Riding High

“I would agree with that. Shouldn’t be too tough for you to learn. Nick said you were a smart cookie.”

“He did?” That pleased her. “Just out of curiosity, what else did he tell you about me?”

“That you created a video game that’s paying for all this.” He swept an arm to encompass the property. “That’s impressive.”

“I guess. But I’m not sure it makes much of a contribution to the betterment of humanity.”

“Why, is it violent?”

“God, no. I’m not into that kind of game. It’s about elves and magic. There is a dragon, but he’s more comic relief than scary. If you give him enough treats, which are increasingly hard to come by as the game goes on, he doesn’t cause problems.”

“Sounds like fun. Maybe we could play it some—” He was interrupted by the high-pitched scream of a horse followed by several loud thuds. “Shit.” He took off at a run toward the barn.

Lily ran after him, her heart thumping. Two of the geldings, a big roan named Strawberry and a palomino named Rex, had never cared for each other. She’d put them in different stalls with horses they seemed to like, so it couldn’t be them fighting, could it?

Regan beat her into the barn and grabbed a lead rope from a peg on the wall. He strode quickly to Rex’s stall. The palomino bared his teeth at a young gelding named Sandy who had never caused a single problem since he’d been brought in two weeks earlier. Sandy cowered against the far wall, eyes rolling with fright. At least he didn’t seem to be bleeding anywhere.

“Hey!” Regan’s voice rang out. Opening the stall door, he walked in, the tail end of the lead rope flicking back and forth in front of him. “Back off!” He edged into position and snapped the rope in front of Rex’s face.

Lily held her breath. A rope didn’t seem like much protection against a riled-up horse, but it was working some kind of magic on Rex. The palomino backed up a step, and then another.

Regan followed and kept that rope dancing in front of Rex’s nose. Then, in one quick move, he clipped the front end of the rope to Rex’s halter and pulled the horse’s head down. “Enough of that, mister. We’re going for a walk.”

As Regan led Rex from the stall, Lily stood to one side and gave them room. “What can I do to help?”

“Latch the door after me, then walk ahead and open the corral. We’ll put him in there to cool off.”

“Right.” She wanted to comfort Sandy, but that would have to be put on hold. After securing the stall door, she waited until Regan and Rex had left the barn before scooting around them and heading for the corral.

As she passed Regan, she heard him talking to Rex in a low, soothing voice. She didn’t like to think about what would have happened if Regan hadn’t been here. Of course, if he hadn’t, the horses would have been free to leave the barn once they’d eaten, so this confrontation wouldn’t have happened in the first place. Rex was used to eating and leaving for a far corner of the property. He usually took several horses with him. This time he’d been kept inside while all twenty-one animals were examined, and then the humans had disappeared without letting him loose. Apparently that hadn’t sat well with him.

After opening the gate, which moved smoothly on its hinges, Lily watched Regan approach with the horse. Rex ambled along as if he had nothing on his mind besides walking docilely toward the corral. He didn’t crowd Regan the way Buck tended to crowd Lily, but he didn’t hang back, either. Instead he behaved like the well-trained horse he might be if someone like Regan was in charge.

Speaking of the bodacious Dr. O’Connelli, he looked mighty fine coming toward her with that loose-hipped stride that emphasized the fit of his jeans. Each time he put a booted foot forward, the denim stretched across his thighs. She couldn’t help but notice that. Any woman worth her salt would agree that he was one good-looking dude.

Fate wasn’t being kind to her. She’d broken up with her steady boyfriend last fall. He hadn’t approved of her plan to leave her job with a tech company in Silicon Valley and find a worthwhile charity to support in her hometown. Instead he’d been after her to create another moneymaking game and buy a Porsche or some other stupid luxury car.

She didn’t miss Alfred, who’d turned out to have a completely different value system from hers. But she sure missed the sex. Until Regan had shown up outside her gate, she hadn’t realized how much she missed it.

Unbeknownst to him, probably, he was a walking invitation to partake of those pleasures. Much as she strove to be nonjudgmental about his ex, the thought continued to surface—the woman was an idiot. Regan was brave, resourceful and breathtakingly handsome. Maybe he left dirty socks on the floor and the toilet seat up. Lily could forgive even those sins for a chance to jump his bones. His off-limits bones. Damn.

