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“No. Not that. You'd still need to go to veterinary school. Can’t do that overnight.”
I giggle before taking a quick sip of my own soda. “What about you? Just happy keeping the family horse ranch going?”
He shrugs again. “I don’t think just raising horses is sustainable from a business sense, to be completely honest.”
“Most people are going with these newfangled things called cars to get around in, yes.”
“Horseless carriages, who would have ever thought of such a thing?”
I laugh more. It’s just so easy to do around him.
“If I merge the Perry ranch with my own, I’m going to go in a new direction, I think. The demand for horses won’t remain, but people still love the animals, as I’m sure you understand.”
“The romance, the history, the majesty. There’s just so much to love about them.”
“And there’s a growing subset of people who think anything with animals is bad for the environment, and should be tossed aside as a relic of the old world.”
“Greenbluff doesn’t seem to be a hotspot for vegetarians. I’ve gathered that much.” Outside the Thomas and Perry horse ranches, there were also a good deal of beef ranches.
“So I’m going to bring those together. I’m going to push the ranch to be as eco-friendly as possible, and pivot to more of a tourist destination. Take care of the land, let people enjoy that experience of riding across the desert and prairie, just like their ancestors did. Try to give horses a spot in a growingly technological world.”
“You want to show your love for the land and the animals that have given so much to your family over the centuries.”
“Exactly. I don’t think I have it in me to abandon them and then go off to learn to code or whatever it is people are supposed to be doing for a living nowadays.”
A horse rancher who wants to create a new future for horses, and a horse girl who wants to take care of them and keep them healthy. Beyond the obvious sparks of lust we had with one another, my imagination went wild with the possibilities, about how much more perfect we could be together.
“I could be your chief veterinarian. Taking care of all the horses. Maybe you could put foster horses out on show to people who might be able to take care of them, and show them individual love and kindness.”
“We’d have to vet them, of course. Uh, in the checking-their-backgrounds sort of way, not in the animal doctor sort of way.”
Lots of laughter shared between the two of us as we discussed our plans for the future. I spent the entire night just lost in his eyes, talking up a storm with this man, smiling madly the entire time.
We didn’t really talk about our relationship, or what that even was. Just this future ranch we both would pour our hearts and souls into. Even as business partners, we were showing more passion for one another than Sarah and Jack ever had for one another.
People were walking past us, and I realized it’s one in the morning, the music had stopped, and the only sounds remaining were drunks droning on about something or other in the distance. Typical one-in-the-morning fare.
“We should head home,” Jack says. “I had a wonderful time tonight, but everything must come to an end.”
“All we did was talk.”
“And that was incredible. I’d keep going until the sun rises, but the local sheriff gets anxious if she sees someone out after two in the morning. Thinks they’re up to something, selling drugs, or whatever the big modern fear of the day is.”
“Not to mention we need to be up at five to start our work for the day.”
He nods. “Shall we, then?”
“Yes, we shall.”
There is no one else on this planet that I want to spend the rest of my life staying up till 1:00 a.m., talking about horses, with. I think I’m in love too. I just need to figure out how and when to tell him.
Which, with the whole engagement thing? Even if it’s just for business? It’s way easier said than done.
7
LILY
It’s what I’m deciding is a typical day at the Desert Sky Ranch. I feed the horses, do some paperwork for Jack, take the horses out for some exercise, do some training, make sure new feed is ordered. This is pretty much what I expected the grind to be when I signed up for the job.
