Amanda’s Patient Hunks Read online

  Now, the two men were standing out in the parking lot, the eastern sky just beginning to turn gray as daylight began to break. It would be another thirty minutes before the sun rose, but he always did love the moment when the sky softened after a long dark night. Of course, he didn’t get to enjoy the mornings as much as he used to when he was in the army. For the past year, he got off work, visited his father, and then went home to go to bed.

  Terence needed to be reasonable, for the man before him sounded like a schoolboy with his pettiness. I met her a year and eight months ago, so I win. Right!

  “I believe it’s up to Amanda to say who she wants,” Terence reasoned as he leaned against the bumper of the old pickup that had been parked next to Amanda’s car.

  “Maybe so, but I have been trying since the day I met her to go out with me, but she won’t. What about you? You been out with her?” Jimmy asked challengingly.

  As much as he wanted to shoot this jerk down, Terence had to be truthful. “No. She wouldn’t even let me walk her out in the mornings, especially when it’s still this dark.” His voice sounded as sad as he felt.

  The man, what was his name again? Oh, yes. Jimmy. Jimmy ran his hand through his hair, the slight morning breeze blowing through the strands. Terence could see where this man could be a prize to women.

  “She’s hiding something, but I just haven’t been able to figure out what it is. Work and home is all she seems to balance. I’ve watched her.”

  Terence was surprised that Jimmy hadn’t been arrested for stalking, but he couldn’t blame the man. If Terence didn’t have things to do when he got up in the afternoons, he would probably try to follow the woman around, too, even though it was wrong.

  “You don’t suppose she is in a relationship at home where the only thing she can do is come to work, do you?” Terence remembered a woman about six months or so ago who had been in an abusive relationship, and the man had nearly killed her.

  “She doesn’t seem to be afraid of anyone, not like my friend who had been abused by her boyfriend.” Jimmy moved over and leaned back on the same bumper. “It’s like she has to get home right after work and doesn’t leave the house until she has to come to work. Once a week, she goes grocery shopping, and to a doctor’s office every other week, but that’s pretty much it when it comes to outside activities. Of course, I do have a ranch to run, so I can’t always be watching her.”

  “Well,” Terence said, thinking of what Amanda could be hiding, or hiding from. “I say we keep pursuing her, and let the best man win.”

  Jimmy looked at Terence, a calculating look on his face. He was thinking of something, but he didn’t voice it.

  “All right,” Jimmy agreed, extending his right hand.

  Terence accepted it this time, shaking it. “If you weren’t competition, I think we could have been friends.”

  “Yeah, right.” Jimmy seemed like he was thinking as he spoke. Terence had to wonder what that was about.

  * * * *

  Amanda shook as she drove home. If she had been smart, she would have asked one of those two childish men to drive her. The adrenaline crash was occurring from all the excitement, and she felt like her strength was draining from her body.

  Her body ached all over from where she had landed on that damn computer unit. The cut on her leg was burning. All she wanted to do was take something for the pain and then go to sleep.

  Jasper didn’t have an appointment for the next couple of days, so that gave her two days to recuperate. He had his schoolwork, which he was good at doing himself, and that would give her time to rest. It was always quiet at home since Jasper was mute.

  With Jasper not speaking, the school system had thought it best if he was homeschooled through the local school system. All his assignments were done online. He was a smart kid, and he finished his schoolwork quickly and efficiently. His grades were great. If someone looked at his academic record, he was a normal kid.

  Therapy sessions were every other week since he didn’t talk. The therapist wanted to continue to see Jasper, hoping one day he would break. Luckily enough, a therapist had come on board at the VA clinic here in Kalispell, so Amanda didn’t have to drive down to Missoula like she had before. It helped quite a bit and didn’t take so much time out of her schedule.

  She was so thankful she made it home all right as she rounded the corner in the neighborhood they lived in. Hitting the button on the small device on the visor above her head, she could see the garage door opening. Once she was parked in the garage, she began to get out. However, pain ripped through her thigh. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed her pink-and-black zebra-striped backpack and made her way into the house.

