint said. “Isobel, huh? I’ll have to be sure to avoid females named Isobel in the future.”

Stephanie looked stunned. “Dang,” she said. “Josh is going to kill me when he finds out what happened to you.”

Despite the pain, Clint started laughing. Two chopper crashes, several bullet wounds and a car crash, and he was ultimately felled by a cow. A heifer at that. No little irony here.

Unfortunately, it followed the current trajectory of his life.

CHAPTER TWO

STEPHANIE WAS APPALLED at the sight of her charge clutching his foot in the hay. His obviously new clothes were stained with cow urine, the last indignity the cow bestowed on him. The fact he was laughing made her inwardly groan. Laughing.

It was deep and rumbling, and that was the last thing she’d expected or wanted. He had to be the world’s best sport, and that annoyed her to no end.

Josh was not going to be happy with her. To be honest, she wasn’t happy with herself. Fine. She had to admit she’d felt a certain satisfaction in enlisting him to help. She and Hardy probably could have managed alone, although there was no question that her passenger had helped.

She sighed. Warning bells had sounded when she first saw him, standing alone on the street, a duffel next to him. Tall and lean with short dark hair, he had a definite presence.

Those bells really pealed when he’d grinned and said she was pretty. She was familiar with charm, too familiar, and this man had it written all over him. It had been in his smile, as well as the compliment, in the warmth of his voice even though she had been late picking him up, smelling like cow and dressed like a ranch hand. That charm scared her as little else did.

That was of no consequence now. Guilt weighed heavily on her, and she didn’t often feel that particular emotion. He had come here directly from a military hospital. He experienced blackouts, which was why he had needed a ride. Her friend Josh was reticent about what had happened to him, but then he was about everything. Maybe that’s what she had expected when she’d volunteered a ride: someone like Josh.

This man was nothing like Josh.

She knelt beside Clint and helped him remove his boot. Having experienced the same injury several times, she knew how painful it could be. His body tensed, and his lips pressed tightly together. He released a long breath when his foot was free, but no other sound escaped. He looked directly at Hardy and quipped, “If Isobel is usually docile, I would hate to see one of your cows that isn’t.”

Hardy chuckled. “You’re all right, boy,” he said.

Clint removed his sock and studied his injured foot. It was red and already swelling, but the skin hadn’t been broken. He touched the skin, feeling around, as he’d had some medical training.

“I’m really sorry,” she said, truly contrite now. She stripped the soiled gloves from her hands and pulled on clean ones from the bag, then she knelt next to him and examined his foot. “We’ll stop by the doctor when we reach Covenant Falls...” Her voice faltered. She was close to him, too close. His eyes were a rich, dark brown. Almost black. Challenging. Too challenging.

“No need,” he said. “I’ll be fine.”

She shook her head. “I want X-rays,” she insisted, trying to keep her voice steady. “I might lose two good friends if I don’t take care of you, and so far I haven’t done very well.”

“I’ve had a lot worse injuries,” he said. “Maybe not as humiliating. I have met the enemy, and it is Isobel.”

Stephanie couldn’t help but grin.

“You do smile,” he said.

“Occasionally,” she replied. “Can you stand? I’ve been stepped on several times. It’s an occupational hazard. I know how much it hurts.”

“But obviously not fatal.”

Dang, but he was getting to her. No. No. No.

She held out her hand. He took it, and heat ran through her like an electrical charge. He rose easily, even gracefully, although he gritted his teeth as he put weight on the injured foot. He took a step and nearly buckled, his face draining of color.

His clothes were filthy. Hay tangled in his hair and dirt smudged his face. He smelled like the wrong end of a cow.

Yet, he looked far more attractive now than he had standing in new clothes at the bus stop. The rueful half smile was all too beguiling.

Didn’t make any difference. She’d worked too hard to get to where she was today. She was a terrible judge of men. Twice, she’d allowed outward appearances to blind her. A third would prove her the fool she’d felt at the end of both of her marriages. Now she ran like hell when her body tingled with even a little initial attraction.

She couldn’t run right now. She had agreed to pick up Clint Morgan and now she felt responsible for what had just happened. Hell’s bells, she was responsible. Josh was not going to be pleased, and he and his wife were among the few people whose opinion she valued.

She inwardly shuddered as she thought about telling him. Josh planned to be waiting at the cabin. Now the meeting would be at a doctor’s office.

Hardy had watched with concern. “You’re welcome to come inside and clean up a bit,” he said.

Clint inspected his clothes, and his eyes lit up with mischief.

“I’m good,” he said. “Dr. Phillips and I will be a matched pair.”

She groaned. She looked almost as bad as her charge. “We’ll stop at the doctor’s office just to make sure nothing is broken.”

“Nothing is,” Clint assured her.

“I would rather have a doctor tell me that,” she replied stiffly. “I’m responsible...”

His gaze hardened. “You are not responsible. Hardy is not responsible. I’m responsible for being so damned clumsy. I volunteered, remember. I’m not a hothouse flower.”

Anger, mixed with frustration, laced his voice. She nodded, backing off. She well knew the frustration of feeling helpless.

“Okay. Can you get into the van?”

He nodded, then shook Hardy’s hand. “I hope you don’t have more problems with Isobel.”

Hardy grinned. “I’m afraid she needs a few lessons in gratitude. I, however, don’t. You need anything, you have a friend here.” He turned to Stephanie. “You should hire him. You could do a whole lot worse. And send me your bill for Isobel. Include any charges from Doc Bradley.”

She stared at him for a moment. Hardy was usually cantankerous and argued about every bill. “Will do.” She eyed Clint. “Need some help?”

“A shoulder, maybe,” he said, and she detected amusement in his eyes.

She was trapped. She suddenly wondered whether he sensed her reluctance and had used his foot as an excuse to touch her. But she had offered, and she owed him. She put her arm around him and together they hobbled to the van. “Maybe I should change,” he said, peering at the wet stains on his pants and wrinkling his nose at the accompanying foul odor. “I have clean pants in the duffel.”

Hardy had already headed for the ranch house. Had Clint waited until Hardy had returned to the house before making that decision? Maybe she was just too suspicious. “You can change in the back of the van,” she said. “I have a couple of calls to make.” She hesitated, then asked suspiciously, “Do you need any help?”

“Maybe to get into the van. Not to change,” he said with that oddly attractive upward turn of the left side of his lips. The half smile was crooked and endearing. Vulnerable. And as tempting as forbidden fruit.

She was in trouble. She needed to keep her distance from Clint Morgan. As soon as she helped him into the van, she closed the door without another word. She walked over to the fence, called Doc and told him she would be there in thirty minutes, then she called Josh for the second time.

“We’re a bit more delayed,” she said. “There’s been a little accident and I’m taking Mr. Morgan to Doc Bradley’s.”

A long silence at the other end, then, “What kind of ‘little’ accident?”

“A heifer stepped on his foot.”

Another silence.

“And...” Josh prompted, inviting a fuller explanation that she was loath to give over the phone.

“I’m pretty sure nothing is broken. Just want to be sure. He also...umm...kinda needs a bath.”

“What did you do, Stephanie?”

“You know Hardy Pearson. One of his cows was in trouble. A twisted stomach. Mr. Morgan offered to help. Isobel stepped on him.”

“Who in the hell is IsobeI?”

“The heifer. She’s one of Hardy’s prize breeding stock.”

Still another long silence. It was Josh’s quiet way to indicate he was not happy. “I’ll meet you at Doc Bradley’s,” he said finally and hung up.

Her passenger must have had enough time to change. Then she spotted the new-looking loafers near the fence. She picked them up and headed to the back of the van. She knocked. No way was she going to barge in.

The door opened. Clint Morgan hadn’t changed his soiled shirt, but now wore a new pair of khakis. His feet were covered only by socks, and his thick dark hair was rumpled, as if he’d just combed it with his fingers. His eyes were the color of rich dark coffee, and they appeared far more alive than before the heifer affair. Instead of reflecting pain, they practically danced with mischief.

An unwelcome warmth spread through her. She willed it away. She didn’t trust it. She didn’t trust him. Hell’s bells. She didn’t trust herself.

He stepped down on his good leg, then put an arm around her shoulder for the short hobble to the front of the van. Once again, she felt trapped. He was too close. Along with the lingering cow smell, she got a whiff of a tangy aftershave scent and, oddly enough, it was a sensuous mixture that probably only a vet would appreciate. His arm was warm. The air was also warm and getting warmer, and not just from the sun.

