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“You’re such a pain in the ass, Dean Matthew Johnson,” she tosses out my full name like I did hers. “Why are you thinking the worst?” She looks over her shoulder, bright green eyes flanked by dark lashes the same color of her almost black hair, and it’s then I see Tallulah, really see her.
“No one says we should talk, male or female, unless there’s an issue, usually an unresolvableissue.” She turns around in my arms and lifts up on her toes, hooking her arms around my shoulders. I look from side to side, being a lookout of sorts.
“Well, excuse me for using the wrong verbiage. How is this instead? I’d like to talk to you about our relationship after we assess the horses. I’m tired, Dean. So damn tired. I want to be able to touch you whenever I want, to talk to my best friend when you piss me off, or have what Birdie and Lane have. I want dinners in the evening, breakfasts in the morning, and to touch you whenever I damn well please.”
I’m ashamed to admit it takes me a fuck of a lot longer to digest what she just said. I watch as she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and shows me the green of her irises. “What about work?” I ask. The whole reason we kept this quiet was because of her job at Herbert’s Clinic. Maybe she’s thinking about quitting and doing her own thing. The start-up costs might be a whack, but she’d make it back easily enough with all the farms and ranches in a fifty-mile radius. Hell, as much as she’s here, with all of our animals, she’d probably make back the truck and trailer alone should she decide to do the mobile vet deal.
“About that, I’m going to keep working for Herbert.” She rolls her eyes. I smirk. This woman is no damn quitter. “I know, I know. I’ve been crunching numbers, really talking it over with myparents. Who, by the way, are teamTully, take the loan and go off to live your dream. The only thing about doing that is obviously, it’s a fifty-fifty chance on if I fail or succeed.” I start to interrupt her, but she covers my mouth with her hand. Two can play that game. I lick her palm before nipping at it until she gets the message to move her hand. “You’re a brat.” Her hand slides down, smearing my salvia on my cheek along the way.
“Finish what you have to say, then, sunshine.” She wipes the wetness into my skin and then puts her hands back around my neck. I squat down a bit, so she won’t have to keep standing on her toes.
“I will. I’m going to stay for six months. I’ll build up a better rapport with some of the older ranchers who don’t think women can hack it as a vet.” She captures my attention with that statement. Anyone worth their salt would know Tully is a phenomenal veterinarian, and I’m not saying that because I’m sleeping with her. Tallulah has been around animals her whole life in one way or the other. Add in her going to school and staying ahead of her class a lot like Birdie did, and she’s the whole fucking package. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist. I knew there was a possibility of it happening, new girl in town coming from a big city. This is the way of the world, Dean. You just have to learn to roll with the punches. Anyways, that’s my plan as long as I can stickwith it, or on the off-chance I win the lottery. Though, I hear you have to play to win.”
“Sunshine, you got this all figured out, but you need to know I’ve got your back, forever.” I don’t hold back. My head dips down, and I take her lips with mine. No longer having to hide how I feel for this woman is fucking amazing.
11
TULLY
A throat clearinginterrupts the heated moment Dean and I are having. I’m talking his hand is on my ass, pulling me toward him, my leg wrapped around his waist, feeling his thick and heavy cock pressed into my core. I don’t want this to end, not now and not ever. Dean ignores his brother for a minute, wrapping up our kiss while holding me in place.
“It’s about fucking time. You’re lucky I fed him before coming home. He was a pain in my ass.” JW is tired of waiting, it seems. I try to push Dean away. Yeah, right, that’s not happening. I should have waited to kiss him until I was off the clock, but with anything Dean Johnson related, I’m lost to all sense of time.
“Get out of here, JW,” Dean mumbles across my lips.
“Get a room, Dean.” I’m not sure I’ve heardJW say two words, let alone a few sentences. We pull away, and Dean lowers me to my feet. My hand immediately goes to my ponytail, trying to resituate it before getting back to work.