  Quiet reached her ears as she stepped into the kitchen. Grabbing a homemade breakfast burrito from the fridge, she placed it in the microwave and turned on the device. She also grabbed a bottle of orange juice, and once her burrito was hot, she took everything into her bedroom.

  Stripping out of her scrubs, she walked into the bathroom and stood before the large mirror. The cut on her leg was bigger than she thought it was. No wonder it hurt so much. And no wonder Patti had insisted on having a doctor look at her.

  The sharp edge that had cut her was on the bottom of the legs of the computer unit where it was left open, as if cut in half with another side. If no one had any need to touch the bottom, no one would know how sharp it was.

  She looked at her hair, which she would normally take out of the braid before she went to bed, but she didn’t feel like she had the strength to do it. Climbing into her bed, she turned on the TV to one of the news channels and caught up on what was going on in the world as she ate her burrito. She downed a couple of the pain pills the doctor gave her and thought about the two men who were now plaguing her life.

  Both were very handsome, so she didn’t know why they were attracted to her. She was plain-looking and too fat. Her ass was too big as were her thighs and stomach. Her boobs were generous, fitting her body size, but most men liked big ones. Even if she did go out with them, they wouldn’t want her when they saw her naked.

  There was no way she was able to date with Jasper around. No man would want to have a teenager around, especially one who didn’t talk. Besides, when Jasper turned eighteen and was finished with school, what was he going to do if he still wasn’t talking? How was he going to survive in the world?

  Amanda hated to admit it, but she was terrified she was going to be stuck with her brother for the rest of her life. It wasn’t that she didn’t love him—she did. However, she had been his guardian for the past six years, and not once had she been able to do what young women did. She couldn’t go out for drinks with the ladies, or even date. It was her responsibility to raise Jasper since her parents’ deaths, which meant her life was put on hold.

  Jimmy had rocked her world from the first moment she had backed into him. Looking up at him that day had her dreaming about the man ever since. She could see herself having a relationship with him, but she knew she couldn’t.

  The first day she had met Terence, she had feelings for him also, but again, she couldn’t do anything about it.

  Her vision wavered as she watched TV. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she mourned her life. She might as well put up a tombstone in her front yard that read, “Here lies Amanda Jenkins’s life, cut short by overwhelming responsibilities. She still lives, but her heart and soul have departed, for they are no longer useful to her.”

  The painkillers were doing a number to her mind, but she couldn’t help the directions her thoughts took. As she thought about the two men who seemed to want her and, by the looks of them this morning, possibly fight over her, she could picture a life with either one of them.

  A giggle escaped her.

  There were quite a few ménage relationships happening in the area. She could see herself with both of them, living a poly life.

  Those were her thoughts as sleep stole her conscious thoughts. Her subconscious took over, and her dreams became her g
etaway from reality. Life was so different in her dreams, one where she was the one being cherished, and life was oh, so simple.

  Amanda wanted that life so bad, she ached for it, and reveled in it, but only in her sleep.

  Chapter Three

  “Watch out!” Ozzie shouted as Jimmy tried to lead Elsa into the trailer. The eighteen-hundred-pound beast belied her namesake from that damned Disney movie.

  One of Ruth’s nieces was visiting when the horse had been born and had instantly named her after the Disney character. He had watched the movie with his housekeeper and her niece the night before, letting them use the big-screen TV in his living room so it was a better experience instead of the small screen Ruth had in her mobile home out back.

  Now, the black-and-white horse reared when her hoof landed on the ramp. Jimmy stepped out of the way but continued to hold the reins, to keep a hold on the bitch. Elsa was such a gentle mare on a normal basis, but she proved since the first time they tried to take her to the vet that she did not like traveling. Sometimes, Jimmy just wanted to let her go.

