Liam Brand is done with waiting.

The time has come to finally claim his bride!

Single mom Kate King is juggling a daughter with a disability, a bustling horse ranch and a disappointing ex. Finding room for romance is more than challenging. But Liam has loved Kate for decades, and it’s time to make his move. Getting to the altar, however, proves to be the easiest part of his plan. Convincing their families is another matter entirely.

JOANNA SIMS is proud to pen contemporary romance for Mills & Boon. Joanna’s series, The Brands of Montana, features hardworking characters with hometown values. You are cordially invited to join the Brands of Montana as they wrangle their own happily-ever-afters. And, as always, Joanna welcomes you to visit her at her website: www.joannasimsromance.com.

Also available by Joanna Sims

A Wedding to Remember

Thankful for You

Meet Me at the Chapel

High Country Baby

High Country Christmas

A Match Made in Montana

Marry Me, Mackenzie!

The One He’s Been Looking For

A Baby for Christmas

Visit millsandboon.co.uk for more information

A Bride for Liam Brand

Joanna Sims

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-07727-9

A BRIDE FOR LIAM BRAND

© 2018 Joanna Sims

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dedicated to my sister, Beth Elaine…

Thank you for being one of my first editors and shaping the writer I have become.

I love you.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Extract

Chapter One

“Mommy!”

Callie’s scream caused Kate King to drop the heavy Western saddle she was carrying and run toward the sound of her daughter’s voice.

“Mommy!”

“Callie!” Kate ran down the wide, center aisle of her fifty-stall barn. “Callie!”

The mother and daughter nearly collided when Kate rounded a corner at the end of the long, concrete aisle.

“What’s wrong?” Kate put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders, giving her face and body a cursory check with her concerned eyes.

Callie’s round face was flushed bright red and drenched with tears and sweat. Her daughter was eighteen-years-old, an adult by any standard, but Callie had been born with Down syndrome. Negative emotions, in particular, were difficult for Callie to process.

“Take a minute.” Her daughter was gasping for air, struggling to speak. “Catch your breath.”

Callie leaned forward a bit, closed her eyes, coughed several times and followed her mother’s instructions.

“Visa...” Callie finally got the words out. “He’s hurt, Mommy!”

Kate was, at first, relieved that her daughter wasn’t the one injured, but the last thing a horse owner wanted to hear was that one of the herd was injured. So, the relief she had originally felt was fleeting.

“It’s okay, Callie.” Kate gave her daughter a steady look. “Let’s go see what’s going on with him.”

It was just a fact of life that her daughter didn’t have many friends in their community; Bozeman, Montana, was a small town surrounded by ranches and uninhabited swaths of land. There simply weren’t any other young adults with a similar disability living close by—so every animal on their ranch was Callie’s friend. And she took it hard if any of her friends were injured or sick.

Visa, whose registered name was Expense Account, was a rare member of their horse-breeding ranch. The majority of the horses on the Triple K Ranch were Quarter horses with excellent pedigrees. Visa, on the other hand, was a Dutch Warmblood and Hanoverian mix, and he was Callie’s favorite.

Together, they walked quickly out to the pasture closest to the barn; each horse had its designated pasture and turnout time. Visa, who wasn’t the most assertive horse in the herd, was always turned out with the older, more experienced geldings.

Kate spotted typically social and “in everyone’s business” Visa, standing alone and away from the herd. The owner of the Triple K, her brow furrowed with concern, unlatched the gate to the pasture.

“Wait for me here, please, Callie.”

“I—I want to help.” Her daughter said.

“Callie.” Her tone brooked no argument. “This I need you to wait here, please.”

Callie, in her own right, was a talented horsewoman; she had been raised working with these elegant creatures and had been riding before she could walk. But, in this moment, Kate didn’t want the distraction of watching out for Callie while she tried to figure out what was going on with Visa.

“Hi, good-looking boy,” Kate said as she approached Visa. She spoke in a calm soothing voice that she used with all of the horses.

Visa was a beautiful russet-red with black legs and a black mane and tail. The horse, which typically greeted her with a friendly head bump, pinned back its ears at her, gnashed his teeth, and tossed his head aggressively. Visa loved to scratch his face by rubbing his head on her shoulder and arm; his unusual behavior served to underscore the fact that something was wrong.

“Okay. Okay,” Kate said in a low, gentle voice, ignoring the pinned ears and his attempts to bite her while she began to take inventory of his physical state. The biggest red flag for her was the fact that he wasn’t putting weight on his right hind leg.

“Why are you standing way out here all by yourself?” Kate ran her hand along the young horse’s muscular body. “That’s not like you.”

Careful not to move in a way that would spook Visa, Kate kept her right hand on his haunch while she bent forward to get a closer look at the hind leg. There was a distinctive gash above Visa’s hoof it looked like a crescent, and she immediately suspected that the young gelding had got too nosey with one of the older horses and been kicked for his trouble.

“Easy, Visa. Let me just take a quick look. Did you get kicked?” She ran her hand down the leg; the moment she got near the gash with her fingers, Visa lifted his leg to pull it away from her.

Kate straightened her body, acid beginning to roil in her stomach. A leg injury in a horse was never good news.

“Okay,” she said softly to Visa. “Let’s see you walk.”

The horse trainer hooked her finger into the horse’s halter and clucked her tongue to get Visa to walk a step forward. The horse jerked his head, resisting at first, before he agreed to take a couple of steps forward. The second he tried to put weight on that right hind leg, Kate’s suspicions were confirmed: Visa was lame. She couldn’t know, without an X-ray, how bad the injury was. But there was an undisputable truth of horse ownership—no legs, no horse.

Kate called out to her daughter to fetch her a lead rope. Red-faced and sweaty, Callie handed her the rope.

“I-is he hurt b-bad?”

“I’m not sure, kiddo. Let’s get him back to the barn and we’ll call Dr. McGee. Do me a favor. Go check Visa’s stall and make sure it’s been cleaned.”

While her daughter rushed back into the barn, lead rope in hand, Kate headed back to Visa.

“This is going to be hard, Visa. But we’ll do it together.” She clipped the lead rope to the horse’s halter and began the painstaking walk back to the barn.

Along the way, the rest of the herd, curious creatures, tried to join them in their journey, but Kate shooed them away. One of Visa’s pasture mates had seriously injured him, that much she knew, but she couldn’t pinpoint which horse had done the damage.

Callie hurriedly opened the gate so Visa could limp through.

“I-is he going to b-be okay? He looks like he’s hurt b-bad.” Tears had returned to Callie’s brown eyes.

“It might be a broken leg, Callie. I’m not sure.” Kate had always told her daughter the truth. “But I do know that we have to be strong for Visa. We have to be calm so he can stay calm. You have to try, okay?”

“Okay,” Callie said as she shut the gate behind them. “I—I’ll try.”

It took a long time to get the lame horse back to his stall; once he was settled, Kate asked Callie to get Visa a pad of hay to keep him occupied while she called her regular vet.

“Oh, Kate,” Dr. McGee’s receptionist, Dawn, said, “I’m so sorry, but Dr. McGee is out with the flu—sick as a dog, poor man.”

Kate shook her head in frustration. Dr. McGee had been her vet for years, and she simply didn’t trust anyone else with her horses.