They made it to the passenger side, and he stepped inside, using the door handle for support. She handed his shoes to him and hurried around to the other side of the van. As she settled into the driver’s seat, she was too aware of him, much more so than during the trip to Hardy’s. She was afraid she liked him now. Liked the way he had laughed after Isobel kicked him and his quick quips with Hardy. She was fascinated by his subtle and not so subtle challenges.

Wow, she needed to get herself in hand. “I called the town’s doctor—Doc Bradley—and he’ll be waiting for us. Josh will be there.”

To take Clint Morgan off my hands.

His grin was just too potent. Whenever she saw handsome, smiling men nowadays, she searched for the treachery she was sure lurked within. Think Ted Bundy. Or her former husbands.

Clint Morgan was good-looking with a beguiling smile. Dark, slightly curly hair, dark eyes, strong cheekbones, a cleft in his chin and a slight wry turn to his lips. In short, Clinton Morgan raised every single one of her red flags. But she tried to reserve judgment. All she really knew about him was that he couldn’t drive because of his blackouts, and he was ex-military. Josh had been characteristically uncommunicative. Well, it was none of her business, nor the business of Covenant Falls.

She needed to keep it that way.

* * *

CLINT SAT BACK in the seat, shoved his good foot into a shoe and watched Stephanie drive. She drove with the same concentration she showed when treating the cow. He thought back to that moment she’d smiled. Openly. Not guarded as she had been since they met.

He’d thought her pretty before, but when she smiled, she was stunning. And when her blue eyes had darkened with concern while she examined his foot, he’d felt a tingling interest he hadn’t experienced in a long time.

Down, boy. He knew nothing about her. He had a pile of troubles at the moment. Plus, he wouldn’t be staying long. Just long enough to chart out a future.

But in that moment immediately after the cow had stepped on him and she’d knelt next to him, their eyes had clashed, challenging each other. It had made him feel alive for the first time since the car accident. Call it sexual attraction, awareness, or whatever, something was there, at least for him.

“I don’t need a doctor,” he said. “I’ve seen enough injuries to know this doesn’t even count as a pinprick.”

“Then you didn’t need my shoulder?”

She had him there. His foot hurt like hell, but he probably could have walked on his own. He just hadn’t been able to resist the offer. “It helped,” he said, somewhat lamely.

A small smile started on her lips, then faded. “We are going. So far my track record in seeing you safely to Covenant Falls is near zero.”

Was she being adamant because of this Josh? She’d made it clear she valued the opinion of his benefactor more than his. It was rather a blow to his pride, but then except for that one extraordinary moment on the ground, she’d been stilted since they’d met. It was as if she knew something about him, something she didn’t particularly like. The reason he’d left the army? That he failed his buddies for a dumb stunt?

At least he hadn’t had a blackout during the afternoon. He didn’t know what triggered them. The doctor suggested tension, anxiety, but they occurred at other times, as well. The only warning was a god-awful headache.

“I really am sorry,” she said, breaking into his thoughts. “I shouldn’t have asked you to help. You haven’t much experience with animals, have you?”

He shrugged. “It felt good to be doing something useful, even holding two legs of a reluctant cow.” He stayed silent for a moment, then said, “Tell me about Josh Manning. All I know is he’s a vet, not to be confused with your kind of vet.”

“He’s a good guy. He’s one of about three people whose opinion I respect.”

Clint raised an eyebrow. “That’s not very many.”

“I’ve been here only five years,” she said with a trace of a grin. It was the first time she’d lowered her guard with him. He knew about that. He had his own walls and recognized them in others.

“Just what does he want? Why is he doing this?”

“Josh inherited the cabin from a fallen friend, a fellow soldier, and rehabbed it. It was a mess when he arrived. Time and partying kids had pretty well destroyed it. He worked like hell to fix it, and he doesn’t want it to fall into disrepair again.”

“Couldn’t he rent it?”

“Covenant Falls isn’t exactly on the tourism map,” Stephanie said. “Josh and his wife hope to change that, but in the meantime, he wants someone to use it, and who better than a vet.”

“And the town?” Clint asked. “I looked it up. It’s pretty small.”

“It is. And quite elderly on the whole. A little over three thousand people spread over a large space. Most have lived there all their lives.”

“Where are you from?”

Her lips tightened. “Pennsylvania. Once upon a time.”

“What brought you here?”

“What brought you to the army?”

A deflection. Interesting. But then everything about her was interesting. Contradictory. There was a standoffishness, a message that said “hands off,” yet she had been very easy with the rancher. And his being stomped on by a heifer had apparently broken through some kind of barrier. She wasn’t a bundle of warmth, but she was communicative. Progress.

He shrugged. “I wanted to fly. The army was the fastest and cheapest way to do that.”

“Risky, though.”

“Not if you know what you’re doing.”

“What did you fly?”

“Choppers. Black Hawks mostly.”

“How long?”

“Seventeen years.”

He waited for the next question. Why had he left? It didn’t come, which either meant she wasn’t interested or she already knew. He tried to tamp his growing interest in her. He couldn’t even get from point A to point B without help. It was galling. He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. His foot throbbed, but it was a minor annoyance. It was the emptiness ahead that was agonizing.

* * *

WHY HAD SHE asked so many questions? It only invited more conversation and questions of his own.

Still, curiosity tickled her. She glanced at him. His eyes were closed. Resting? Dang it, but he was...

Remember your first reaction. That smile. The compliment. Remember Mark’s smile.

Still, it was her fault he was injured. She’d needed him, true, but she and Hardy could have handled the cow alone. It would have taken longer, been riskier. She hadn’t truly given Clint a choice, though, knowing full well she had challenged him. She’d known he would take it, having judged in the first few minutes of their meeting that he couldn’t ignore a challenge. However, she hadn’t expected him to get stomped on and, when he had been, to laugh.

Her passenger stirred as she slowed and she wondered whether he had been feigning sleep. Either way, it was fine with her. As soon as she delivered him, even if not totally intact, to Josh, the happier she would be. He was...disturbing. She pushed aside any notion of being attracted to him. She was just...worried about that foot. She had made conversation to keep his mind from it. Didn’t mean anything.

As she pulled in front of the doctor’s office, she noticed Josh’s Jeep. He had probably decided to see for himself how much damage had been done. It never ceased to amaze her how he had gone from being the angry loner to one of the town’s best liked citizens. Her friend, Eve, was much better at magic than she’d ever been.

Clint straightened up and blinked at her. He glanced around at Main Street, and the two-story building flanked by businesses. A sign proclaimed it the “Covenant Falls Medical Clinic.” Josh Manning leaned against a wall.

She cut the engine. “That’s Josh. He can help you inside.”

“I would rather you did,” he said. “I’m becoming accustomed to your shoulder.”

She had to smile. His quirky, self-deprecating sense of humor was appealing. “I expect Josh will be more help than I was.”

He gave her a long steady look. No smile. Just a glance that seemed to see right through her. Then he nodded. “I appreciate the ride, ma’am.”

She knew that “ma’am” was a common address to women by soldiers. It also distanced them. Huh. He hadn’t been resting at all. He opened the passenger door as she stepped out of the van. Josh approached them, introduced himself to Clint and offered his arm. Josh nodded to her, and she mouthed “Sorry.” They headed inside and she fought the urge to go with them. She overcame it and hurried to her office down the street. Guilt and confusion swamped her. She should have stayed with him.

She went inside the reception area, and her golden retriever, Sherry, frantically wagged her tail in welcome. Stephanie leaned down and gave her dog a big hug. “Missed you,” she said.

“She hasn’t moved from the window since you left,” Beth, her vet tech, said. “What is the new guy like?”

“Pleasant enough.” And because she knew everyone in town would shortly know what happened at the ranch, she told Beth about Clint and the cow.

“By one of Hardy’s? I hope he didn’t hurt him.”

“She. A heifer, but a rather large one. But it’s just a minor wound, I think. Josh is with him now at Doc’s office.”

“Oh my,” Beth said. “Is he anything like Josh?”

“No, not at all. Were there any calls?”

Beth got the message and didn’t ask any more questions. “Some appointments for tomorrow, Wednesday. Annual shots and physicals. Thurday and Friday are pretty booked up, too. Mr. Crane called about this weekend’s search-and-rescue training program.”

“Thanks.” She looked at her watch. Nearly six. “Why don’t you go home? I have a few things to do here.”

Beth nodded, then obviously couldn’t restrain herself from asking one more question. “The new guy...is he married?”

“I’m pretty sure he isn’t.”

“Good-looking?”

“Some might think so.”

