“I’ll look over her file.” Jessica took it from Bodine. “Have her come in for an interview.”
“That works. Let me know when you can, soon as you can.”
“I will.” Setting it down, Jessica anchored it with her tablet. “Have you talked to Rory?”
“Not since breakfast. Why?”
“We’ve got two bookings for the Snow Sculpture Extravaganza.”
“Already? It just went on the website this morning.”
“That’s right.” With a smug smile, Jessica toasted with her water bottle.
Bodine tapped her folder on her palm. “Looks like I’d better get busy hiring more fill-in winter staff. Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why do you wear heels every day when you spend as much time running around here as sitting down? Probably more time,” she amended. “They have to hurt by the end of the day.”
Jessica’s eyebrows rose; her gaze dropped down to Bodine’s feet. “Why do you wear gorgeous boots every day? We wear what we are, Bodine.”
Bodine glanced down at her smoke-gray Dingos with the buckles running up the sides. They were sort of gorgeous. “I am my boots.”
“And your Levi’s, and most days—like this—your snappy vest. I do admire your collection of snappy vests.”
Amused, Bodine tugged at the hem of the thinly striped blue and green vest. It could be considered snappy, she supposed.
“They’re my compromise between a suit and just jeans.”
“Works on you.”
“Well.” Bodine tossed her hair—in a long braid today—over her shoulder. “I’m going to take my gorgeous boots and snappy vest over to talk to Abe. I’ve got an application here for him, too, and another for Zen Town.” She started off, turned back. “I’d be crying in those shoes of yours inside two hours.”
“You’re tougher than that.”
“On the inside,” Bodine qualified, “I’d be crying.”
She grabbed her coat and hat from her office. According to her schedule, Abe should be finishing up a pair of lessons at the Equestrian Center.
She hopped in her truck for the ten-minute drive winding through the resort, out to the road toward the center.
She wandered inside the big ring to the smell of horses and the sound of a nervous giggle.
“You’re doing fine, Deb, just fine. Heels down, Jim. That’s the way.”
Frowning, she stepped closer, and saw Callen rather than Abe mounted and running a lesson.
Couple of novices, no doubt about that, but Callen had them under control.
The man could sit a horse, she mused. Just as easy as another might sit a Barcalounger.
He had the novices on a couple of reliable hacks—though the bay they called Biff could be as lazy as a teenage boy on a summer morning. He plodded along under the man while the nervous giggle rode the cooperative Maybelle.
“Ready to try a little trot again?” Callen asked them.
“Oh gosh, I guess.” The woman looked across the arena at Jim. “I guess, huh?”
“Let’s go for it.”
“Tell ’em what you want,” Callen advised.
Asses hit leather hard enough to make Bodine wince, but both students managed to circle the entire ring at an easy trot.
“Go ahead and change leads, go around the other way. You’ve got it now. Give him a nudge there, Jim. He’d rather stand than walk. That’s the way.”
Callen took his own horse—a gorgeous buckskin Bodine didn’t recognize—in a tight circle to keep both riders in view. When he spotted Bodine, he tapped the brim of his hat.
“You ready to try a canter? Elbows down, Deb,” he instructed when they jerked up on another giggle. “You can do this. Show her what you want.”
“I’m a little—okay.” Lips pressed in a tight line, Deb rocked in the saddle, and let out a squeal when the mare smoothed out into a gentle canter. “Oh my God! I’m doing it. Jim!”
“I see you, babe. We’re riding!”
They circled twice, and though the woman swung back and forth in the saddle like a metronome, she had a huge smile plastered on her face.
“Ease them back now, that’s it, all the way down to a walk. You did great.”
“Can we do it again? Time’s up,” Jim added with a glance at his watch. “But—”
“Once more around.”
“Yeehaw!” he said and, with some enthusiasm, had Biff reluctantly loping another circle.
Grabbing a mounting block, Bodine started across the soft dirt as Callen dismounted. He held a hand up to his horse, who blew out his lips, then stood hipshot with the reins tossed over his neck.
A little breathless, a little flushed, Deb beamed down at Callen. “Jim bribed me into this with a pair of boots I fell for in the shop back at the resort. I can’t believe how much fun it was! How do I get down?”
With a laugh, Callen held Deb’s mount. “Just swing your leg over, slide off. The block’s right here.”
Clumsy but game, Deb got her feet on the block, then grinned at Bodine as she stepped off. “Hi! Do you work for Cal?”
“This is the boss lady,” Callen told her. “We all work for her.”
“Oh! It’s so nice to meet you.” Deb stuck out a hand. “We had the best time, didn’t we, Jim? I went from never being on a horse in my life to a—What was it, Cal?”
“Canter.”
“That’s it. Oh, I’m going to be sore for a week, but I can’t wait to do it again. Let’s do a trail ride, Jim.”
“Sign us up.” With slightly more grace than his woman, Jim dismounted. “Or I will. I got the resort app on my phone. That’s a hell of an idea. Jim Olster.”
“Bodine Longbow.”
“Oh, even your name sounds like Montana. I love it here. We just got here yesterday, and I love it. Would you take a picture? Would you mind?” Deb pulled out her phone. “Of me and Jim and Cal and the horses. I love your hat. Now I have to have a hat, too. I like that flat-brim style. We’re going shopping, Jim, and celebrating in the Saloon. I rode a horse!”
Bodine took pictures, ending with one of Deb pressing her cheek to the mare’s.
As they left, Deb still chattering, Bodine walked the mare to the rail to uncinch the saddle. “I’d say there’s a pair of satisfied customers.”
“Then some. She must’ve really wanted those boots. Her hands were shaking when they came in.”
“We carry some really nice boots. Where’s Abe? He’s on the schedule for the Olster booking.”
“Ah, Christ.” Callen hefted a saddle from horse to rail. “You didn’t hear yet. His wife had some chest pains, so—”
“Edda? Chest pains? What happened, where is she?” Even as she peppered out the questions, Bodine yanked out her phone.
“Slow down. I got a text from him about halfway through the lesson. It looks like she had a little heart attack.”
Bodine nearly had one herself. “A—a—little?
“Mild’s what I got. They’re keeping her in the hospital for now, but she’s stable. I was here when he got the call. She was out—her day off, right?—with a couple of lady friends, and started having chest pains. I told him to go, I’d cover for him.”