“It sounds like you need someone right away.” The receptionist filled in the silence. “I can refer you to Dr. Brand. I have his number right here if you’d like to have it.”

Kate had gone to school with Liam Brand, starting in kindergarten. Yes, she grew up with him, and yes, she ran into him every now and again in town. But she had no idea what kind of veterinarian skills Liam Brand had. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in a position to question her own vet’s referral. Kate took the number, thanked the receptionist for her time and then immediately called Dr. Brand.

* * *

“He-llo.” Liam Brand tapped the green telephone symbol to answer the phone quickly so he could still keep his eyes on the road.

“May I speak with Dr. Brand, please?”

“You got ’im.”

“Hi, Dr. Brand. This is Kate King.” The woman on the other end of the line paused for a second. “Triple K Ranch?”

Large-animal veterinarian Liam Brand didn’t want to let on, but he didn’t need any additional qualifiers beyond Kate’s name to identify who she was. He was a little old to have a crush, he supposed, but she certainly had caught his interest when their paths had crossed from time to time in the small Montana town of Bozeman. They had known each other all their lives, but Kate wasn’t much on small talk with old acquaintances, so he typically admired her from afar.

“How can I help you, Ms. King?”

“Kate,” she corrected. “One of my horses turned up lame this morning. Dr. McGee is out sick today, as I’m sure you know by now. I really need someone to come out to the ranch and x-ray Visa’s leg. Would you be able to fit me into your schedule? I know it’s short notice, but I’d really appreciate it.”

Liam already knew that he had back-to-back appointments—it was foaling season, so he was typically booked dawn until dusk.

“I do know about Dr. McGee—I’ve been getting calls all day from his clients. I’m double booked.”

“Dr. Brand.” Liam could hear the stress in her voice. “I know you’re swamped, but any help you can give me would really be appreciated. It doesn’t matter how late you get here.” She paused before she added, “Visa is Callie’s favorite horse.”

The minute Kate mentioned her daughter, Callie, Liam felt that familiar tug on his heartstrings. He’d watched Callie grow over the years; for a while there, before the divorce, his son had attended the same school. She was a special little girl—always smiling, always laughing. If Kate was trying to sway him by mentioning her daughter, it had worked.

After taking a couple of moments to make a decision, Dr. Brand finally said, “Here—let me pull over so I can figure this out.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Liam pulled his mobile-vet truck onto the side of the road so he could take a closer look at his schedule. All of his clients were so far apart that driving time made his logjammed schedule even more complicated.

“Let’s do this,” he finally offered. “I’ll come to the Triple K after my last appointment. I’ll warn you now—it’s gonna be late. After dark, for sure.”

“That’s not a problem! Whenever you can get here!” Kate exclaimed in a way that made him smile a bit. “I can’t thank you enough, Dr. Brand. Truly. Thank you.”

* * *

As he had predicted, Dr. Liam Brand arrived at the Triple K Ranch after dark. For Kate and Callie, it had been a long day of waiting. When they heard Dr. Brand’s truck wheels making a crunching noise on their gravel driveway, both Kate and her daughter abandoned their mucking and jogged to the entrance of the barn to greet Dr. Brand.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here any sooner,” the large-animal vet told her.

“We’re just so grateful that you could come.” Kate offered her hand. “I know you’ve already had a long day.”

Liam Brand was over six feet tall with a slender physique of a man who took care of his health. His hair, cut short, had turned a dark honey color over the years, which offset, in a very appealing way, the sky blue of his eyes and the golden color of his skin. He was wearing jeans, stained from a day on the job, with the logo of his vet clinic embroidered on the left chest of a light-blue cotton top.

“Hello, Calico.” Dr. Brand took the time to acknowledge her daughter.

Liam knew that her daughter’s nickname was Callie, but he had always used her formal, given name “Calico” whenever he spoke to her.

Callie smiled shyly at Liam; Kate knew that look in her daughter’s large, brown eyes. The young woman developed crushes in the blink of an eye and Liam Brand, Kate observed, was Callie’s official new crush.

“Hi,” Callie said, ducking her head to the side and gave an embarrassed laugh.

“Let’s go see what’s going on with Visa,” Dr. Brand said after he lifted his rolling mobile-vet kit out of the back of his truck, which had been outfitted with everything a traveling large-animal vet would need to do his or her job.

Dr. Brand wanted to see Visa walk on the concrete; the horse had taken only a few steps before the vet nodded. He asked that they put Visa in cross ties, and then, silently, methodically, with the seriousness Kate appreciated, the vet began his physical exam of the Hanoverian mix. After a thorough exam, Dr. Brand offered some possible diagnoses. The possible culprits for Visa’s lameness had all occurred to Kate as well—it could be laminitis, it could be a soft tissue injury, there was a possibility of an abscess in the hoof. But the last possibility that Dr. Brand mentioned, a fracture of the short pastern bone, the bone right above the hoof, was the diagnosis Kate feared the most. Most equine ailments could be healed with the right care and the right perseverance. A fracture? That was a whole different ball of wax. Kate didn’t hesitate to agree to get Visa x-rayed.

Kate and Callie stood by Visa’s head, offering him encouraging words as the vet set up the portable X-ray machine. If she had wondered about Liam’s ability as a veterinarian, watching him now dispelled all of those notions. No, he wasn’t as experienced as Dr. McGee, but he was thorough, deliberate and spoke as if he had memorized every textbook he read. While he worked, Liam discussed the recent literature and findings from current research. There wasn’t a question she asked him that he didn’t answer with the breadth and depth of a man who knew his business. When Liam had as many years of practice under his belt as Dr. McGee, he was going to be a top-notch veterinarian.

Dr. Brand released Visa back to his stall, and by the time Kate returned, the vet was ready to discuss the results of the X-ray. With her arm around Callie’s shoulders, as much for her own support as to comfort her daughter, Kate stood close to Dr. Brand so she could see the X-ray of Visa’s hind leg projected on the screen. The news wasn’t good—she could see that before he even began to point to the hairline fracture in the short pastern bone.

“I-is he going to b-be okay?” Callie already had tears in her eyes; yes, her daughter had a serious intellectual disability, but she understood much more about life than most people would give her credit for.

Kate tightened her arm to hold her daughter to comfort her.

“Well.” Dr. Brand’s words were measured as he addressed them both. “If Visa was going to have a fracture on his leg, this is the best place to do it.”

She had been holding her breath again; Kate told herself to keep on breathing. She was fully expecting Liam to tell her that Visa, only five and so young, would have to be put down.

“If you keep him on stall rest for two months, I can come back and take another X-ray to see if he’s done some healing,” Dr. Brand said. “Of course, Dr. McGee would be able to help you with that, as well.”

Kate took a second to process the information before she replied, “You’ve started with him. I’d feel better if you just stayed with this case.”

“I’d be happy to do it.”

All three of them turned to walk in the direction of the vet’s truck; Kate already had her checkbook in her back pocket to pay.

“How much do we owe you?”

“I don’t really handle that part of the deal. Go ahead and call the office tomorrow. Ask for Irene—she handles all the billing.” He pulled a card out of the console of his truck and handed it to her. “She’ll take care of you.”

“Okay,” Kate said, surprised that Liam didn’t take payment on the spot. “Are you sure?”

