The Surgeon and the Cowgirl (Harlequin American Romance) by Heidi Hormel

Author:Heidi Hormel [Hormel, Heidi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780373755738
Amazon: 0373755732
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“You should be the one they interview,” Jessie said to Lavonda for the twentieth time in half an hour.

“It’s your therapy program. You’re the cowgirl, and there are people who will remember you from your trick-riding days. You are your own best spokesperson,” Lavonda answered as she looked Jessie up and down.

They were just minutes from an interview with a Phoenix television news reporter and the kickoff to the press blitz that Lavonda had orchestrated. This was all possible because Spence had negotiated for more time from the mortgage company. It’d been like a Christmas miracle. She still owed the money, but she’d been given time—fingers crossed that it was enough.

Lavonda had convinced Jessie that the story of Hope’s Ride was sure to get local media interest and had the potential to go national. Her sister’s reasoning? Who could resist little kids and ponies fighting against big evil banks and hospitals? Jessie wasn’t so sure that the hospital was “evil.” Sure, they’d been slower than molasses in February and were withholding their funding till the money got sorted out, but the staff had been supportive. Still, Lavonda had convinced her that this strategy would get them what they needed. So Lavonda had passed along the information to bloggers and sent out a mass email to parents and volunteers with Hope’s Ride asking them to share it with everyone they knew. All of that was how Jessie found herself standing in the late-afternoon Arizona sun, sweating and waiting.

Jessie pulled at her jeans again and wiped her palms along the sides of her legs while the cameraman got footage of the ranch, including the foreclosure notice, which had to stay until she’d deposited all she owed at the bank. Jessie, in a fringed and pearl-snapped shirt, would be taped leaning up against one of the corrals—“for that true Western look,” the reporter explained. Lavonda insisted that Molly be in the shot, too. The pony waited more patiently than Jessie, stretching her muzzle through the slats of the fence to nibble at Jessie and beg for treats.

“Get her miked up, Len,” the reporter said to the tall, thin camera guy. He got the microphone clipped to Jessie’s shirt and hid the power pack at her back.

Her hands wouldn’t stop trembling, and she wiped them on her jeans again. Lavonda now stood behind the camera guy, mimicking a big smile and pointing at Jessie.

Jessie pulled out her brightest rodeo smile, but she wondered from the odd look the reporter gave her if it was more like a grimace.

“Miss Jessie,” Len, the camera man said. “Could you say something please? I need to test the volume.”

“Something,” Jessie said and laughed nervously. The camera man motioned for her to continue. “Hope’s Ride is a—”

“That’s good, ma’am. Thank you,” he said, and nodded to the dark-haired reporter in heels and a Hillary Clinton pantsuit.

“Jessie, while I ask you questions,” the woman said, “I want you talk to me and not look at the camera. Lavonda and I have gone over the situation, and I’ll add the specifics in a voiceover later.

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