The Cowboy Falls for the Veterinarian (EBOOK)

Sterling Miller is shocked. Who does this pretty, headstrong veterinarian think she is? Telling him he’s clueless on how to treat animals. Ordering him and his workers around. And calling him out on being a typical rich-type.

Elizabeth Brown is irritated. Sterling has a sarcastic mouth, rich-man attitude, disarming smile and chiseled jaw.

He needs to learn a thing or two about the real world.

Elizabeth is appalled at the condition of the animals and their pens. Selfish rich ranchers. Spending a ton on themselves but hardly giving their animals the bare minimum in care.

Sterling has never met anyone like Elizabeth. She speaks her mind. Nobody has ever told him before that he’s wrong. Or that maybe his family isn’t good as they’d like to think.

He doesn’t see anything wrong with how they are doing things on the ranch. They make a good profit—billions, in fact.

So why does he feel drawn to the force of nature that is Ms. Elizabeth Brown?

TROPES
✅ Boss / Employee Romance
✅ Handsome & Irritating Cowboy
✅ Veterinarian

Author’s Note:
Miller Brothers of Texas is a spin-off series of my best-selling series Brothers of Miller Ranch. Fans have liked the Miller brothers so much I decided we couldn’t give them up just yet! So this new series is all about their cousins in Texas who own a Texan ranching empire. This series will take you on a journey with six handsome brothers who end up helping their father realize there’s more to ranching than just a profit.

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Watching the woman work was something else.

The last thing Sterling had ever expected was for his hitchhiker to basically hijack the pigpens and start ordering everyone about, but that was exactly what she did.

And she didn’t seem to have a single qualm doing it either.

Sterling had never seen someone come in and take over a situation like that, then proceed to calm a very upset pig which weighed very much more than her, then get coated in all sorts of liquids and waste that no one would want to get covered with. And yet, she didn’t even bat an eye.

If he didn’t know better, he would think that it was her ranch and she’d known Peggy her whole piggy life. And yet, the two had just met. In fact, he’d just met the mystery woman too.

What were the chances that the woman stranded in front of their house also happened to be a veterinarian with a specialization in farm animals!? That was the kind of thing that would have Mom fanning her face and claiming that “God is good,” but Sterling honestly didn’t find God in most of their business enterprise.

She was like a force of nature, this Elizabeth Brown. All of her energy had been focused on the pig. He could practically feel it in the air, despite her completely calm and collected demeanor otherwise. The workers seemed to be caught up in it too, most of them watching her, awestruck.

Sterling was approaching her afterward without even consciously telling himself to do so, watching the dark column of her neck bob as she completely drained the water bottle that had been handed to her. She reminded him of an old story his mother used to tell him, one that stood hazily in the farther parts of his memory. A legend about how forests and rivers and mountains used to be alive with spirit guardians who fiercely protected them. She could be a protector, as covered in filth as she was.

“That was—”

He didn’t even get the congratulations out before she turned to him with a look that most definitely wasn’t a happy one.

“Are you kidding me?” was what she said instead, handing the empty water bottle to a worker who quickly replaced it with another.

“Pardon me?” Sterling asked, blinking at her.

She was using a tone that he wasn’t used to hearing. No one used that kind of tone on him, not even his parents. It was a combination of disappointment along with a whole bunch of righteous anger, and he had no idea what he could have possibly done to warrant that.

“I said, are you kidding me,” she repeated. Nope, that look and tone weren’t going anywhere, it seemed. “How is it you have a nice car, designer cowboy boots there, a building that would make some ranchers weep, but you don’t even have basic care for your animals?”

Wait, what? Not have basic care? Sterling looked around at the wide sow pen, with its watering troughs and the parts that extended both in and out of the barn. “We…don’t?” he said finally, trying to catch up.

A lot had happened in the past thirty minutes, in his defense. He went from knight in shining armor of a very attractive but stranded motorist to watching a live birth of a pig that was also getting its life saved, to being dressed down by a woman who looked like she didn’t care that he was bigger, taller and richer than her.

Her eyes went wide at his question, but the anger only got worse. Apparently, that was not the right thing to say. “No! It’s not! It’s not even close! Look, I know that these animals are how you make your money, but if you can’t even afford to give them proper care, to respect them for what they give to you, then you shouldn’t have them!” Her words picked up speed as she went along and suddenly, it was like someone had shown a light on what was going on.

She cared about the animals.

That shouldn’t have been a revelation. She was a vet; of course she had to like animals at least a little. But none of their contracted help ever reacted like she was, and he realized there was a difference between their businesslike way of coming in and cleaning up emergencies or putting sick animals down, and Elizabeth’s knock-out, knuckle-biting push to make sure they were healthy.

And for some reason, that suddenly seemed very significant.

“Even if you want to take out the fact that it’s our God-given responsibility to be good shepherds to his creatures, do you really think neglected animals make good food? That they taste great or are nourishing? Even from a greedy, money standpoint, this is unacceptable.” She threw her hands up in the air, all passion and heartache under her furrowed brows. He wondered what had happened to her, what she had seen to make her want to fight so hard for animals that most people thought of as stinky and gross.

“And now you’re telling me you don’t even know that you’re lacking!?” She looked around at all of the men around her. “None of you know what you’re doing, do you? How to treat, feed and take care of these pigs? Huh?” There were a few muttered responses, but most of the workers had conveniently headed somewhere else when her scolding had started. “You really don’t. Sweet glory, none of y’all have a clue. It would take a good vet and team of contractors at least a year to go around fixing all of this and making sure your ship is straight. Because I’m willing to bet the rest of your ranch is like this too. Irresponsible, I tell you. Irresponsible.”

“Okay,” Sterling heard his mouth say as he watched her mouth move. Her lips were so full and such a pretty gradient that he didn’t think he’d ever seen before. From dark, umberish brown to a deep sort of pink. The moving colors punctuated her words, drawing him into every syllable they made.

Her tirade paused, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean?”

Oh, had he said something? Swallowing, Sterling caught onto the tail end of his thought and just dived right along with it.

“I mean, okay, then do it.”

There was that wide-eyed look again, and for the first time she seemed at a loss for words. “Do… what?”

It was insane. He knew that. He knew that even as the words left his mouth. But he meant them wholeheartedly. Silas told him that he had a habit of diving into things feet first—which was basically how the whole firecracker accident happened—but what did Silas know? He was off burning through Father’s goodwill while running around with a mechanic from the city.

“Fix this place. Make it good for the animals. I want you to do it.”

“…you can’t be serious.”