  The trailer they were utilizing today wasn’t the long one. This one would fit three horses, if they could get Elsa in. The other two were already inside.

  Running Wolf at the Circle G ranch had begun an equine therapy program to help kids in the area connect with something other than a human therapist. Running Wolf’s wife had started school in the fall to become a therapist, a decision she had made because of her past traumatic experiences. She had wanted to help others so they didn’t suffer PTSD the way she had.

  Although there were horses on the Circle G, none of their horses were tame enough to use for children. Ruth had several nieces and nephews who came out to visit, so the three horses were used to kids.

  Apparently, by the looks of Elsa, Jimmy was going to have to let her stay at the Circle G while the other two would be ferried back and forth between the two ranches.

  Jimmy had known the Goodall boys and their cousin Austin for a long time, but never really got to know them until nearly two years ago when Jimmy’s sister Lily had been caught up on an avalanche on the back side of the Blacktail ski resort. She had needed to do some research but was too embarrassed to be around a lot of people. A hand full of snowboarders agreed to teach her. Thankfully, they had made it down the mountain, but Lily hadn’t.

  During the initial rescue, the helicopter went down on the mountain, stranding the crew. One of them went out into the cold while a storm moved in, and he found Lily and stayed with her until help came.

  There was a movement happening in the area where polyamorous relationships were popping up. The man who had stayed with Lily was in one of them. Jake Ramsey had stayed with Lily after his A.L.E.R.T. helicopter went down. While they waited for rescue, he talked to Lily about his relationship with his now-wife and best friend. His friends came out and braved the below-zero temperatures and blustery wind to look for all of them. Once they had been rescued and Lily had healed from the barrage of injuries she had sustained, Jimmy held a barbeque for all of them as a show of his appreciation. He had made a lot of good friends through that ordeal. His sister had met her two men that fateful night, but it was months later before she agreed to go out with them.

  Now, Jimmy was able to help Running Wolf’s project. If he could get the damn horse on the trailer.

  Jimmy reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a carrot. Waving it in front of Elsa’s nose, the horse moved toward it. Backing up, until he was in the stall on the horse trailer, Jimmy stepped to the side so as not to get crushed by the beast as she followed the treat he was enticing her with. Once she was inside, he jumped off the ramp, and Ozzie, one of his ranch hands, closed the back end quickly before Elsa could escape.

  The drive over to the Circle G was slowgoing as the warm spell that had hit the area yesterday had the snow on the ground beginning to melt. However, once night had fallen, so did the temperatures. Ice had developed overnight, causing a very slippery surface to slow everyone down.

  A three-quarter-ton, 4x4 pickup truck could handle the unsafe roads. However, towing a trailer with nearly three tons of horseflesh in it could be daunting. If there was any slippage from the trailer, the horses could become excited and begin to move around. They could hurt themselves.

  As Jimmy drove, he thought about Amanda. It had been two weeks since the day she had been hurt. He continued to go every morning to see her, but for the first week, she didn’t go to work. He worried that she had been hurt more than she let on.

  She had been there a week ago, looking refreshed and no longer limping. From where he parked his truck, he could see Terence standing along the roundabout in front of the hospital watching as Amanda walked to her car.

  This morning, she had driven by his truck, her head turning as she did so, her eyes on Jimmy.

  To Amanda, it probably didn’t appear to be anything, but to Jimmy, it had made his heart soar with happiness, for she sought him out. He had nodded his acknowledgement, but she looked back to the road and went on her merry way.

  Arriving at the Circle G nearly thirty minutes later than planned, Jimmy pulled around to the back of the covered and enclosed horse arena that had been built behind the horse barn. A covered path passed between the two buildings so the horses weren’t too exposed to the elements.

  After backing the trailer to a gate, Jimmy and Ozzie got out and tried to get Elsa out first. As soon as her hoof hit the metal of the gate, she tried to rear up, but her back leg slipped as her head hit the roof of the trailer.

  “Damn it, Elsa!” Ozzie swore as he moved in to her other side in the trailer.

