dropped down to just the ranch policy, which covers accidents, not illness. Since I’ve never been sick, I thought I could save some money.”
“And then you got sick,” Andie said. Tim said nothing, staring up at the ceiling. “We’ll work something out.”
“Like what?” he grumbled. “Medical bankruptcy?”
“Stop it, Dad.”
“Had you seen me earlier,” Andie said, “or Dr. Bates, or any health professional, then we could have solved this in a less dramatic way.”
Tim continued to stare at the ceiling, as if he hadn’t heard her, his face pinched with pain.
“You’re staying a few more days, Dad.”
Again no response.
“We have ways we can help you deal with this,” Andie said.
But Liv knew her father would never agree to any of the “ways” she was speaking of, since they smacked of charity.
“I’ll talk to the hospital about a payment plan. We’ll get through this.” Liv forced a smile. “If I started paying rent, then that could be your payment.”
The thought didn’t seem to cheer Tim any, but he reached out anyway to take Liv’s hand. He squeezed her fingers, his hand rough from decades of hard work, then dropped his hand back to the sheet.
“How are the steers?”
“As fat as they were yesterday,” Liv said.
“Good. We’ll have to sell them early.”
It was going to take more than the steers to settle the bill, as they both well knew, but if selling the cows made Tim feel better, Liv was all for indulging in the fantasy.
And speaking of fantasies, Liv was determined to stay firmly grounded in reality when it came to her new relationship with Matt. It was important that they understand one another. She was pretty certain they did, but no sense taking chances.
So how, and when, did she bring this up?
Or was it better to just see how things played out?
Maybe they’d had a one-night stand. Liv stepped out of the hospital into the bright morning sun as the happy thought occurred to her. She could live with that. Maybe. Parts of her were whispering, “Are you crazy? One time when you could have more?” and it was hard to shut them up.
Okay, she and Matt would talk. When?
Liv didn’t have a lot of experience with morning afters, having only experienced two in her lifetime, spaced quite a distance apart. And she’d never before slept with anyone that she hadn’t been in a relationship with.
New territory to go with a new life.
Part of her liked thinking that she could sleep with a hot guy and walk away. Another part of her thought that smacked of using the other person unless they were on the same page.
Of course they were on the same page. This was Matt Montoya she was dealing with, the guy who attracted hot babes like a magnet. He was used to one-nighters. He liked her and she liked him. They both had their own lives to live, so really, there shouldn’t be a problem.
But they would talk all the same.
The day passed quickly since she was booked solid. She stopped to see Tim on the way home, promised again to take extra special care of the steers and told him in return he needed to do exactly what his doctors advised. He’d grunted in a semi-cooperative way and Liv accepted his answer as the best she was going to get. He was hurting and he was angry with himself and she couldn’t do anything about it except to let time do its thing.
When she got home, the steers were already fed, but Matt was not there. For a moment she thought it might have been a guilt feeding, then realized it had to be a roping night. Of course. Nothing stood between Matt and roping practice.
Liv smiled as she headed to the house. She liked a guy with priorities, especially when she wasn’t one of them. And she wasn’t going to ask him to stop feeding the steers, because he was doing it for Tim and not for her.
When she drove into the rodeo grounds for practice that evening, the first thing she noticed was an absence of a big black and silver Dodge. The second thing she noticed was a pang of disappointment and she firmly told herself to get a grip.
Linda took Liv aside before the first drill to offer her condolences on her father’s illness and inform her that the team had conferred and they were going to hold a fund-raiser to help with Tim’s medical bills.
“I...uh...don’t know,” Liv said, thinking how much Tim