“Maybe I should take him a casserole.”

Stephanie sighed. Beth was nineteen and pretty. She was smart and liked both people and animals, and they liked her, which were great qualities for a vet tech. But Beth had made no secret that her life goal was marriage and a houseful of kids.

She, on the other hand, was never, ever going to marry again. She was a terrible judge of character, at least in the husband department, and now she treasured her independence. Never again would she lose control of her own life.

“I would give him a few days,” she said, refraining from saying Beth was too young for their newest resident. Or maybe not. What did she know about the man’s tastes?

She waited until Beth left, then checked on two dogs that were boarding at the clinic. She completed some paperwork and ordered more medicine. She couldn’t concentrate. She shouldn’t have just left Clint with the doctor, no matter how...disconcerted he made her.

The tune from The Music Man popped into her head.

Something about trouble coming to River City.

Or maybe Covenant Falls.

CHAPTER THREE

“NOTHING’S BROKEN,” CLINT insisted to the elderly doctor.

“You a doctor?” the man asked.

“No, but...”

“I’ll get my supper a whole lot quicker if you just answer my questions. Leave it to Stephanie to come in after hours,” he groused.

“You know you’re her biggest fan,” Josh Manning said. “She certainly helps your bottom line.”

Doc Bradley muttered something Clint couldn’t hear, but he didn’t think it was gratitude. An older woman in scrubs decorated with tiny smiling elephants wheeled him into a treatment room where the doctor examined Clint’s foot. “I want an X-ray,” he said when he finished. “Janie, my nurse, will take you.”

Ten minutes later, the doctor came into the dark, tiny X-ray room and studied the film. Then he wheeled Clint into a third room. It was small, made smaller by the bookcase full of books and a large file cabinet. Several diplomas decorated the wall, along with a painting of a waterfall.

Doc Bradley pulled a chair next to Clint. “No break, but it’s badly bruised and going to be even more painful tomorrow. Probably worse the next day. Are you taking any medications?”

Clint handed him the pills he always kept near him. The doctor looked at the bottle, then asked, “Do you have your medical records with you?”

“They’re in my duffel and that’s in Stephanie’s truck, but basically I was injured in a car accident. Mild traumatic brain injury, they told me. I have blackouts, usually preceded by headaches.”

“Bad ones, I take it.”

Clint nodded.

“As strong and frequent now as they were just after the injury?”

“Afraid so.”

“Any other injuries?

“Nothing of any importance.”

“Why don’t you let me decide that,” Doc Bradley said.

“Two bullet wounds. Neither hit anything major. Some broken bones after a chopper crash. My knees took a beating at the same time I had the brain injury.”

The doctor nodded and took a paper from the desk. “If you want me to be your doctor—and since I’m the only one in town you don’t have much choice—you can sign that paper giving me permission to obtain your records from your former doctor.”

Clint liked him. No nonsense. Not much bedside manner. He approved. “I do, at least, as long as I’m going to be here. Not sure how long that will be.” He scrawled his signature.

“That’s what Josh told me when he first came here, and I think he’s here for good.”

Clint shrugged. It was the second time he’d heard that, but then, he wasn’t Josh Manning.

“In any event, I’m giving you an anti-inflammatory and some pain medication. Not as strong as the pills you have now. Stay off the foot as much as possible and use ice packs on it. I have a spare pair of crutches. You can bring them back when they’re not needed. I’m available at any time. Just ask Stephanie.” There was a humor in his voice that belied real annoyance.

He wheeled Clint back into his office where Josh Manning waited. “I have free samples of both medications and I’ll be back with the crutches,” he said and disappeared into the examining room.

Manning, who had been sitting on a chair in the reception area, stood.

“It’s just a bruise,” Clint said. “No big deal.”

“Bad enough,” Manning said. “I’m damned sorry about that. You probably want to run for the hills right now. I wanted to do that when I landed in Covenant Falls, even without being stomped by a cow.”

Clint shrugged. “Don’t blame Stephanie. I offered to help. I chalk it down to a new experience. A close encounter of the bovine kind.”

Manning grinned. “I was going to ask you to have supper with my family tonight, but now you probably just want to get to the cabin. There’s plenty of food there, although my invitation is still good. I have to warn you, though, it could be chaotic.”

“Chaotic? That sounds about right today.”

“Well there’s five dogs, one very curious and bright boy who will ask a million questions, and my wife, the mayor, who will try to convince you that Covenant Falls is heaven on earth.”

“And is it?”

“Depends on your viewpoint,” Manning said. “I’m sort of leaning in that direction after a rocky start.”

Stephanie appeared then with a dog, a golden retriever, at her side. She also carried his duffel and his other shoe.

“Sherry?” Clint asked, and the dog’s entire rear wriggled with delight at the sound of her name.

Stephanie’s eyes widened. Perhaps she was surprised he had remembered her dog’s name. In truth, he recalled every word of conversation since she had met him at the bus stop. He stuck out his hand and Sherry sniffed it, then held out a paw.

Clint took the paw and shook it. He’d always liked dogs, but at private schools it was a definite no-no, and in the service, he’d never felt it fair to have one.

Stephanie tilted her head as Sherry stayed close to him. Had she expected the dog to dislike him? He’d obviously made a poor impression on her, and that puzzled him.

“I brought your duffel,” she said. “Josh had planned to meet you and show you the cabin, and so I thought...he could drive you there.”

So, she was dumping him. “I appreciate the ride. It certainly ranks among the most interesting I’ve ever had.”

She gave him one of those rare smiles, but it disappeared almost immediately. “Interesting, huh? I’ll call you the next time I have to roll a cow.”

“Do that,” he challenged.

She turned him to Josh. “I leave him in your hands.”

The doctor returned, holding a pair of crutches and two pill bottles and a business card. “Call me if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Doc,” Stephanie said. “Send me the bill. Hardy said he would pay it.”

She started for the door, Sherry at her side, then glanced over her shoulder, smiling. “Thanks for being a good sport. I really am sorry.” Before he could answer, she was out the door.

Josh frowned, then picked up both the duffel and shoe. “Can you manage with the crutches?”

“Sure.”

“What about that dinner?”

Suddenly, Clint was exhausted. His body ached. His mind was fuzzy. He hadn’t slept much in the past two days, and he knew lack of sleep often brought on the headaches. “Can I take a rain check?”

“Sure. I’ll drive you to the cabin. My wife insisted on stocking it with food, including some chili that just needs heating. There’s also a roasted chicken, cold cuts and some sliced veggies. Eve was appalled at my eating habits when I first moved there.”

“Sounds good. Better than good. Please thank her for me.”

“I added a six pack of beer. Are you okay to drink it or...?”

“If I’m not taking medicine for headaches, I’m fine. And I don’t take it unless I feel one coming on. One or two beers is okay.”

Josh nodded. “My Jeep is just outside.”

The ride to the cabin was short. Clint watched carefully as the Jeep continued down what appeared to be the main street.

“That’s Maude’s on the corner,” Josh said. “Best steaks in town. Hell, best steaks in this half of Colorado, and Maude will adopt you if you give her a chance. The city hall is on the left. The police department is there, as well. This street runs into a park that backs the lake. There’s also a combination recreation center and library in the park. The cabin is on the far side of the lake. There’s some good fishing there.” He paused, then added. “You can walk to all of it when your foot is better. In the meantime, I’m a call away.”

Clint wasn’t sure how to respond. He hated being dependent, but right now any place was better than the military hospital where he’d felt a fraud.

Most patients had been wounded in battle; he was there because of a stupid whim. “I want to pay rent for however long I stay,” he said.

Josh was silent as he turned down a road that bordered the lake, then pulled into a driveway shaded by pines. He parked, and Clint struggled to his feet with the crutches and hobbled toward his temporary residence. He had envisioned something small and rough, but this cabin was far more than that. Larger. More...picturesque. A wide screened porch stretched across the front.

A throbbing began in his head. All he wanted was to get inside and lie down. He followed Josh inside the screened-in porch and his new landlord unlocked the door.

He made his way inside. Whoa. Unlike the simple cabin he’d envisioned, he walked into a spacious room anchored by a huge rock fireplace. A large leather sofa and two matching chairs were placed around it, and a small dining room table with four chairs was located next to a set of windows.

“There’s two bedrooms and a bathroom down the hall,” Josh said. “The kitchen is on the left.” He led the way down the hall to a bedroom and placed the duffel on a double bed that was already made.

He looked at Clint with concern. “Are you okay?”

“I will be,” Clint said, the throbbing increasing.