He continued to talk to Rex as he led the gelding into the corral. Then he removed the lead rope and gave Rex a slap on the rump. The palomino took off, and Regan came to stand beside her, coiling the lead rope. “We’re going to have to watch that one.”

“I can see that.” Lily closed and latched the gate. “You scared me to death walking into the stall with only a rope.”

“It usually works. I was ready to back out again if he’d turned on me. I’m no hero when it comes to dealing with a two-thousand-pound animal in a bad mood.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

He gave her a lopsided grin. “Aw, shucks, ma’am. T’weren’t nothin’.”

Please don’t be charming. She was having enough trouble keeping her libido in check. “Why does flicking a rope work?”

“Most horses hate having something flicked in their face, and the more you do it, the more they back away from it. It’s a great way to get them to move without hurting them.”

Lily thought of her futile attempt to coax Sally away from the porch railing this morning. “What if you don’t have a rope handy? I can’t picture myself carrying one around all the time.”

“Ideally you would have a lead rope clipped to their halter when you’re working with them.”

“Okay, but what about the times I’m not working with them and they’re...”

“Loose?”

She flushed. “I know. They shouldn’t be loose, but there’s no way I can adopt out six or seven horses in the next few days, and I don’t like the idea of keeping them cooped up in the barn all the time. Even the corral is confining.”

“You’re right. You should only be using the corral for training. You could fence off a couple of acres so they have some room to run around, and then they won’t be chewing on your house or pooping in your front yard.”

She stared at him. “That’s brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“You didn’t want to restrict their freedom.”

She had said that, but coming from him, especially after the scare they’d just had, it sounded naive. “I’ve revised my opinion. But getting someone out here to construct the fence will take a while. What should I do in the meantime? Walk around carrying a rope?”

“You could carry a leather quirt and stick it in your back pocket.”

“So I could hit them with it? I don’t want to do that.”

“Chances are you wouldn’t have to touch them. You’d just wave it in their face like you would a rope.”

“I’ll think about it.” She couldn’t imagine walking around with a quirt stuck in her back pocket, either. She’d probably lose the darn thing. “Couldn’t I just clap my hands and achieve the same thing?”

“Not really.”

She sighed and glanced over at Rex, who was prancing around with his tail in the air, as if he owned that little circle. “Rex seems to like this setup just fine. He’s king of the corral.”

“So that’s his name? I couldn’t remember, but it fits him. He wants to rule any situation he’s in, I’ll bet. Did the people who brought him in say anything about his personality?”

Lily thought back to the young woman who’d left Rex at the sanctuary. “She said he was too much horse for her. She was small, so I thought that’s what she meant. Rex came here shortly after I took over, so at first he only had the old horses to deal with.”

“And he could boss them around.”

“They didn’t seem to mind. Strawberry, the big roan, was the first horse to challenge Rex, but after they did a little snorting and pawing, they stayed away from each other. I kept Rex in a stall by himself until recently. I thought he’d be okay with Sandy, who’s not aggressive at all. And it worked out until tonight.”

Regan nudged back the brim of his hat and glanced over at the barn. “I don’t want to chance putting anyone else in the corral with Rex tonight. He might be fine, but he might not. I guess we have to turn them all loose again. It’s what they’re used to.”

“And now I have a strategy to prevent Sally from trying to come in the house. I’ll keep a rope handy.”

“You know why she does that, right?”

“Sure. She thinks she’s a dog. Or a person.”

“No, she’s trying to gain more control over you. Horses will push when they sense you’re not in charge.”

That made her laugh. “I think it’s pretty obvious by now that I’m not in charge. Far from it, in fact.”

“But you need to be,” he said quietly.

“Boy, that sounded serious.”

“It is serious. These are big animals, very strong animals. They’re used to having a leader of the herd, and if you don’t accept that role, one of them will take it. Rex may think he already has. Strawberry might decide to fight him for it. Losing control is dangerous to them and dangerous to you.”

Her pulse rate picked up, and this time it had nothing to do with how beautiful his eyes were and how much she wanted to do him. “Regan, you’re scaring me.”