“Yep.” Liam opened one of the storage lockers built onto the back of his truck.

“Do you like chili?” Callie asked the vet.

“Sure do.” Dr. Brand loaded his mobile kit into the locker.

Kate liked that Liam didn’t disregard her daughter—he included her, he looked at her directly and spoke to her like she had value.

“Do you want to have chili with us? That’s what we’re having for dinner.”

Kate hadn’t expected her daughter to extend a dinner invitation to Liam; even more unexpected was her own follow-up to Callie’s invitation.

“We have plenty,” she told Liam. “It’s the least we could do. I’m sure you skipped dinner so you could come out here.”

Liam didn’t say yes or no as he loaded his equipment into his truck.

“Do you like orange or grape soda?” Callie asked Liam. “Which do you want?”

Kate put her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “He hasn’t accepted your invitation yet.”

Liam locked the back of his truck. “I like grape.”

For the briefest of seconds, Liam caught Kate’s eye, and she saw something so strong and kind in those blue eyes that she had to remind herself to look away.

“I—I like grape, too!” Callie told the vet excitedly, as if she had just discovered that they had something very special in common.

Her daughter spun around and headed off in the direction of their modest ranch-style house with the new steel roof and fresh coat of moss green paint.

“I’m sorry,” Kate told him when her daughter was out of earshot. “I hope she didn’t put you on the spot.”

“I’m hungry, and all I’ve got in my icebox is a piece of suspicious cheese and condiments.” Liam adjusted his long legs so he could keep pace with her.

Kate cracked a smile. “Well, then, I’m glad she invited you.”

She caught Liam staring at her profile. “I don’t usually say yes. But we’re talking about chili and grape soda. An offer like that doesn’t come up every day.”

* * *

It had been a long day for Liam Brand; he was grateful and honored that a man like Dr. McGee—a man he admired—would send his clients to him when he was out sick. But the 50 percent increase in appointments, which entailed juggling his already booked days with Dr. McGee’s overflow, had put him under the gun and way behind. He was exhausted—and he usually wasn’t exhausted. If it had been anyone other than Kate King and Callie who invited him in for dinner, he would have gracefully declined and headed home.

“We weren’t expecting anyone,” Kate told him as she picked up random items on the way to the kitchen.

The King home was cozy and lived-in. The outside of the house had some updating recently, but the inside was like stepping back in time to the 1970s. Kate was known in the greater Bozeman area as one of the best horse trainers and breeders in the state of Montana. Her techniques for training horses and riders in a humane manner was the stuff of legends; on the other hand, homemaking did not seem to be much of a priority. The furniture hadn’t been updated since Kate was a kid. In fact, Liam remembered sitting on that same forest green and navy blue plaid couch back when he was in elementary school one summer when his father came out to the Triple K to buy some new horses from Kate’s father. It was obvious that every bit of her heart, her soul, her time and her money went to taking care of her daughter and her horses. That was her love, and he could appreciate that about her because that was exactly how he felt about life: family and horses mattered more than stainless-steel appliances and granite countertops.

“Something smells mighty good in here.” Liam sat at the small kitchen island with the sunshine-yellow laminate countertop.

What the King house lacked in decor, it more than made up for it in the homey feel and a tantalizing aroma permeating the kitchen.

“Grandpa taught me.” Callie lifted the lid off the large pot on the stove.

“I didn’t know you were the chef of the family,” Liam said to Kate’s daughter.

“Callie is the only chef in this house,” Kate gave her daughter a quick hug from behind. “Thank goodness she loves to cook, or we’d both starve. Isn’t that true, kiddo?”

Callie nodded seriously. “That is true. I-I have saved us from starving.”

Liam sat at Kate King’s counter, watching the horse trainer interact with her daughter, while he gulped down grape soda, which he hadn’t had since he was a kid. This visit to the Triple K Ranch was an unexpected blast into his past.

Every time he emptied a can of soda, Callie would put another cold can of it in front of him. He didn’t even have to ask. It had been a long time since Liam felt like he was part of a family; he’d been separated for several years, and the divorce had finally been settled the year before. The judge had granted full, physical custody of their two children to his ex-wife and liberal visitation to him; now he was a long-distance father to two teenagers. His son and daughter lived in Seattle, Washington, with his ex-wife and her new husband. Although he had known that his ex-wife, Cynthia, had been dating during their separation, it had still been a shock when she remarried so quickly after the divorce had been finalized. He hated being a video-chat father and a “see you on your next school break” dad. But, that fight was over and he had lost—big time.

He’d always been the kind of man who wanted to be married, to have kids, to make a home with a woman. But it hadn’t worked out that way. Liam had his work—his salvation—and a big family with lots of siblings, yet he always went home to an empty house. He liked being in Kate King’s house, chitchatting and laughing about nothing in particular while Calico stirred the chili and put an extra place setting on the table.

Once Callie announced that she was ready to serve, Liam joined them at their little square table, wobbly on its legs, and hungrily dived into the large bowl of chili. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been so shocked at how good the chili was—perhaps he underestimated Callie because of her disability—but Callie’s chili was incredible.

Two bowls later, Liam was completely stuffed and wishing he hadn’t been so greedy. He felt more like curling up on Kate’s old plaid couch than driving forty-five minutes back to his family’s ranch, Sugar Creek.

“That was the best chili I’ve ever had,” he told Kate’s daughter. “Hand’s down. The best.”

Callie smiled shyly with pleasure, sometimes finding it difficult to look him in the eye.

As she picked up his bowl to take it to the sink, Callie said, “I-I’m making steak and garlic mashed potatoes tomorrow night.”

Liam smiled at her. “I’m sure that’s going to be another masterpiece of a meal, Calico.”

She stood by his chair, his bowl in hand. “Do you want to come for dinner tomorrow?”

Liam saw Kate’s expression, fleeting as it was; she had no idea Callie would invite him for a second dinner, and she wasn’t on board with the idea. Kate sanitized her expression quickly as she said, “Callie, I’m sure Dr. Brand can’t come out all this way just for dinner.”

“Actually—” he didn’t plan it; the words just popped out of his mouth “—I think that steak and garlic mashed potatoes are definitely worth the drive. What time’s dinner?”

Chapter Two

“I still don’t know what possessed you to invite Dr. Brand for dinner tonight, Callie!” Kate said as she was attempting to stuff a family pack of paper towels onto the top shelf of her pantry.

“He likes my cooking.”

Kate had been irritated all day about their dinner guest. She was annoyed with her daughter for extending the invitation, and she was even more annoyed with Liam for accepting.

“Everyone loves your cooking.” She shoved the paper towels hard with both hands.

Callie put her hand over her mouth and giggled. “True.”

No matter how hard she shoved that stupid pack of paper towels, it refused to fit into the space. Kate stared at the offending paper towels before she sighed, grabbed ahold of the plastic encasing the paper towels and yanked on it until she pulled it free and dropped it onto the floor.

“We don’t have company during the week.” She picked up the paper towels and put them on top of the refrigerator.

“I—I know.” Her daughter was busy gathering the ingredients she would need to make dinner. Callie always needed help with measuring, but she could follow her list of ingredients and then double-check after she was done. “B-but,” her daughter said as if she were the parent, “you’re gonna need someone to eat dinner with when I—I’m living in New York.”

