Free Saddled and Spurred: A Blacktop Cowboys Novel by Lorelei James

She definitely would’ve remembered August Fletcher. “You live around here?”
    Fletch nodded. “In Rawlins. I also work in Cheyenne, Laramie, and all spots in between. I’m gone a lot.”
    He parked sideways, blocking the front steps to Bran’s trailer. Harper wondered if he’d done it on purpose. Seemed like Fletch wanted to poke at Bran, to pay him back for calling him all the way out here to treat a human. A human female, no less. She was all for it.
    Inside, Harper started a pot of coffee and returned to the living room.
    “Why don’t you take off the coveralls, boots, and all that outerwear and sit on the couch?” He tossed a fleece blanket at her. “Cover up in this to stay warm.”
    Fletch wasn’t particularly chatty, nor was he in any hurry to start the exam. Or had he planned to have Bran present for it? When the whining ATV motor sounded close to the house, Fletch’s entire demeanor changed.
    “Stand.” Then Fletch did the oddest thing; he dropped to his knees in front of her. He poked her lower abdomen through her shirt.
    He’d moved up a couple of inches to test her ribs when Bran barreled in. Lordy, lordy. Bran was mad enough he didn’t take off his boots. He clomped across the carpet, leaving muddy footprints and chunks of snow. “What the fuck do you think you’re doin’ with your goddamn hand up her shirt?”
    Fletch didn’t acknowledge Bran at all. “Does this hurt?”
    “No.”
    Two more soft pokes under her bottom rib on the opposite side. “This?”
    “No.”
    “I can’t see . . . Maybe it would be better if you unbuttoned your shirt, Harper.”
    “You gonna start humming the melody from The Stripper ?” she asked lightly.
    He chuckled.
    Bran wasn’t laughing at all.
    She bit the inside of her cheek. Bran almost seemed ... jealous.
    Ha. Wrong. She had to be misreading him. Bran Turner didn’t even like her. He thought she was a bunny-saving fat cow, for crying out loud.
    As Fletch watched, Harper tried to keep from blushing, tried not to notice the avid stares at her chest, tried to keep her hands from shaking as she slipped the top button free from the buttonhole.
    “Enough,” Bran said hoarsely. “Goddammit. Enough. If she needs to be examined that closely, I’ll take her to the damn doctor.”
    Fletch rolled to his feet. “Fine. I’ll remind you that you called me, Bran. I have one more reaction to test.”
    “Do it quick.”
    He unclipped a pen from his pocket and clicked it. A tiny beam of bluish light streamed out the end. He held her jaw firmly in his big hands, with his thumb pressed into the left side of her jaw. “Just a quick concussion check.” He centered the silver pen in front of her nose. “Follow the movement of the pen with just your eyes. Not your head.”
    Harper did.
    “Good. So, how did a beautiful woman like you end up as this guy’s hired hand?”
    “Fashion merchandising and marketing jobs are a little hard to come by in Muddy Gap. So I had to improvise.”
    “Is that what your degree is in?” He switched the pen to the other side and slowly moved the beam of light.
    “I’d have to finish school to have a degree.”
    “Do you plan to go back to college?”
    “Maybe. Probably. I hope so, but not for a few years until Bailey and I are settled someplace.” She gave him a brief rundown of why she was stuck in Muddy Gap.
    “If you change your mind and want to stick around, I can always use a veterinary assistant in Rawlins. But fair warning, we’d be on the road together. A lot.”
    Was that a snarl coming from Bran? No, it was a sarcastic bark of laughter. He said, “Yeah, Harper is a real natural with goats.”
    “I am a bit of a greenhorn with livestock.”
    “We all are at some point.” Fletch winked. “Bran must have really pissed off his last girlfriend, Charlie, to have gotten those fainting goats from her as a breakup gift.”
    Charlie was a woman? Seemed Bran had left out that factoid. No wonder the goats’ names were