Page 4 of Falling For Her Cowboy (Silver Creek Ranch #9)

Chapter Three

“ D aisy, how are you doing tonight?” Melah leaned against the stall door and stared at her faithful horse.

She had been worried about her gorgeous American Paint when she’d realized Daisy hadn’t been eating her normal amount of food and she appeared to have a limp.

Daisy’s ears flickered as she stood off in the corner of her stall.

Daisy’s brown and white colors were what had first captured Melah’s attention.

She had been in the market for a horse a few years ago.

There had been a farm close to Melah’s father’s home that was looking on adopting out their horses.

The owners were getting up in age and wanted to downsize on the number of animals they looked after.

Melah had just happened to be home visiting when she’d heard.

She and Daisy had hit it off immediately. It was love at first sight.

Her father, Vernon, had helped find a local family who would be able to board Daisy while Melah was gone. It had worked out perfectly for her over the years.

And now that Melah was out of the service, she’d need to start working on a forever home for her and Daisy. It was a bonus that she was able to bring Daisy with her to the Silver Creek Ranch. Daisy had been thriving there until recently.

Daisy turned and took a step toward her with a more pronounced limp.

“No,” Melah whispered. She opened the door and flew inside. She bit her lip to keep her emotions from overtaking her. She didn’t know what she’d do if she lost Daisy. She made her way to her and ran a hand along her neck. “Tell me you’re going to be okay.”

She snuck out a carrot she had put into her pocket to hide it from Daisy. Her horse was like her, she never turned down a snack. Melah held the carrot out to Daisy who sniffed it at first then turned her head away. Melah’s eyes widened.

Carrots were one of Daisy’s favorite snacks .

Melah tried to clear the lump in her throat. As if sensing her emotional distress, Daisy leaned down and rested her head on Melah’s shoulder. Melah wrapped her arms around Daisy and just held on to her.

“Besides Dad, you’re all I have,” Melah whispered. She tightened her hold on Daisy.

Earlier that day when she’d first noticed the limp, she’d spoken with Andy about the local vet so she could call and have Daisy checked out.

He’d said the vet was his son, Ridge. He’d given her Ridge’s number in case she needed it.

She wasn’t sure if this was a true emergency, but she didn’t know if Daisy was suffering.

She couldn’t bear the thought that her horse was in pain.

She pulled back from Daisy and gave her a smile.

“Let’s call the doctor and see if he can come check you out.”

It was getting late, and she hated to make the call at this time of night.

Most decent people were in bed. She took her cellphone out of her pajama pants and walked over to the door.

She set the carrot down and slid her finger along the screen of her phone to find the doctor’s number in her contacts.

She had planned to turn into bed but wanted to check in on Daisy first. There was no way she could go to sleep while Daisy could be out here fighting for her life. She found the number and tapped on it. The sound of ringing was cut short immediately.

“Hello?” a baritone voice answered.

Melah froze in place with her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. His voice sent a shiver down her spine. She swallowed hard, trying to get her words to form. Whoever this doctor was sounded tired as if he were tucked into bed with his woman. She closed her eyes and exhaled.

“Hi. Is this Dr. Harvey?” Her gaze locked in on Daisy who slowly limped toward her.

Melah straightened to her full height. She didn’t know where this slight bout of weakness was coming from, but she was not going to allow it to rule her.

She was a tough chick. She’d survived deployments, harassment, and worse.

She was stronger than this. Daisy depended on her.

“This is,” he drawled.

Lord, the man’s voice was rich and smooth. He could probably convince a whale to buy water.

“I’m so sorry to be calling at this hour. My horse, Daisy, I don’t know what’s wrong with her. She started limping and won’t eat her snacks. She loves carrots and won’t even bite?— ”

“Slow down, ma’am. It’s going to be all right,” Dr. Harvey interjected. “Just breathe.”

Melah inhaled and blew out slowly. Her gaze trailed Daisy as she took another step.

“I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize. Now let’s start with your name and where you are,” he said calmly.

Melah blinked and groaned internally.

“My name is Melah. I just came on at Silver Creek as a hand a couple of weeks ago.” She reached out a hand, rested it on Daisy’s shoulder, and gave her a slow rub.