“Do you have a cell phone?”

“Yes.”

“Mind giving me the number?”

Clint did and Josh handed him a card. “Here’s mine. Call me if you need anything.”

The headache was on its way to pounding. He needed a pill. And fast.

“Any rules?” he asked.

“Nope. I have a suggestion, though. Your doctor in Texas said you have blackouts. Since you’re alone here, why don’t you give me a call every morning, any time. I know when I moved here, I didn’t want anything to do with anyone. Only wanted to crawl under a rock. So you just tell me to back off anytime you feel crowded. Okay?”

Clint nodded. “Why don’t you just rent this place?”

“It’s not mine,” he said. “Maybe on paper it is, but it was willed to me by a friend who died in Afghanistan. This is what he would have wanted, a refuge for vets. It was that for me. And that’s probably the last time I’ll talk about it.”

“I want to pay something.”

“I won’t take money, but you can build a dock down on the lake. I planned to do it but ran out of time.”

The headache was getting worse. “I can do that.”

Josh gave him a searching look. “Can I do anything before I leave?”

“No, thanks.”

“Call me or Doc Bradley if you need anything. Don’t forget about the food in the fridge.” After Josh left, Clint used the crutches to get to the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water and swallowed a pill. He hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, but he didn’t think he could eat anything now. Using only one crutch so he could carry the glass of water, he made his way to the bedroom and sat down on the bed. He fought the headache by reviewing the day. The ups and downs. The downs were definitely the bus ride and being kicked by a cow. The up was Stephanie, although she obviously didn’t consider him an “up.”

Was that part of the attraction? He was rarely rebuffed by women, and he definitely had been this afternoon. She had bristled almost immediately at the bus stop. Her gentleness with the cow and easy friendliness with the rancher contrasted with her brusque manner with him. Puzzling, especially since he’d liked her instantly. Maybe it was her slow, reluctant smile. Or the fire he suspected lay under the icy exterior.

Just as well she didn’t return the interest. He sure as hell wasn’t ready for a heavy-duty involvement. He had damn few assets. A vanished career, a brain that didn’t work right, a near-empty bank account and now a bruised foot...

He closed his eyes. He was dead-tired physically. He’d had damned little sleep since he’d left the hospital yesterday. But then again, he’d gone days without sleep as a chopper pilot...

The sun danced and shimmered on the pavement ahead. His foot lightened on the pedal as the road took a turn and mounted an incline. An old battered truck appeared from nowhere, turning into... He slammed on the brakes...

He woke suddenly. The end of the nightmare was always the same. It was the last thing he remembered before waking up days later in the hospital. One moment that changed his life. That haunted him.

For several seconds, Clint couldn’t remember where he was. He was in a strange room in a strange house in a strange town. The glowing numbers on the clock next to the bed told him it was three thirty in the morning. He had slept longer than usual.

He reached around in the dark and turned on the bedside lamp. He still wore yesterday’s clothes. The shirt still smelled of cow. The pounding headache was a memory, but a dullness remained.

Had yesterday really happened? The weird afternoon. The pretty veterinarian who intrigued him. Was it real? Or another of the crazy dreams that plagued him since the accident. The pain in his right foot told him it was, indeed, real.

It still throbbed, but he was damned thirsty and the water glass next to the clock was empty. He was also ravenous. He placed his good foot on the floor, then the injured one. He could put some weight on it now, but he had learned recently that caution was a good thing.

Clint grabbed the crutch and hobbled out of the bedroom and down the hall, turning on lights as he went. He entered the kitchen and looked in the fridge.

It was full as promised: a whole roasted chicken on a plate, a casserole dish probably filled with the chili, packages of cheese and ham, a quart of milk and veggies. A loaf of bread sat on the counter.

He opted for a ham and cheese sandwich, which was easier to handle than a whole chicken. With one hand, he made a fat sandwich and took it to a chair in the living room, then returned for a glass of milk.

He surveyed the cabin. He hadn’t noticed everything yesterday afternoon. He’d been too worried that the headache would spiral into a blackout. But he felt better now, and he looked around with interest. The walls were newly painted—a soft sand shade—and the wood floor was partly covered with a colorful Indian rug. Light from the moon filtered through the windows.

Clint hobbled to a window and peered out. There was enough light to see a backyard with a large stone barbecue pit, and behind that the lot steepened into woods.

Loneliness hit him like a sledgehammer. He’d lost his friends, his community, even his identity. He was used to being in a crowd, the life of any party. At the base, he’d shared a house with three other pilots, and in Afghanistan, he’d shared a large tent. He was used to noise, people coming and going, laughter, clowning, sharing harrowing stories, which made them less painful.

After learning he probably wouldn’t fly again, certainly not in the near future, he had assessed possibilities. He was good at mechanics. He had accrued credits at the University of Maryland in computer engineering, although he was about twenty hours short of a degree. People generally liked him. He had learned to compensate for the loneliness and rejection he’d felt as a boy by being gregarious. He wasn’t sure whether it was learned or natural, but he was usually comfortable with others, and they with him.

Dr. Stephanie Phillips was an exception. He pictured her in his mind: her deep blue eyes and copper hair tied back, the high cheekbones and full mouth. And grace. Despite her height, or maybe because of it, she moved with the grace of an athlete. She was a natural beauty who seemed totally unaware of it. Or even contemptuous of it.

He thought about looking her up on his laptop to see what he might find, then realized it wasn’t with him. He rarely forgot it, but he’d been distracted and left it tucked next to his seat in the van.

A good excuse to call her tomorrow.

CHAPTER FOUR

STEPHANIE WAS FEEDING her two canine boarders when the phone in her office rang. She glanced at her watch. Seven thirty. She looked down at the ID display.

She didn’t answer “Unavailable” or “Name unknown” or “Anonymous,” all tactics her ex-husband had used.

But it was none of those. Instead, the ID reported “C. Morgan.” She muttered an oath, disliking the treasonable reaction of her body, the sudden warmth that crept up her spine. She could ignore him, but doing so would give him power. She knew all about that kind of thing.

Stephanie had worked too hard to let anyone knowingly or unknowingly dictate what she would or would not do.

She picked up the phone. “Mr. Morgan.”

“Clint,” he insisted. “Surely, my adventure with Isobel elevates me above the ‘Mr.’ status.”

She couldn’t resist his self-deprecating charm, dang it. “Clint, then.”

“Next time, too,” he teased. “No more Mr. Morgan. I don’t answer to that.” Then his tone changed. “I hope I didn’t wake you, but I left my laptop in your truck, and right now, it’s my world. I figured a veterinarian would be up early.”

He’d figured right. In fact, she’d been up at six after a restless night. She couldn’t get him out of her mind. She’d gone over the afternoon a dozen times trying to find something out of kilter, something wrong, some sign of a major character flaw.

Maybe he was a stalker. She hadn’t given him her number.

But she certainly owed him a few minutes of time this morning. Beth would arrive at 8:30 a.m. Her first appointment was at nine. It would take her maybe fifteen minutes to deliver the laptop.

“Where is the laptop?” she asked.

“I left it down the side of the seat,” he said.

She had little choice. She owed him. She had practically thrown him out of her van yesterday.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.” She hung up before he could answer.

She looked at her clothes. Jeans and a blue shirt. Good enough.

She thought about lipstick, but discarded the idea. She hadn’t had time to refresh it yesterday before picking him up and if she wore some today, he might think it was for him.

Why on God’s earth was she even thinking about him? She finished feeding the boarders and found her keys. Her dogs, Sherry and her brother, Stryker, looked at her anxiously.

“Okay,” she said. “You both can go.”

Their entire bodies wagged with delight as they followed her out the back door, then through the fence gate to the driveway where she parked the van. The dogs jumped inside, Sherry taking the passenger seat and Stryker edging behind the seat. She found the laptop lodged tightly between the seats. No wonder she hadn’t noticed it.

For a moment, she wondered whether he left it there on purpose, but why would he? He certainly had reasons to be distracted. Injured vet. New town. New home. Bruised foot. She pictured him again in her head. He was maybe in his midthirties, possibly a year or two younger than she. She had no idea—Josh had been as reticent about Clint Morgan as he had been about himself.

She didn’t need to know more. She wasn’t interested. She had Sherry, a trained search-and-rescue dog, and Stryker, a rescue dog in training. She had a horse stabled at Eve and Josh’s ranch and loved riding on Sunday mornings and whenever else she had time. She had a satisfying practice that paid the bills.

