CHAPTER 4

Lorissa was pounding on a horseshoe for Misty with sweat running down her arms and face. Today was a hot one, not only because of the blacksmith fire, but also because it was almost ninety degrees outside. She wore a tank top and jeans beneath her blacksmith apron, and if she thought she could get away with it, she’d strip down to her bra and panties, it was that hot.

As she stuck the horseshoe into the water, she looked out of the door through the steam and thought she saw a ghost. She didn’t react, but studied the silhouette of a man standing in the entrance to the barn with the sun behind him. He was tall, broad shoulders, narrow-hipped, and from where she was standing, he had long, long legs. Much taller than her own five-foot five form. As the steam disappeared, she called out to the man .

“Help you?”

The man walked forward, and Lorissa sucked in her breath at his handsome face. She had to ask him to repeat what he said because she didn’t catch it the first time he spoke.

“You’re not Shelly Atherton.” It was a statement, not a question.

“No, I’m not.” Lorissa stuck the shoe back into the coals, removed her glove, wiped the sweat on the thigh of her jeans, then held out her hand. “Lorissa Gibson, and you are?”

“Tom Stolls.” They shook, and as soon as they made skin-on-skin contact, they both tightened their hands, which caused them to hold on just a little bit longer than necessary. To ease the sudden tension, Lorissa took the shoe from the coals and started pounding on it again.

“What can I do for you?”

“I’ll wait until you’re done.” He nodded at the shoe and stood back and watched her work. It took everything in her power not to drop everything and run into the bathroom to make sure her hair wasn’t all over the place. Since she never wore makeup because of her work, she always made sure her hair was neat and tidy. Today was no different than any other day, she still wore it in a thick braid to the middle of her back. Fifteen minutes later, she sighed in contentment as the finished shoe went into the water one last time. Later that afternoon she’d go over to Broken and put it on Misty.

She walked around her work area and stuck out her hand again. “Sorry, but I’m Lorissa Gibson. What did you say your name was?”

“Tom Stolls, I’m the local veterinarian around here.”

“Ah, you work for Erin then.”

“I do. How do you know Erin?”

“I work for her, too.” She laughed as she waved her arm out in a sweeping motion to show the area around her. “Erin owns all this, and the land attached. I’ve been here for about three weeks. I’m the farrier for her.”

“For everything?” Tom asked in shock. “Wait, I thought Shelly Atherton took over her grandfather’s business when he passed.”

“She did. I don’t know all the details, all I was told was that Shelly went to Erin to ask if she wanted to buy the place. If she didn’t, then something about her grandfather’s will and a housing development were mentioned.”

“Shit, that would be bad.” Tom shook his head and smiled. “Let me guess, Erin jumped on the opportunity to buy Old Man Atherton’s spread?”

“Apparently. What I told you is all I know. I didn’t think it was my business to know any more.” She turned and looked around. “I didn’t move here by myself. ”

“You’re married?” Tom asked in shock, surprised by how much the idea of this woman belonging to someone else bothered him.

“No. I moved here with my mother and Nana.” She turned to him and frowned at what she thought she saw as relief come across his features. “I took over the big house, Nana has the doublewide over by the greenhouses.” She looked at him with a grin. “In her old life back home, she ran a garden center.”

“Ah, so the greenhouses would be perfect for her.”

“So, she says. My mother, and Duane live in the other doublewide. Mom’s not here right now, she had to go back to New York for something to finish up her life there. She should be back in the next couple of weeks, because that’s when her rehabilitation class starts.”

“Duane? As in Duane Manchester?”

“Yes, do you know him?”

“I do, we share an office over at Erin’s Way.”

“Oh, oh, you’re that Tom.” She looked at him in shocked glee. “Erin told me I had to hook up with you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, not only am I farrier, if this matters I’m AFA Certified, but I also hold the title of DVM.”

“No offense, but are you even old enough for all that?”

“I’m twenty-seven, but I did a couple of years of high school together and got out early. One summer between classes, I visited a schoolmate and they turned me on to being a farrier. I finished and received my DVM, then went to learn to be a farrier. I figured I could do both. My last job required me to do both. Here I’m the farrier, but I don’t know whether Erin talked to you or not, but she thought if I saw something that needed done, and it wasn’t major, I could do it. She said she hates to call you in all the time.”

“We’ll have to sit down and talk about it.”

“Okay, I can do that. Now, not to be rude, but I need to get this shoe over to Broken so I can put it on Misty.”

“Do you mind if I tag along?”

“Not at all, is that the reason you’re here?” Lorissa walked away and started loading her tools into a bag. She looked at him with raised brows.

“No, I have a year-old stallion that needs a farrier. I patched him up yesterday as best I could, but he’s going to need work done.”

“Where is this place?”

“On the other side of Fool’s Gold. If you want, you can follow me over there after you work on Misty.”

“I can do that.” She agreed as she loaded up more tools. When she was ready, she only nodded at him and told him she’d meet him at Broken.

Tom stood there and watched her walk away, and it took several minutes to get his heartbeat under control. “Holy hell, what a beautiful woman, and a vet to boot. I can’t wait to work with her.” He shook himself and got into his truck to drive over to The Broken Wheel.