This had been a conversation that had been going on for years. In spite of her disability, Callie was a very goal-oriented young woman. She wanted to live in New York City on her own, go to culinary school and then open a restaurant. Kate had always supported Callie’s dreams, but there had to be limits.

“You know that New York isn’t an option, Callie. Our life is here at the Triple K.”

“That’s why I—I’m going without you.” Her daughter put her armful of ingredients on the counter. “You stay here, and I—I go to New York.”

This was said with another giggle.

Kate walked up behind her daughter, wrapped her arms around her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. “I love you, sweet girl.”

Always affectionate ever since she was a baby, Callie turned in her arms and hugged her tightly. “Don’t be afraid, Mommy. I—I’ll be okay.”

“If you want to move out, Callie, you know I support that. But you’ve got to take baby steps. Get a place in town.”

“I-I’ll live in New York first.”

This wasn’t the first, or last, discussion about New York. Down syndrome hadn’t quelled Callie’s ability to dream big for herself; she was goal-oriented and ambitious, dreaming of attending culinary school in New York City. For someone born with Down syndrome, Callie was on the higher end of the spectrum as far as her IQ was concerned, but there would never be a time when she could live independently in a small town like Bozeman, much less in the largest city in the country. Her daughter was so full of life, so full of dreams, but simple, daily tasks, like taking money out of an ATM machine, stumped Callie.

It was important to Kate that her daughter gain as much independence as possible; they had often spoken about Callie finding an apartment in town. Kate had even been in touch with a local, non-profit organization that supported individuals with disabilities to review options for transitional living in Bozeman. But every time they discussed moving, Callie inevitably circled back to her goal of moving to the Big Apple.

“You may move out and hate it,” Kate teased her daughter.

“No.” Callie said, emphatically. “I-I know what I want.”

She waited for Callie to slowly go over the ingredient list, check each item off as she doubled-checked to make certain she had everything she needed. Her daughter leaned her elbows on the counter, her face very close to the enlarged print on the recipe card, talking aloud to herself as she went along. It had taken years to develop this routine, this step toward independent life, and Kate was proud to watch Callie make continued progress. Her daughter had gotten the King stubbornness and determination quite honestly.

“I—I’m ready,” Callie told her.

Kate stayed with Callie, making sure all of her measurements were accurate, before she headed back to the barn. The barn, the ranch, was both her albatross and her solace. When she was angry or upset, there was nothing better for it than mucking out stalls. But the work was never ending and there was always something that needed to be fixed.

“Well, Visa.” She had ended hours of work back at the injured horse’s stall. Now that he was stall bound, she spent more time with him. He was a young horse and to be stuck in a twelve by twelve space for months was going to be tough for him.

Kate rubbed the space between Visa’s eyes, then twirled his long, black forelock around her finger.

“Guess who’s coming for dinner?” The horse trainer frowned at the thought.

Halfway through her work, she had thought to call Liam and give him a chance to get off the hook. But in the end, she thought better of it. Liam was a smart man; he’d figure out that she was trying to revoke her daughter’s invitation. No, if he wanted out, he’d let her know. She knew that she had a reputation in Bozeman for being private and a bit standoffish, but no one could legitimately pin rudeness on her and she’d like to keep it that way. All she could really do was hope that Liam’s schedule would prevent him from coming all the way out to the Triple K. The rest of the afternoon, while she paid bills in the office above the barn, Kate hoped that her phone would ring. But often times, hoping wasn’t enough to make something happen.

* * *

“Howdy!” Liam Brand had been looking forward to heading out to the Triple K all day.

In fact, the day didn’t seem to go by fast enough.

“Hi, Dr. Brand.” Kate was kneeling at the front of the barn, surrounded by a pride of ragtag barn cats who had seen better days.

Liam sensed that the horse trainer was still in the process of warming up to the idea of him having dinner at her ranch for the second night in a row; even when she wasn’t smiling, with the light of a smile reaching her eyes, Liam still thought she was mighty pretty.

“I’d appreciate you callin’ me Liam.” He stopped a few feet away from her. “We go back an awful long way.”

Instead of responding, Kate finished feeding her barn cats. “I have to have the oldest barn cats ever. I’ve got to feed them now—they’re too old to catch mice anymore.”

Liam laughed. Kate’s cats were bony from old age, with noticeable cataracts, scraggly fur and weak meows. One brown tabby cat with narrow shoulders, curled white whiskers and a barrel belly broke away from the group to greet him. Her scratchy meow touched his heart as he knelt to pet her.

“Sissy.” Kate glanced up from her chore. “She’s the flirt of the barn.”

The old feline rubbed her face and body against Liam’s knee, purring hard and loud, before falling onto her side at his feet. Sissy gave him a slow blink, a sign of love from a cat, while her paws curled under happily.

“Love has always been more important to her than food.”

Liam petted the retired mouser until the feline decided it was, indeed, time to fill her belly. Kate stood and he joined her. They watched the ex-mousers make short work of the food she had put down for them.

“I can’t seem to get her eyes cleared up,” Kate said after a minute or two. “They’re always so swollen. Allergies, I suppose.”

“I’ll give you one of the ointments I like to use with cats before I leave.”

“Thanks.” She seemed surprised when she said, “I’d really appreciate that.”

Liam wanted to check on his patient, swinging by Visa’s stall before he strode beside Kate back to the house. It occurred to him, as he walked next to the horse trainer, that he didn’t have to measure his stride. She had some long legs of her own, and it was nice to walk beside her.

“Look who I found!” Kate said to her daughter when they entered the small ranch house.

“Hi, Dr. Brand!” Callie immediately met them just inside the door and hugged him in that friendly way of hers.

“It smells mighty good in here again, Calico,” Liam told the young lady.

“She’s been cooking all day.” Kate shut the door.

“I’ve been thinking about your cookin’ all day,” he said.

“I hope you brought your appetite,” the pretty rancher said. “I think my daughter cooked for ten.”

“Trust me.” He took his place at the kitchen island. “I brought my appetite.”

For the second night in a row, Liam sat in the King home and felt right at home. He liked watching the mother and daughter, so close in their relationship, work together to get ready for dinner. Now that it was his second time sitting at their dinner table, Kate handed him a stack of plates with the silverware so he could help set the table. That gesture alone made him feel even more “a part of it.”

They sat down together, held hands for a prayer, and then Liam dug into the incredible fare Callie had prepared. He didn’t stop eating even when he began to feel stuffed. The only time he got this kind of cooking was any Sunday he made it out to the family ranch for breakfast. Home-cooked dinners were far and few between for him. So was the conversation they had during dinner. It had been a long time since he had someone to share his day with, talk about his passion of caring for animals. Kate got it. They weren’t exactly in the same business, but the animals on her ranch were more than just part of her business—they were part of her family.

“I’ll have Callie fix you some leftovers,” Kate said with a laugh. She must have noticed him still eyeing the food on the table after had already filled his plate twice.

“Are you sure?”

The horse trainer smiled at him again, and this time the smile reached her eyes. “I’m sure. It’ll give the chef an excuse to cook something new tomorrow. Isn’t that right, Callie?”

The young woman nodded, but her attention was distracted by the sound of a video call coming in on a tablet on the counter. Kate’s daughter jumped up, ran to the counter looked at the screen and then squealed with excitement.

