Riding High

“Thank you.” She gave him a smile and vowed to get comfortable with repair work. The less she needed from Regan, the easier it would be for her to resist temptation.

“Let’s gather a few horses.” He started back toward the barn.

She fell into step beside him. “I promise that’s the only handyman chore I’ll ask of you.”

He shrugged. “It’s no problem. I’m used to repairing things.”

“Maybe so, but if I’m going to run this place, I should make friends with hand tools.”

“I would agree with that. Shouldn’t be too tough for you to learn. Nick said you were a smart cookie.”

“He did?” That pleased her. “Just out of curiosity, what else did he tell you about me?”

“That you created a video game that’s paying for all this.” He swept an arm to encompass the property. “That’s impressive.”

“I guess. But I’m not sure it makes much of a contribution to the betterment of humanity.”

“Why, is it violent?”

“God, no. I’m not into that kind of game. It’s about elves and magic. There is a dragon, but he’s more comic relief than scary. If you give him enough treats, which are increasingly hard to come by as the game goes on, he doesn’t cause problems.”

“Sounds like fun. Maybe we could play it some—” He was interrupted by the high-pitched scream of a horse followed by several loud thuds. “Shit.” He took off at a run toward the barn.

Lily ran after him, her heart thumping. Two of the geldings, a big roan named Strawberry and a palomino named Rex, had never cared for each other. She’d put them in different stalls with horses they seemed to like, so it couldn’t be them fighting, could it?

Regan beat her into the barn and grabbed a lead rope from a peg on the wall. He strode quickly to Rex’s stall. The palomino bared his teeth at a young gelding named Sandy who had never caused a single problem since he’d been brought in two weeks earlier. Sandy cowered against the far wall, eyes rolling with fright. At least he didn’t seem to be bleeding anywhere.

“Hey!” Regan’s voice rang out. Opening the stall door, he walked in, the tail end of the lead rope flicking back and forth in front of him. “Back off!” He edged into position and snapped the rope in front of Rex’s face.

Lily held her breath. A rope didn’t seem like much protection against a riled-up horse, but it was working some kind of magic on Rex. The palomino backed up a step, and then another.

Regan followed and kept that rope dancing in front of Rex’s nose. Then, in one quick move, he clipped the front end of the rope to Rex’s halter and pulled the horse’s head down. “Enough of that, mister. We’re going for a walk.”

As Regan led Rex from the stall, Lily stood to one side and gave them room. “What can I do to help?”

“Latch the door after me, then walk ahead and open the corral. We’ll put him in there to cool off.”

“Right.” She wanted to comfort Sandy, but that would have to be put on hold. After securing the stall door, she waited until Regan and Rex had left the barn before scooting around them and heading for the corral.

As she passed Regan, she heard him talking to Rex in a low, soothing voice. She didn’t like to think about what would have happened if Regan hadn’t been here. Of course, if he hadn’t, the horses would have been free to leave the barn once they’d eaten, so this confrontation wouldn’t have happened in the first place. Rex was used to eating and leaving for a far corner of the property. He usually took several horses with him. This time he’d been kept inside while all twenty-one animals were examined, and then the humans had disappeared without letting him loose. Apparently that hadn’t sat well with him.

After opening the gate, which moved smoothly on its hinges, Lily watched Regan approach with the horse. Rex ambled along as if he had nothing on his mind besides walking docilely toward the corral. He didn’t crowd Regan the way Buck tended to crowd Lily, but he didn’t hang back, either. Instead he behaved like the well-trained horse he might be if someone like Regan was in charge.

Speaking of the bodacious Dr. O’Connelli, he looked mighty fine coming toward her with that loose-hipped stride that emphasized the fit of his jeans. Each time he put a booted foot forward, the denim stretched across his thighs. She couldn’t help but notice that. Any woman worth her salt would agree that he was one good-looking dude.

Fate wasn’t being kind to her. She’d broken up with her steady boyfriend last fall. He hadn’t approved of her plan to leave her job with a tech company in Silicon Valley and find a worthwhile charity to support in her hometown. Instead he’d been after her to create another moneymaking game and buy a Porsche or some other stupid luxury car.

