The Good Doctor (19 page)

CHAPTER 7

I
t was a spectacular kiss. A mix of his warm mouth covering hers in the cold rain, of his rough, calloused fingertips curling over her smooth, sensitive neck, of his hard body pressing into her softer one.

Vaguely, Megan registered all those opposites and wondered at how amazing it was that they complemented each other so well. Then she lost herself to the sensations and gave herself over to the kiss, to Nash, to the warm, wondrous sensations winding through her body. Never in her life had she felt quite like this, at once excited and composed, peaceful and agitated, unhurried and impatient. The way Nash made her feel…

She sighed as he moved his hands down over her shoulders, her bare arms, the damp fabric of her shirt, to the center of her back. Gently, he urged her body closer still, roping his arms around her waist and slanting his mouth over hers more resolutely. And then all she could think was
Oh. Oh, my. Oh, Nash…

A strapping clap of thunder shook the air around
them, and Megan jumped, jerking her mouth from his. But Nash quickly recaptured her lips and kissed her again, and she once more melted into him.

She lifted her hands to his wet hair, loving the way it clung to her fingers as she wove them through it, then cupped a palm over his rough, damp jaw. She wanted to learn more about his body, about him, but something, some last vestige of rational thought, reminded her this wasn't the place. With great reluctance, she pulled her mouth from his, ducking her head almost shyly beneath his chin. He dipped his head, too, clearly intent on kissing her again, but she shook her head.

“We should get back,” she said softly.

“Right,” he said quietly after a moment's hesitation. But his voice was rough and hoarse-sounding, as if he were having trouble forming a response.

In silence, they began walking in the direction the horses had followed, and almost shyly, Nash reached for her hand and wove his fingers through hers. Megan smiled up at him when he did, and he smiled back, and something warm and fluid and fine seeped into her belly.

What a day, she thought. Barely twenty-four hours ago, she'd been leaving work in L.A. to head to the airport for a weeklong vacation, to celebrate her newly won independence. Now, she could barely remember what her life in Los Angeles was like. Nor did she care. Because her head was too full of questions about Nash, and her heart was too full of feel
ings for Nash, and all she wanted at the moment was to spend every waking moment with Nash, learning more about him and exploring whatever it was the two of them seemed to have ignited together.

Was it possible, she wondered, to fall in love with someone within hours of meeting him? Or would it take the full week?

She smiled at the thought, realizing she was already giving herself over to him. First things first, she thought. And what came first, she told herself decisively, was that they had to find their way home. Or, rather, back to the ranch.

But when she looked around, she realized she had no idea which way the ranch was. She did, however, think it
wasn't
the way they were headed. Granted, she'd had her mind on other things while Misty was streaking across the countryside, but this still didn't feel right. And she wasn't sure, but she thought she and Nash had veered from the path the horses had taken.

“Are we going the right way?” she asked.

“Yep,” he told her.

“Are you sure?”

“Yep,” he repeated.

“Because, you know, I don't remember coming this way on Misty.”

“This is a shortcut,” he told her.

“Are you sure?”

“Yep.”

She reminded herself that Nash knew the Flying
Aces better than she did, but as they continued walking, she grew more and more convinced that they were headed in the wrong direction. The rain never let up, though it never got worse, but the sky, she noticed, was starting to go from gray to ashen. If they didn't arrive back at the house soon, it was going to get dark on them.

“Nash?” she finally asked. “This isn't the way back to the Flying Aces, is it?”

He stopped walking, turned to look in the direction from which they'd come, then back into the direction they'd been walking. Then he looked left, and then right, and then back at Megan.

“No,” he told her. “You're right. This isn't the way back to the Flying Aces.”

She expelled a discouraging sound. “So then what you're saying,” she said, swallowing back the fear she felt threatening, “is that we're lost. Hopelessly, completely lost.”

CHAPTER 8

N
ash smiled at Megan. “We're not lost, darlin'. I know exactly where we are. We're home.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, looking so suspicious, he almost laughed out loud. “We're in the middle of nowhere,” she said. “There's nothing here for as far as the eye can see.”

“Well, now that just depends on who's looking,” he said. “Because me, I can see all kinds of things.” He turned her around, then pointed over her left shoulder, toward a slight bump on the horizon.

“Right there, about a half mile from where we are now, will be the main house,” he said. He drove his hand to the right a little, and added, “And over there will be the barn. And past that will be the corral.” He dropped his hand to his side again as he added, “I'm not sure yet where I'm going to house all the hands, since I probably won't be able to hire any for a while. But I do see a lot over there, Megan.” He smiled. “I see home. My home.”

He watched her as she scanned the horizon, look
ing for all the things he'd just described, and he wondered if she could see them as well as he could. When she finally turned to look at him, she was smiling, and he realized she understood. Her view of the place was just as good as his was. What was funny was how relieved he was to realize that.

“This is your land?” she said, still smiling.

He nodded. “Only a few hundred acres for now. But I've got plans to buy more, soon as I start turning a profit. Your cousins will be my neighbors.” And maybe, he thought further, just maybe, they'd someday be Megan's, too.

“Wow,” she said. “You're pretty ambitious.”

“I am,” he agreed.

“Not bad for a twenty-five-year-old ranch hand.”

“You're as young as you feel, Megan.”

She grinned at that, too. “Yeah, you are,” she said. “Or as old as you feel.”

“True enough.”

“Then again, what's age got to do with anything?”

“Got me.”

Her grin went absolutely incandescent at that, but all she said was, “You've got a nice place here, Nash.”