“I-it’s Tony!” Callie snatched the tablet off the counter, accepted the call and hurried down the narrow hallway leading to the three small bedrooms at the back of the house.

Kate sighed, staring after her daughter.

“Tony?”

She stared down the hallway a moment longer before she responded. Kate’s shoulders lifted ever so slightly. Was it a sign of frustration or resignation? He couldn’t be sure.

“Callie’s boyfriend. They met in an online support group for young adults with Down syndrome. If I had known this was going to happen, I’m not sure I would have been so excited to sign her up.”

That shocked him. Just like Callie’s amazing talent in the kitchen, it hadn’t crossed his mind that she would have a boyfriend.

They began to clear the table with the sound of Callie’s laughter and excited talking drifting down the hall.

“Serious?” He put the last dish on the counter.

Kate breathed in deeply and sighed again. She tucked a couple of wayward hairs behind her ear, a gesture he’d seen her do many times that night. “I think she’s taking it way too seriously. She thinks she’s in love.”

Liam stood at the sink, turned on the water and waited for it to get hot.

“You don’t have to do that.” She frowned at the running water.

“I’ve got this.” He wasn’t ready to get kicked out just yet.

While he rinsed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher, Kate fixed him containers of leftovers, giving him the lion’s share of the rest of the food.

“So, you think being in love is a bad thing?” He asked his hostess.

“No.” Kate frowned at the question. “I don’t. But Callie doesn’t always see the big picture. She thinks that what she sees in the movies is what love is all about. That’s not real life.”

“No. It’s not. Marriage is hard work.”

And he was living proof that hard work wasn’t enough to sustain a marriage.

Kate sent him what he assumed was a sympathetic look, dispelling any notion that news of his divorce hadn’t spread all over the small town.

“Relationships, in general, are hard,” she said.

“Well, Calico is mighty lucky to have you to help her navigate through life.”

Kate laughed as she snapped the Tupperware lid into place. “Trust me. My daughter has grown weary of my advice.”

“That’s about as typical as it gets, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” That made Kate smile. “I suppose it is.”

They didn’t talk much after that, and that was okay with him. Kate wasn’t chatty—she was quiet, inward in her thoughts, and even though he’d like for her to open up to him, he wasn’t in any hurry. He had a feeling that if he wanted to get to know Kate better, he was going to have to work the long game.

“Coffee?” she asked him. “For the road?”

He knew that was her not-so-subtle way of letting him know that it was time for him to begin to be on his way.

“I could sure use a cup. I’m fighting the desire to take a nap on your couch.”

He’d gotten her to smile more than once tonight—he was making some progress. Kate had always been focused, determined and serious, even when they were in high school, but she seemed to have lost some of her joy. Had he even heard her laugh?

“Mommy!” Callie came bounding into the kitchen clutching the tablet to her chest. The young lady, her brown eyes shining, her round cheeks flushed, spun around in a circle, giggling happily.

“Do I even need to ask how the phone call went?” Kate brushed back her daughter’s hair and then put her hands on her Callie’s shoulders.

“He asked me to be his date for the dance!” Callie told her mom excitedly, giving a little jump. “I can’t wait!”

“Callie,” Kate said gently, but seriously, “you know we can’t go this year. We talked about this.”

The young woman’s face fell. “You can’t go. Why can’t I—I go? I—I’m old enough. I—I can go b-by myself.”

Callie started to cry; Kate brushed her daughter’s tears away with her thumbs, her eyes soft with understanding and something else—sadness.

“Callie, we have company,” she said. “We’ll talk about this later. Okay?”

“Okay.” Callie frowned. “B-but I-I’m old enough to go b-by myself!”

The young woman stomped out of the living room, down the narrow hallway, and slammed the door to her bedroom.

Liam and Kate took a cup of coffee out to the porch and sat on the porch swing, with the warm summer air filled with the sound of crickets and a night owl howling in the distance.

“I appreciate you indulging me.” He held up the coffee cup. He was actually too tired to think about driving the nearly hour home.

Kate nodded as she took a sip of her own coffee.

After a moment of staring after her daughter, Kate said with a sigh, “Sorry about earlier. It’s the annual Down syndrome conference. I try to take her every year. Now that Tony is going, missing it is going to be tough for her.”

“No need to apologize.” Liam tried to reassure his hostess. “Love is serious business.”

“That’s true. But Callie’s disability makes all of this so much harder to navigate.” Kate tucked her hair behind her ear. “I never even thought about a boyfriend when she was growing up. Now she wants to get married. Have babies.”

“I suppose that’s natural,” Liam said after a second of thinking it over. The fact that Kate was talking to him so openly about her daughter was a welcome surprise. He didn’t want to screw it up by saying something stupid or unintentionally insensitive. He wanted to find a way to be a part of Kate’s and Callie’s lives.

“Yes,” she agreed, holding her warm cup with both hands. “But Callie is never going to be able to live on her own.”

“She seems really independent.”

Kate sent him the smallest of smiles. “She is. Everyone with Down syndrome is different, just like the rest of us. We were lucky—Callie’s intelligence is higher on the range. But...” Kate frowned into her coffee cup. “She’ll never be able to live without support, and no matter how many times we talk about it, I just can’t get her to understand. She wants to move to New York City and go to culinary school and open a restaurant. She also wants to move to California, marry Tony and start having babies. In her mind, it’s possible to do both, at the same time.”

“I wish my daughter were that ambitious,” he interjected, and he meant it.

“Callie is ambitious.” Kate nodded. “She has so many dreams and goals—none of them here in Montana.

They finished their coffee, and when they went back into the house, Callie, seemingly recovered from her outburst, gave him a big hug when he came into the kitchen to put his coffee cup in the sink and pick up his leftovers. This time when Callie asked him to dinner for the next night, he declined. He couldn’t keep on accepting the daughter’s invitation to be able to spend time with the mother.

“I appreciate you letting me come on out tonight.” Liam put the containers in the front seat of his truck.

“Callie invited you.”

He shut the door to his truck and then stood in front of the trainer; her arms were crossed in front of her body.

Liam chuckled. “I was waiting all day for you to uninvite me.”

The half-moon was putting off enough light for him to see a fleeting expression of guilt flash across her face.

“I wouldn’t do that.”

Liam ducked his head, putting it just a little closer to hers. “Admit it, though. You thought about it.”

Kate turned her face away from him, her lips pressed together as if she wanted to stop herself from admitting it. Then, unexpectedly, she laughed.

“I’m sorry.” She looked into his face then. “I’m not much on company.”

He didn’t say anything, because he sensed she had more to say.

“Callie wants me to start dating again...”

Their eyes met and Liam felt a spark. He felt it, and he was pretty sure that Kate felt it too.

“Are you saying I’m part of some evil plan to get you back into the dating game?”

A nod.

“Calico doesn’t know, then, that you’ve already turned me down once before?” he asked in a lowered, private voice.

Kate took a small step back, but he wasn’t going to let her get off the hook that easily. He took a small step forward.

“It’s not that I don’t like you, Liam.” Kate, usually so sure of herself, sounded off balance with a shake in her voice.

“That’s good to know.”

