Riding Hard by Vicki Lewis Thompson Page B

and Tracy followed his example.
    Dottie lay still for a moment, still breathing hard. Then she lifted her head and gazed down the length of her body.
    “Your foal is right there, girl,” Drake crooned. “You did a mighty fine job. Want to finish up?”
    As if she’d understood every word, Dottie maneuvered until she could lick the foal.
    “Incredible.” Tracy watched as the little creature gradually was freed of its covering. “It looks like her!”
    “It does, indeed.” Drake moved closer. “Will you let me take care of the cord, sweetie? That’s a good girl.” He handled the job with brisk efficiency and then checked between the foal’s legs. “Colt.”
    “A son. Dottie has a son.” Tracy couldn’t help thinking of how proud Jerry Rankin would be. She’d make it her job to track him down. He should at least have visiting privileges.
    Drake gathered up his instruments. “Glad I didn’t have to use most of these. When everything goes according to plan, I don’t. This birth was pure pleasure.”
    “I’m glad, for many reasons.” Tracy straightened. “And I don’t know what I would have done without you here. The minute she started rolling around, I’d have been beside myself.”
    He shrugged. “You would have called the guy from Jackson.”
    “And he would have taken a good hour to get here. By then it would have been all over. Even if it had gone well, I wouldn’t have known whether it was going well or not. I would have been a basket case.” She gazed at him. “Minimize your contribution if you must, but I won’t.”
    He gave her a lopsided smile. “You sound serious about that.”
    “I am.” She didn’t return his smile. “You rode in here like a knight in shining armor and saved the day. I’m incredibly grateful that you did, and I’m prepared to let people around here know that they’ve judged you unfairly.”
    “Whoa, whoa! You’re going to start a campaign to get the residents of this town to like me? That would be embarrassing as hell. Don’t you dare.”
    “I’ll be subtle about it.”
    “I don’t know how subtle you can be once they figure out we spent the night together.”
    She frowned. “You make that sound as if you’re leaving after tonight.”
    “For your sake, I probably should. Maybe we can convince everyone I was only here for the birth of the foal and we were too busy taking care of that to get horizontal.”
    “I don’t care if they know we got horizontal, although technically, that hasn’t happened yet. I’m still hoping.”
    He chuckled and glanced up at the rafters. “Oh, Tracy. You do have a way about you.”
    “You, too. And a killer accent.”
    His green eyes danced as he met her gaze. “And you accuse me of being charming. If you keep making remarks like that, you’ll make it impossible for me to resist you.”
    “Booya!”
    “Tracy...” He laughed and shook his head.
    “And I do want to set people straight about you. I wish they could have seen you tonight with Dottie. These are horse people, Drake. They’d respect the way you dealt with her, how patient you’ve been the whole time. It would go a long way toward repairing the damage. Please don’t tell me I can’t mention what you’ve done here tonight.”
    His eyebrows lifted. “ All of what I’ve done?”
    “No, of course not. The vet part. Not the action on the hay bale. That’s our business.”
    “Good luck with that. Apparently you’ve forgotten that I have a reputation around these parts, and everyone will assume I won you over with lots of good sex, and that’s the only reason you’ve become my biggest fan all of a sudden.”
    “But I seduced you. ”
    “Are you going to tell them that?”
    She had to admit that didn’t sound like a good idea. “I’d like to keep sex out of the discussion. This is about you getting a fair shake in this town because you’re not the villain everyone thinks you are.”
    “They know Regan has forgiven me, right?”
    “Well,