12-Alarm Cowboys (34 page)

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T
anner’s heart rate
jumped as Georgina Greyson stepped up to the throwing line. Her thick hair rioted around her face as the wind picked up. She shoved it behind her ears and studied the bullseye target to his left as she bit her lip in serious concentration. Then she took aim and threw the ball.

It hit his cage with a loud bang.

He grinned. She couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.

Picking up her second ball, she aimed and fired. This ball went over the top of his enclosure.

“Give it up, sweetheart,” he taunted. “It’s obvious my good looks are distracting you.”

He could have sworn he heard her growl.

Georgie reared back and let her third, and then fourth, and finally fifth balls sail. Two hit his cage–and he wondered if she was aiming for his head instead of the release lever–and the final one landed short.

Really, he should have kept his mouth shut but it was just too much fun to watch her get red-faced and flustered when he goaded her.

“With your tiny hands and petite size, you’ll never get the ball to the target. Just give up while you’ve got some dignity left.”

Reno stacked five more balls in front of her.

She licked her lips. He fixated on her tongue as it flicked out and back in. A spark of lust ignited in his gut. Where did that come from? He wasn’t attracted to Georgina-call-me-Georgie Greyson. She wasn’t his type at all. He liked his women tall, blonde and experienced. She was petite, red-headed, and, as uptight as she was, he questioned if she’d ever had sex more than once.

Balls six and seven hit his cage, the ground and finally, nothing as the eighth ball sailed over the top.

He laughed. “Your lack of prowess is gathering quite a crowd. I do believe your city roots are showing.”

Balls nine and ten hit the cage directly in front of him. Yeah, he was pretty sure those two had hit where she’d aimed them.

His brother came strolling out from where he’d dried off and changed clothes. Zack’s grin grew as balls eleven and twelve missed the target.

“You’re still dry?” he shouted up at Tanner. “That’s no fun at all.”

Zack headed to where Georgie stood behind the pile of balls. He held out his palm. “Give me a couple. I’ll help you drown his ass.”

She shook her head. “Nope. I want to do that myself.”

Zack whispered something into her ear.

“No fair,” Tanner protested. “No coaching.”

“Nothing in the rules about coaching,” Zack said.

“What rules?” Reno said.

Georgie repositioned herself behind the line, moving a little more to the right. Zack got behind her, checked her aim and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Go get him,” he said.

The kiss shot a flame of anger through him. Zack should not be kissing Dr. Greyson. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t…he never got to finish his thought. Suddenly the wooden seat beneath him swung down and for a fraction of a second, Tanner was suspended in air. Then he dropped heavily into ice cold water.

The freezing liquid hit him like a wooden bat. His feet hit the bottom and he stood. As tall as he was, his head was easily above the water level.

In the midway, Georgie was dancing and hollering, “I got him! I did it.”

Around her people were cheering her on.

Tanner shook the hair out of his eyes, jerked his board shorts back up to his waist and climbed back onto the seat.

A lucky shot.

Except it wasn’t. The next ball hit and down he went again. And again, she jumped around in an excited dance and the crowd cheered.

After the fourth time she dropped him, she’d stopped dancing and was looking a little bored.

“I’m done,” she said to Reno.

“You bought more balls than you’ve thrown.”

“Keep ’em and keep the money. I got more than my money’s worth.”

She looked up at Tanner, and for the first time addressed him. “Mr. Marshall. Thank you for the best time I’ve had in a long time.” Then she had the audacity to give him a saucy wink and blow him a kiss. She linked arms with Magda, who gave Reno a kiss, and then the two women walked off.

The woman might be the most irritating female Tanner had ever met, but that didn’t stop him from admiring the swing in her hips as she walked away. Georgina laughed at something Magda said, the sound carrying to him over all the fair noise. It wasn’t the first time he’d heard her laugh but he realized that she’d never laughed around him.

For some reason, that gave him pause.

“How much longer have I got up here?” Tanner shouted to Reno.

“You’re done,” Reno said.

“No way,” Zack said. “I want a shot at him.”

“Sorry, squirt face,” Tanner said. “You missed your chance.” He climbed out of the cage before Zack could grab a ball.

*

“Tanner?”

He looked up at the speaker over his head. “Yeah?”

“Supper will be ready in about forty-five minutes.”

“Thanks, Deb. Be up shortly.”

The intercom squawked and fell quiet. He loved and hated that damn thing. Way back before every man, woman and child had their own personal cell phone, his mother had insisted his father install it so she could call him to the house. So from that perspective, the old system still came in handy.

However, once when Tanner had been in high school, he’d worked long and hard to get Tanya Jo Allen into the barn loft. Things were just getting hot and heavy when his father knocked loudly on the barn door and entered. Seemed that Zack had turned on the intercom. Tanner and Tanya Jo had been the evening entertainment until his parents got a good listen to the new radio show.

Now that he thought about it, Tanya Jo never went out with him again.