  Jimmy took another carrot from his pocket and tried to tempt her again while Ozzie pushed at her from the other side. It was slowgoing, but she finally backed out and reared up in what was probably a defiant air.

  “Looks like you have a feisty one there,” Austin Lighthorse observed from where he had propped himself up against the outer wall of the arena. He pushed himself off the wall with his back and a foot. “How the hell did you even get her in there?”

  “Wasn’t easy,” Jimmy muttered.

  He remembered Austin from baseball in high school. They were on rival teams, and it was thanks to Austin that Jimmy wound up with a broken nose.

  “It’ll be interesting to see you get her back in the trailer.” Austin strode toward them. “She’s most likely feeling the give of the ramp when she steps on it. You may want to put something under it to make it sturdier.”

  The man had a point. Jimmy had also thought it was the sound of the metal from her hoof.

  Running Wolf sauntered up to the two. “What’s with the skittish mare?” he asked as he took the reins of one of the other horses from Ozzie as he walked by.

  “Austin thinks it’s the bounce of the ramp. We thought it might be the metal,” Jimmy responded.

  With a nod of his head, Running Wolf agreed. “Possibly. She seemed so gentle at your place.”

  “She is. It’s just the trailer.”

  “You could always leave her here if she doesn’t behave. That way it’s not a battle to transfer her back and forth.” Austin was running his hand along Elsa’s flank. “She’s a beautiful piece of horseflesh. What’s her name?”

  Ah, here it comes. The ridicules. “Elsa.”

  “Interesting name for a horse,” Running Wolf said as he turned toward the third horse Jimmy had brought with him.

  She was a chocolate-colored quarter horse. At fifteen, she was put out to pasture after she had been used by one of Jimmy’s former ranch hands. Gentle yet strong enough to work a roundup, she was the first one to be recruited for Running Wolf’s equine therapy.

  Elsa had been a given since she had been used by Ruth’s nieces and nephews and was gentled from birth. The other horse, a gelding named Dirty Harry, was also one of the gentlest in the Jimmy’s stables. He had been Lily’s horse.

  Their parents had given him to her as a young colt when she nine, for her birthday. He had
a penchant for rolling in the dirt, which had provided the perfect moniker of Dirty Harry. However, for the longest time, Jimmy had thought he had been named after the Clint Eastwood character.

  “There’s coffee in the kitchen, and I believe Martha has some fresh baked goods. Why don’t you guys go get some while we get the horses set up?” Running Wolf suggested. “She’ll have some travel mugs for you guys, so you can bring the coffee back out here if you want.”

  “Great! Do you want us to bring you back anything?” Jimmy offered.

  “We’ve got ours, thanks,” Austin replied.

  Jimmy and Ozzie walked over to the house Austin shared with his two cousins, Storm and Trey, along with their new wife, Lyndee.

  It was a one-story house that looked big enough for all of them. A porch ran the length of the front of the house, a welcoming place to sit in the evenings. Jimmy’s house had a porch also, but it was rarely used since his parents had passed. His new house wasn’t going to have one, but looking at the Goodall home, but Jimmy had to wonder if Amanda would want one.

  Once they were let in by Martha, the Goodall’s housekeeper, Jimmy and Ozzie followed her into the kitchen.

  “Hey, hey!” Lyndee exclaimed from the kitchen table.

  The petite blonde was sitting at the table with Storm and Trey on each side of her, her rounded belly from her pregnancy keeping her from sitting too close to the table. Jimmy couldn’t believe a woman so small could have such a big belly.

  Walking over to the table, Jimmy leaned down and gave Lyndee a quick hug before shaking her men’s hands. Ozzie did the same except hugging Lyndee.

  “How are you doing?” Jimmy asked. “Shouldn’t you have had that baby yet?”

  Lyndee snorted her laugh. “I wish. This little girl is kicking up a storm as if she wants out, but she just doesn’t want to make an appearance yet.”