Unbridled (Unlikely Lovers) (13 page)

“Good morning, Miranda.” Jadzia’s voice was soft and breathy. “My back still hurts. You weren’t planning to ride
me, were you?”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Kira admonished her daughter. “It’s too cold today
, and the footing is terrible. Show some sense, girl.”

Kes walked in briskly, her nose stuck out and her ears laid back. She might have seemed hateful, but Miranda knew she didn’t mean anything by it. “Hey, Mom. Kiss me hello. I’ve missed you. Kira wouldn’t let me in the barn last night and I’ve got ice all over me!”

She wasn’t kidding. Icicles dangled from her mane and tail and there were even a few clinging to the long hair on her flanks. They clinked together like wind-chimes as she moved.

“Poor girl.” Miranda gave the stocky mare a kiss on the hollow spot by the corner of her mouth. “Get in your stall where it’s safe. Kira can’t pick on you there.”

As Kes whisked by and ducked into her stall, Arwen made a grab for her, ears laid back and teeth bared.

“Be nice, Arwen,” Miranda snapped. “And get back in your stall.”

“I
am
in my stall,” the tall filly insisted. “It’s not my fault I can reach that fat little cow from here.”

“Now, now… Let’s not be hateful,” Miranda warned.

“Hey, who was that guy that was here yesterday?” Kes asked. “He was really cute. Did he spend the night with you?”

“Sort of,” Miranda replied. “The roads were too slick for him to drive home, so he slept in
Levi’s room.”

“Too bad,” Kira said. “He’s just the kind of stud I like. Not too big, not too small, just right.”

Kes nodded vigorously. “Yeah, just right.”

“Oh, what would you know?” Kira snorted in disgust. “You’ve never even been bred.” She shot a stern glance at Miranda. “Don’t run him off, Miranda. He’s a keeper.”

“That’s funny. You never seemed all that taken with him before,” Miranda remarked. “What made you change your mind?”

“Dunno,” Kira replied. “Guess he’s grown on me.”

Arwen tossed her mane. “Well,
I
think he’s too short.” 

Kira blew out a haughty breath. “Height isn’t everything. Your dad was tall, but he was an ass. Now, Damar’s father…” She paused as her eyes took on a dreamy cast. “He wasn’t young and he wasn’t tall, but that stud could fuck with the best of them.”

Jadzia ducked her head down behind the stall door, visibly embarrassed by this frank sexual discussion.

“Kira!”
Miranda chided. “Such language—and in front of your children!”

Damar danced with enthusiasm. “I want to do it with Kes. Please don’t have me gelded before I get the chance.”

Kes tossed her bushy black mane. “You’re too young for me.”

“You wait ’til spring, hot stuff. I’ll be tall enough by then. Be ready for me, baby.”

“Oh, shut up, you guys.” Miranda went into the tackroom. She’d filled three of the buckets when Damar came through the door.

“Dammit, Damar, how many times do I have to tell you to keep out of here?” She picked up a training whip and waved it at him.

“Hey, watch it with that thing,” he said. “No need to get all kinky on me.”

“He probably wants you to put mineral oil on his dick again,” Arwen shouted. “He won’t admit it, but he loves that.”

“I only do it to get the crusty stuff off his penis,” Miranda called back. “It probably does feel good, though.”

“What
on earth are you talking about?” Damar demanded. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Get out of the tackroom. No horses allowed in here, remember?”

“Uh-huh,” he said with a touch of sarcasm. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

Miranda snorted a laugh. “You don’t
have
fingers. You have hooves, and you can only hold up one at a time.”

The girls must’ve thought that was terribly funny. Miranda could hear them snickering out in the barn.

“Yeah, right. Let me see your head.” Damar nuzzled her temple. “You are
not
fine. You’re bleeding and you’re limping.”

“Will you get out of here?”

“Okay, okay.” His voice took on a patronizing note, like someone attempting to placate a mental patient. “Go ahead and finish feeding the horses, but after that, we’re going to the hospital for a CAT scan.”

“A CAT scan?” Miranda waved dismissively. “I’ve had scads of them and they’re always negative. What would you know about stuff like that, anyway?”

“Enough to know you need
one.”

She laughed at the absurdity of Kira’s nine-month-old colt giving her medical advice, but stopped abruptly as a sharp pain knifed through her side. “Dammit, Damar, you kicked me!”

“No, I didn’t. You fell by the gate and hit your head. I’ll bet you broke a couple of ribs, too. Come here for a second.”

Turning her around, he kissed her—a slow, sweet, penetrating kiss that reminded her of something she thought she should remember…

Travis arched an eyebrow. “Now, do you
still
think I’m a horse?”

Chapter 13

Miranda knew she was in for a tongue lashing as soon as she saw the tall, dark-haired nurse behind the glass partition to the ER.

“You didn
’t drive yourself to the hospital with a concussion again, did you?” Denise demanded. “You’ve obviously hit your head. What happened this time? Did a horse throw you or kick you?”

