Unbridled (Unlikely Lovers) by Cheryl Brooks Read Free Book Online Page B

Look, I gotta go now . Next time, call me before you see her. Maybe I can talk you out of doing anything stupid.”
    “I’ll do that. Later.” He switched off his phone and put the truck in gear, only then realizing he could have followed Miranda home if he’d left when she did. Of course, her husband probably would’ve killed him, but at least he’d be out of his misery.
    * * * *
    Rain was coming down in buckets by the time Miranda got home, and Kira’s broad hooves left prints big enough to plant trees in as she trotted across the yard to the pasture gate. Although colder weather would undoubtedly cause other problems, Miranda could hardly wait for the ground to freeze.
    The heavy downpour p ounded the barn’s metal roof with a deafening roar that masked the sound of their approach from the horses inside. “It’s okay, guys,” she told the startled animals. “It’s just me and Kira. No need to get all bent out of shape.”
    Then it was her turn to get bent out of shape when she realized she was standing in the middle of a lake. Grumbling, she pulled off Kira’s halter and blanket and sloshed her way to the tack room. Unlike the aisle, which had been packed down by the horses over time, the slightly higher floor of the tack room was still relatively dry. Miranda had raised the floor level in the stalls with rock dust and rubber mats. The aisle was another story.
    Water tended to pool in the center where the ground was lowest and couldn ’t run out the front end and back down the hill without help. Digging a trench around the barn diverted some of the water, but Miranda’s puny little ditch couldn’t handle the deluge that ran down from the hill above the barn during a strong storm. Armed with a push-broom and a water pump, she trudged out into the lake to drain it before it turned into a muddy mess.
    The horses were still too agitated to work around, so she opened up the stalls and let them in while she cleared out the water. Running an extension cord down to the trench she’d dug across the rear doorway, she plugged it into the outlet in the tack room, which was currently the only outlet in the main aisle that actually worked.
    After f linging the drain hose out to the main ditch, she went to work with the broom, sweeping the water out of the front end of the barn. She’d tried digging a channel for it to run down the hill on its own, but the horses and the weather kept filling it back in. It was a never-ending battle—and Miranda was losing.
    She had almost gotten all of the water out when the rain, which had slacked off while she was working, picked up again. She watched in despair as a vast sheet of water cascaded down the hill and came rushing through the door, sloshing her already soaked boots. She wanted to lay down and cry, but let out a frustrated scream instead. Kira nickered at her.
    “Yeah, I know,” she muttered. “When it rains, it pours, right?”
    With a groan, she picked up her broom and started all over again. To make matters worse, she was scheduled to work at the hospital that night. “So much for my nap…”

 
    Chapter 6
     
    By 2 AM, Miranda felt as though she would keel over and die if she didn’t get a little sleep. Lola and Mary Beth were working with her, which normally meant her shift would go smoothly—and it had—until they got a call from Adrian in the ER.
    “ We’ve got a patient with a blood alcohol level so high the doc’s afraid he might have a seizure, so he’s being admitted rather than going to jail.” Adrian sounded apologetic, but Miranda knew she was probably tickled to death to be getting rid of the guy.
    “Just what we need .” Miranda’s patient was on a ventilator and nicely sedated. The others were asleep. A loud drunk would wake up the whole unit.
    “You shouldn’t have any trouble with him,” Adrian assured her. “He duked it out with the police at the bar where they picked him up, but he’s been pretty quiet since he got here. He’ll