In that moment, in the soft moonlight, Liam acted on instinct instead of listening to his head. He reached out, took Kate’s face in his hands and kissed her on the lips.

It was a short kiss—sweet, gentle, instead of romantic or sensual. But that kiss was a kiss full of promise. It was a kiss that could be his future.

Surprised, Kate stepped backward again. His hands fell away from her face and they stood there, quietly, staring at each other.

“That’s good to know,” he said again, “because I like you, Kate. A whole heck of a lot.”

Chapter Three

“He actually kissed me,” Kate whispered into the phone. She was in bed, but she wasn’t ready for sleep. She had brushed her teeth and then stood in the bathroom staring at the lips that Liam Brand had just kissed without any warning or invitation.

“Good for him,” her friend Lorrie told her.

Lorrie also had a child with Down syndrome, a little girl much younger than Callie. Lorrie had started an organization to connect parents in Gallatin County and ever since they had worked together to establish an annual, one-mile Buddy Walk in Bozeman to raise awareness and inclusion for people with DS.

“Good?”

“Yes,” Lorrie reiterated. “Good. He listened to my advice.”

Now Kate sat upright in bed. “What advice was that?”

Lorrie stopped to say something to one of her kids before answering. “He was here to give Dude and Max their shots. He might have mentioned that he was interested in you.”

“And?”

“And I told him that he’d have to be unconventional. That’s all.”

Kate couldn’t think of a response right away. Her mouth popped open, and she shook her head before she said, “So, you encouraged him to assault me?”

“Okay—now that’s way dramatic. All he did was give you a kiss. Tell me you didn’t enjoy it. Liam is handsome, smart, nice and he’s one of the most eligible bachelors in Montana.”

“That’s not the point.” Kate flopped back into the pillows. “I have Callie and the ranch.”

“I do know.” Lorrie said kindly. “I do. But, just because we have children with special needs doesn’t mean we can just put our lives on a shelf. Callie is an adult now, Kate. She needs your help—she’ll always need your help—but you’re going to have to find something else to do with your life other than focusing all of your attention on Callie. Why not shift some of that focus onto someone like Dr. Brand?”

Quiet for a moment of thought, Kate couldn’t deny her friend’s logic. Had she been holding Callie back, in part, because her daughter had always been the center of her world? Was she holding Callie back for her own sake? Part of her, deep down, knew that it was, at least, possible.

They talked for another twenty minutes before they hung up. Lorrie was one of the few people who genuinely understood her struggles with Callie, from fighting for services in the school system, accessing appropriate health care, and the feeling of isolation that could creep in with so many miles between families in a similar situation. She trusted Lorrie; they told each other the unvarnished truth. Her friend had a point. It was time for her to begin to find a new center of her life. Callie was growing up.

* * *

“Good morning, Kate.” Dawn from Dr. McGee’s office had called her out of the blue. “How are you today?”

“I’m good. Just doing barn work, as usual.”

“Well, I won’t be keepin’ you too long.” There was something in Dawn’s voice that signaled that this wasn’t going to be a positive call. “But I do have to share with you that Dr. McGee is going to be retiring.”

Up until that point, Kate had been holding the phone between her shoulder and cheek while she continued to muck the stall she was working on. The news made Kate put her pitchfork down; she stood upright and held the phone to her ear with her hand as the receptionist continued.

“He’s given me permission to tell all of his longtime clients that he’s having some serious health problems and he has to retire.”

Kate felt her chest tighten—she loved Dr. McGee. She’d known him since she was a kid and had always assumed that he would keep on working until he took his last breath.

“I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“So are we.” The receptionist sounded as if she was choking back tears. “It’s a...shock.”

After she hung up the phone, the weight of the phone call began to hit Kate. Beyond the sadness she was feeling in her heart, and the fact that she was going to have to break the news to Callie, who was crazy about Dr. McGee, what was she going to do about her horses? She had a huge barn to run and having a vet was essential to the health of the horses in her care.

Kate finished mucking out the stall, pushed the cart away from the stall, dropped the pitchfork into the cart and then walked outside to think. It was a blue sky day, not one cloud, and it was warm, just how she liked it. Hands on her hips, Kate ran several ideas through her head before she finally landed on her first move.

“I’ll be upstairs in the office if you need me,” Kate told two of her regular stable hands. Whenever she conducted business, she liked to sit at her desk in the office above the barn. Sitting at her desk now, with the view of the flat expanse of the pastures abutting the mountains in the background, Kate was always reminded that she was blessed to be living in paradise. But even paradise came with a price.

“He-llo.”

The way Liam answered his phone always made her smile.

“Hi, Dr. Brand. It’s Kate.”

“Hi, Kate King,” Liam greeted her enthusiastically. “So, we’re back to Dr. Brand, are we?”

Kate touched her fingers to her lips, the lips this man had kissed several nights before. It was a kiss, so fleeting, that hadn’t been far from her mind.

“This is a business call.”

“And here I thought you had finally come to your senses and were calling to ask me out on a date.”

He was teasing her—at least in part, he was—and it took her a moment to catch up with him. He had a way of catching her off guard with his humor and his kisses. He spoke before she had a chance to regroup.

“I’m thinkin’ that this call is about Dr. McGee retiring?”

“Yes.” The words came out of the blue, but the minute Liam echoed the news, Kate felt tears, unbidden, fill her eyes and fall onto her cheeks.

Not wanting Liam to hear her crying, Kate quickly wiped off her cheeks, steeled herself against the sadness she was feeling and focused on the business at hand.

“I’ve obviously been beaten to the punch,” she added.

“Look, Kate.” Liam said, his voice reassuringly strong and steady. “If you need me, I’m gonna be there for you. So you can take that worry right off your shoulders.”

Relieved, she dropped her head into her hand. “Thank you. You know how important it is to have a support system in place.”

“I do,” Liam said. “That’s what I’m here for.”

Their phone call was cut short, making Kate wish that they had more time—he had arrived at his next client and she was hosting a clinic for a group of owners and horses. But just from that brief phone call, Liam had made her feel better. She felt that it was going to be easier to face her day without the worry about who she was going to call if one of the horses in her charge took ill or got injured. Now she knew that she could call Dr. Brand. Liam.

* * *

When word got out that Dr. McGee, a most beloved fixture in the Bozeman area horse scene, was retiring, it wasn’t long before a retirement party was organized. Kate, who didn’t typically take the time out of her business life to go to parties, carved time out of her schedule to attend. Callie and Kate washed up, put on some clean jeans and boots, and then loaded into one of the King Ranch trucks to head into town.

“I should drive.” Callie always said the same thing when they headed off King property. Callie drove, under supervision, on the ranch and, since they owned thousands of acres, she had plenty of dirt roads to drive. But she hadn’t been able to pass the driver’s license test that would allow her to drive off property and her daughter couldn’t seem to accept it.

“You know what I love about you, Calico?” Kate pulled onto the road that would take them into Bozeman.

“Everything?” Callie laughed with a broad smile.

“That’s right.” Kate reached over and squeezed her daughter’s arm. “Everything.”

They arrived at The Baxter Downtown, a venue often used in Bozeman for weddings, special events and, in this case, a retirement party. Dr. McGee’s wife and staff had reserved the Wilson Suite, a smaller, cozier room accented with dark wood fit for a dignified man.