Living quarters? She lived in the apartment above the practice. It was spacious, practical and cheap, and she didn’t need more. It was good to have someone in residence while boarding other people’s pets. Her fenced backyard served as an adventure land for dogs with an agility track, balls and pull toys.

Life on the whole was good. More than good. She had no intention of changing it.

Why did she think this newcomer could change it? He was nothing more than a passing stranger. She had learned hard lessons, and she damned well wasn’t going to forget them. Still, she had slept terribly last night. Clint’s warm dark eyes constantly interrupted it.

She drove slowly, so slowly it took her more than the ten minutes she’d promised. It seemed strange to drive to the cabin that Josh Manning had made his own. She remembered the first time she had met Amos, Josh’s ex-military dog with a bad case of PTSD. It was seeing Josh with the dog that convinced her most of the rest of town was wrong about him...

She grabbed the laptop and stepped out of the truck. Sherry and Stryker waited until she gave them permission to jump out.

Clint sat on a swing in the screen porch, a cup in his hand. A crutch leaned on the wall behind him. He started to get up.

All he needed was to be knocked down by her dogs, compounding her sins against him. Still, Stryker and Sherry were well mannered. They were protection, a distraction against...against what?

“Come on, guys.” They followed her to the porch. Clint Morgan was standing when she reached the steps.

“I wish you wouldn’t stand,” she said. “I suspect Doc told you to stay off that foot.”

“Did you stay off your feet?” he asked. “You said it had happened to you several times.”

“No,” she admitted. “But I had patients to care for.”

A shadow crossed his face, then vanished so quickly she wondered whether she’d imagined it.

His gaze left her face and went to the dogs. Sherry pushed her way to him and held out her paw. He took it, then turned to Stryker. “Who is this?”

“Sherry’s brother, Stryker.”

Clint sat back in the swing and offered his hand to Stryker, who sniffed it suspiciously, then wagged his tail slowly.

“There’s coffee in the pot inside,” Clint said as Stryker moved back to her side.

“I can’t stay. I have patients.”

“Can you refill my cup, then? It’s not easy to carry...”

She would swear she saw a twinkle in his eye, but how could she say no? So much for running in with the laptop and leaving. Then she noticed it was still in her hands. “Where do you want this?”

“The table in the living room is near a plug, and I’m sure the batteries need charging.”

She opened the door, turned back when the dogs started to follow. “Stay,” she told the two dogs who promptly sat next to her nemesis.

“And would you put some bread in the toaster?”

Now she knew. Payback for the cow.

But she did as he asked. The sooner she did, the quicker she could leave. Cow or not, there was a limit. She hurried inside before he thought of another errand. She placed the laptop on the table, found an outlet and plugged it in. She strode into the kitchen. A major inroad had been made in the open loaf of bread. An open package of cheese lay next to it, along with two dirty dishes and two empty glasses.

She tucked two pieces of bread in a toaster and washed dishes while she waited for them to toast. The kitchen was well stocked with appliances. Josh had probably left behind all the stuff he’d bought for the cabin when he moved in with Eve. She wondered what Eve would think of the newcomer. Most likely, she wouldn’t share her own misgivings. Eve liked everyone, and everyone liked Eve.

The toast popped up. She buttered the two pieces, filled a cup with coffee and took both outside.

“Thank you,” he said. “While you’re here, could you also bring the jar of jam in the fridge?” This time he made no attempt to disguise his amusement.

She gritted her teeth and returned to the kitchen, found the jam. She grabbed a knife to go with it, and returned to the porch. He gave her a bland look as he scratched Stryker’s ears who, in turn, groaned in delight.

Traitor.

“I appreciate you bringing the dogs,” he said. “A friendly tail is welcome.”

She didn’t know whether it was a rebuke or whether she imagined it. “You’ve had dogs?” He seemed so natural with her two.

“Nope. Always wanted one, but I was never any place long enough.”

“Not even as a kid?”

The shadow returned to his face. “No,” he said without elaborating.

She hated that his answers were so...uninformative. That part of him was like Josh although the delivery was softer.

She was curious despite herself. “Are you from the west? I can’t place your accent.”

“No, but I did some survival training here. I like the mountains.”

He obviously wasn’t going to say anything more. “I have to go,” she said. “Four-legged patients.”

He nodded. “Thanks for bringing the laptop. And breakfast.”

Stephanie decided to leave before he wanted anything else. “Sherry, Stryker, come.” She opened the porch door.

Sherry glanced back at Clint as if reluctant to leave, then trotted toward the van. The dogs jumped inside and Stephanie drove off without looking back.

* * *

CLINT WATCHED THE VAN disappear between the tall pines that lined the dirt drive. The lake was just barely visible. To the left were the mountains. It was cool this morning, and the scent of pine freshened the air. It was, in a word, peaceful.

Stephanie had certainly spiced it. Something about her challenged him, and he hadn’t realized how badly he needed a challenge. He’d drifted since the morning he’d awakened from a coma and discovered he might never fly again. He hadn’t been willing to explore a future without it. He’d refused to make plans.

Dr. Payne had pried and prodded, suggesting he contact his father. The shrink knew from Clint’s record that Frank Morgan was alive. But he wasn’t alive to Clint and never would be. He hadn’t talked to him since he was eighteen. A far as he knew, his father had never tried to contact him, either.

He wanted nothing to do with him now.

But now it was time to stop feeling sorry for himself. What was done was done, and he needed to decide his next step. He’d had a plan before the accident: obtain a degree in computer engineering and eventually work in helicopter computer systems. He was damned good at operation and repair. Better than most of the chopper mechanics. Now he didn’t know whether he could work around choppers without flying.

Maybe he would switch to computer programming. In any event, the enrollment for online sessions at the University of Maryland was over. He would have to wait for the next quarter.

He hobbled back inside and opened his laptop to check emails. There were a number from pilots in his unit in Afghanistan. No losses, thank God, but some close calls. A woman had joined their unit as a pilot. She wasn’t the first, but it was still a novelty. The weather was fierce as usual, hot as hell during the day and freezing cold at night. They envied him.

The last was a lie, and he knew it. Most of his buddies, especially those without families, would prefer being in that godforsaken country to being back home. Like him, they would miss the adrenaline rushes that beat any other feeling, the exhilaration of a successful mission, the camaraderie between missions. He didn’t allow himself to think about the bad stuff.

He closed his email and plugged “Stephanie Phillips, Covenant Falls, veterinarian” into a search engine.

Not much. No website. No background information. Several newspaper articles, though, most of them involving search-and-rescue missions. One mentioned she was also a volunteer firefighter. He found a candid photo of an exhausted-looking Stephanie and Sherry apparently being thanked by a mother holding a child. Search-and-Rescue Team Find Five-Year-Old, the caption reported.

It was another side of his chauffeur from yesterday. An intriguing lady, indeed.

That was it for information. Someone really had to work at privacy not to have more.

He closed the computer. He was damned restless, but his foot precluded the long hike he would have liked. He went into the second bedroom, which contained a single bed and two bookcases filled with books. He rifled through them. An interesting mixture. Biographies. Novels. History. His host obviously had eclectic taste.

He found a suspense novel, moved slowly to the kitchen for a glass of water and took both to the porch.

He settled in the swing and opened the book, but couldn’t concentrate on the words. Too many other images crowded into his mind: his last combat mission, the rush of adrenaline as he pulled Rangers out of a killing zone, the military doctor’s verdict, or lack of one. He hated feeling powerless. He’d lived with it too long as a boy.

He needed that control back. He couldn’t sit here and read a book on someone else’s dime.

He removed his cell phone from his pocket and punched in Josh’s number.

CHAPTER FIVE

CLINT WAS READY when Josh drove up in his Jeep.

He’d shaved and changed into a clean pair of jeans and a pullover knit shirt. His swollen foot still hurt like hell, but he didn’t want to use crutches. He had put on his only pair of sandals.

Clint was already bored with his own company. He’d always been active, driven to excel in sports and physical training. He’d always wanted to be the best. At first, it had been to earn his father’s approval, then it had been to get into the service, then to be the best in his unit. He had always asked for the most dangerous missions. A death wish, one of his fellow pilots said. But it wasn’t that. He simply needed to challenge himself. Dr. Payne had probed at that contention. Why? He hadn’t had an answer.

Why had he accelerated the Corvette that day?

Josh jumped out of the Jeep, limping slightly. Clint hadn’t noticed that yesterday. He’d been too tired, too focused on the veterinarian and, he admitted, on himself. A dog trotted after Josh, keeping in step with the man.

