“you need to think about what it means to be a champion.”
After one final dark look, he continued on down the hall, leaving Matt staring after him.
How old was this kid?
* * *
“HE’S GETTING BETTER,” Etta chirped to Andie as Liv came in the back door of the clinic. “When I stopped by last night, he was up and around. Of course, I made certain to get him off his feet, if you know what I mean, as soon as possible....”
Liv stopped, drew on her rapidly dwindling reserves of inner strength and then continued into the front office.
“Hi,” Etta said in her upbeat voice.
“Hi,” Liv echoed. “When’s my first patient?”
“Almost immediately.”
Good. Something to focus on. Liv was no longer certain of her course of action. She wanted to do something, but what? Matt had made it pretty damned clear that he thought her “revelation” as he called it, was due to pity and would evaporate as soon as he got better.
And then there was Etta. How serious was that?
Her gut told her it wasn’t. Etta was just a bit too shifty when she talked about Matt, as if by acting that they had a deep relationship she could make it true.
Liv was only working a half day since Dr. Hoss was coming to treat Beckett’s injured leg. She saw two new patients, did a consultation with a third, then instead of heading out the side exit for the parking lot when it came time to go, she walked into the reception area where Etta was entering data into the computer.
“How serious are you and Matt?” she asked.
Etta’s gaze flashed up. “What?” Liv couldn’t blame her for being surprised. The old Liv had never been that direct, but damn it, she needed to know the score.
“Are you two dating?”
“Liv...” There was a note of pity in Etta’s voice. “Even if we weren’t, Matt’s not the right guy for you.”
Funny. He’d felt pretty right.
“It’s probably hard, what with him being friends with Tim and all—”
“Friends with Tim?”
Etta batted her eyes. “I saw Tim’s truck there on my way home the other night.”
Liv almost choked. What? Thankfully, she kept the question to herself, so Etta prattled on. “But, really...you’re the settle-down kind and Matt isn’t.”
Liv almost laughed. Etta had it so very backward, but that was secondary to the fact that Tim had been at Matt’s.
“He’ll hurt you,” Etta called as Liv started down the hall to the side exit.
“Already has.”
So what did she have to lose? Nothing.
Which was a rather freeing thought.
At the Y in the road on the way home, Liv had a strong urge to turn left instead of right. She went right because the vet was coming. Besides, she had some questions for Tim—who wasn’t home.
A reprieve for him.
Dr. Hoss showed up as soon as she’d changed out of her scrubs and she lead the way out to the barn where he gave Beckett a thorough once-over.
Dr. Hoss ran a hand over Beckett’s rump after his examination, shaking his head.
“That tendon is probably permanently damaged. I’ll know more in a few days when more of the swelling has gone down,” Dr. Hoss said, giving her a sympathetic look. “Sorry about this. He was a hell of a horse.”
“Still is,” Liv said as she walked the vet to his truck.
“How’s Matt?” Dr. Hoss asked after stowing his equipment.
“I, uh, don’t know.” Which killed her.
“Oh.” The guy’s color rose. “I thought...never mind.”
“That’s okay,” Liv said simply. “We were.” Past tense, thanks to her skewed perceptions and stubbornness.
A few minutes later she watched the vet drive away, depressed about Beckett, and more depressed about Matt. So, what was she to do here? Follow the same path as before, sit and wait for Matt, who wasn’t going to make a move—this time because she’d been so ridiculously unyielding? When Liv had been younger, she’d made the mistake of overthinking, of not following her gut, because she had no faith in her gut. Today she was trying to have faith in her gut, which told her that if she didn’t try one more time to discuss how she felt with Matt, she was going to regret it forever.
Tim was still gone, so Liv fed the steers, then went into the house and showered. She put on makeup while her hair dried in natural waves. In this life there were, in addition to givers and takers, winners and losers. She may not be a winner when this was all said and done, but if she