He chuckled and ran a brush along Jolene’s bulging side. Probably a good thing his dad had come in that night. Otherwise, Tanya Jo might have had a bulging belly like Jolene.

The crunch of tires on gravel drew his attention. He set the brush on the shelf. “Be right back,” he told Jolene.

Georgina Greyson was climbing out of her truck when he walked out.

“Evening, Dr. Greyson. Bring any baseballs with you tonight?”

She laughed. The sound stopped Tanner in his tracks.

“Don’t you think it’s time you dropped the Dr. Greyson, Tanner? After all, I’ve seen you in a wet T-shirt.”

A niggle of amusement tickled him. He smiled. “I think we can do that. What can I do for you this evening?”

“I was reading over Jolene’s file at the office. I didn’t see a note about late pregnancy vaccinations for tetanus, Eastern and Western encephalomyelitis and influenza. Seeing as how the clinic records are as tidy as any records I’ve ever seen, I assumed no notation meant these hadn’t been given. Any reason?”

Tanner shook his head. “It’s on my to-do list. Just hadn’t gotten to them.” He frowned. “Why are you so interested in my horse?”

“I have a serious thing for horses. That’s all.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Really? I’m thinking my wet T-shirt from this weekend has whipped you into a lust frenzy.”

She burst out with a loud hoot of laughter from deep in her gut. Her arms wrapped around her waist, she bent over and continued to laugh.

“Sorry,” she said, her words choked. “I mean, yeah. That’s why I’m here.”

“What’s so funny?” Zack asked, walking down from the house.

“Nothing,” Tanner replied. “Georgina is here checking on Jolene.”

“Tanner!” Deb hollered.

All three adults turned toward the house where Tanner’s sister held up a phone.

“Fire,” she yelled. “South’s Ridge.”

“Okay. On the way.”

“Chief is looking for Georgie. The fire’s near Reeves’s farm. Chief said might be some injured animals.”

“Tell him I’ll bring her,” Tanner said.

“I’ll follow you in the mobile clinic.”

“I’ll go with Georgie to make sure she doesn’t get lost,” Zack said.

His brother’s suggestion turned Tanner’s stomach sour.

“No,” Tanner said. “I’ll get my turnouts and ride with her. You follow in my truck.”

Zack opened his mouth as though he was going to argue, but after studying Tanner’s face and then Georgie’s glare, he nodded and headed off.

“You don’t have to ride with me,” she protested. “I can follow you or you could have let Zack show me the way.”

“It’s no problem.” He was lying. Being in close quarters with the curvy doctor was definitely a problem, but he didn’t want his brother to get too attached to the lady vet. First, she was older than Zack, and second, she was a short-timer in the area. If he let Zack get involved, he’d only be hurt when she left town.

So really, he was doing this for Zack’s own good.

“Fine then,” Georgina said with a shrug.

She appeared to be as thrilled as Tanner to be in a closed space together.

“Deb, you and Dillon stay here. Stay off the phone and off the radio in case I need to reach you,” Tanner ordered.

Deb saluted with a sarcastic grin. He would never survive his little sister’s senior year.
Thanks Dad and Mom.

He hurried to his black truck to get his gear.

*

Georgie’s heart rattled
with nerves. Not because she was going to be alone in the truck with Tanner. She could handle that…she was pretty sure. But she hated the thought of animals being burned in a fire. And it wasn’t just the damage from the burn that could be the problem. Smoke inhalation could kill just as quickly.

As she waited for Tanner, she began scanning through her brain for everything she’d ever been taught about treating animal burns. And then she said a silent prayer she wouldn’t need any of that information today.

Her driver door snapped opened and Tanner leaned in. “Let me drive.”

“Nope.”

“It’ll be faster.”

“You’ve never seen me drive. Now get in the passenger seat or get in your truck. Your choice.”

He slammed her door and stomped around the front of the truck. A smile desperately tried to crawl onto her lips but she fought back the urge and gave him a serious don’t-mess-with-me look.

“So? Where?”

He huffed a cuss word under his breath as his truck passed with a pair of red lights flashing on the cab’s roof and a loud siren blaring from somewhere on the vehicle. Zack waved and she pulled in behind him. Within minutes, the equipment in the truck was rattling as she hit seventy down the gravel road.

“He’s driving too slow,” Tanner grumbled. “And turn on your emergency flashers.”

“We’re doing seventy and my flashers are on.”

“I should have driven.”

That dadgum smile climbed to her face again, so she bit her lip. The last thing she needed was to poke the angry tiger beside her.

“Zack is driving as fast as is sane on this road.”

He leaned back and crossed his arms. “How old are you?”

The question was snapped at her like a wet towel. “What?”

“Easy question. How old are you?”

“Thirty-one.”

“Hmm. You look younger.”

“Um…thanks?”

“Zack is only twenty-five.”

“Um…okay.”

“You realize that you’re too old for him.”

That almost made her slam on the van’s brakes out of astonishment. “What are you talking about?”