Miranda
gave her an evil look. “Neither. I slipped on the ice and hit my head on the gate when I went to feed the horses this morning.”

“I knew there had to be a horse involved somehow
.” With a smug smile on her baby-doll face, Denise didn’t look like the sort of woman to have any intelligence at all, but sometimes she had way
too much. “What else did you hurt?”

“Maybe
some broken ribs, and my knee hurts, but I don’t think it’s serious.” She knew from past experience what a
serious
knee injury felt like.

“Any memory loss or loss of consciousness?”

“I’m not sure.” She touched the bump on her head. “I feel like I’ve missed something, but I have no idea what it was. Plus, my horses were talking to me.”

“Uh-
huh
.” Denise was clearly debating whether she needed to call in the orthopedic doc or notify the Behavioral Health Unit. “Hearing voices?”

Miranda gave her a cheerful nod.
“Just lock me up in the psych ward. I’m sure I’ll feel right at home with all the other nut cases.”

“
I think we need to take a few x-rays before we make any rash decisions. Come on back.” She stopped and leaned over the desk, checking up and down the hall. “Dammit, Miranda. You
did
drive yourself here, didn’t you?”

“No,
this time I had a ride
and
a witness to the accident.”

The last time Jadzia
had thrown her, she’d been alone. She’d come away with a strained knee ligament, a concussion, and no memory of falling off
or
hitting the ground. Denise had been on duty that day as well, and she’d given Miranda hell for driving herself to the hospital.
She
thought she’d done pretty well to drive a truck with a clutch when her left knee didn’t work right, but Denise had yelled at her.

There
’s no justice in this world…

“He
’s parking the truck,” Miranda said. “He’ll be here in a minute.”

Her eyes lit up.
“
He’s
parking the truck? You’ve got a
boyfriend
?”

“Not exactly
. Travis got stuck at my house last night when he came out with his brother’s backhoe to dig a ditch around my barn. All this rain we’ve been having kept flooding it, and I guess he got tired of hearing me complain.”

“Uh-
huh
,” she said again, arching her brow. “The freezing rain didn’t start until late, Miranda. Are you telling me he was out digging ditches in the dark?”

“Well, no,”
she admitted. “I sort of paid him for the work by fixing dinner for him, and then we watched a movie. He went to leave at about eleven and it was too slick by then, so he spent the night.”

Denise
was giving her that
yeah, right
smirk again.

“
He slept in Levi’s room! Don’t look at me like that. Really, we didn’t—”

She paused
as a brief flash of Travis’s face popped into her head—as if she was staring up at him from the middle of the kitchen table. She could even see the light fixture above his head. Then it was gone.

Weird.

“Poor Travis
. Now everyone will think I’ve been sleeping with him, and all he did was dig a ditch around my barn. He probably won’t ever offer to help me again, and I wouldn’t blame him a bit.”

Travis came up behind her.
“Blame who for what?”

“Blame
you
for not ever wanting to dig a ditch for me again. I’m sure you never bargained on having to stay the night and then take a crazy woman to the emergency room.”

“
Beats watching Saturday morning cartoons with my brother.” He glanced at Miranda with a conspiratorial smile. “Much
more exciting.”

He
seemed to be attempting to convey something significant, but whatever it was, she wasn’t getting it. Truth be told, she wasn’t getting a lot of things that morning. She hoped to figure it out eventually, but she also knew that memory loss was sometimes permanent. The fall she’d had with Jadzia still haunted her, mainly because she couldn’t recall what had actually happened. All she remembered was Jadzia tossing her head and backing up. The next thing she knew, she was in the barn with a twisted knee and a splitting headache.

Miranda
followed Denise into Room 6 and climbed up on the stretcher. Travis sat down on a chair in the corner.

Denise
nodded at him. “Do you want him to wait outside?”

“He can stay if he wants to.”
She held out her arm while Denise applied the blood pressure cuff. “He might as well get his money’s worth.”

“The heat isn
’t working in the waiting room, anyway. It’s freezing out there.” After checking vital signs and making a few notes on the chart, she took Miranda’s insurance card and went to get the doctor.

A few minutes later, Dr. S
chwartz wandered in wearing rumpled scrubs and moccasins. “Well, let’s see now…a bump on the head and a knee and rib injury.” After studying the chart, he peered at her over his thick lenses, waggling his bushy eyebrows. “Looks like we need another CAT scan, don’t we?”

“Very funny
.” The fact that Miranda had been scanned more than anyone else on the staff was a standing joke. One of the techs suggested she schedule them on a monthly basis, which was silly, since this was only her fourth in the past eight or nine years.

After
checking her pupils, he poked around on her ribs. Then he wiggled her knee cap and tested the range of motion in the leg. “I guess we need some chest x-rays and one of the knee, too.” He glanced briefly at Travis and then turned back to Miranda. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

Miranda
sighed. She was tired of having to answer that question and wondered how old she would have to be before they finally stopped asking it. “Not a snowball’s chance in hell.”

Travis
opened his mouth as though about to say something, but seemed to think better of it.