Josh walked up to the porch and opened the door. “This is Amos.” He pointed to the dog. “Say hello.”

Amos offered his right front paw just as Sherry had. What was it about polite canines in Covenant Falls? Was it contagious? Nonetheless, he took the paw gingerly.

“You’re a friend now,” Josh said. “Unless, of course, you attack me.”

“Then what?”

“He wouldn’t be happy. You do not want to run into an unhappy Amos.”

“He’s a handsome dog.”

Josh plopped down on a chair, and the dog sat next to him. “He’s ex-military.” He changed the topic. “How’s your foot?”

“Did you have to remind me?” Clint grinned. “It’s an experience I would rather forget.”

“Good luck,” Josh said. “This town is a gossip mill. I imagine that rancher has probably told the story far and wide.”

Clint shrugged. “I won’t be here long.”

Josh raised an eyebrow. “Would you like to go for a beer?”

“Sure.”

“Good. I’ll introduce you to the town’s best bar. The Rusty Nail. It also has the best burgers.”

“Sounds good. And Amos?”

“Amos is allowed inside. He’s considered a hero around here.”

“Why?”

Josh shrugged. “He saved my life a couple of times overseas, and here in town he saved the mayor’s son. Twice.”

“How?” Clint asked.

“He took a rattler bite meant for Nick, then later found Nick after he was kidnapped. It’s a long story, probably better told by my wife and Nick.” He stood. “Let’s go.”

Clint hesitated. “Don’t you have something else to do? I don’t want to interfere.” He didn’t want to be someone’s cause, but he damned well wanted that beer. He also wanted to know a hell of a lot more about Stephanie.

“You’re not. Nate, my partner, has everything under control.”

“What do you do?”

“We’re starting a construction business. We’re doing some remodeling, and we’re talking to the bank about buying and rehabbing a run-down motel here. Our goal is to bring new business and residents into Covenant Falls. The town desperately needs jobs.”

“What did you do in the army?”

“Ranger. Staff sergeant. Learned a lot about building things, as well as exploding them.”

Clint stood, balanced on the bad foot, then ignored the pain as he followed Josh to the Jeep. Amos jumped into the backseat, and Clint climbed into the passenger seat in front.

“Miss it?” he asked. He knew he didn’t have to say what.

“Parts of it,” Josh admitted.

“You were a lifer?”

Josh started the Jeep. “I thought I would be. This leg sorta ruined that.”

“And now?”

“Things are good. You’ll know why when you meet Eve and Nick.”

“Nick?”

“Eve’s son. Really bright kid. Full of curiosity. Pretty good baseball player, too.”

“Stephanie said you had several dogs.”

“Five, to be exact. I went from being a loner to a husband with a stepson, five dogs, two horses and a cat. Talk about adjustment. I still think I’ll wake up and it will all be a dream.”

“You seem happy.”

“I am. But not without a hell of a lot of mistakes, miscues and doubts. Sometimes, I need to escape, and thank God Eve understands that. You ever been married?”

“For a very short time. Turned out absence didn’t make the heart grow fonder. Got home from a deployment and found she had moved in with someone else, and there had been several other someones.”

“Rough. I saw a lot of that in the service.”

Clint nodded. “After the initial feeling of betrayal, I was relieved. We’d married too fast, and for all the wrong reasons. I thought I wanted a home to return to, but I really didn’t know what a home was. She thought she was marrying someone who would party all night, every night. It was not an unrealistic expectation since that’s what we did in the two months before we married.” Why in the hell was he telling a stranger so much? But he had immediately liked Josh Manning, had felt a kinship with him. “But that wasn’t what I wanted in a home. Hell, I didn’t know what I wanted.”

He looked ahead and saw a sprawling building with a sign that read The Rusty Nail in big letters. The gravel parking lot was about a quarter full.

Josh parked, and they both limped inside. Sawdust covered the floor and a long bar lined one side of the room. The rest of the bar was filled with mismatched tables and chairs with maybe a third of the seats occupied. A bandstand stood out in one corner.

A pretty young girl hurried over to them as they sat. “Hi, Josh. Haven’t seen you in a while. What can I get you two?”

Clint glanced at him. “You order. You know what’s good.”

“Two of whatever crazy beer your dad is experimenting with today, two cheeseburgers and fries.”

“Gotcha.” She dashed off.

Clint eyed his companion. Josh still had the look of a Ranger about him. His gaze never stopped roaming the room.

“Is the veterinarian taken?” Clint blurted.

Josh looked amused. “Taken? You mean in marriage or engagement? Nope. She scares the hell out of most of the eligible men around here. I take it you aren’t one of them.”

“Oh, she scares me, too.” Clint chuckled.

“Good. I like her a lot, and she’s Eve’s best friend. I wouldn’t like to see her hurt.”

“I won’t be here long enough.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Josh said. “Mainly from me. When I came here, all I wanted was to be left alone, and now look at me. A wife, a son, two horses and five dogs.”

Clint grinned. “Well, I doubt lightning strikes twice, but while I’m here, I want to be useful. You mentioned building a dock. I would like to do it.”

“Good.” He paused, then said, “Any idea of what you want to do in the future?”

Clint shrugged. “I’m thinking of going back to college in January. Get my computer science degree.”

“You’re good at that, then? Computers, I mean?” Josh was looking at him speculatively.

Clint wasn’t sure he liked it. He would rather talk about Stephanie. “I’m okay.”

“Eve’s pet project is teaching our older citizens how to use computers. She just bought new ones for the community center. We’ve been looking...”

“Whoa there,” Clint said. “I’m happy to build a dock. I can do that. But teaching a bunch of older people about computers, I just don’t think I would be any good at that. I can’t make that kind of a commitment.”

“I’m not talking about a commitment. A couple of hours a week whenever you have time.”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“I have all I can handle right now, and I’m not good with people. You appear to be. I’ve never seen Stephanie flustered before.”

“You haven’t, huh?” Clint mused.

Two men approached their table. Josh introduced them as Jeff Smith and Mace Edwards, two vets from the Iraq War. “Heard you were coming,” the one introduced as Mace Edwards said. “Wanted to say welcome. You need anything, just want to get a beer, talk, call us.” He offered a napkin with phone numbers on it.

He placed his hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Hear you might have some big work soon. If you need any workers, we can sure use the jobs.”

Josh nodded. “Hope it will be soon. Join us for a beer.”

“Don’t mind if we do,” Mace said.

Clint mostly listened to the three men talk. It felt good. He never discussed his service or the war with civilians, but he could open up with other vets. They understood the unbreakable bond that united members of a unit, and nearly every man and woman who had been in war. Many, maybe even most, were closer to each other than they were to their families.

No one else could understand.

But now he was with people who understood. After sharing beers, the two men left, and Clint glanced at Josh. “You’re really making it here, huh?” he asked.

“It’s not always easy. I still have sweating spells at night. And nightmares. I worried about that with Eve. That I might hurt her or the boy. But she knows how to wake me when I have them. And I’m crazy about Nick. The dogs, now, that’s another matter.” But he grinned as he said it, and Clint got the definite impression he really didn’t mind the dogs one bit.

“You miss being over there?” Clint asked.

Josh didn’t say anything for several minutes. “The army was my family for a long time. I miss my team, but most of them died in my last mission.” The trails in his face deepened. A lot of pain was etched there.

Clint hadn’t known. Dr. Payne had said very little about Josh. “I’m sorry.” Then he asked the question that had been needling him. “Why me? Why did you select me for the cabin? You must know I wasn’t injured in battle. It was a dumb car accident.”

Josh shrugged. “Injured in the field or not, we all have scars. Nightmares. Horrors we can’t talk about except to someone who has been there, and still they continue to burn in our heads. And then,” he added in a voice so low Clint could barely hear it, “there are those we left...” His voice trailed off.

Clint could relate. He’d lost several close friends in chopper crashes. One was in his chopper when enemy fire hit it. He could usually lock those memories in a mental box, but sometimes they escaped, swamping him.

He nodded, cleared his throat. “It’s a great cabin,” he said, changing the subject. He regretted asking his question. It was none of his business and it brought back too many memories of his own.

“It was my salvation, that and Eve.”

Their order arrived, and the conversation stopped. The cheeseburgers were fat and greasy and, well, terrific, or maybe it had just been a long, long time since he’d had a good one. The draft beer was icy cold and served in frosty glasses. The world was looking better.

“We’ll go by the grocery store on the way back, and you can pick up whatever you need. The invitation for dinner is also good for tomorrow night,” Josh said. “I think Eve plans to ask Stephanie to join us.”