“Planning on it. Keep this shit quiet for a minute, will ya? It’d be nice if Birdie found out from Tallulah, not my pain-in-the-ass brothers.” I furrow my eyebrows. He saidbrothers, as in plural.
“Does everyone know including your mom?” I whip the question out. I’m going to have to double-step it and make a phone call real freaking fast if that’s the case.
“Nope, only Ry and JW. I wasn’t aware of Mom knowing, but you better stop by Birdie’s after work today.” Shit. With my job here and being on call, I’ll be lucky to eat dinner, let alone call my best friend and tell her what an absolute shit stain I’ve been.
“It must be new, since she mentioned it when I was caught ogling her son.” I step back from Dean.
“I’ll talk to her. At least now that we’re out in the open I won’t have to break my back at Ry’s house for his silence.” JW left after Dean made the statement. He nodded and kept on walking by with a massive stallion. He’s going to be one big boy once he puts some weight on him. Right now, his black coat is lackluster, his bones are showing, and depending on how old he is, it may take nearly a year to get him back to normal.
“Jesus, you did that for me?” I ask, stopping from moving into Honey Belle’s stall.
“There’s not much I wouldn’t do for you, Tully.” His words knock the wind out of my sail. A thought immediately enters my head, and I have to clamp my mouth shut in order not to blurt it out. The truth is I’m falling in love with Dean Johnson. Every hour of every day it runs deeper and deeper. Now isn’t the time to tell him. Soon, though.
“I’m sorry, honey.” My hand goes to his heart, my eyes meet his, and I can see what my words mean to him.
“Nothing to be sorry about. It’s done and over with now. Let’s go see what this horse of yours is up to and what she’ll need.” I’m trying to mentally calculate the days in an hour, then a week, and after that, a month. Dean would absolutely give me Honey Belle without a second glance. I wouldn’t allow him to, though. I’d have to purchase her, and then I’d have to pay him to work with her. Especially with my job and seeming to be on call four to five nights a week. You can do this, Tully. It’s only what?Five more months.I give myself a mental pep talk while grabbing my bag to head into the stall.
“Thank you,” I tell Dean as he opens the gate for me. I step in, and he’s right behind me. Looks like I’m going to have him working beside me the whole way through.
“Not a problem, sunshine. What can I do to help?”
“Stand there and look handsome.” He rolls his eyes at my comment. “No, seriously, stay where you are. This won’t take long, and I’ll talk to you along the way.” I can feel his eyes on my body as I enter work mode. My flashlight comes out first, checking her eyes. “Eyes look good.” I change the piece to look inside her ears. Of course, being the sweet girl Honey Belle is, she dips her head, and I stand on my toes to see inside. “Ears do, too.” I pocket my otoscope. Now it’s time for her mouth. “On the colt, you’ll need to bottle feed four to six times a day, more on the six and less on the four. Obviously, start that right away as well as water. I’d like to not do intravenous fluids on any of them if I don’t have to.” I open Honey Belle’s mouth to check her teeth. “Oh, honey, you’re just a baby having a baby.” My voice is barely above a whisper.
“I’ll have Mom work on that right away. She always goes after the babies. Human or four-legged variety.” I take a quick peek at Dean. He’s got his back against the paddock wall, arms crossed over his broad chest, looking awfully comfortable. Somewhere along the way, he replaced his baseball hat with a white cowboy hat, making him look that much hotter in his scuffed cowboy boots.
“Yeah.” I reluctantly get back to working on Honey Belle. She looks good for the most part,underweight like the rest. “Here goes the worst part. You ready to hold her tail for me?” I walk around Honey Belle, keeping my hand on her back so she knows where I am at all times until I’m out of kicking range.
“Sure am. I didn’t know watching my woman sticking her hand up to her armpit in a horse's ass was going to be on the agenda, but anything you need, sunshine, I’m here for it.” My shoulders move up and down, quaking with laughter. Only Dean would bring out the jokes when you least expect it.
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