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Rising slowly from her chair, Maggie left the porch and walked out into the small fenced area they’d made for Brulee, expecting the horse to leave, but she came right up to the low fence and repeated the sequence from earlier in the day, sniffing and nuzzling Maggie. But then she lowered her head and seemed to invite Maggie to scratch her.
“If you’re sure now. Don’t run away on me,” she murmured, slowly lifting her hand to the horse’s head.
This time, she let Maggie scratch, leaning into it, moaning, and it made Maggie laugh. It was obvious she was enjoying it.
In the middle of it, Maggie could hear Justin’s diesel truck on the trail from town. The horse didn’t run away. She watched him stop at the gate, unlock and open it, drive through, and get out to close and lock it again.
“When we’re rich, we’ll get a gatekeeper,” he always said.
The horse finally tired of Maggie and pulled away a little bit, and when Justin got closer and the light shined on them, the horse turned and walked away.
Watching from his truck, Maggie and the pregnant mare’s interaction blew Justin away. Quietly, slipping out of the vehicle, he was sorry he’d scared the horse off.
Chapter 1
“Did I just interrupt something wonderful?”
“It’s okay.” Maggie reached her hand out for Justin’s. “I was sitting on the porch, and she came to the screen. I risked scaring her away by going into the yard, but I didn’t want her to rip the screen. She wanted to get her head scratched.”
They walked into the cottage, Maggie keeping one eye on the horses as long as she could see them.
“I’ve been around wild horses a long time, Maggie, and that is the weirdest thing I have ever seen. I was worried she was going to kick you. Horses are prey animals, and their first instinct is to flee danger. But she came right up to you. I bet she’s the dominant mare. We always focus on the stallion, but this is proof that the mare can be pretty intimidating.”
“She definitely wanted some attention.”
“I brought food from your mother,” he said.
“What is it?” Maggie asked, grimacing.
“Cherry pie.”
“Oh god, throw it in the woods for the horses, would you, please? I don’t want temptation like that lying around.”
“Didn’t you invite them for lunch tomorrow?”
“Did I?”
“I have to work, so you invited them for lunch.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’tformallyasking them. I just said if you’re not doing anything, pop over and we can have lunch together. Leave it to my family to expect a throwdown. What was I thinking?”
Justin laughed, placing the pie on the counter. “Ask your friends, too. Then it won’t feel like work.”
Barking out a laugh, Maggie kissed him. “Now I have to find something for lunch. Ugh.”
“You’ll be fine. It’ll make the day go by fast.”
“Yeah, but I had planned to spend part of the day out with the horses.”
He looked at her curiously. “Be careful.”
“I know. I will be. Or I would have been before this.”
“You’ll have all morning,” he said. “Just relax.”
“I’m going to. I’ll take your advice and ask Annie and Katrina to come by.”
Justin ran upstairs to shower. Maggie called Katrina Blanchard first, a friend who had recently moved to Cypress Cove from Pensacola. She’d gotten involved with a local fisherman, Alphé Beaumont, single dad of four. Katrina had moved into a room above Café Delphine while she waited for the closing of a small Creole cottage she’d just purchased to go through.
