Tennessee Vet--A Clean Romance by Carolyn McSparren

Author:Carolyn McSparren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-07-12T14:30:06+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

SINCE EMMA DIDN’T want to join them for lunch, Barbara and Stephen drove to the café in Stephen’s truck. The remaining diners turned to stare when the two of them walked in together and took a table at the back of the restaurant. Stephen probably thought it was because of his cane. Barbara knew better. It was because Stephen was a relative stranger and with her.

“Hey, y’all,” Velma said. “We got turnip greens today and purple hull peas and pot roast.”

“Works for me,” Stephen said.

Barbara nodded. Outside, the wind had shifted to the northwest to bring gray clouds and a threat of rain. As much as Barbara appreciated rain, it meant mud in all the pastures and the barnyards. It could have turned the pond into such a quagmire that even she couldn’t have maneuvered Seth’s tractor away from it. Poor Stephen, she thought. He would have hated explaining that to Seth.

“I’m driving to Memphis for a meeting with my dean in the next couple of weeks,” Stephen said and squeezed lemon into his sweet iced tea. “He wants a progress report on my new textbook.”

“He could get that over the telephone.”

“He also wants to see for himself that my physical condition is improving. Which it is. I hardly use my cane at all any longer.”

“You had your stick today. ESP?”

“More like experience. My leg has fooled me before. I am considering lying like a rug about the progress of the book. Unfortunately, the dean knows me too well. I’ll reassure him, after which I’m having lunch with my daughters. I am not looking forward to it.”

“Why not? You haven’t seen them since you moved up here.”

“Anne and I talk on the phone most nights, and she reports to Elaine. Better for all of us. You’ll like my Anne. She works at one of the local horse barns outside of Memphis.”

Barbara suspected he hadn’t mentioned anything about her liking Elaine because he doubted she would.

As a shadow fell across their table, Barbara looked up to see Seth and his partner, Earl, by their table.

“Hey, folks. May we join you? Stephen, I don’t think you’ve met my partner, Earl Maxwell.” The men shook hands and sat in the other two seats at the table.

Velma made iced tea magically appear at both their places as she asked, “Special?” Both men nodded and off she went.

“How’d the cutting go?” Seth asked Stephen. Barbara caught his eye and raised her eyebrows in an up-to-you expression. Stephen took a hefty swig of iced tea, squared his shoulders and launched into the story of the stuck tractor. “Thanks to Barbara, I didn’t cause any damage that couldn’t be remedied with the garden hose.”

By the time he finished, both men were chuckling. “Both of us have been stuck out there at least once,” Earl said. “The pond bank moves depending on whether we’re talking hot, dry weather in the summer or cold, damp weather in the rest of the year. The lily pads grow and shrink with the bank.

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