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“Stay back here,”Trey murmured to TJ, reaching down to take the boy’s hand. “They’re bringin’ in the last one right now.” He’d been working day and night for the past week, the lazy, relaxing days of his honeymoon a distant memory of seven days ago.
Once he’d returned to Dreamsville and Bluegrass Ranch, his workload had doubled. Not only did he still have all the scheduling of the tracks to deal with, as well as all the trainers who wanted special treatment and the perfect time slots, but Beth’s farm needed a ton of work.
She’d hired a crew to keep it functioning while they’d been gone, and Trey thought they’d done a fine job. So fine, he’d called Marc Towers that morning to ask him to come back and work at Dixon Dreams until they were caught all the way up—and then some.
He hadn’t told Beth yet, because he didn’t want to argue with her when they were already in the midst of stressful things.
Their application to enter Somebody’s Lady into the Sweetheart Classic had to be submitted in less than two days, and they’d been holding off to avoid questions and speculation.
It really was insane how many people kept up with what the Chappells did, and Trey had taken the idea of waiting until the last moment to enter to Beth after speaking with his father.
Don’t believe for a moment that they’re not watching you, he’d said.I made that mistake once and wasn’t careful enough with the stud list I was using. Suddenly, everyone was hiring the same sires as me, and that took the better part of five years to overcome.
“There he is, Trey,” TJ drawled, and Trey pulled himself out of his head and back to the task at hand. He glanced right, and sure enough, the beautiful, dark bay he’d been most excited about during the yearling sale pranced toward them.
Conrad led the horse, and Trey wished he could wipe the smugness off his younger brother’s face. He definitely needed a better mask, and the pride slipped as Spur stepped next to Trey. “He’s a mighty fine horse,” Spur said.
“Yep.” Trey watched the horse go by, wishing they didn’t have to sell all of their animals. They sometimes didn’t, but Bluegrass made a lot of money from their yearling sales, and they couldn’t afford to house and keep horses just because they were pretty and knew how to run.
They bred them for both of those things, and Trey reminded himself that he owned three horses personally. He hadn’t had time to ride them much lately, and he vowed he’d do better.
Out in the arena, Cayden started to talk about the bay, and the auction for him began.
“That’s it,” Trey said to TJ. “We sell him, and we’re done.” Not really, but TJ didn’t understand all the behind-the-scenes things that went on. The boy loved horses, though, and that was the first step to becoming a cowboy that worked with animals for the rest of his life.
Cayden would stay out front and answer questions. Lawrence, Ian, and Conrad worked back here, where the sales office was and the veterinary booths. Everyone had to pay for their horse before they could leave, and they all got a free check with the vet, so they could take their clean bill of health too.
Spur would oversee all of that, schmoozing and shaking hands while money got paid and exams gone done. Blaine, Trey, and Duke would clean the arena, then take their manpower to the sheds and rowhouses where the horses had been kept for the past few hours.
By six-thirty tonight, the trailers would be loaded and gone. The money counted. Everything sprayed down and scrubbed clean. The ranch would be quiet again, and the Chappell brothers would eat at the homestead together, just like they did after every yearlings sale.
His stomach growled, because Trey barely had time to think let alone eat. He stifled a yawn, because he didn’t want to answer his brother’s questions, and he wished he’d had the foresight to grab a granola bar and stick it in his pocket.
“How’s it going?” a woman asked, and he turned toward Beth, recognizing her voice as he did.
“Hey,” he said, smiling. “What are you doin’ here?”
She tipped over TJ’s head and kissed his cheek. He pressed right into the touch, a jolt of attraction moving through him. “I just came to see how it was going,” she said. “Plus, TJ left most of his lunch on his plate in his excitement to get here, and I thought you might be hungry as well.”
She’s an angel, Trey thought, his smile growing.
“I brought ham and cheese sandwiches,” she said. “If you can spare a few minutes.”
“I can once the sale ends,” he said. It would be madness for a few minutes while the crowds dispersed. “Thank you, sweetheart.” His heart swelled and expanded at her kindness and intuition. She had to be thinking about him in order to bring him food, and he reached for her hand.
She held up her wounded palm, a look in her eyes that said he’d get to kiss her later, and he simply chuckled. “How is the hand?” he asked. “I haven’t heard you say much about it lately.”
She kept it wrapped all the time, and she hadn’t complained or been taking nearly as much painkiller as she had weeks ago when the accident had first happened. He blinked, and he could see her standing in her bathroom, sobbing while blood dripped into the sink.
“It’s doing great,” she said. “Remember I have an appointment on Tuesday?”
“Right,” he said, though he had forgotten. Trey found it easier to live for the next chunk of time. An hour to complete that chore. A few minutes to make a phone call. Once he finished a task, he simply moved on to the next one.
“I’ll know more then,” she said.
He nodded and looked back into the arena as the auction concluded with a rousing round of applause. “Let’s go,” he said, gripping TJ’s hand harder. “It’s going to be a surge of people, and if we don’t need to be here, we shouldn’t be.”
