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“A horse? What makes you think I don’t?”
“You’ve never mentioned—”
“You forget, we’ve only known each other five minutes. It seems like much longer because of all the crap we’ve been through, but yeah, I own a horse. A gelding called Doc, as in, What’s Up?”
“That’s funny. How did he get that name?”
“I’ve had him since he was born, and the first time I met him, I said,What’s up,and that cartoon popped into my head. I couldn’t name him, What’s Up, so I went with Doc. Then I’d walk in and say,What’s up, Doc.Bailey, why are you looking at me like that?”
Sighing heavily, she shifted her gaze to the mayhem below. The paramedics were still out in the field, a coroner’s van had just arrived, there were deputies everywhere, and the security guards for the exclusive community were milling around. A short distance away, Duke was on his phone.
“I bet he’s calling Mandy and Susan,” she remarked. “I should have done that.”
“Bailey, you didn’t answer my question.”
“What did you see?” she retorted, turning her eyes back to his. “Correction, what do you see?”
He smiled.
“I see a beautiful, crazy, brave, amazing young woman.”
“Anything else?”
“Like?”
“Like, uh, how I feel about you? Maybe this isn’t the time or place, but I can’t hold it in a minute longer. Rick…I’m falling…I’ve fallen—”
“In love with you,” he murmured, finishing the sentence, then leaning in, he pressed his lips on hers.
“Rick…?” she murmured breathlessly as he pulled back.
“It’s mutual, darlin’.”
“Uh…there’s something I haven’t told you,” she began hesitantly. “It’s not important, not really, but I want you to know about it, especially after what happened with Duke.”
“Okay, you have my attention.”
“I had a feeling Big John might find out where I was staying and go over there.”
“Wow, Bailey, that’s impressive.”
“Not really. It just struck me as the kind of thing he would do. So I left him a little present.”
“Excuse me?”
“It was a rolled up note, and I stuffed into one of my boots. It said,Hello John, you made a big mistake taking those three horses. We’ll be meeting soon. I’ll let you explain, then watch you grovel and beg before I put a bullet between your eyes.”
“Bailey!”
“When we came back and found my room had been broken into, I looked for it and it was gone. It felt so good.”
“Damn, girl. You know that could’ve backfired on you.”
“Maybe, but I’m not sorry I did it. Besides, he couldn’t have known it was me who left it.”
“Being with you will never be boring,” he said, shaking this head.
“Is that a problem?”
