Her Hometown Hero. Margaret Daley
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Nate Sterling. Her high school sweetheart—until he went away to college and she left to pursue a career as a ballerina.
She swallowed her gasp as his soft, gray gaze settled on her. The corners of his eyes crinkled with a smile lighting his features. For a few seconds she was whisked back to eight years ago when she’d said goodbye to him. He was a year older than her and had been a sophomore at Auburn in Alabama, where he was attending on a football scholarship.
The long distance hurt their budding romance. The summer after she’d graduated from high school, she’d left Cimarron City for San Francisco to be part of a ballet company, and they’d drifted further apart over the months. When she was offered a position in a corps de ballet for a New York company, she’d told him it wasn’t working and they needed to cut their ties all together. Worrying about their relationship drew her focus away from her dancing. New York was her big chance. She needed to concentrate on her career while she was young, not on a man over halfway across the country.
“Hi, Kit. I heard you were coming home.”
Her throat closed, the sound of his deep husky voice shivering down her spine. In the years they had been apart, it had grown huskier and deeper. Nate was also taller than he’d been by at least a couple of inches. He must be almost six and a half feet. His features—an aquiline nose, high cheekbones, square jaw—were sharper. Clearing her throat, she forced herself to speak. “You’re a vet now? I thought you were thinking about medical school.”
“In high school, sure. But during my sophomore year in college, I realized I wanted to treat animals, come back here.”
Whereas Cimarron City could never offer her what she wanted. “Oh,” she murmured, pressing her lips together, trying to remember if he had ever told her about his changed plans. By then they were only talking a couple of times a week that soon turned into only once a week. By Christmas of his sophomore year, she’d known it was over. She’d figured he felt the same way. He’d been troubled and not his usual self and for the first time in their relationship, not communicative. They had been going in opposite directions ever since she’d graduated from high school and become focused totally on her career.
He seemed to be waiting for her to reply. She needed to say something or go. The urge to escape was strong, especially when his gaze brushed down her length. Did he know about her leg? She’d asked Howard not to tell others in town, and with long pants it was easy enough to hide her deformity. “How’s Cinnamon doing?” she finally inquired, needing to ask about her horse before departing.
“I can treat her colic with antibiotics. She should be better in a few days. I’ll come back and check on her, but you should be able to ride her by next week.”
“Oh, good.” She concentrated on walking without limping toward the stall. She wasn’t ready to answer a thousand questions concerning her injury and her leg. But the act of doing that caused her leg to ache even more.
Nate sidled away to allow her to look into the stall where Cinnamon stood. The quarter horse neighed at the sight of her and came to the door, nudging Kathleen with her head. She stroked Cinnamon, her coat reddish-brown—similar to Kathleen’s own hair color. That was what had drawn her to the filly when she was born on the ranch twelve years ago. When she wasn’t dancing, she had been riding. Those had been her two favorite activities as a teen. She couldn’t dance anymore, but she should be able to ride. The thought boosted her spirits.
“I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you, girl.” She rubbed her hand down the white blotch on the mare’s nose, then blew her a kiss, something she had done from the very beginning whenever she was leaving Cinnamon.
Kathleen rotated toward Nate, her mouth lifting slightly in a smile. “Are you working with Dr. Harris?”
“Yes, I’m his new partner. He’s great to work with, and his practice keeps expanding. I’m handling all the big animals and the house calls to the ranches.”
“Then you must be on the road a lot.”
“Usually half my day. We should go out to dinner and catch up while you’re still in town. I imagine you won’t be staying long. How’s your injury? When will you be returning to New York?”
Her chest constricted. Her breath burned her throat. He knew about her leg? “My plans aren’t settled yet. I’m just focusing on recuperating for now.” How much did he know? Surely her brother and Beth wouldn’t have betrayed her and told Nate.
“If you want to go to dinner, let me know. You’ve got to do something while you’re here healing.”
Something in the tone of his voice indicated he wasn’t totally convinced having dinner with her was a good idea, and she had to agree. He was the past, and at the moment she didn’t have much of a future.
“My plans are up in the air right now. I just arrived today. I’ll call you when I can.” Kathleen slowly backed away. She couldn’t see him. He knew her too well. Before they had dated in high school, he’d been her good friend, both of them hanging out with the same crowd. She couldn’t take pity, from him or anyone else. That was one of the reasons she’d fled New York. “See you around.” She turned and walked as fast as she dared, again putting all her concentration into walking without a slight limp.
She heard Nate call her name, but she kept going, escaping outside. Being around Nate would only bring back those times she’d had a dream to be a ballerina. That dream was shattered now, and she didn’t want to be reminded. But as she headed for the main house, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. He looked good. Too good for her peace of mind.
At least she had dodged the bullet, as the cliché went. Now that she knew he drove a red Silverado, she would avoid the barn area when he was at the ranch. She would also stress to her brother and his wife that they were not to say anything about her injury, which would only provoke questions about what happened. Questions about the car accident that she wanted so desperately to forget.
She halted at the bottom of the stairs to the two-story house she grew up in and sank down to the second step. She shut her eyes to the ranch about her. Immediately the streets of New York City filled her mind. With wall-to-wall people jamming the sidewalks, it was difficult to weave her way through the crowd. Noises bombarding her from all angles—horns honking, loud voices, a siren in the distance. But all her focus was on getting to her ballet rehearsal on time, the last one before the opening performance—her big break, something she’d been working years to accomplish. She was starring as the lead in Wonderland, a new ballet she’d even helped choreograph. She was ready. She could do it.
Then without checking if the traffic had really stopped, she stepped out into the street when the light indicated she could cross. The sounds of screeching brakes reverberated in her ears as she felt the impact of the truck against her body. Then nothing...until she woke up in the hospital with her left leg amputated from the knee down.
In that instant, her dream died.
Kathleen stared at the nearby pasture where some mares with their babies grazed. There was something about the scene that eased the sense of panic the flashback to her accident had caused. For the first couple of weeks afterward, she had relived it several times a day. Now it was only every once and a while. Progress.
She grasped on to that and rose. Climbing the stairs to the back deck, she knocked on the sliding glass door to the den, which flowed into the kitchen area and breakfast nook. Beth waved and hurried to let her in.
Before she could step inside, her sister-in-law engulfed her in a hug. “It’s great to see you.” She moved to the side so Kathleen could enter. “Is everything all right at the cabin?”
“Yes. Thanks for getting it ready and stocking my kitchen.” Beth and Nate were the same age and had been friends growing up. In fact, Nate had introduced Beth to Kathleen and later to Howard. As Beth started dating her