Read Online Once and for All by Jeannie Watt - Free Book Online

and had regained his strength, to the point that Lucas had put him back out in the bachelor pasture with the other bulls. Another crisis averted, thanks to Sam. Jodie was going to owe him a huge debt of gratitude if things continued as they were, and right now she owed him a debt of the monetary variety. Lucas had picked up more penicillin and some amazingly expensive colostrum from the clinic yesterday, and Jodie decided to pay the bill when she went into Wesley for a few personal odds and ends. With the warm wind still blowing, it was too nice to stay in the house.
    There were no cars in the parking spaces in front of the clinic, and no one behind the counter. Jodie called a hello. No reply. Odd. She waited a few minutes, and then leaned over the counter to set the check beside the computer keyboard.
    Next stop the library. She was almost to her car when she heard the distinctive sound of a basketball hitting concrete somewhere behind the clinic, a sound that always gave her an adrenaline rush. It was followed by male voices, one of them Sam’s. Jodie reversed course.
    Did Sam play basketball? He was certainly tall enough, and the thought of Sam driving hard for the goal… oh, yeah . She followed the path around the clinic to the yard that separated the building from Sam’s house. He and two boys stood on a concrete pad under a portable basketball hoop, and were in the middle of a heated discussion. Sam had the ball tucked under one arm and a finger in the air when he caught sight of Jodie. He stopped talking and both boys turned to follow his gaze, their expressions—and features—identical.
    Sam had twin nephews.
    “I just dropped off the check,” Jodie said, her eyes moving from one tall, fair-haired kid to the other before settling back on their uncle. Maybe it was because there were three of them that she was struck by how good-looking they were. “It’s beside the keyboard.”
    “Thanks,” Sam said, bouncing the ball. The nephew Jodie hadn’t previously met reached out and expertly snagged it away from him before making a lazy layup.
    “I win,” he said.
    “In your dreams,” Sam replied.
    “Yeah? Well, I could take you and Beau together.” He made a sweeping gesture. “Or all three of you,” he said cockily, including Jodie in the competition.
    “How about plain old two-on-two?” Jodie asked. Her request was immediately followed by three superior masculine smirks, as if they thought she was kidding. She wasn’t. In her busy life not many opportunities arose for a pickup game these days, but when she’d been in school… “Me and Beau against…” She gestured at the other nephew.
    “Tyler,” he said, passing the ball from hand to hand.
    “Tyler and Sam.”
    “Yeah,” Tyler agreed with a wide grin, palming the ball. Beau looked less than enthused. Sam said nothing, but he was looking at Jodie as if trying to figure her angle.
    “What do you say, Beau?” Tyler jerked his head at Sam, and Beau’s expression changed.
    He gave a shrug. “Why not?”
    Tyler tossed Jodie the ball. She passed to Beau, who went in for an easy layup, with Ty and Sam giving little defense. She had a feeling this was Sam’s way of spotting them a few points. That wasn’t the way Jodie played. When Tyler passed the ball in to Sam, Jodie went chest to chest with him, waving her arms and keeping him cornered. She rather enjoyed the expressions that crossed his face when he realized that, despite her height disadvantage, she was playing for real.
    “Come on, Sam!” Tyler called.
    Finally Sam made a bounce pass to Tyler, who maneuvered around his brother and took a shot. Rim ball. Jodie rebounded, pivoted, dribbled, shot for two. Then she took her place next to Sam, ready to guard. She pushed the hair out of her eyes with one hand, while extending the other toward Sam’s midsection.
    Tyler and Beau exchanged looks.
    “I didn’t know you were a player,” Sam said close to her ear. Tingles went up her