Summer Nights (Fool's Gold #8)

“What’s the matter, girl?” he asked, moving toward her more slowly. “You feeling okay?”


She raised her trunk and angled toward him. He stopped again. There was something familiar about what she was doing. A memory tickled in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t quite…

She was protecting something, he realized, looking around for whatever had gotten into her area. A small dog, maybe? A raccoon?

He eased forward, holding his arms at his sides so she didn’t think he was trying to make himself look bigger and more threatening. Not that she wasn’t the bigger mammal.

At first he didn’t see anything. Then he caught a flicker of movement. He eased forward, then crouched down.

“Damn,” he murmured softly. “You’re kidding, right?”

There, at the base of a tree, in a hollowed-out area in the trunk, was a cat and four kittens.

The mother was a calico, with tabby markings instead of black. Two of her kittens were tabby, one was a marmalade and the last was all black. They were tiny, maybe a week or so old.

Priscilla walked over to the tree, then bent down. Her trunk lightly stroked the cat. The cat closed her eyes and seemed to go to sleep.

He knew about the cats that came to visit when the goats were milked and this wasn’t one of them. She looked more feral than the goats’ daily visitors. He was also aware that while Priscilla would provide impressive protection and that there was plenty of water in the pen, the elephant was an herbivore. Whatever the mama cat was eating, she would have to catch it herself.

He stared at the elephant. “Because I needed one more thing?”

Her wise eyes seemed to crinkle with amusement.

He went back to the house, got some chicken out of the refrigerator, cut it up, then added cat food to the shopping list his mother kept. After taking the plate to the edge of the fencing, he slid it as close as he dared. Priscilla watched him warily, still standing guard over her new family.

He shook his head and walked away.

He’d gotten all of twenty feet when two SUVs drove onto the property and parked by the barn. What seemed like twenty, but was probably only five or six, girls spilled out and swarmed all around him.

“Are you really a cowboy?”

“Do horses bite?”

“Can I really learn to ride?”

“Can we braid the horses’ tails?”

“Do any of the horses have blue eyes?”

“What’s that smell?”

The drivers got out of the cars. They were both women he might or might not have recognized from his visits to town. Nothing about the situation should have been dangerous, but he couldn’t help the feeling that his life had just taken a turn for the difficult.

“Ladies,” he said, touching the brim of his hat. “How can I help you?”

“We’re here for the horseback riding lessons.”

* * *

SHANE WAS WAITING WHEN Annabelle arrived at the ranch. He looked stern and rugged, in a sexy kind of way. Not that she was going to allow his killer smile to distract her. The man obviously needed his priorities set straight.

She got out of her car, but before she could start to complain, he said, “We have to talk.”

“Good. I was thinking the same thing. I’ve been getting calls. Calls from mothers with daughters who are crushed that you won’t teach them to ride. What’s the big deal? You have horses, a ranch. I know you can do it. I saw you with that rodeo guy. He was learning and you were helping. These women are paying customers and this is your business. Why are you being so difficult?”

Shane pulled off his hat, set it on the roof of her car, then rubbed his face with his hands. “I need a drink.”

“It’s only three in the afternoon.”

“It’s been a hell of a day.”

He moved closer and put his hands on her shoulders, then turned her so that she could see each of the corrals.

“Those are my horses,” he said.

“I know that.”

“What is it you think I do?”

She didn’t understand the question. “Horse stuff,” she said, stating the obvious. “You, um, raise horses and train them. And people. You’re building a ranch where I guess you’ll have more horses. Oh!” She turned to smile at him. “You have pregnant mares, so you breed horses, too.”

“Two drinks,” he muttered and released her shoulders.

She wanted to protest. The feel of his hands on her body was nice. Better than nice. His grip was warm, his fingers strong. He was a patient man and wasn’t that the best quality in a potential lover?

“I started out in the rodeo. I took off when I was eighteen and got work where I could. Learned as I went. I did okay but I figured out early I would never be a champion. So I turned my attention to the horses. It turns out I have a knack for breeding. Thoroughbreds.”

She blinked at him.

“Horses that race. You know, like the Kentucky Derby.”

She looked back at the horses grazing. At their powerful chests and long legs. “Racehorses?” She swallowed. “Aren’t they expensive?”

“Yes.”

“You’ve had horses in these races?”

“Came in second at the Belmont Stakes.”