“This is where the dancing starts, and I ain’t feeling it,” Russ grunted, but I could tell he wasn’t actually as annoyed as he was putting on.
Keeping my tone light and easy, I said, “Well if you want company on the way back, I see Tony is starting to flag a little.”
Crew watched me with keen eyes, and I could practically feel something akin to acceptance from him.
Russ nodded. “That’d be grand, son.”
I waited until Tony looked at me, then smiled at him, mouthing, “Come on.”
To my surprise, he turned to talk to Alanah, then accepted a hug from her before skipping back to me. His popsicle was gone, but I could guess his hands were sticky as hell.
“Are we leaving?” he asked with clear relief in his tone.
“Yes, Mr. Russ wants to go, so we can walk with him.”
“Come on, kid. Show me the way,” Russ told him.
“Okay!” Tony waved rapidly at Alanah and Demi who noticed the movement and waved back from where she was sitting with a sleeping toddler on her lap.
Russ and Tony started to walk together, and I turned to Crew.
“See you in the morning?”
“Yes.” He smiled, his open and friendly expression doing something to my insides. I needed to remember he was the boss. “Bright and early-ish.” He grinned.
“Bright and early-ish it is.” I tilted my head, then slipped away before anyone else could talk to me.
I followed Russ and Tony at a sedate pace, not that they were any faster. I could hear them chatting and saw how Tony mirrored Russ’s pose of having one hand in his jeans pocket as he walked. It was cute as hell.
While I hadn’t really talked to many of the employees, we could now recognize each other if we came face to face on the ranch. They’d all seemed nice and easygoing, and the Harringtons were a good bunch.
It was all very too-good-to-be-true, but I guess time would tell when the other shoe would eventually drop.
Tomorrow would be the first day of our real new normal. Part of me couldn’t wait to get on a horse again. I just wished it wasmyhorse.
Chapter 6
Crew
My internal alarm clock was always spot on. I liked the quiet of the early morning, nothing but me, my coffee, and the occasional moo when our eclectic herd of rescued cattle was close enough. I was in my office by six, and there was plenty to do because there always was, but I found myself putzing around on the computer, going over breeding records instead of doing anything useful. I was waiting for Mal.
My office was at the back of the broodmare barn, which was the closest to the house. It was also the nicest, since we renovated it a few years back, with big foaling stalls. The broodmares were spoiled in that they stayed in them even when they didn’t have a foal on their side. Not that the stalls in the stock and training barns weren’t pretty big as well, just not as big as these.
Julie Andrews was calling for her breakfast, even though it was early. Ennis didn’t arrive until seven, and he always fed the mares first. She was just dramatic. But the sound was comforting in a way. She was a pretty palomino with great confirmation and a good mind, and her babies, no matter who we crossed with, ended up scoring well in shows. Her filly this year, who we were calling Liesl, was a buckskin who already showed a lot of promise. Even at three months old Liesl already had a natural slow-legged lope. We’d liked the cross so much, we bred Julie Andrews back to the same stallion. The next baby probably wouldn’t be a buckskin, but color didn’t matter as much as temperament.
The barn door opened and someone started kicking at their stall. Ennis had arrived then. Pretty soon, everyone would be happy with their breakfast and then he’d turn them out for the day—mares with foals in one pasture, those without in another—while he cleaned stalls.
The familiar sounds of activity made me forget that I was waiting for Mal. Once I focused on the inventory, I got lost in clicking buttons and comparing spreadsheets. Ennis was standing in the doorway for at least a minute before I noticed him.
“Sorry, E. Hey, can you run down to Landry’s this afternoon and pick up the feed order?”
Normally I picked up the order myself, since I liked chatting with Trip Landry. We’d gone to school together and when he came out, I did too. Trip admitted he liked boys, I came clean about liking everybody, and we’d had each other’s backs through high school. We didn’t spend as much time together these days since both of our lives were very busy, but we caught up a couple of times a month when I picked up our order.
“Yeah, sure.” Ennis said in that affable way he had.
“Great. Thanks. Did you need something?”
Ennis nodded. “Imelda is a little stocked up. Just wanted you to take a look before I cold hose and wrap.”