“Dr. McGee isn’t going to like all of this fuss,” Kate whispered to her daughter. “At least on the surface.”

So many people gathered in the small space while Dr. McGee sat at the head table with his wife and closest staff members; she knew the man well enough to know that he was touched by the turnout, even though she had heard him blustering about all of his friends acting like he was about to be pushing-up daisies when he wasn’t ready to go quietly into that good night just yet.

“Is this seat taken?”

The minute Kate heard the sound of Liam’s voice, her body responded in the most unusual way. Her heart started to beat a little faster, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up.

“No.” Kate found herself smiling at the handsome vet. “Be our guest.”

Callie jumped out of her chair and threw her arms around Liam. “Hi, Dr. B-Brand!”

Kate watched Liam closely—he treated her daughter with so much respect and dignity, every time, that she couldn’t deny that this was a part of this new feeling she was experiencing for the man.

“Hi, Calico.” Liam started to take the seat on the other side of her daughter, but Callie shook her head and sat down in the chair instead.

“You should sit next to Mommy.”

“Callie.” Kate glanced around quickly, knowing that people were paying attention. “Let Dr. Brand sit where he wants.”

“Okay,” Callie said sullenly.

Liam took a moment, waited for the mother and daughter to negotiate the situation before he took the seat between them.

He leaned over to say, in that low, baritone voice of his, “This is where I wanted to sit.”

Kate wasn’t someone who embarrassed easily; she was a woman in a world still dominated by men. But she felt her cheeks grow hot, and she knew that if anyone was watching her face closely, the pleasure she felt by that simple comment was right there in her eyes and the small smile on her lips.

Two of the biggest gossips in Bozeman were sitting directly across from them at the banquet table. The Mendelsohn widows, Beatrice and Emma, were very interested in the new “dynamic” of the handsome eligible veterinarian and the relationship-skittish horse trainer.

“How long have the two of you been courting?” Beatrice got straight to the point.

“We aren’t.” Kate crinkled her brow a bit. Was it that obvious that she felt “something” akin to happy nerves sitting next to Liam?

“Not yet,” Liam added after he took a large sip of his water without ice.

“They make a very handsome couple,” Emma told her sister.

“They do,” Beatrice agreed. “Very handsome.”

“Everyone always said that about John and I,” Emma continued. “That we were a handsome couple. Of course, Beatrice was always the prettier one of the two of us. But even my sister has had to admit that my John was the most handsome man—so tall and straight.”

Beatrice put down her teacup with a small smile. “Don’t pay a bit of attention to Emma. I’ve never admitted to such a thing.”

Emma raised her eyebrows at her sister, puckered her lips a bit and then turned her attention back to them. “You make a very handsome couple. I approve of this match.”

“As do I.” Her sister agreed loudly enough for the people seated at the table behind them to hear.

Kate and Liam exchanged a quick look, both of them understanding that to make any more denials that they weren’t an “item” would only give the sisters more fodder for their gossip. So they both just nodded and smiled, and let the conversation naturally drift in a different direction.

The speeches given by the staff at Dr. McGee’s clinic were emotional; even though Kate didn’t show it on the outside, she felt such sadness that this amazing man was leaving the profession before his time. Mrs. McGee spoke and then by unanimous applause, Dr. McGee agreed to say a word or two.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with all of you,” Dr. McGee said in a gruff voice laced with an unusual undertone of emotion. “I’m not dead yet. But since y’all are probably the same folks who might make it to my funeral one day, this gets you off the hook for that shindig.”

That was the entire speech. That was Dr. McGee. After that brief speech, everyone started to leave. Liam stood, pulled out Callie’s chair first, and just as she was pushing back her own chair, she saw the vet reach out his hand to her.

Kate looked at that hand for a split second; it was such a small thing, taking an offered hand, but it seemed like a big deal to her.

Her hand slipped so easily into his—his hand, strong, rough from clinical work in the field, was a perfect fit for hers. She had big hands for a woman, and whenever she held hands with a man, as rare as that was, she always felt like the “dude.” With Liam, she felt like a woman holding the hand of a man.

They walked out together, the three of them, and Kate hated the feel of curious eyes on them. It was such a small town that no doubt word had gotten out that Liam had sat at her table two nights in a row and now they were sitting together at Dr. McGee’s retirement party. Gossip was a pastime for some in their town.

“You like Mommy, don’t you?” Callie asked Liam when they reached their truck.

Liam, as he always did, took Callie’s questions seriously, answered them directly. “Yes, Calico. I do.”

Kate sighed at her daughter’s question. Callie was Callie, and no matter how many discussions they had about “polite questions,” there were just some things that her daughter wasn’t going to be able to change.

Callie giggled at Liam’s response, turning her head and covering her mouth with her hand.

“Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?” Her daughter threw out of invitation before she got into the truck.

Liam looked directly into Kate’s eyes before he said to Callie, “I really appreciate the invite, I really do. I’d love to eat some more of your good cookin,’ but the next time I come over for dinner, it’s gonna have to be your mom who invites me.”

That could have been a moment for her to invite him, but she just wasn’t ready. She was feeling things for Liam—she was—and he hadn’t been subtle about his attraction to her. But this was territory that hadn’t been explored in over a decade! Kate wasn’t the type of woman to make drastic changes in her life; she was a tugboat, not a speedboat.

“It was nice spending lunch with you,” Kate said, after she climbed behind the wheel.

“Likewise.” Liam had a way of looking at her in a way that no other man had in a very long time. Maybe not ever. It was as if he liked everything he saw when he looked at her face.

“I’m sad about Dr. McGee,” she admitted to him.

“So am I.” Liam had one hand tucked into a front pocket and the other holding her open door. “I could work a lifetime and not feel like half the vet that man is.”

“I don’t know about that,” Kate objected. “I was really impressed with how you handled Visa.”

Liam nodded and then shut the door for her. “I appreciate that. I hope to see you again real soon. You too Calico!”

They said their goodbyes then, and she drove away. In the rearview mirror, she saw Liam still standing in the parking lot watching them as they left.

“Mommy! Why didn’t you tell him he could come over for dinner?”

“I don’t know.” Kate told her daughter. But that wasn’t entirely true. There was something there between them—she felt it and she could tell that Liam could feel it too. It was something real, something tangible. And it genuinely scared the crap out of her.

* * *

A couple of days after Liam had seen Kate and Callie at Dr. McGee’s party, he had really struggled with his next move. He could tell that Kate felt the same attraction to him that he did with her. But he could also see that she wasn’t ready to jump into a relationship. If he wanted to explore his feelings for Kate, he was going to have to be strategic. Instead of calling, which he wanted to do, he decided to just give her some time to mull over the lunch, and the kiss, they had shared.

“He-llo!”

It was Kate King on the line.

“I can’t believe I forgot about this,” the trainer told him. “But I have a prepurchase vet check scheduled for tomorrow. The woman’s coming in from Helena, and she’s already called several vets...”

“I think she may have called me already,” Liam told her.

“She did. I know this is a big ask—but I’m really in a bind. The prospective buyer has no flexibility in her schedule.”

When he first got the call from the woman out of Helena, she had mentioned the King Ranch, but his scheduled was still overflowing because of Dr. McGee’s sudden retirement. Thankfully there were a couple of other vets in the area who were able to step up their game.

