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Katy winced. She knew why he felt that way. She crossed her arms over her breasts and sighed.
“Guess you two had a dustup, huh?” he asked.
“Something like that,” she replied. “I made some really stupid mistakes over the horse. Ron was so logical and he laid out the difficulties of a lawsuit in such a way that I considered taking his advice and letting them put Bartholomew down. Teddie was almost hysterical. Parker told her that nothing was going to happen to her horse. He stood up to Ron. For a few minutes,” she added ruefully, “it would have looked to an outsider as if he were her concerned parent and I was an outsider trying to ruin her life. He cares a lot about her.”
Butch didn’t comment.
“I’m still in the learning stages about showing affection,” she confessed after a minute. “My parents were ice-cold with me. I think they cared, in their way, but they never touched me. I grew up being alienated from other people. Now, I hug Teddie coming and going and I’m trying very hard to make it all up to her. Luckily for me, she has a forgiving nature.”
“And Parker doesn’t,” he murmured dryly.
She flushed. “And Parker doesn’t.”
“He lived with an abusive father. His mother died young and he was left to the mercy of relatives, but they already had a son whom they loved. Parker was pretty much a beast of burden to them, from what I learned about him. He had a great brain and a teacher sent him to MIT to study theoretical physics, helped him find a scholarship that paid for everything. When he came out, he couldn’t see himself teaching. And there was the war. He was patriotic to an extreme. He still is. He signed up for overseas duty and went to war with me.” He sighed. “It didn’t turn out the way we thought it would. War is glamorous until you see what happens to people who fight in them. After that, it’s an evil you wish you could erase from the world.”
“That’s what my late husband said.” She watched Teddie with the wolf, who was lying on his back now, letting her pet his chest. “I felt guilty, because my husband has only been dead a few months,” she blurted out. “Teddie said he wouldn’t want me to spend the rest of my life alone, that he was never like that. She knew him so well. They were close, in a way that she and I had never been, until just lately.”
“So you backed away from Parker and now he won’t talk to you,” he guessed.
She nodded. “He was the best thing that ever happened to my daughter. I feel worse about separating them than I do about alienating him myself. He’s a good man.”
“He is. Stubborn. Bad-tempered from time to time. But he’ll never desert you under fire.”
They stood in a companionable silence for a few minutes. Katy looked at her watch.
“I hate to break up this lovefest,” she teased Teddie, “but I have to put on stuff to cook for supper. Time to go, sweetheart.”
Teddie smoothed over the wolf’s head one more time and got to her feet. “So long, Two Toes,” she said softly. “I’ll come back to see you sometime if Mr. Matthews doesn’t mind.”
Butch laughed. “Mr. Matthews doesn’t mind. Anytime. Just call or text me first.”
“I don’t have your number,” Katy said.
He held out his hand. She gave him her cell phone, and he put his name in her contacts list. “Now you have it.”
“Thanks very much,” she said.
He walked them out onto the porch. A cold wind was blowing. “We hear that Dealy’s lawyer in Denver quit and he’s trying to find a local lawyer who isn’t afraid of J.L.’s bunch from L.A.”
She laughed. “Good luck to him. Anybody who supports that polecat is going to be in some really hot water. There are things that money can’t buy. A lot of them, in fact. Beating up a poor old horse is low on my list of desirable character traits.”
“Mine as well,” Butch agreed. “I love horses. I’m not good with them, like Parker is. But he’s got a gift. Some people have more of an affinity with animals than others do. Your daughter definitely has it,” he added, watching her climb into the SUV.
“Yes,” Katy said. “I was reluctant to let her adopt an abused horse. They can be problematic. But she solved that problem nicely by getting to know Parker.” Her eyes grew sad. “Ever wish you had a time machine?” she wondered.
“Lots,” he said.
She smiled at him. “Thanks for letting us visit Two Toes. He’s a celebrity in these parts.”
He grinned. “Maybe I should start hawking autographed photos of him. Dip his paw in ink and put it on a picture of him.”
She pursed her lips. “Lesser things have made people wealthy.”
He shrugged. “I’m like you. I can take money or leave it. If I can pay the bills, that’s all I want.”
She chuckled. “Me, too. See you.”
“See you.”