He waved at Duane as he drove by, but instead of ignoring him, he stopped and gave him an update on how the arrest went down, and why he was there. By the time he arrived at the barn, Lorissa had Misty all set up and was putting a shoe on her. Tom watched her work and was fascinated by it. Don’t get him wrong, farrier work had always fascinated him, especially if someone else was doing it. He knew his way around a hoof, but preferred not to work on them like a farrier would. As she finished, he laughed along with her when Celine, Lydia, the two donkeys, and Maxine went to Misty to see if she was okay.

He stood back and watched them, then walked over to the gate and called them over. As soon as he had Maxine’s halter in his hand, he took the pen light from his pocket and shone it into her eyes. He nodded and did it again. After he released her, he looked over at Lloyd as he approached. “Is Maxine’s eyesight getting better?”

“We think so, Lorissa started putting salve on her eyes after they’re in their stall for the night, and it seems to be improving.”

Tom looked at Lorissa and demanded harshly, “What did you do? What right did you have to even examine these horses? Are you even registered in this state?”

Lorissa stiffened her spine, slammed her fisted hands on her hips, looked down her nose at him, and told him in a cold voice, “I examined her eyes, and saw conjunctivitis in them. Don’t worry, I did the test. I put eye ointment on them, and made sure she wore a hood at night so the flies wouldn’t get to them. If you don’t believe me, you can look at her file in Naomi’s office. I wrote it all down. And yes, not that it’s any of your business, because you are NOT my boss, I am licensed to work as a DMV in Colorado. Again, not that I owe you any explanations, but I am also licensed and registered as a farrier in this state, along with the former state I lived in.” She paused as she crossed her arms over her chest as she continued to glare at him, while tapping her foot. “Is there a problem?”

“I don’t know,” Tom said honestly, then sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just that when Maxine came here she was blind. I thought it was because she was malnourished and dehydrated.”

“That can cause temporary blindness, but I thought I saw signs of conjunctivitis and did some tests of my own. I have a mini lab set up over at my place. It was positive, so I’ve been putting the salve on at night.”

“What’s that conjunctive stuff?” Lloyd asked in concern. He wanted to defuse the situation unfolding in front of him. It was like a train wreck, he couldn’t look away, but he didn’t want Lorissa pissed off at the vet. From where he stood, the ranches needed them both. He didn’t know whether Tom would quit, or if Lorissa would refuse to even look at a horse if they kept at each other like this.

“It’s basically pink eye in horses,” Tom said. He shook his head. “I never would have thought that in a million years given the condition she was in when she arrived here.”

“I’m not saying you made a mistake, but I heard her story about how she and the others come to be at Broken. I can understand you missing something. Again, I’m not blaming you, but maybe you were overworked.” Lorissa’s hostility eased, but she still stood tall and glared at Tom.

“Now, if you really want me to go look at the other horse, give me the name of the rancher and their address. I’ll head over there and see what I can do for them.”

“I’ll go with you,” Tom said and shook his head at her. “You can follow me.” He stared after Lorissa as she turned on the heel of her cowboy boot and he couldn’t take his eyes off her ass as she walked away from him, he also noted that she was stiff, as if a rod had attached itself to her spine. He sighed heavily and looked at Lloyd. “I think I might have just pissed the little lady off. ”

“Yep, and if you want to keep your balls attached to your body, I wouldn’t refer to her as ‘the little lady’ in front of her. I’ve been working with her for the last month, Tom, she’s good, and the horses seem to love her. I’m not saying she will be taking over your job, but if you admit it to just yourself, you might realize she’s right.”

“About?”

“You’re stretched thin.” Lloyd turned to him with a shake of his head. “I get it. I know that Naomi and Erin only call you when there’s an emergency, and you come out when you need to gather samples for Riceman Stallions. I’m not telling you what to do, but maybe you should be nicer to someone like Lorissa. I know she was hired as the farrier, but I also overheard Naomi and Erin discussing using her for her vet services if it's something minor.”

“I know, and I shouldn’t have gone off on her like I did. I’m just so frustrated in my personal life that I took it out on her.”

“Care to talk about it?”

“I wish I could,” Tom sighed and shook his head as he saw Lorissa climb into her truck. “Let’s just say that I had two dates in the last week and both of them ended badly. The first one sent a text that if I didn’t spent at least five hundred dollars on her for our first date, then I wasn’t worth her time.”

“Gold-digger.”

“Exactly.” Tom shook his head and bit the bullet with his next statement. “Yesterday was my second date, and that ended up with her being hauled away in handcuffs. I was here a few days ago for Riceman Stallions and asked Duane to do a background check on her. It turns out that she had several felony warrants out for her arrest.”

“For what?”

“Identity theft. The name she used on the dating app was a combination of two names that she stole. It was a mess,” he said sadly, and shook his head again. “I better get going. I’m going to have to apologize to Ms. Gibson.”

“Good luck with that,” Lloyd slapped him on the shoulder with a laugh.

“Thanks, not,” Tom laughed back at him, shook his head, and made his way over to his truck. He tried to get Lorissa’s attention, but she looked away from him, so he shook his head sadly and climbed into his truck. He only hoped that she would follow him. He settled in for the two plus hour drive over to the ranch he’d been to the day before. Where he was an hour east of Fool’s Gold, this ranch was an hour Southwest of the town.