AllFreeNovel
Share Us
––––––––
~oOo~
––––––––
When they arrived back at the main part of the ranch, Margot and Vin were ready to help. Duncan pulled the carcass off of Titan’s back and followed Vin to a small shed near the house, which might have actually been an old smokehouse from way back in the day. It smelled smoky and earthy inside, which he figured a smokehouse would smell like. Whatever it was, a wide, darkly stained wood table took up the center of the space, and Duncan laid the boar on it.
“Thanks, man,” Vin said. “You’ve been a real help around here, from day one.”
Duncan gave the man a nod. “Happy to do it.”
Vin tilted his head. “I know you are. Phoebe, she doesn’t like needing help, especially when she needs it most. You gotta come in sidelong. You get me?”
“I think so,” Duncan answered. He preferred to be straightforward, and Phoebe seemed to as well, but he thought he understood Vin’s point. Sometimes you had to pry the lid up a little before you could get a good enough hold to open it all the way.
When Vin pulled a heavy leather apron from a hook and opened a chest full of sharp things, Duncan took his leave. He’d seen enough gore in California to last him a while.
Outside, the horses and women were gone. He headed to the stable, hoping to find them there.
Titan was in his stall, head buried in a bucket of what was probably horse food, and Phoebe and Margot were tying Amos and Maple up in the aisle.
Duncan went to Margot and Maple. “I got this,” he told her.
“Yeah? You know what you’re doing?”
“Sure,” he said, which was only about half true. He remembered some things, probably the main things, about unsaddling a horse. For anything he’d forgotten or had never known, he could watch Phoebe. The important thing was finally getting a chance to be alone with her, so he could get a read on what she wanted of him.
“Okay,” Margot said. “I guess finishing supper is on me, anyway. Terry’ll be here in about an hour, so we’re probably gonna have to feed him, too.” She turned to Phoebe. “You need anything before I go, hon?”
“No,” Phoebe answered as she walked past them with Amos’s saddle.
Giving Duncan a look full of meaning he could only hope he understood, Margot left the stable.
Duncan went to Maple’s saddle and tried to remember the steps. First the back belt thing. He unfastened that. Then ... right. He lifted the stirrup, or whatever the part was called that the stirrup was attached to, and found the cinch thing. Instead of a belt buckle, this was a leather strap sort of knotted. Was he on the wrong side?
“Here,” Phoebe said and pushed him aside. She undid the leather strap. When the cinch fell free, she grabbed the saddle and pulled it off the horse’s back.
“I had it,” Duncan said, feeling defensive.
“You can bring the pad and the bridle—it’s hanging there.” She nodded at the nearest post.
He took the pad off Maple’s back, collected the bridle from its hook, and followed Phoebe back to the tack room.
She was settling the saddle on a big peg on the wall. Five other saddles rested on similar pegs. Then she took the bridle from him and hung it on a wall full of bridles, halters, and leads.
“Hang the pad by the window, next to mine. They need to air out before they get put away.”
A thick cord like a heavy-duty clothesline stretched across the room, in front of the window. Titan’s pack pad and Amos’s saddle pad were hooked over it. Duncan hung Maple’s beside it.
“Hey. Wait,” he said as Phoebe started to leave the room.
She stopped and turned back. “The horses are still tied in the aisle. I need to brush them down and put them away. Then I need to bring everybody else in and get them fed.”
He’d heard, and felt, each time she’d said I instead of we. “I can help with that. But can we just take a minute first?”
“Why?”
There was a new distance between them, but it didn’t have to be physical. Duncan went to her and took her hand. “I missed you, Phoebe. Unless I went crazy and started hallucinating while I was gone, I think we decided to be a couple. As far as I’m concerned, that is some significant shit right there. Like, life-changing shit. I’ve been thinking about seeing you again, holding you, kissing you, since the last time I saw you, and fuck, I’ve been here hours, and we’ve barely touched. You feel miles away. Did you change your mind?”
