10
Olivia
It’s been a long day of work, and yet I’m still thinking about how I didn’t see Derrick out at the Keller Ranch.
Was he avoiding me?
I give myself a mental kick in the pants. Of course he wasn’t hiding from me. It isn’t like everything the man does has something to do with me. It just sucked that I didn’t get to see him. He may not be the guy I get to kick up my heels with, but he sure isn’t hard to look at either. My whole body shivers just thinking about his hard chest, thick thighs, and him grunting over top of me as he took me.
Since it seems I’ll probably be running into him from time to time in the small town or on the ranch, I’ll have to figure out how to have a cordial relationship with him.
It’s not like I have any real right to be angry with him anyway. So he was rude and left without communicating. That didn’t warrant a grudge on my part. Not only is he a big client for the clinic, but also Lacy has made a point to tell me what a great guy he is over and over since our dinner the other night.
If anything, the night of passion we shared made me want to think of him fondly more than anything else. It’s too depressing to think that my best sex was with a guy who goes out of his way to avoid me.
I make a promise to myself that the next time I see him I’m going to be outgoing and friendly. This will show him that we can be friends, and things don’t have to be weird.
I’m about to leave the clinic when I get a call from the feed store. “Sure, Robert. I’ll be right there.”
It seems the owner keeps a donkey there, and he’s not bearing weight on one of his legs.
As soon as I get there, and Robert leads me to the donkey, he insists on standing over me and telling me every which way I do things different than Doc Winters, the last vet.
I just smile and keep working, keeping myself trained on the hurt animal.
I look up, not because I heard anything, but something grabbed my attention, and then I spot him. Derrick Keller is walking down an aisle. There’s a doorway between us, the upper part open to where I can see inside, but I’m crouched so low I don’t think he’ll see me.
He has a grumpy look on his face, but that doesn’t stop the women from whispering about how handsome they find him. I look over at the two little old ladies. They have to be at least seventy. They have good taste, that’s for sure.
One of them stops him and asks him to help her get something off the top shelf where she can’t reach, and it’s sweet to see him take down his guard and help the little old lady. He even ends up holding three different kinds of whatever it is she’s buying while she tries to decide.
He can’t be such a bad guy if he’s willing to go the extra mile helping that little old lady.
I shake my head and continue working on the donkey. Robert never took a break. He’s still talking about Doc Winters and how he would be doing things.
Of course, later when I’ve finished telling Robert how to care for the donkey’s injured leg, and I walk through the store to leave out the front, I hear the owner chatting with a customer about what a bad temper that Derrick Keller has.
The guy is a total mystery.
Derrick
I didn’t know that Olivia was coming by the ranch until she shows up. Then a text message arrives from Trent. Olivia will be coming by to remove the tube from the steer.
I shake my head as I pocket my phone. I’m used to Jason, my youngest brother, being the goof-off and smartass. And honestly, since he joined the Army, I’ve missed him a little bit. But I’m not enjoying this side I’m seeing of Trent. It’s as if he’s trying to push Olivia and me together or something. Heck, it’s probably Lacy’s idea. She’s a sweet girl, but she’s always trying to play matchmaker.
I meet Oliva at her truck. “Hey,” I say quietly.
I am ready for her to be all over me with questions or to snub me since it’s just the two of us, but instead she’s giving me an audacious smile and talks to me with professional courtesy. “Hey, Mr. Keller. Good to see you. How’s the steer today?” she asks as she keeps walking past me with a smile plastered to her face.
“Mr. Keller? I think you know my name,” I tell her. I mean, she moaned it over and over the other night. The breathy way she said it is still etched in my mind.
She just shrugs and smiles at me over her shoulder. “Sure do. Hey, Derrick.”
I follow her into the barn almost cautiously. What is she playing here? I wasn’t expecting this. I figured for sure she’d say something about the other night. I never dreamed she’d act like it just didn’t happen. My guilt for walking out without a word is eating at me, but maybe it shouldn’t. From the way she’s acting, she doesn’t even care that I walked out, or about what happened between us the other night.
She pets the steer’s head and immediately gets to work. She removes the tube and patches up the wound, all the while saying that the steer is no longer at risk from the bloating and that its stitches will dissolve so there isn’t any need to remove them.
She removes her gloves and goes over to dispose of them before lifting her bag up. It appears she’s about to leave, and I find I’d rather she didn’t just yet.
“Do you need to check on Petey, too?” I say, asking her about the stallion.
“His blood work came back clear. If he’s riding well there isn’t any need for me to see him.”
“Did you ride him to see if he was riding well?” I ask, knowing I sound like a dick.
Olivia’s dark eyebrows raise. “Ride him? No. I don’t ride.”
“Don’t ride? But you’re a vet. How can you not ride?”
Olivia laughs, and her blush is sexy. “Believe it or not, I meant to get around to learning to ride, but schoolwork and other stuff got in the way.”
“No time to learn like the present,” I tell her, and I don’t know which one of us is more shocked.
11
Olivia
I can’t believe I let him talk me into this.
He’s going over the instructions, and all I can do is watch the way the muscles pull in his forearms as he tightens the saddle. He shows me step by step and is even patient with me when he tells me to give it a try and then has to show me again because I wasn’t paying attention.
When the beautiful Petey is ready, I look around, thinking there’s no way we’re going to ride this horse together. There’s no way I will be able to resist him being that close.
“Put your foot in here,” he says, pointing at the stirrup.
I lift my foot to do what he says, and he laughs. “Other one.”
I cringe. He probably thinks I’m an idiot or that I planned to ride the horse backwards. And then that image pops into my head of me riding the horse backwards, straddling Derrick’s lap. Get out of your head, Olivia. Get it together.
I lift my other foot and pull up, throwing my leg over the huge animal. Derrick is right there. I can feel his hands on my thighs helping me up, and his hand stays on my leg once I’m settled.