Daisy’s large head swung her way and came to rest on her shoulder again.

“You’re in the barn now?”

“Yes, sir.” She eyed Daisy and sent up a prayer that this wasn’t life-threatening. What could have happened to Daisy to cause this? Was it something she had done? Had she not paid attention to her enough when she took her out on the ranch? Did she get bitten?

Her heart raced with all of the possibilities of what could be wrong.

“I just got back on the ranch. I’ll be there in less than three minutes. Just hang tight,” he said .

She didn’t know why, but for some strange reason, she believed him. The line went dead. She slid her phone back into her pocket. Daisy chose that moment to try to bite her bonnet off her head.

“Hey, that’s mine. Leave it alone.” Melah chuckled.

She straightened up her cap and rubbed Daisy on her neck.

She tilted her head back so she could watch Daisy.

Well, at least her horse still had her humor.

She didn’t like when Melah wore things on her head.

She always tried her best to take them off.

Melah drummed up a smile and increased the pressure of her nails.

The horse loved a good scratching, and at the moment she was enjoying Melah’s attention.

“Is this all you needed? Some attention?”

Daisy’s soft neigh escaped her.

Many times Melah had found herself in tight situations, deployed, a gun in her face, even the situation with her sergeant, but she’d never felt so damn scared in her life that night. She shuddered at the memory, pushed it away, not wanting to relive the assault.

“How about this. You promise me that you are okay, and I will take you somewhere with wide-open spaces where you can graze as long as you like. There will be plenty of grass for you, a warm sun, trees with lots of shade. There will be a big lake where I can relax and fish, and we can just have a good old trip.” Melah was not above bribing her horse.

If that was what she had to do to make sure Daisy would pull through whatever this was, she’d do it.

“How does that sound? There will be sun, all the apples and carrots we can buy. I’ll even sneak you some of those donuts you like, even though you shouldn’t be eating them. ”

“I don’t know about her, but that sounds pretty damn good to me,” a voice said behind her.

Melah spun around, reaching for her weapon that was not there.

Her gaze locked on the figure leaning against the stall door, and she froze.

His dark wavy hair stood up every which way as if he’d been combing his fingers through it.

His blue eyes held a twinkle in them, but she could easily see the man was dead on his feet.

His dark t-shirt and jeans had seen better days.

She wasn’t sure what they were caked in—better yet, she didn’t want to know.

Her breath caught in her throat. This had to be the vet. She had thought his voice was something else—the man probably had to fight through droves of women daily.

“Melah, I take it?” He arched an eyebrow and tilted his head .

She jerked out a nod, unable to speak. She immediately wished she’d thrown on something other than her pjs when she’d come out to the barn.

She was currently done with members of the male species, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate this one in front of her.

“And who might we have here?”

“Daisy.” Melah didn’t miss the way his gaze ran over her. A shiver rippled through her. She’d guess it was only fair since she had just ogled him.

She stood straighter as he walked inside the stall. Suddenly the space seemed crowded.

“Um, thanks for coming so fast. I was worried about her.”

“I could hear it in your voice.” His lips curled up slightly in the corner.

Daisy hadn’t taken her eyes off the doctor since the second he’d appeared.

He held out a hand to allow her to get a whiff of him.

Melah almost found herself inhaling, too.

She blinked and took a step back. What the hell was wrong with her?

It wasn’t like she hadn’t been around handsome men before, and at the moment she was not looking for a man.

Her ex-fiancé had made sure of that.

Melah didn’t want to think of Pierce. When she’d needed him the most, he’d backed away from her and believed all of the lies that had been spread about her. That betrayal cut her profoundly. Five years they had been together. They had planned a life, spoke of children and growing old together.

All of that was now gone because he’d taken the easy road and decided he couldn’t be with her if?—

Not tonight. She wasn’t going to go down that long road of sorrow and pain. She had enough to worry about at the moment. Daisy was her focus.

She blinked. Daisy tried to take a step toward Ridge—Dr. Harvey.

Melah didn’t say a word as she watched the two of them.

Her horse was friendly, but she always checked people out first before warming up to them.

Melah didn’t blame her one bit. They were similar in nature, and it was no wonder they got along so well.