The Doctor Wore Spurs by Leanne Banks Read Free Book Online Page B

grand piano. The windows were bare except for a blue satin header at the top. Feeling an odd bittersweet tug, she walked in and spotted the portrait of a lovely woman on the wall. "Who is she?"
    "Brock, Tyler and Martina's mother. She's lovely, isn't she?"
    "Yes." There was a lively gentleness in the woman's eyes. She had seen it echoed in Tyler. The thought softened her heart.
    "The men adored her. She taught both boys to play piano. Martina didn't get a chance. Her mother died giving birth to her."
    Jill's chest tightened, her own experience haunting her. "Tyler told me. How terrible."
    "Yes, it was. Their father shut himself off after that, and I think all the children suffered, perhaps Tyler and Martina the most."
    "Why Tyler and Martina?"
    "Brock was always going to do the ranch, so he got some attention from that. But Tyler," Felicity said with a grin, "was destined for something different. Brock stood up for him, but Tyler's had a tough road. And Martina looked so much like her mother that Papa Logan couldn't bear to look at her. It's a miracle they turned out so well."
    Her respect for Tyler grew. He could have become a much different person, bitter, fearful. Instead, he fixed children's broken hearts.
    "And then there's the curse," Felicity said with a groan.
    "The curse," Jill echoed, then remembered Tyler mentioning it before. "I think Tyler told me something about it. He said he didn't believe in it."
    Felicity gave a snort. "The advantage with Brock was that he did believe in it. That meant all I had to do was break it."
    "And how did you do that?" she asked, because she didn't put much stock in magic or curses.
    Felicity smiled. "Lots of candles, lots of love, and a lot of risk. The trouble with Tyler is that he says he doesn't believe the curse, but he acts as though he believes it."
    "Why do you say that?"
    "He won't get serious with a woman."
    "Maybe he hasn't met the right woman yet."
    Felicity gave her an assessing glace. "I can hope, can't I? It will take a special woman to love Tyler the way he needs to be loved. She'll need to be strong in her own right, be able to see past his flirting."
    "He's a terrible flirt," Jill said.
    "Yes, he is, but he's very perceptive, and I can't think of a man with a bigger heart," she said. "Except Brock."
    Jill wondered what it must be like to love a man as much as Felicity clearly loved Brock. It seemed a scary yet brave prospect. She thought she had loved her husband, but not with the power Felicity emanated. Glancing back at the picture of Tyler's mother, she looked at the lively, gentle eyes and felt something inside her shift. She felt a kinship with the woman who had lost her life while giving life. Jill would have done the same for her baby, but hadn't been given the option.
    Jill wondered what Tyler had been like as a child, how he had dealt with such a great loss and the lack of approval and support from his father. She wondered what was behind the flirt.

    Tyler felt Jill's gaze on him throughout the dinner meal. He was accustomed to female attention. He flirted with women, and women flirted back. At times they initiated; at times they seduced.
    Most, however, didn't gaze at him as if they wanted to see beneath his skin, into his brain, maybe into his heart. Tyler had always been led to believe he had enough going for him on the outside that they didn't bother to take the trouble to look inside. That was fine because seeing deeper would have brought more trouble than he wanted.
    Normally Jill's intense attention would have worked for him in a big way. There was a slight edge of sensuality in her gaze, but mostly there was curiosity. Deeper curiosity. Uh-oh, he thought, then grinned to himself. Maybe he could distract her. Distraction had always worked before.
    "Let me show you our horses," Tyler said. "You probably need a break from the indoor barnyard."
    "Indoor barnyard?" Tyler's older brother, Brock, said with a lifted eyebrow. "Were you speaking of your usual