“Sounds good.” More than good. He hadn’t felt much anticipation for anything since the accident, but he did now.

Josh looked at his watch. “We should probably go.”

As if on cue, their server appeared. “Dad said there’s no bill this time,” she said. She turned to Clint. “Welcome to Covenant Falls.”

* * *

STEPHANIE AND EVE met for their weekly luncheon.

“What do you think of him?” Eve asked.

Stephanie shrugged. “He dresses like an Easterner.”

“You used to dress like an Easterner.”

Stephanie tried to think of something bad to say. She couldn’t, and that was really annoying. He was annoying because he wasn’t annoying. Stephanie took another bite of her patty melt, one of her few food weaknesses. “What does Josh think?”

“You know Josh doesn’t say much, especially if he doesn’t know someone well.”

“He had to say something.”

“He went over to see him today, took Amos with him. I haven’t talked to him since. Nick is beside himself with excitement. A real live helicopter pilot. I kinda feel sorry for Clint Morgan.”

“Believe me, he can take care of himself,” Stephanie said.

“Do I detect a note of disapproval?”

“No. Yes. Maybe.”

“Are you the Stephanie I’ve known for five years?”

“That incoherent?”

“Yeah,” Eve said. “I can’t wait to meet someone who affects you this way. Josh is inviting him over for supper tomorrow night. You’re invited, too.”

“Why?”

“To protect him from the motley crew,” Eve said.

“I think he can handle himself,” Stephanie retorted.

Eve raised an eyebrow.

“Josh told you about the cow?”

“He did. He said Mr. Morgan called it a close encounter with the bovine kind. He’s still chuckling about that.” She let a few moments go by, then added, “I heard from others, as well.”

“Damn. What did you hear?”

“A bull attacked and crippled him.”

“Good lord!”

“Obviously, that is not correct or Josh would be more upset than he was last night.”

“He didn’t say anything to you?”

“You know Josh. He doesn’t say much. He considers a person’s privacy as inviolate.”

“I don’t.” Stephanie said. “We were rolling a heifer. Clint helped hold the hind legs. When he released them, the cow stepped on him. It’s happened to me a number of times. He has a bruise, nothing more.”

Eve’s eyes bored into her. She hadn’t meant to sound defensive, but she knew instantly she did.

Eve’s smile told her that much. “What about supper?”

Her friend was daring her. To refuse would only serve to raise Eve’s antenna higher. “Sure,” she said, hiding her misgivings. “Can I bring something?”

“Yourself is just fine. Josh is grilling steaks. I’m just popping potatoes in the oven and making a salad.”

“Sounds good.”

“Try not to have an emergency.”

That was exactly what Stephanie was planning: an emergency.

“Why me? Why not invite, say, my tech? She can’t wait to meet him.”

“Because he’s already met you,” Eve explained patiently.

“Why have anyone in addition to you and Josh? I would think the fewer the better. You know how Josh was.”

“If you don’t want to come, you really don’t have to,” Eve said. “I just think he probably needs as many friends as possible here.”

She was being played, and she knew it. Eve had been her champion from the moment Stephanie had appeared in Covenant Falls. Not everyone had wanted a woman vet. Some of the ranchers refused to use her and sent to Pueblo for a vet of the masculine variety. The West, particularly the rural West, was set in its ways.

Eve had browbeaten reluctant clients into going to Stephanie, as well as recommended her to everyone within a fifty-mile radius. Fine. She could do this dinner for Eve. One evening. Clint Morgan would be gone soon. Covenant Falls would be too quiet for him. He needed a large city with buses and taxis and people to charm.

“Okay. Unless there is an emergency.” She took a deep breath. Maybe yesterday was an aberration. “But I might be late. It’s super busy since I won’t be here this weekend for my Saturday hours. I’m participating in a search-and-rescue certification.”

“Whenever you can get there,” Eve said.

The devil danced in her friend’s eyes. Blast it. They had bonded over their aversion to marriage, although each had very different reasons for that aversion. She feared that since Eve had succumbed to the call of love, her friend had her sights on Stephanie. Hell, no.

“Have to go,” Eve said. “We’re still looking for a police chief, and I have an interview this afternoon.”

“Promising?”

“Unfortunately, no. But Tony took the job temporarily and has already stayed longer than he wants.” Eve paid her bill and stood. “See you tomorrow night.”

Stephanie rose with her. She had a heavy appointment schedule this afternoon, plus a meeting later with three people interested in search and rescue. She doubted they would be as enthusiastic after learning the particulars, but if she enlisted one, she would be happy. Training both handler and dog could take as long as two years, never mind the fact they were volunteers and incurred a lot of expense along the way. It was a calling, often without rewards when the result was bad. But those moments of success were worth every minute of time and every dollar spent.

At the very least it would take her mind off the town’s newest resident and what would be a very awkward dinner tomorrow night. For her, anyway. She suspected Clint Morgan would enjoy every moment of her discomfort.

Now Eve owed her.

* * *

AFTER JOSH DROVE him home, Clint sat on the porch, staring at the lake. He needed something. A purpose. A goal. Hell, a life. Rehabbing the cabin had helped his host. Maybe it would do the same for him.

A dock couldn’t be too difficult.

He walked painfully down to the lake and looked at the other docks along the lake. Two were rather elaborate with boathouses. The others just stretched out into the water. Several had fishing boats tied to them. Another had a canoe and a bench.

The afternoon was warm, even hot, although his idea of hot had changed after years in Afghanistan.

Clint could tell from the shoreline and the other docks that the water was lower than normal, maybe by a foot or more. Still, it was a rich blue, which meant depth, and he wondered whether it was fed by springs as well as snow from the mountains.

He went inside and searched websites dedicated to building docks and lost himself in going from one to another, gathering ideas. It was not, he realized, as easy as he’d thought, which was a good thing. He needed a challenge.

It was well past eight when he closed the laptop. He’d made several designs along with a list of needed materials for each. He would take them over to the Mannings’ the following evening.

He stood and the floor swayed beneath him. He grabbed the chair, knowing what was going to happen. He tried to concentrate, but the room was moving now. He needed to get to the bedroom, find his medicine. Lie down before he fell. The dizzy spells were almost always followed by a thunderous headache. He had hoped...

The hall swirled as he used the walls to steady himself. The foot, still sore as hell, didn’t help. He reached the bed. Medicine and a glass of water were on a table next to it. He always left it there.

He lay down on the bed and some of the dizziness faded. Not all of it.

The ceiling still moved. Then the pain started...

CHAPTER SIX

CLINT WOKE FEELING as if he had been in a ten-hour battle. His head throbbed, his body too weak to reach the bathroom for a shower.

Light flooded into the cabin. Yesterday, before the dizziness came, he’d been feeling better about the cabin, about being here. He liked Josh. The man didn’t say much, but he didn’t have to.

He thought about Stephanie and wondered if she would be at dinner tonight. He didn’t know why he was so attracted to her. She was far too serious for him, too cautious, too...unreceptive.

Maybe it was the challenge. Or maybe it was the brain trauma. Whatever it was, she was back in his head this morning, crowding everything out but the residue of pain.

He forced himself to get up and walk to the bathroom. There was some good news. Despite the doctor’s warning that his foot would be worse today, it was better. Or maybe he was just putting it into context with the rest of his body.

He took a cold shower to wake up, then a hot one. He limped into the kitchen and poured a large glass of orange juice. He headed for the porch swing. The solitude was jarring. He recognized the irony of that, but since he was eight, he’d almost always been with others, first at boarding schools, followed by army training facilities and finally overseas. He was usually the center of things, something he’d learned in boarding school. To lead for fear of being left behind.

Now he was more alone than he had ever been and none of his mental tricks helped. Not the charm he’d developed, nor a nurtured optimism, nor an immediate goal. He had difficulty seeing anything but emptiness ahead.

He finished the orange juice, limped down the drive and crossed the road that ended in a little roundabout just beyond the cabin. He eyed the path up the steep slope of the mountain. Maybe tomorrow.

He went back inside, and for lack of anything else to do, he started checking out universities to finish his degree. His interest was in aeronautic electronics, but he didn’t find a program that he liked. Maybe his heart wasn’t in it. The thought of spending the rest of his working life in an office was deeply depressing. Although he had a natural curiosity about nearly everything and was a good student, the classroom had been the means of getting to where he wanted to be, and that was in the sky. He liked the outdoors, playing sports and testing himself physically. All that was at risk now.