Dr. Schwartz
simply nodded. “Okay, then, let’s get those films and we’ll go from there.” He shuffled out of the room, leaving her alone with Travis.

“Why did they ask if you were pregnant
?”

“X-rays can affect the baby
during the first trimester,” she explained. “They ask any woman of child-bearing age that question before taking any pictures. It’s one of those cover-your-ass things.”

He nodded.
“I see. And you’re sure you wouldn’t be?”

“
Oh, yeah. I haven’t needed birth control since Levi was born.” Aside from the fact that a woman actually had to have
sex
to get pregnant…

Rodney came breezing
in wearing the same smug expression as Denise. He’d been the one to run her previous scan and often teased her about having seen her brains. Other men may have seen various intimate parts of her body, but
he
had looked into her mind.

Miranda groaned.
“Oh, no. It had to be you, didn’t it?”

“Ooh
,
baby.
” He smacked his lips. “I get to look at your brains again—and your knee and your
chest
. I’m getting hot just thinking about it.” Rodney didn’t seem like the type to ever get hot about anything. Tall and skinny with a beak of a nose, he didn’t have enough hair on his head to hold in any warmth whatsoever.

“
If your wife knew how excited you get from looking at x-rays, she might make you quit and do something else.”

He shook his head.
“Nah. She doesn’t mind. We all have to get our jollies somehow. Besides, isn’t it thrilling to see a man enjoying his work?”

Travis
frowned. “He’s kidding, right?”

Miranda shrugged. “No clue.
For all I know he might actually be telling the truth.” Rodney was rarely serious about anything, though he did take a nice x-ray. She’d never had to go back for repeats whenever
he
took the films.

“Maybe I
’d better go with you, just the same.” Travis stood up and gave her a wink. “You might need protection.”

Rodney clutched a hand to his heart.
“We won’t be alone? He doesn’t
trust
me with you?”

“It
’s okay, Rodney.” She laughed, then clutched her own chest. “Dammit, Rodney. Will you hush up? It hurts to laugh.”

“Oh, please forgive me, dearest
.” Rodney’s voice dripped with solicitude as he wheeled the stretcher through the door. “I wouldn’t hurt you for the world. I promise to be on my best professional behavior from now on.”

“I
certainly hope so,” Travis muttered.

“You
’ve got to excuse these guys,” she told him. “I not only work here, but I’m what they call a frequent flier.”

“Meaning?”

“I get hurt a lot. My old chart must be into its second volume by now.”

Rodney nodded.
“Oh, at least. Your file here in x-ray is
huge
. Brains, knees, fingers, feet, ankles, and now, ribs.”

“And my right hip,”
she reminded him. “Don’t forget that one.”

“How could I possibly forget that?”
He heaved a sigh. “My only regret is that I wasn’t here to do it.”

“Me, too
. Becky tried three times before she got it right.”

Rodney sniffed.
“She doesn’t enjoy her work the way
I
do.” Turning the corner, he bumped the stretcher into the door jamb.

Miranda let out a yelp.

“So sorry, dear. Allow me to apologize for my atrocious driving.” He rolled the stretcher close to the table and she scooted over as best she could while holding on to her side.

Donning h
is lead apron, he nodded at Travis. “You should probably wait outside. You might want to father children someday.”

“I don’t think it matters.”
Travis gave her another wink, but stepped out of the room anyway.

After shooting the films, Rodney wheeled her over to the next room
and parked the stretcher next to the scanning table. Miranda hitched over onto it, biting her lip as her broken ribs grated together. Settling herself on the hard, flat table, she heard Rodney in the control room doing his standard lounge lizard routine, putting a radiological spin on the theme from
Star Wars.

“CAT scan
...beautiful CAT scan. Wonderful CAT scan. Get one today.”

The man truly
did
enjoy his work.

Having finished the scan, h
e danced out of the control room. “I didn’t see any big, honking hematomas, but I did see
I love you, what’s his name
scribbled all over your brains. What did you say his name was?”

She scooted
back onto the stretcher. “Whose name? You mean Travis?”

“Yeah, that
’s it.” He leaned over the end of the stretcher to adjust the pillow under her head. “That’s the name I saw on your scan, dear. All over your pretty little brains.”

“Nonsense.
You didn’t see anything of the kind.”

“Did too
.”

“Did not
.”

“Did too
.”

“Dammit, Rodney
. You’re going to make me laugh again.”

“Oops
! Sorry dear—force of habit. I positively
adore
making you laugh.”

She arched a skeptical brow.
“Me and everyone else, so you can stop trying to make me feel special. I’m just another collection of bones and brains to you.”

“Ah, but they
’re such
nice
bones. Some beauty is only skin deep, but yours goes all the way through.”

She rolled her eyes.
“For heaven’s sake, don’t start that again.”

“But it
’s true,” he insisted. “Don’t you think so?”

This question was directed at Travis who had
returned from the waiting area. “Think what?”

“That she
’s beautiful all the way to the bone.”