Chapter 9
Nine
I can’t marry a man that can’t fight. I need to be able to say ‘my man will fuck you up’ with confidence.
—Nettie to Boone
Nettie
I was currently petting a tiny Pomeranian puppy on the nose and thinking I could finally get a dog if I had a permanent home—and someone to take care of him when I had to leave for three days—when I rounded the corner and found Gena packing up her bags.
“Oh, before you go.” I hurried toward her. “Can you tell me Boone’s schedule for the next week? I need to make a doctor’s appointment for him, and I want to make sure he’s free.”
“Is he sick?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “But the man never has yearly checkups, and he only gets one when I nag him. I think it’s time.”
She smiled and logged back into her computer.
“Here,” she said. “When you’re done, just close it down.”
I smiled and took her vacated seat.
She pressed her hand to my cheek and took off, leaving the clinic mostly empty.
That “mostly” came around the corner looking mad. “We’re missing a puppy.”
I held up my hand to show Holly. “I have him.”
“You shouldn’t take the puppy away from his mother. It’s too young to regulate its body temperature yet.”
“I have a hot water bottle here.” I gestured toward it. It was in my pocket, and the tiny puppy was nestled against it in my hand.
I was holding the runt.
Boone said that it probably wouldn’t live.
The Pomeranian had six pups, and of those six pups, most of them were healthy sizes. The small runt was the exception, and it appeared that the mom dog had decided that six was one too many for her and had taken to leaving this one on his own.
Though, she was feeding it, that was all she was doing.
I’d walked by the kennel she was in earlier to find this poor thing kicked off in the corner looking pathetic.
And since Boone was in surgery with a horse, I had taken it upon myself to get some lovings.
I hadn’t been aware that Holly wasn’t leaving with the rest of them, though.
“I wasn’t aware that Boone was seeing anyone.”
I snorted. “Boone hasn’t been single since he was sixteen.”
Her frown was fierce. “I’ve been working here for almost six months, and you have yet to be mentioned by anybody. Nor were you here at all. Then you just show up like you’ve always been here?”
I didn’t get mad.
Her tone of voice wasn’t angry or anything, just curious. As if she truly didn’t understand.
And she wouldn’t.
Not if she didn’t live here.
Though, our star-crossed lovers’ story didn’t have Boone and Nettie in it. It had Bartholomew and Antoinette. If she had heard anything, it would be those two names.
“Did you live here before you went to school?”
She shook her head. “Not Sawtooth. Bear Pass.”
I smiled. “Ever heard of the Bartholomew and Antoinette saga?”
Her eyes narrowed for a second in concentration, then lit with recognition. “That’s you two?”
I nodded.
There were downsides of being famous—at least in the sports world.
One being everyone knew everyone’s business, and didn’t care about deep diving into your life.
When I’d turned down the professional soccer world to go to college and play D1—something that Eddy and I had spoken about extensively before she’d been hit by a car and her college dreams had been ruined—we’d decided that we would always have a backup of a college degree if anything went wrong.
How right we’d been when that car had hit Eddy and torn her knee to shreds.
Her accident had almost derailed both of our careers. Not because I was hurt physically along with her, but mentally. I didn’t want to play soccer without her. But she’d sat me down after I’d lost my baby and urged me to keep going for the both of us.
I had, though it’d never been the same.
I had more fun on the field going over drills during her coaching practices than I did playing professionally anymore.
I played because she wanted me to. Not because I still loved the game.
I hated being away from her. I hated being away from Boone. And I really hated the idea of having to go back after having the baby I was currently carrying.
I resisted the urge to cup my belly, hesitant to let anyone know that I was pregnant just in case.
“Y’all are like famous,” she drawled, sounding more Texan than Montanan. “I grew up on a horse ranch outside of Bear Pass. I’ve lived here my entire life and barely left the ranch. But y’all’s breakup was so widely publicized that the ranch hands were even talking about you.”
That I knew.
Famous sixteen-year-old no-longer-pregnant soccer player breaking up with her rich as fuck boyfriend who’d supported her through everything was big news in our small area.
Especially since Gail had made it even bigger news when she’d spread the news far and wide, practically giddy that she no longer had to deal with the “gold-digging sixteen-year-old looking for a leg up in the world.”
As if she didn’t know that I was on the fast track to having my own money.
I may not have had a job the four years before I graduated, but that didn’t matter. I’d made my fair share in endorsements and athletic scholarships.
University of Wyoming had been great.
They’d even sponsored my sister as well, allowing her to get her teaching degree, to keep me happy.
I loved them, and I would forever be grateful for how they’d treated me and my sister at one of the lowest points in our lives.
“So why’d you decide to become a vet?” I asked curiously, stroking the little dog’s head.
I’d secretly named him Froto, just in case Boone let me keep him.
He was a staunch “no dogs unless you can take care of them” kind of man.
Truthfully, he was right.
I was never home.
He was never home.
Having a dog would be selfish behavior.
However, we’d soon be bringing a kid into this world, and someone would at some point have to be home to take care of our child. Why not add a dog to the mix?
“Do you want the practiced answer, or the answer that is true, that I never tell anyone?”
I blinked. “Obviously, I want the honest answer. I like you, Holly.”
And I did.
She may be frustrating to Boone with her ‘barrel racing baddie’ and ‘girl bossing too hard’ adjectives that she added to everything when explaining her patients to Boone, but I freakin’ loved it.