He found one of Josh’s books and took it to the porch. Maybe it would keep his mind from the future. And Stephanie Phillips.

* * *

STEPHANIE STARED AT the email from one of the few friends she had from the past. Her ex-husband was getting another divorce. That marriage had lasted two years longer than her own. The friend also said he’d made queries about her whereabouts.

A shiver of apprehension ran through her.

Mark Townsend didn’t like rejection. He had practically destroyed her during their marriage and after the divorce. He had stolen her money, destroyed her reputation, made it impossible to practice in the Northeast. Wherever she went, he found a way of preventing her from being hired.

She’d found the position in Covenant Falls when a close friend from vet school told her of an older veterinarian in Colorado who was looking for someone to take over his practice. He’d inherited his family ranch and wanted to go back to full-time ranching, but didn’t want to leave the community without a vet. He was willing to finance the sale for the right person.

She’d told Dr. Langford about Mark during their initial interview. One of the vet’s daughters had experienced a similar problem, and he had recommended that Stephanie take her mother’s maiden name legally. He’d cleared it through the state board and after working together for six months, he agreed to sell her the practice. He’d also suggested she retain the name of Langford Animal Practice. In today’s electronic world, a dedicated searcher could find her, but she’d hoped Mark’s new marriage would dim his vindictiveness toward her.

Now that his latest marriage was ending, she worried he might come after her again. Or would he concentrate his ire on his newest ex-wife?

How could she have been such a fool to marry him?

Maybe he couldn’t find her. Or if he did, his power wouldn’t be as great in Covenant Falls as it was in Boston. True, she wasn’t a lifetime resident of Covenant Falls, but she was actively involved in search and rescue and was a member of the volunteer fire department. She also volunteered in causes that interested her, especially the community center.

Except for Eve, though, she’d avoided close relationships.

She closed the computer and glanced at her watch. She was running late for Eve’s dinner, although she was glad she had conducted her weekly search. It was best to be prepared.

She regretted letting herself be talked into the dinner. She wasn’t in the mood to be sociable. Especially not after reading the email about Mark.

But she had promised Eve.

She changed into a clean shirt but left on the blue jeans she’d worn all day. Darn if she was going to dress up for Clint Morgan. She did add a touch of lipstick. Just a bit. She brushed her hair and braided it back into a long plait. Ready to go.

Or not.

She almost wished for an emergency, and she felt guilty as hell about that. No! It was just that damned email about Mark. It reminded her of her own helplessness, her own sorry judgment. She hated the reminder.

Stephanie tried to look on the bright side. She would see her horse, Shadow, that she boarded at Eve’s ranch, and Nick and the other two people she liked most in Covenant Falls.

“Stay,” she told the two dogs as she grabbed her car keys.

Sherry whined, sensing she was ready to go. Styrker sat and held out his paw in entreaty. “Sorry, guys,” she said. “You haven’t been invited. There will be enough commotion without you.”

At least she hadn’t been asked to drive Clint to Eve’s house.

Her cell rang. Her heart dropped. She knew. She just knew.

She looked at the name of the caller. Eve.

The phone continued to ring. She could ignore it, but Eve knew she always answered the phone in case it was an emergency. If she didn’t answer, Eve would know why.

She answered. “I’m on the way.”

“Can you run by the cabin and pick up Clint? Josh is anointing steaks with his usual care, and my budget meeting ran late.”

Stephanie sighed. There was no out. Not without making an idiot out of herself. “Okay. I’m leaving now.”

She clicked off and went to the back of the clinic where she kept the van. She pulled up in front of Josh’s cabin several minutes later.

Clint was on the swing on the front porch. He stood when he saw the van and ambled down the steps to the passenger side with only the slightest of limps, though she knew his foot must still hurt. She tried to deny the flutter in her stomach as he approached. He gave her a slow easy smile that would be devastating if she didn’t know better. “Hi,” he said. “I wouldn’t be presumptuous in thinking you’re my ride...?”

“Nope. Afraid not.” Then she realized how that sounded. “Not presumptuous, I mean,” she added halfheartedly.

His smile widened as he opened the door. “I’m happy to see you again, too.”

She had no comeback for that.

“Josh said his house was chaos,” he continued. It was more question than a statement.

“It is,” she said more cheerfully. “It will probably drive you crazy.” She hoped.

“After two wars, nothing drives me crazy.”

“Watch out for the beagle. She’s a kleptomaniac.”

“I have nothing I wouldn’t willingly surrender to a beagle.”

“Don’t sit on Fancy.”

“I appreciate the lesson in etiquette, but who is Fancy and why would I sit on her?”

“Fancy is a small dog, and she sometimes sneaks up on the sofa just when someone is sitting down.”

“I’ll try to sit in a chair.” He looked thoroughly amused. She wanted to slap him.

She decided to take another tack. “You’re not limping.” She realized the moment she said it that it was almost an accusation.

“Well, I still hurt if that’s what you’re wondering. Like the doc said...a couple of days.” He shrugged. “I’ve had worse.”

She was being petty. Ridiculous. He was just a man passing through town. A wounded man. A soldier like Josh. She owed him. The town owed him for his military service. It was the email; it had hit her like a sledgehammer.

She surrendered and described what would confront him at the Manning household. “Braveheart is a shy pit bull. He’ll probably hide from you. Miss Marple is the larcenous beagle. Fancy is the homeliest dog you will ever see, but she thinks she’s beautiful, and Captain Hook is a crotchety three-legged chihuahua who just might take a bite out of your leg.”

“I think I was safer in Afghanistan,” Clint said wryly.

“There’s more,” she said, unable to hide the slightest of smiles. “There’s Josh’s dog, Amos, who’s a very disciplined ex-military dog unless he thinks someone is threatening Josh. There’s also Dizzy, a cat with balance problems. And lord of the house is ten-year-old Nick.”

“Tell me about Nick.”

“He’s a perfectly normal ten-year-old boy.”

“You’re not telling me something.”

“Nothing more to tell.” She would let him learn about Nick’s endless curiosity himself.

He nodded, and she couldn’t tell what he was really thinking. But a house full of animals probably didn’t hold much fear for a guy who had been involved in wars for a number of years.

“How is the cabin?” she asked, struggling to be more sociable. For Eve and Josh.

“It’s great. I had a visitor today.”

“Who?”

“A Mrs. Byars, I think.”

“Brownies?”

“How did you know?”

“She’s famous for them. Her son died in Vietnam. She has a special place in her heart for veterans.”

She turned into a driveway that led to a sprawling ranch house with a big porch. A barn stood next to it, and three horses grazed in a pasture. As they drove up to the door, a tow-headed boy ran out of the house followed by a troop of dogs. Only one remained at the door.

“I’m Nick,” the boy said as he reached the van and Clint stepped out. “Josh told me to bring you inside. He’s at the grill.”

“I’m delighted to meet you, Nick,” he said formally. “And your friends.”

“I knew you would,” Nick said. “Mom suggested I leave them inside, but they wanted to meet you, too.”

“I’m very glad they did,” he said solemnly.

Nick beamed.

Stephanie followed man and boy inside and watched Clint charm the shoes off Nick, which wasn’t hard to do. Nick already worshiped his new stepfather and that was going to carry over to anyone who served in the military. To her chagrin, Clint sounded totally sincere as he talked to Nick and then bent down to let the dogs sniff his hand. Only Braveheart stood back.

It was hard to fool children and dogs. Mark had never even pretended to like dogs. That should have been a very loud warning bell, but when she’d asked him whether he had pets, he’d said he’d been too busy and it wouldn’t be fair to an animal. That had sounded logical and even animal-friendly. Get him out of your head.

Eve met them at the door, a broad smile on her face. “Welcome,” she said as the dogs sidled in alongside Clint. “I see you’ve met my motley crew.”

“I have, and I’ve had a warning about the larcenous one.”

“Just don’t take off a shoe,” Eve warned. “Would you like something to drink? A beer? Or something else.”

“A beer sounds great.”

Eve’s smile grew broader. “I’ve been anxious to meet you since Josh told me about your ‘encounter of a bovine kind’ with one of Steph’s patients. I decided then and there that I was going to like you. What do you think about the cabin?”

“It’s terrific. Far more than I expected. Your husband did a great job.”

Eve beamed, and Stephanie sighed. No ally there.

“You sit here and get off that foot,” Eve said. “Stephanie will bring you a beer. Nick, you go out and help Josh.”

Clint did as instructed, and Stephanie gritted her teeth as she followed Eve to the kitchen. It was going to be a very long evening.

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