“Good. I mean to. You’ve been lucky so far. Most of the horses haven’t been here very long, and at least six of them are too old to harm anyone. But you need to let them all know you’re the boss, and very soon.”

A shiver ran down her spine. “I don’t have the skills to do that, yet. I’ll need training as much as they do. And practice. I’ll call somebody first thing in the morning about fencing in a couple of acres. Oh, wait, what’s tomorrow?”

“Saturday.”

She groaned. “Some fencing companies will be closed, and even if I find one that isn’t, they probably won’t be able to finish it up until the first part of next week.”

“I could ask Nick if he could pull in a favor. The Chance name might help.”

“Sure, okay.” She combed her fingers through her hair while she thought through her options. “I’m not too proud to accept that. If you’ll call him now, I’ll let the horses out.”

“Look, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m worried about you.”

“I know.” She drew in a shaky breath. “I just never imagined that my good deed could turn into a life-threatening situation—for me or for the other horses. Call Nick. I’ll be right back. Then we should feed the pigs and the chickens.”

Turning, she walked toward the barn. Her rose-colored glasses were smashed to smithereens, and as she entered the overcrowded space, she could swear ominous music played in the background. The horses looked the same, though, and gazing into their liquid-brown eyes as she opened each stall door calmed her. She gave an extra pat to Sandy, who seemed to have recovered from his fright.

They all walked out of the barn in the same leisurely fashion they normally did. But she couldn’t quite erase her mental image of Rex and Strawberry battling to the death for control of the herd. That wasn’t going to happen, though. She had Regan on her side, and he knew his way around these animals, thank God.

At last she opened the stall where Sally stood with a chestnut gelding named Brown Sugar. The gelding meandered out, but Sally lingered as if hoping for a treat. That was Lily’s fault. She’d often slipped the little mare pieces of carrot and apple.

“Sorry, girl. No treats on me, tonight.” She stroked the horse’s silky neck. “You aren’t really trying to control me, are you? You just want to be good friends.”

Sally butted her head against Lily’s chest.

“See, that’s what I thought. Come on. Everybody else has left the barn, so you might as well, too.” She turned and started down the wooden aisle.

Sally followed, but she didn’t stay slightly back the way Rex had when Regan had led him toward the corral. She came right up to Lily, her nose often bumping Lily’s arm. Lily moved over, and Sally moved with her.

As an experiment, Lily kept moving to the right each time Sally crowded her. Pretty soon she was out of room. She turned to face the mare. “Are you herding me?”

Sally’s big brown eyes gave nothing away.

But Lily had her answer. Sally was in charge, and Lily wasn’t. She had no rope or quirt, so she untied the tails of the shirt knotted at her waist and flapped those in front of the mare’s face. “Back off, sweetheart!”

Sally’s head jerked up and she took a couple of steps backward.

“Yep, that’s what I’m talking about! Give me some room!” Lily flapped her shirt a few more times, and Sally retreated again. “Huh. Amazing.”

She’d managed to intimidate Sally a little bit, but she had no illusions that she’d get the same respect from Rex or Strawberry. For that matter, most of the new arrivals might not pay any attention to her efforts. She had a lot to learn, and not much time to learn it. Knotting her shirt at her waist once again, she walked out of the barn into the soft twilight, followed at a respectful distance by Sally.

Regan, looking better with every minute that passed, came to meet her.

She was excited to share her small triumph with him. “Hey, you may not believe it, but I backed Sally off by undoing my shirt and flapping the ends in her face.”

“Excellent!” He smiled. “Creative solution. Maybe you don’t need a rope after all.”

“Yeah, I do. I don’t think my shirttails will make much of an impression on Rex.”

“Maybe not. Anyway, I talked to Nick, and he’ll do what he can, but summer is the worst time to get a crew ASAP. Busiest time of the year for fence companies because it’s when they repair winter storm damage.”

“Not surprising.” But it wasn’t the news she’d hoped to hear.

“He said he’d offer to send out some of the ranch hands, but there’s a special riding event in Cheyenne this weekend, so he’s short a few guys as it is. He can get right on it Monday morning, though.”

“So I’m on my own with twenty-one horses who could decide to revolt at any moment.”