He lifted a shoulder and let it drop. And then, going for broke, he added, “I dunno. Could use a woman's touch.”

“Maybe,” she said. But nothing more.

He decided not to push his luck any further than he had, so he tilted his head to the left. “Come on,” he said. “Flying Aces is over that way. I figure an
other hour's walk ought to do it. We'll be home before dark.”

And with a decisive nod, she agreed, “Yeah. We sure will.”

 

By the time they crested the hill that offered them their first view of the Flying Aces ranch, the rain had stopped and daylight was just beginning to dissolve into night.

The sky was once again stained a mix of purple and pink and orange that Megan had so enjoyed this morning. She marveled again at how little time had passed, but how much had changed. It had been a hell of a day, she thought. But she couldn't remember the last time she'd had so much fun.

You came here for an adventure,
she reminded herself. She looked over at Nash again, and a warm, fuzzy, wonderful sensation wound through her. Funny how she'd found so much more.

“Good to be back,” Nash said.

But Megan wasn't sure she could agree. Because now that they'd found their way back to the ranch, they were going to have to join the company of others. And while a few hours ago she'd wanted nothing more than to be at the ranch, she suddenly wanted to turn around and head back onto the wide-open range with Nash.

“I bet Misty found her way here a long time ago,” Megan said.

“With Buck at her side, no doubt,” he concurred.

“Now I know where the term
horse sense
comes from,” she told him.

Nash nodded. “Yep. You'll notice no one's ever used the term
people sense
before.”

“I did notice that,” she said with a smile.

As if they were both thinking the same thing, they each reached for the other's hand at the same time, tangling their fingers together. Hand in hand, they strode toward the softly glowing lights of the main house, and were met by the aroma of Clyde's strong coffee when they were still a good hundred feet away.

Voices drifted from the kitchen as they drew nearer, and Megan recognized most of them as those of her cousins. They still sounded anxious, though, so she guessed Brandi Norris still hadn't been found.

The screen door squeaked as Nash pushed it open, then slammed shut behind them as they crossed the threshold. Before they even made it to the kitchen, however, they were surrounded by the triplets and a half-dozen of the ranch hands, all of whom were exclaiming loudly and happily that she had been found.

Oh, no, wait. Not Brandi. They were exclaiming happily that
Nash and Megan
had been found.

“Found?” Megan echoed when she realized what they were saying. “But we were never lost.”

“Yeah, we always knew exactly where we were,” Nash said.

“Well, we sure the hell didn't,” Miles said. “We were about to organize a second search party for you
two! It really took the shine off the success we had finding Brandi.”

“You found Brandi?” Nash asked.

“As usual, Miles is making himself out to sound more important than he really is,” Clyde said with a smile. “Brandi was never missing. At least, not to her way of thinking.”

“She's in Las Vegas,” Steven said. “She called her sister a little while ago to tell her she'd arrived safely, and not to worry, but she wanted to try her hand at becoming a showgirl. She apologized for not telling anyone where she was going, but she hadn't wanted a lecture from Julie—that's the sister,” Steven clarified for Megan. “Seems she made the decision on the spur of the moment, at Nash's birthday party, because she thought she did such a bang-up job with the revue they put together for him.”

“She
was
very good,” Nash said. “I don't think I've ever seen anyone do the splits better than Brandi.”

“Anyway,” Steven said, “Julie's fit to be tied, but Brandi's just fine. Sheriff called off the search around suppertime, but when the horses came back and you two didn't, and then it started to get dark, everyone got worried all over again.” He looked at Nash and hooked his hands on his hips. “Just what the hell happened to you two today, anyway?” he asked.

Oh, boy, Megan thought. What a loaded question. But she could only answer for herself. And what had happened to her was that she had discovered, much
to her surprise, that maybe her life in L.A. wasn't the life she really wanted to lead. Mere hours in Nash Ridley's presence had made her feel more things, more deeply, than she'd felt in twelve years in California.

She'd found more happiness and satisfaction just walking hand in hand with him than she ever had at her job doing…how had he put it? Oh, yeah. Manufacturing ad campaigns designed to convince people they needed to give up their hard-earned dollars for some idealized state of mind that only existed on a television screen or the pages of some glossy magazine.

As arduous as the day had been, she'd enjoyed every second of it. She'd liked being with Nash. Liked the way he made her feel. And she wanted to hang around Red Rock for a while longer than originally planned, to see if the feeling lasted.

She turned to look at him, and saw him looking back at her. And somehow, she knew that, whatever she was feeling, she was going to feel it for a long, long time. Maybe even forever.

“What happened,” she said to Steven, “is—”

“None of your business,” Nash finished for her, smiling. “But it's something that Megan and I need to explore a little further.”

She smiled back and nodded. “Yeah,” she agreed. Then she turned to look at her Fortune cousins and asked, “So do you guys think you'd mind me staying on a little longer than a week?”

One by one, Steven, Miles and Clyde all smiled back. But it was Miles who asked, “How much longer?”

Megan wrapped her arm around Nash's waist at the same time he roped his around hers and pulled her close. She turned to him and he dipped his head to hers, pressing his forehead affectionately against her own.

“I'm not sure,” she said. “But you know, I'm starting to feel kind of at home here on the range.”

Nash grinned at her, then nuzzled her temple with his nose before pressing a kiss to the sensitive spot. “Lucky for you, darlin',” he said, “I just so happen to be building one of those myself. And there will be plenty of room for two.”

 

THE END