“I just can’t get out there today, Kate. I would if I could,” he said, and then added in the silence that followed, “I hope you know that.”

“No. I know,” Kate told him, her disappointment obvious to him. “I appreciate it.”

After another moment of odd silence, she asked, “Could you come out tonight? I know it’s a lot to ask, but the indoor riding ring has lights. We ride at night here all the time.”

She continued in a lowered voice. “Please, Liam. She’s a really big connection for me. If I get this deal done, there could be so much business for the Triple K.” After another pause, she added, “I really need this.”

The worry he heard in her voice convinced him that he had to find a way to help her. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I’ll be there. As soon as I can. It won’t be until six or seven. I already know that for sure.”

“Whenever you can get here. I’ll let the buyer know,” Kate said. “And, Dr. Brand... Liam...I can’t thank you enough.”

* * *

He was already exhausted when he parked his truck in front of Kate’s barn. The prospective buyer, a rather fancy-looking woman with platinum hair who was originally from Oklahoma, greeted him with Kate at her side. He was lucky that the exam was uncomplicated—the horse was sound, had good hooves, and had negative flexion tests and X-rays. Although a prepurchase vet check could take up to four hours, this exam went smoothly and he was wrapping up with the potential owner after two hours.

“You shouldn’t have any difficulty using this horse for the purposes you’ve stated,” he said to the client. “I should have a report to you by tomorrow afternoon. I won’t be able to get it out tonight.”

“Tomorrow will be just fine.” The woman with the heavy Oklahoma accent smiled at him.

Liam packed up his equipment, while Kate showed the woman to her car. They met back at his truck just as he was finished loading.

With a sigh, Kate, in cutoff shorts that showed off her long, slender legs, muscular from years of riding, leaned against the truck.

“Long day,” she said, her loose hair blowing in the gentle night breeze.

He nodded.

“Are you hungry?”

Liam slipped his keys into his pocket with a nod.

“Callie made chili again. You seemed to really like it the last time.”

“As a matter of fact, I loved it.”

Kate tucked her hair behind her ear. “Join us for dinner?”

Liam sent her a tired smile. “That’s the best offer I’ve had all week.”

Chapter Four

“Man oh man.” Liam sank onto one of the rocking chairs on the porch. “Your daughter is an amazing cook. I swear I haven’t tasted any better.”

Kate took the seat next to him, liking the feel of the hot mug of coffee in her hand, enjoying the night view of the land she loved. And, yes, having this new person in her life to talk about the events of the day. A person who seemed to appreciate her daughter in a way that she didn’t often see. It didn’t feel normal or certain, but it was a change. Perhaps a genuinely good one.

“She puts a lot of love into her food.” She took that wonderful first sip from the hot, black coffee.

She caught Liam looking at her profile out of the corner of her eye as he said, “I believe that. You can taste when someone has put their heart into their cookin’.”

It wasn’t awkward, the frequent silences. Both of them were exhausted from their busy days, and speaking seemed like a chore. After Liam finished his coffee, he sighed heavily, and she understood exactly what that meant. He still had a long drive and reports to write.

“Well...” he finally said, “I suppose it’s time for me to hit the road.”

Kate stood as well and held out her hand for his empty cup. She put the cups on a small table just outside the front door before walking with the veterinarian to his truck.

“I feel like I’ve had an awful lot to thank you for these last couple of weeks,” she said, her eyes looking off into the distance.

They were standing closer than usual, Liam by his open driver’s door and she facing him.

“I feel the same way.” He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear.

She looked at him then, drawn in by the kindness she saw in his bright blue eyes. “All we did was feed you a couple of times.”

“No.” Liam was slow to withdraw his hand as if he enjoyed touching her as much as she realized she liked being touched by him. “You’ve given me much more than just a couple of meals. I feel like I belong somewhere again.”

He added with a laugh, “But don’t give me wrong—the food matters too.”

Kate felt a knot form in the pit of her stomach—was she ready to encourage Liam to feel like a part of the Triple K? It seemed too fast.

“Hey.” Liam drew her back to the conversation, back to the present. “Go out with me.”

Kate crossed her arms in front of her body, hunched her shoulders forward protectively. “Won’t that be a conflict of interest? You being my vet, me being your client?”

Liam, who usually laughed off things like that, didn’t crack a smile. “Did you hire me just so you could keep me an arm’s length away?”

“No.” She laughed in a way that made it sound like a lie. “I hired you because you are a damn good vet, and I need a damn good vet.”

For a second time, Liam seemed to want to jump several spaces on a game board. He put his hands on her face and kissed her. This time, it wasn’t a peck. He took his time, explored her lips with his. And she let him. And she liked it.

Slowly, the most eligible bachelor in the greater Bozeman area lifted his lips from hers. But he didn’t step away from her. His hands resting on either side of her neck, Liam waited until she was looking at him once again.

“I’ll promise not to overcharge you, you promise to pay me on time. How’s about that?”

“I always pay my bills on time,” Kate said.

“And I never overcharge.”

Any retort she was formulating in this oddly flirtatious banter was cut off by another kiss. Kate felt this kiss all over her body—little lightning bolts fired in her stomach, on her spine and between her legs. By the time Liam moved his head away, her head naturally followed.

When she opened her eyes, he was smiling at her, so fondly, and with a little humor.

“Where do you want to take me?” she asked him, knowing now that what they were feeling between them—this pull, this chemistry—wasn’t something that she wanted to deny or ignore.

“Let me think on it.” Liam gave her a final kiss on the lips. “I want it to be something real special for you.”

* * *

“I think that’s awesome.” Lorrie had trailered one of her horses to the ranch for training. “You realized you’ve just bagged a man who has a high bounty on his head.”

“I didn’t bag him.” Kate laughed. “He came willingly.”

“That’s the best way.” Lorrie swung a Western saddle on her Appaloosa’s back. “If I weren’t already married, I’d have been all over that a long time ago.”

That seemed to be the general consensus on Liam Brand. She knew that he was smart and handsome and successful, but she didn’t know just how sought after he was. There were going to be a lot of sad bachelorettes if this “thing” with Liam worked out. Kate knew that the town was talking about them, and she didn’t like it. What was there to be done about it?

“Hey, he likes you.” Lorrie slipped a bitless bridle onto her horse’s head. “They lost, you won. That’s how the cookie crumbles.”

Kate walked with her friend out to the nearby round pen where they would work for the next hour. Once Lorrie mounted and walked her horse into the pen, Kate followed and shut the gate behind them.

“It’s not like this is a done deal,” she told her friend. “We haven’t even had one date.”

“I’ve got a feeling about this.” Lorrie told her. The woman was always having “feelings” about things—truth was, she was more often right than wrong.

Kate tightened the horse’s girth before she patted the Appaloosa on the haunch. “Okay. Let’s focus on training for now. We can start planning my wedding later.”

* * *

It was an afternoon date, and Liam insisted that he pick her up at the ranch like a real date. They had talked on the phone every day since she had agreed to go out with him; they both agreed that going into town, the hotbed of gossip, wasn’t the way they wanted to do it for their first date. Instead, Liam took her to his family’s ranch, Sugar Creek, where there was enough room for them to ride up to the mountains on the property and have a private picnic.

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