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“Yeah, and the door I replaced last week in his stall was because his sweet nature got the better of him.”
She scratched the stallion behind his ear. “Poor baby. Were you trying to get my attention?”
“He was trying to get something,” Asa agreed.
She shot him a glare. “He was only trying to get out and stretch his legs. I haven’t been down to work with him for awhile.”
“Uh-huh.”
Asa exchanged a meaningful glance with Cougar. It was one of those glances she’d seen the banker give the lawyer after her father’s death. A purely male look that suggested the female in question was losing her mind. “I don’t know why you’re so annoyed.”
“I passed annoyed about ten minutes back,” Asa drawled.
“That’s the truth, ma’am,” Cougar obliged. “Thought the man was going to drop his heart along with his good sense when we came over that rise and saw you working that stud.”
“There was no need,” Elizabeth said. “I’ve been breaking horses for years.” She shot a glare Cougar’s way. “As you well know.”
“And this is the first time you thought to mention it?” Asa cut in.
He wasn’t backing her into that corner. “I explained to you a week ago that my father taught me everything about ranching.”
“You said you didn’t learn too well.”
“I never said I had trouble working horses.”
“No, you were real careful to leave that out.” He shifted in the saddle. Leather creaked and the silence stretched. She wondered why he didn’t get down.
“It’s a fact your wife’s not good with cows,” Cougar offered, no doubt in an effort to be helpful. “Give Miss Coyote a cow and she can’t tell one end from the other, but put a horse in front of her and she’s pure magic.”
“It’s Mrs. MacIntyre,” Elizabeth corrected, only to have her voice drowned out by Asa’s simultaneous snarl.
Beyond a slight smile, Cougar didn’t give any indication he’d heard either of them. “Fact is, Mrs. MacIntyre trained old Bucky here.” He patted Buck’s neck. “He tossed her a couple of times, but she didn’t quit until she made a top cow pony out of him.”
The accolade was nice, Elizabeth thought, but did the man have to go and remind Asa that she sometimes got hurt? Couldn’t he see Asa’s lips were getting tighter by the minute? “Thank you, Mr. McKinnely.”
“No problem.”
With a sweep of his hand, Asa included Cougar and Sir Prince in one gesture. “Do you think you could stop admiring my wife enough to take that brute back into the stable?”
“I can do it,” Elizabeth said.
“I’d prefer McKinnely handle it.” And that, apparently, he thought, was that.
Elizabeth had news for him. “For your information, Mr. MacIntyre, I like to train horses. I like training Sir Prince.”
“Then you’re going to have to unlike it.”
She most certainly did not. Fury bubbled and frothed. “I don’t think so.” She kept her tone even as she placed her hand on the horse’s neck. “I need this.”
“You’ve got the house to take care of.”
“You ever take care of a house, Asa?” She didn’t wait for his reply. “It’s boring, and if I have to clean one more thing, I’ll go coyote-mad.” That was the honest truth.
She untied Sir Prince’s lead rope and swung around to head to the opposite side of the corral.
“Elizabeth—”
She heard the warning in his tone. She ignored it.
Three more steps and his voice went up a notch while his drawl lengthened, “Elizabeth, pull up right there, or I’ll have to—”
She stopped dead, but didn’t turn around. “Don’t say it.” She warned him in the most level voice she could manage. “I’ve had it up to here,” she slashed her hand across her throat, “with people telling me what to do. Don’t you dare order me to let go of this lead.”
He’d heard that tone before, Asa realized. Right before Elizabeth had pole-axed that fancy gambler with the stool, she’d been just as precise. Just as unnaturally calm. Still, a man didn’t take orders from his wife.
McKinnely chose that moment to sidestep his horse hard into Shameless who half-reared and pranced away. Pain lanced out from Asa’s damaged ribs. Instead of the “Or what?” he’d intended, all that came out was a low groan.
He glared at McKinnely. “Stay out of it.”
“I’d be more than happy to, but it wouldn’t be neighborly of me to let those ribs drive you to ruffling your wife’s feathers unnecessarily.”
Asa watched Elizabeth proceed to the barn, stiff-spined, as if expecting him to swoop down on her. “Ruffle nothing. I’m going to tan her backside.”
The look McKinnely shot him was wry. “And when you’re done doing that?”
“Things will be back to normal.”
This time, Cougar’s look was pure pity. “Haven’t known you long, and, sure, I’m still learning about you, but…” He shook his head sadly. “I’m pure disappointed you’re turning out to be such a fool.”
