Read Laying Down The Law (#4, Cowboy Way) (The Cowboy Way) for Free Online Page B

nightgown.  “I made your cereal, so get up and get dressed.”
    “He isn’t going to school today,” Brock grated, pushing Brady off of his lap.  “He’s going to the doctor, and I’m going with y’all.  Get an appointment, Lucy.”
    “It’s only seven-thirty, so they’re not open yet,” she replied, her lower lip pouting.  “What’s wrong, Brady?”
    “The same thing that’s been wrong with him for three years!” Brock shouted, as he stomped to the dresser and jerked out a drawer to pull out sweatpants and a t-shirt for Brady.
    “That new doctor in Mountain Ridge has a two-week waiting list.  I could try the one he saw over in Homer?” she suggested.
    “Call all twenty or so he’s seen if that’s what it takes—just get him a damned appointment or I’m taking him to the hospital!”
    Ask me before it’s too late . 
    Brock ground his teeth as the stupid vision that had haunted him all fucking night reappeared.  He couldn’t ignore it anymore.  That’s exactly where he was going right now—to Merry Fox’s house to ask Melanie to help him.
    “Better yet, let’s get you dressed, Brady—I’m taking you to see a doctor.”
    “What doctor?” Lucy asked, her eyes narrowed.
    “Melanie Fox,” he replied, tossing the clothes to Brady. “Put those on.”
    “Hooty?” she asked, shaking her head.  “She’s in California, isn’t she?”
    “She’s back in town to take care of her mother and aunt.  That woman I stopped at the diner yesterday was Melanie Fox.”  Brock scanned the floor and found Brady’s tennis shoes at the end of the bed, then helped him sit on the bed and put them on.
    “ That was Hooty?” she asked, her voice shocked.  “Good gawd, she must’ve had an entire body lift done in California.  She needed one.”  The nasty snigger that punctuated her words raked over every nerve in his body.
    “Yeah, she looks damned good, doesn’t she?” Brock asked, and enjoyed seeing the smile wilt from Lucy’s face. “She’s also a doctor now, so I guarantee she’s smart enough to figure out what’s wrong with him, or find me a doctor who can.” 
    Lucy’s indignant gasp was music to his ears as he tied Brady’s shoes.  When he finished, he looked at Lucy and she wore a worried, sour expression, which he knew wasn’t because Brady was sick and that pissed him off.  She’d become more and more blasé about their son’s illness over the last year. That expression was solely because she now saw Melanie as competition. 
    But what Lucy didn’t realize was there was no competition.  Melanie Fox had always been ten times the human being as Lucy or any of her friends.  Brock had just been too damned shallow to look past the glasses and extra weight to see that. 
    But, unlike Lucy and her buddies, he’d never been intentionally cruel to her.  In fact, when her sister informed him tongue-in-cheek that the shy, self-conscious bookworm had a crush on him, Brock had done everything he could to let her down easily. 
    Her sister, on the other hand, had spread it through the entire school so Melanie had become even more introverted.  He’d broken up with Maddie shortly after that.
    Melanie certainly wasn’t shy or introverted now, he thought.  She wore self-confidence now like a two-hundred-dollar suit, which is what he estimated hers to cost yesterday.  Somewhere in California she’d found the beautiful, self-assured woman she was always meant to be.  Found the greatness she was always meant for.  And he was damned glad for her—for him too—since he thought she might be able to help his son.
    “I don’t have time to chat, Lucy—get me the keys to your van,” Brock demanded.
    “Just wait for me to get him an appointment,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest and lifting her chin.  “I don’t want her examining him.”
    “Well, that’s too damned bad, because she is going to examine him.”  Brock grabbed Brady’s hand and walked to the