I loved that she was keeping him on his toes.
I also loved that she was holding him accountable for everything that he said.
She expected him to follow through with his expressed intentions and called him out for his shit.
No one ever called him out for anything—except me—and it was a girl ten years younger than him? I was all for it.
“The nice and polished answer is that I wanted to help animals. Which I do.” She shrugged.
“The non-polished answer is that we were broke AF and we were hanging on by the skin of our teeth to a ranch that’s been in our family line for generations.
All it would take is one vet visit for an abscessed hoof and it would sink us.
So I started watching YouTube videos and doing research out the ass, so I could start treating our own animals.
I learned how to treat colic in our horses when I was twelve.
I’d read every vet medical journal there was at the library by the time I was fourteen.
By the time I was fifteen, I was a farrier and I was making just enough money to subsidize the farm.
I put myself through college with a fuck ton of grants from the government and every scholarship I could qualify for, taking every single online class that I could so I could help on the farm.
I graduated and immediately looked for a job that would allow me to work part-time that was mostly full-time, keep odd hours, and still be able to help at the farm. ”
“You sound angry about that.”
She inhaled swiftly.
“My dad died last month.”
My brows rose. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear about that.”
“After all that I did,” she said softly. “He didn’t leave anything to me.”
The doors behind us opened and I heard voices.
Holly heard them, too.
She looked up, and her entire demeanor changed.
Her body was welcoming and open, a soft almost-smile on her face.
That all wiped away in a single instant when Denver and Boone walked into the reception area where I’d totally forgotten what I was doing in the scheduling program pulled up on Gena’s computer.
Denver came to a stop on the other side of the counter while Boone came all the way around and bumped me with a hip. “Let me sit there for a minute, I need to write some notes for Holly and Young for in the morning.”
I moved, partially blocking Holly with my body when she started to all but vibrate.
“Holly, have you met…” Boone started, but stopped short when Denver said, “Holly? Don’t you mean Georgina?”
Holly inhaled swiftly. “I don’t go by that name anymore.”
Denver stiffened. “You too good to go by the name your daddy gave you now?”
Holly inhaled so swiftly that I was surprised that there was any oxygen left in the room.
“Yeah, I guess so, since he all but said ‘screw you’ after everything that I’ve done for him.” She tapped me on the shoulder. “Let me put him with his mama, Nettie. He won’t ever acclimate if you don’t let her try.”
She had a point.
I gave Froto over to her and walked with her out of the room.
When we got to the kennel where the Pomeranian mom was panting away happily with her puppies, I said, “Was it Denver?”
Holly nodded once.
“Your dad left the ranch that you almost killed yourself to save to him? And not you?” I asked.
She nodded once again, a tear sliding down her cheek when she did.
“It kills me,” she whispered. “Working here with Boone. I know that they’re related.
I know that I’ll see that asshole all the time if I’m here.
He kicked me out of the only home that I’ve ever known, Nettie.
I won’t ever, ever be happy here. But it’s the only place that works with my schedule.
” She paused. “He wouldn’t even let me keep my horse. ”
With that parting comment, she placed Froto in with his mama and left.
I waited until I knew she was truly gone before I headed back inside the office area to find Boone and Denver talking quietly.
“…condemned. Had to get her out of there somehow.”
I sidled up to the counter and leaned my arms against it as I looked at Denver. “Are we talking about Holly?”
Denver sneered. “Do you mean Georgina?”
“Holly,” I corrected him, eyes serious. “Respect her wishes to be called Holly, Denver.”
Denver’s jaw worked.
He got the meaning without me having to expound.
“Yes, we’re talking about her.”
He didn’t call her Holly, but neither did he call her Georgina.
“Why’d you kick her out of her house, Denver?”
Denver’s jaw went rigid.
“I didn’t fucking want to.” He growled, frustration clear on his face.
“Like I was telling Boone when you walked in, that place was a fuckin’ death trap.
She was using extension cords and heaters to stay warm.
There were just as many holes in the house as there were windows.
And swear to Christ, there’s so much random shit in there from Cantrell not throwing anything away that it’s a fire’s dream. ”
“So you kicked her out for her own good?” I wondered.
“I offered her a rental in town, but she refused,” he admitted darkly.
As she would.
She was a proud woman.
“Did you know that she taught herself how to take care of animals and heal wounds in farm animals at the age of twelve?” I asked.
Denver sighed. “There was a lot of shit that girl had to do to survive.”
“Why’d he leave it to you, Denver?”
Denver stayed stubbornly silent.
Boone, however, answered my question for him.
“Because they had so many back property taxes on it that she would’ve never been able to cover it,” Boone answered as he got up. “About ten years’ worth of back taxes and late fees. The tax assessor and Cantrell Cain had a good ol’ boy agreement that wouldn’t extend to Holly if she inherited.”
“Oh,” I sighed. “And let me guess, neither one of you thought ‘oh, Holly needs to know this so she doesn’t hate me?’”
“Holly hates me?” Boone blinked.
I rolled my eyes. “You’re related to the man she despises. Of course she hates you. On principle, of course. But she still doesn’t like you.”
Denver groaned.
“Are you done on this computer?”
“No,” I said. “I was looking up your schedule.”
“Why?” Boone asked.
“Because I wanted to make some doctor’s appointments that I assumed you would want to go to…” I pointed out.
Boone’s eyes gleamed. “Of course I do.”