“I appreciate that, I do, but somebody should have called me.”
“Abe was a little distracted—out of here in a flash. I was a little busy making sure the customer didn’t faint on me.”
“Right, you’re right.” To calm herself, she pulled off her hat, swatted it against her thigh as she paced back and forth. “I just—I need the details. She’s stable? You’re sure?”
“Abe said—here’s a quote: ‘She’s squawking about going home. But they’re keeping her overnight, doing some tests.’”
“What kind of tests? Why would you know?” she said before he could answer. “I’ll look it up. I’ll look up what they do, and I’ll call him.”
Calmer with a plan somewhat in place, she put on her hat again. “What else is on Abe’s schedule?”
“There’s a trail ride coming up,” he said before Bodine could pull it up on her phone. “Carol can take it. And a weekly lesson at four.”
“That’d be Lessie Silk, she’s twelve. I can take that myself.”
“I’ve got it,” he assured her. “Chase knows where I am.”
“Okay. All right. I’m hiring another hand. I’ve got someone to interview. I was going to talk to Abe about it, but I’m just going to call him up—the new hand—have him come in. If he’s not an idiot, we’ll take him on.”
She’d contact Abe, get details on Edda. Call the applicant, schedule an interview, and since Edda was in charge of housekeeping, she’d adjust the schedule herself, as Edda wasn’t going to come back to work until her doctors gave her an all clear.
“Got it worked out?” Callen said after a moment.
“I will have. Mild, you said?”
“That’s the word Abe used, same as he used stable.”
“Okay.” Bodine blew out a breath, steadied. “Who’s this handsome boy?” She rubbed the unfamiliar buff-colored gelding’s neck.
“This is Sundown. My better half. Sundown, meet Bodine.”
Callen swept a finger down, and the horse bent his forelegs, bowed.
“Now, aren’t you the clever one?”
“Smartest damn horse I ever met.” Callen tapped Bodine’s shoulder. Sundown eased closer, laid his head where Callen tapped.
Laughing, Bodine hooked an arm around Sundown’s neck. “How long have you had him?”
“Since he was born—at sundown—four years last May. I was helping out a friend, between projects, and his mare delivered this one. Love at first sight. I bought him on the spot, and when he was weaned and ready, he came with me.”
Callen wrapped the reins securely around the saddle horn. “Want to show off, Sundown?”
With a toss of his head, the gelding trotted out to the center of the ring.
“Rattlesnake!”
At Callen’s call, Sundown reared, hooves striking air. “Backstabber.” Dropping his forelegs, Sundown kicked his back legs high. “Do-si-do.” Brightly, the horse danced laterally left, swung his hindquarters around, danced right. “Pretty filly.”
Amused, impressed, Bodine watched as a kind of gleam came into the horse’s eyes before he did the equine version of a manly swagger back to Bodine.
“Kiss the girl.”
Sundown lowered his head, rubbed his blowing lips over Bodine’s cheek.
“You are a charmer,” Bodine said, pressing her own lips to the gelding’s cheek. “You trained him? You always had a way, but this is really something.”
“I picked up some tips from the experts on my travels, but I’m working with prime here. Absolute prime.”
“I sure wouldn’t argue.” And love, the sort she knew very well that bloomed between horse and human, shined in Callen’s words.
“Do you do any trick riding? You used to do some.”
The quick grin Callen aimed had—by Bodine measure—a hefty dose of flirt in it.
“Want me to show off now?”
“I’m just thinking how we get a lot of families, a lot of kids on the weekends, and more yet when summer comes. A little show in the paddock by the BAC, some fancy riding, ending with the tricks he can do? They’d eat it like ice cream.”
“Maybe.”
“Say a half hour, and another half hour to let the kids ask questions, pet the horse. You’d get paid extra. If you want to think about it, I’ll see where it would best fit.”
Sundown butted Callen’s shoulder as if to say: I’m in!
“I can think about it.”
“Good, then we’ll talk. Do you need help with the horses?”
“I can manage well enough.”
“Then I need to get back.” She started out, turned, walked backward as she spoke. “You’re a good teacher, Skinner. I never figured you for the patience.”
“I spent some time developing it.”
“Considerable, I’d say.”
When she turned around again, Callen admired her long legs until she moved out of sight.
“Patience ain’t everything,” he said to his horse. “Maybe next time I should kiss the girl.”
Sundown let out a sound no one would have mistaken for anything but a laugh.
*
Bodine squeezed all she could into the rest of the day, and the morning after.
She made her calls, her appointments. With the rare move of closing her office door, she assured herself of enough uninterrupted time to adjust the schedule to compensate for having Edda and Abe off the roll, at least for a few days.
It pleased—and relieved—her that not a single soul she shifted around complained.
After begging a container of chicken soup from the Dining Hall kitchen, she made the trip out to see Abe and Edda. Heated the soup herself to make sure they ate, while Edda insisted she was fine.
Once Bodine got home—missing dinner yet again—she snagged the pork chop meal out of the warmer, settled down with it and her laptop to run a last check on the people she hoped to hire.
She ate with one hand, worked the keyboard with the other. And looked up with her mouth full when her mother came into the kitchen.
Bodine said, “Mmm.”
“I thought I heard you come in. You oughtn’t to work so late all the time, my baby.”
Bodine swallowed. “Everything went to hell. I’m fixing it.”
“You always do. I just got off the phone with Edda. She sounds a little tired, a little sheepish about it. I think I’m going to have some of that wine, too. She told me you went over there with soup, warmed it up for them.”
On her way to get a glass, Maureen paused to kiss the top of Bodine’s head. “You’re a good girl.”
“Scared me. She always seems so … sturdy. She’s not going to need surgery, but she’s got to take medication. And make some lifestyle changes. Diet, exercise.”
“We’ll see she takes better care of herself.” After sitting, Maureen poured her wine, added a little more to Bodine’s glass. “That goes for you, too. More sleep, regular meals. Ma and I—and your dad—didn’t start up the Bodine Resort to see you work all day and half the night.”
“Special circumstances.”
“Aren’t there always?” Maureen said in her placid way.