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“You love this, don’t you?”
“What’s that, Boston?”
“The simple life?”
“I do, nothing like it in the world. I appreciate a change of scenery every now and then but having this full time is priceless.”
She smiled and nodded. “So, what’s first?”
My eager little temporary cowgirl. The way my soul appreciated her willingness to be out here had me feeling unsettled again. I had to shove those thoughts aside before I liked the idea of her out here more than I should.
“We feed the horses before turn out. They need a few hours to stretch, move around, and get ready for the day. My guys will collect them and get the horses saddled up for the guests we have scheduled for the day. Then we’ll clean out the stalls, prepare their meals for later, put together their hay nets, and replenish their bedding while the stables are empty.”
“Do I get to ride?”
“You wanna ride?”
“A tour was a part of my package, so yeah, I’d like to.”
“You ever been on a horse before?” I grinned and she shook her head.
“No, but that’s what you do, right? You’ll teach me what I need to know,”
“Yeah, I’ll teach ya, Boston.”I’ll teach you more than just how to ride a horse…“Come on, let's get to work.”
For the next few hours, I directed and Shore worked right alongside me. We shoveled out the stalls, filled and rehung hay nets, and repadded the horses’ bedding after sweeping them clean.
We didn’t talk much. Just worked peacefully throughout the morning. Shore asked questions when needed but remained focused on the task while I stayed focused on her and tried my best not to think about this being our regular routine. It felt good, damn good, having her out here with me, but all of this was temporary.
By late afternoon, the stables were done and I decided it was best to give Shore a break, although she hadn’t complained nor had she asked for one. That part baffled me a little as well. Stable work was hard labor but she didn’t seem to mind. I suppose she wasn’t lying about needing a distraction.
“Hey, how about we grab some lunch then I’ll take you on a ride?”
She wrapped her hand around the manure fork she was using and balanced it next to her, looking around. “Are we done here?”
“If you’re done in there we are. I’m gonna wheel the barrels out to the compost pile and we can head back to the house to eat.”
“Sounds good.” She glanced around then walked over to where Mosley was hanging his head from out of the stall. Poor guy was a bit depressed but he needed to heal. I watched Shore stroke his head a few times before she turned back in my direction.
“He seems so sad. How long does he have to stay in here by himself?”
“A few more weeks. I let him out and walk him around the paddock once a day but I can’t leave him out there and risk making the injury worse.”
Mosley had stepped in a hole on a ride and injured his leg. Horses were free spirits and hated being kept on box rest, but it was sometimes required and I always did what was best for them even if they didn’t understand my reasoning.
“He doesn’t like being alone,” she said lowly, stroking his head a few more times before she addressed Mosley. “You hate this, don’t you? Everybody else is out there playing and you’re stuck in here.”
He nuzzled closer like he understood. Hell he probably did since I talked to them all the time like she was doing and it made me smile.
“Don’t baby him. He’ll be back to his routine soon enough. That isn’t healthy.”
I nodded at the way she was slowly moving her hands over his head and neck but ignoring me. “Look how sweet he is. You can’t be one of those tough love people to him with this sweet face.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “Bringing you out here was a bad idea. Gonna have my horses spoiled. Come on, let’s head out.”
“I’ll be back to visit you. Don’t you worry,” she mumbled to Mosley and I swear the damn horse glanced at me then smiled at Shore.
We put everything away and left the barn only to run into Georgie. He was a new younger guy but a hard worker. He wasn’t trained to do tours yet so he did odd jobs around the ranch while the other guys were out with riders.