“No, they won’t.” Concern shadowed his eyes. “I didn’t mean to scare you that much. I just wanted to make a point.”

“You made it, and I’m not sure how well I’m going to sleep tonight.”

“You’ll be fine. You can call me if there’s a problem. I don’t have any appointments tomorrow, so I can come out and check on you. I can do the same thing on Sunday.”

“I have a better idea.” It wasn’t a wise idea, but desperate times called for desperate measures. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but would you be willing to spend the weekend with me?”

4

REGAN GULPED. “Excuse me?” His heart galloped out of control. Surely she hadn’t suggested what he thought she had. He suddenly had trouble breathing.

Lily, she of the sunset-red hair and sky-blue eyes, seemed completely calm, though. “To be clear, that wasn’t a proposition.”

“Of course it wasn’t. We barely know each other. I didn’t think that at all.” The hell he hadn’t. Stupid of him, but he’d immediately created a cozy scenario for the two of them. Apparently his subconscious had been building a whole fantasy on her I can’t help saying yes comment.

“The ranch house has a guest room. My mom insisted I should have one in case any of my friends from Berkeley show up. I realize this is a terrible imposition, but after Rex’s little stunt, I’m worried about being alone here.”

That was mostly his fault. “It’s highly unlikely you’ll have a problem.” But what if she did? What if he drove away from here and something happened? What if she tried to break up a fight and got hurt in the process? He’d never forgive himself.

“I may be overreacting, but I’ve been jerked out of my blissful ignorance and there’s no going back to it. I now understand the potential danger here. You know horses, and you’re a vet who could deal with an injury if we were unlucky enough to have one. I’d consider it a huge favor if you’d do this.”

He struggled to get his bearings. “Well, I—”

“This is spur of the moment, so if you’re willing to stay, you might want to go home and get some things. Where are you living, by the way? I never thought to ask.”

“At the Last Chance. Sarah gave me a room there in January, and I haven’t decided whether to buy property, so I’m still at the ranch.” He worked hard to seem as cool as she was about this discussion. She needed him to be there in case she had a problem with the horses. After the picture he’d painted, he couldn’t blame her. Because he’d contributed to her nervousness, he should agree to her plan. It was the gentlemanly thing to do.

Unfortunately, the thought of spending the night in her house continued to suggest ungentlemanly ideas. That didn’t mean he would act on them, though. He might have considered a relationship down the road, but getting sexually involved with her when they’d met only this morning would be insane. He’d never operated that way, and he wouldn’t start now.

That didn’t take into account how she operated, however. He considered the psychedelic colors of the buildings and her belief in letting all creatures run free. That could add up to a woman who didn’t have rigid rules of behavior when it came to sex. But apparently he did. Could he change those rules given the right circumstances? Yes.

“I can feed the pigs and the chickens if you want to head back to the ranch and pick up a few things. That’s if you’re even willing to consider doing this.”

“So it would ease your mind if I did?” Dumb question. He knew it would because she’d already said so. And he knew his answer was yes.

He was stalling because he hadn’t decided whether to drive back to the ranch for a change of clothes and a shaving kit. That could be problematic if he ran into someone who asked questions. No one kept close track of him there, so if he didn’t show up, they might assume he was out on a call that lasted into the night. That would be sort of true. He’d like to keep their arrangement on the down-low for now.

“It would greatly ease my mind.” She looked up at him. “Please say you’ll stay. I’m a decent hostess.”

His breath caught. She was pleading with him to do this because she was frightened, not because she wanted him in her bed. Thoughts of sex were far from her mind, and they should be far from his, too. They would be. He’d stay for a couple of nights and guarantee her a peaceful weekend free of worries about her horses.

Maybe in a few weeks the situation would resolve itself and he could ask her out. But only a jerk would take advantage of a woman’s fears—fears he’d helped foster. He was better than that.

“I’ll stay,” he said. “I don’t need to go back to the ranch for anything. If you have a spare toothbrush, I can manage.” And if he didn’t go back to the ranch, he wouldn’t be tempted to grab the box of condoms that he’d discovered in the upstairs bathroom. Even more reason to stay right here and be virtuous as hell.

“Thank you, Regan. You’re a good guy.”

