Page 8 of His Cowboy

“You too,” I said. “Is Marshall around?” Marshall was the owner of the operation, and based on what I’d learned from Perry, he was the one who had hired Perry. He had been a longtime friend of mine. Not quite a close confidant, but he was a good man and I trusted him.

Just then, he came out of the back room. He was dressed similar to what I was wearing. Cowboy boots, jeans, and polo shirt with the vet logo on there, whereas I had the ranch logo on my shirt.

“I thought I heard your voice and I had to come see for myself. What can I do for you, Reese?” he asked. “I got the supplements you ordered, but hell, I already packed them on my truck, figured they’d be coming out with me on my next trip that direction.”

“The new vet tech you hired arrived this morning. Perry’s living at my ranch right now.” I blurted out the reason for my visit without a second thought.

Marshall’s brow shot up, then realization struck. “Son of a bitch. He was supposed to move into old man Larson’s apartment, wasn’t he?”

I nodded.

“Well shit. I didn’t even put two and two together. Is he all right? That must’ve been a bit of a shock for him to arrive in town without a place to stay.”

“He’s fine. He, uh, stopped at my place before he went into town. Larson hadn’t gotten a chance to call him to let him know about the fire.”

Marshall’s eyes narrowed. Meanwhile, Marcy’s gaze ping-ponged between us like she was watching a tennis match or a really good soap opera. “What made him come to your place?” There was a slight twitch to Marshall’s lips that I didn’t care for. It reminded me too much of how much amusement Rory got from this whole situation.

“It’s a long story,” I said. “You know Blossom.”

“That wild ass horse that you insist on keeping even though she is the very definition of a hay burner and an escape artist to boot? Yeah, I’ve seen her around.” He let out a wry laugh.

“Perry owned her before me. I bought her from his mom. He came here to track her down to see who I sold her to.”

Marcy gasped as if I just revealed some state secret. “His momma sold his horse? Why would she do that?”

I had my own theories, but I wasn’t about to spread any rumors. “Not sure.”

“And he tracked her down after five years?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And now he’s staying with you?” Marshall said.

“That’s right,” I said.

Marshall looked me up and down. I didn’t flinch or waver under his assessing gaze. “So that’s how it is then,” he said.

I nodded.

“All right. It’ll be a longer commute for him to come to the clinic, but it won’t be too bad. Plus it will be a shorter drive when we have visits out that direction. Don’t be poaching my employee, though. You’ve talked about having a vet on staff, but I found him first.”

I didn’t have any interest in making Perry one of my employees. I did have an interest in keeping him as safe as possible. “He’ll be using one of the ranch trucks. His own car isn’t worth shit and likely to break down.” First I needed to get him to agree to that plan.

Marshall nodded. “You know, I only met him the one time over a Zoom interview. He didn’t mention a single thing about your ranch. He had said that he owned a horse before. He’s made real good marks in school, although I got the impression that he didn’t have a lot of support from his family and he’s had to work like hell to get himself through school.”

“That’s accurate,” I said.

“Well, once your mom gets him under her wing, he should be all set, then.”

“Yes, that is a fact,” I agreed. Pretty sure my mom already had plans to adopt Perry as her own. Hell, she had already handed over my house to him.

“Well, you let us know if there’s anything we can do for him. I have a good feeling about him, so we plan to take good care of him here.”

“Thanks,” I said. I nodded to both of them, put my hat back up, and left. I still didn’t know what the hell I was doing. What business did I have housing a young man just out of college, ready to start his career? Especially one I had spent the last five years avoiding thinking about.

I arrived home, but I wasn’t quite ready to go into the house. I knew Perry would be there. His car had been moved to park right next to where I usually put my truck. That was the spot that most of the time remained empty. Ever since Rory and his partners moved out, and my mother moved to town, it was just me in the house. It was quiet and peaceful in the evenings once the day’s work was done.

It was lonely.

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