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“Bart looks so nice!” Teddie enthused. “You guys have been brushing him!”
“Well, Parker has,” Drum replied, noting Katy’s sudden flush. “He comes over almost every day to check on him. He’s fond of the old fellow. We all are.”
“Bartholomew’s special,” Katy said in a subdued tone. She’d ruined everything with Parker. It was hard, remembering that.
“Have you heard about Dealy?” Drum asked, excitement in his tone.
She turned to him while Teddie petted her horse. “No. What about him?”
“He heard about J.L.’s lawyers from L.A. and ran for his life. He skipped town. Nobody knows where he went.” He chuckled. “So J.L.’s attorneys got their investigator out here. Wherever Dealy ran, it won’t be far enough.”
“Good,” Katy said shortly. “I hope they find him and convict him and put him in chains. A man who’ll beat a horse will beat a person.”
“You’re right about that,” came a deep, quiet voice from behind her.
She knew the voice. She couldn’t bear to turn and see the censure in his eyes.
But Teddie had no such reservations. “Parker!” she cried, and ran into his arms, to be picked up and hugged and swung around.
“Oh, Parker, I’ve missed you so much,” Teddie said, her voice muffled against his broad shoulder.
“I’ve missed you, too, tidbit,” he replied. There was a smile in his voice. “How are things going?”
“Fine.” She grimaced. “Sort of fine.”
He put her down. “Bart’s looking good, don’t you think?”
“He looks great. Doesn’t he, Mom?” she added.
Katy was standing with her face down, her arms folded, feeling alone and ashamed and vulnerable. “Yes. He looks . . . very good.”
“Oh, there’s a calf!” Teddie enthused as she glanced over a gate farther down while Bart was eating. “Could I pet him?” she asked Drum.
He chuckled. “You bet. Come along.”
They stranded Katy with Parker.
She couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes, to see the accusation she knew would be in them.
“How are you?” he asked.
She moved one shoulder. “Teddie and I are getting along better than we ever have,” she said noncommittally.
“We heard that your lawyer friend left tracks heading out of town, he was in such a hurry.”
“Too little, too late,” she said stiffly. “I expect to spend years making it all up to Teddie.”
He moved a step closer. “You won’t look at me, Katy?”
She bit her lower lip. Tears stung her eyes. “I’m . . . too ashamed.”
“Oh, baby.” He pulled her into his arms and folded her against him, enveloped her in the scents of buckskin and smoke and fir trees. He rocked her while she cried, his lips in her hair.
“I turned against my own daughter,” she choked. “Against you. I agreed to let a greedy man almost put down a horse to save myself legal problems. I hate myself!”
He drew in a deep breath. “We have disagreements. We get over them.”
“Not always.”