He wasn’t so sure about that, but he would do his damnedest to be a good guy for the next forty-eight hours. “Ready to feed the pigs and chickens?”

“Absolutely!” Her bright smile flashed.

Yeah, he could do this. The relief in her smile was all the reward he needed. If he hadn’t believed every word of warning he’d spoken, he’d feel guilty about scaring her. But she needed to understand what she was up against. Chances were nothing would happen this weekend, but if it did, he’d be here to help.

Feeding the chickens, it turned out, was easy. He felt like Old MacDonald as he scattered seed over the ground. The pigs were a lot more work. First he and Lily had to chop up an ungodly amount of fresh vegetables. They stood side by side tossing cut-up veggies into two large bowls about the size needed for a batch of cookie dough. He’d never expected to have fun preparing a meal for pigs. Once again his happiness meter registered somewhere near the top of the scale.

He threw a handful of carrot chunks into the bowl. “I thought they ate kitchen scraps.”

“Most people think so, but they won’t get a balanced diet that way.” Lily chopped with rhythmic precision as she talked. “I found all kinds of information online, and everyone says to feed vegetables loaded with vitamins if you want a happy, healthy pig. And you’re not supposed to overfeed them or they’ll get fat. Harley looks a little overweight to me. What do you think?”

“I didn’t spend any time studying pigs, so I’m no expert.” Regan started in on a head of cabbage. “But he’s definitely chunkier than Wilbur.”

“And from what I’ve researched, Wilbur’s about right. I’ll have to make sure Harley doesn’t try to steal any of Wilbur’s food.”

Regan finished with the cabbage and moved on to a sack of potatoes. “What if someone wants to adopt these guys? How will you know they’ll feed them right?”

“Excellent question. I’ve thought about it a lot today. I’ve considered having the adopters sign an agreement that they’ll follow the guidelines I give them and read the information on keeping pigs as pets. But what if they don’t? How will I know?”

“You won’t, which is why they might need to provide references.”

“I think so, too. That’s still no guarantee, because they can give me names of people who will say whatever they’re supposed to, but it makes the process more complicated. People who want to adopt a pig on impulse won’t want to go through all that.”

Regan picked up a bunch of golden beets. “At least these are adult pigs, so nobody can kid themselves about the amount of room they’ll need.”

“I’ve toyed with the idea of a home visit before I let the pig go.”

“It will take lots of extra time to do that.”

“I know.” Lily topped off her bowl with some bib lettuce. “But after you filled me in about Harley’s deal, where his mud hole was competing for space with folks enjoying a backyard barbecue, I think viewing the future living space would be good. The requirements for the pig have to come first.”

“Because pigs can’t speak for themselves.”

“Exactly!” She turned to beam at him. “Most of those who bring me horses, pigs or chickens are ready to dump an inconvenient nuisance. They’ve never thought about how they play havoc with the lives of creatures who can’t speak for themselves. Or how they’ve contributed to the problem, which I’ve certainly been guilty of with the horses. I’m determined to fix that.”

Regan laid down his knife and turned toward her. “I owe you an apology.”

“For what?” She glanced up at him. “You’ve been nothing but helpful and kind.”

“Not really. I’ve implied that you don’t know what you’re doing, but at your core, you know exactly what you’re doing. You respect the rights of creatures who can’t speak our language. They may have their own language, but they can’t speak ours—and many of us marginalize them. You don’t, and that’s...that’s wonderful.” He had the strongest urge to kiss her, which would be so inappropriate. Coming on the heels of his little speech, it would seem opportunistic.

“Wow. Thank you.” She seemed taken aback. “Lately I’ve been thinking I don’t belong in this place.”

“Don’t ever think that.” He’d watch how he worded his suggestions from now on, because he didn’t want to discourage her from sticking it out. This morning he’d figured she might leave as soon as she grew bored, an assumption based on how his parents might react in this situation. But listening to her now, he wasn’t sure about that.

“I can’t help it, Regan. I wasn’t qualified to take over, although I didn’t have sense enough to know it at the time. But there was no one else, which helped me make up my mind. Now that I realize what I’m up against, I should probably advertise for someone more experienced to buy it and run it.”