She didn’t miss Alfred, who’d turned out to have a completely different value system from hers. But she sure missed the sex. Until Regan had shown up outside her gate, she hadn’t realized how much she missed it.

Unbeknownst to him, probably, he was a walking invitation to partake of those pleasures. Much as she strove to be nonjudgmental about his ex, the thought continued to surface—the woman was an idiot. Regan was brave, resourceful and breathtakingly handsome. Maybe he left dirty socks on the floor and the toilet seat up. Lily could forgive even those sins for a chance to jump his bones. His off-limits bones. Damn.

He continued to talk to Rex as he led the gelding into the corral. Then he removed the lead rope and gave Rex a slap on the rump. The palomino took off, and Regan came to stand beside her, coiling the lead rope. “We’re going to have to watch that one.”

“I can see that.” Lily closed and latched the gate. “You scared me to death walking into the stall with only a rope.”

“It usually works. I was ready to back out again if he’d turned on me. I’m no hero when it comes to dealing with a two-thousand-pound animal in a bad mood.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

He gave her a lopsided grin. “Aw, shucks, ma’am. T’weren’t nothin’.”

Please don’t be charming. She was having enough trouble keeping her libido in check. “Why does flicking a rope work?”

“Most horses hate having something flicked in their face, and the more you do it, the more they back away from it. It’s a great way to get them to move without hurting them.”

Lily thought of her futile attempt to coax Sally away from the porch railing this morning. “What if you don’t have a rope handy? I can’t picture myself carrying one around all the time.”

“Ideally you would have a lead rope clipped to their halter when you’re working with them.”

“Okay, but what about the times I’m not working with them and they’re...”

“Loose?”

She flushed. “I know. They shouldn’t be loose, but there’s no way I can adopt out six or seven horses in the next few days, and I don’t like the idea of keeping them cooped up in the barn all the time. Even the corral is confining.”

“You’re right. You should only be using the corral for training. You could fence off a couple of acres so they have some room to run around, and then they won’t be chewing on your house or pooping in your front yard.”

She stared at him. “That’s brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“You didn’t want to restrict their freedom.”

She had said that, but coming from him, especially after the scare they’d just had, it sounded naive. “I’ve revised my opinion. But getting someone out here to construct the fence will take a while. What should I do in the meantime? Walk around carrying a rope?”

“You could carry a leather quirt and stick it in your back pocket.”

“So I could hit them with it? I don’t want to do that.”

“Chances are you wouldn’t have to touch them. You’d just wave it in their face like you would a rope.”

“I’ll think about it.” She couldn’t imagine walking around with a quirt stuck in her back pocket, either. She’d probably lose the darn thing. “Couldn’t I just clap my hands and achieve the same thing?”

“Not really.”

She sighed and glanced over at Rex, who was prancing around with his tail in the air, as if he owned that little circle. “Rex seems to like this setup just fine. He’s king of the corral.”

“So that’s his name? I couldn’t remember, but it fits him. He wants to rule any situation he’s in, I’ll bet. Did the people who brought him in say anything about his personality?”

Lily thought back to the young woman who’d left Rex at the sanctuary. “She said he was too much horse for her. She was small, so I thought that’s what she meant. Rex came here shortly after I took over, so at first he only had the old horses to deal with.”

“And he could boss them around.”

“They didn’t seem to mind. Strawberry, the big roan, was the first horse to challenge Rex, but after they did a little snorting and pawing, they stayed away from each other. I kept Rex in a stall by himself until recently. I thought he’d be okay with Sandy, who’s not aggressive at all. And it worked out until tonight.”

Regan nudged back the brim of his hat and glanced over at the barn. “I don’t want to chance putting anyone else in the corral with Rex tonight. He might be fine, but he might not. I guess we have to turn them all loose again. It’s what they’re used to.”

“And now I have a strategy to prevent Sally from trying to come in the house. I’ll keep a rope handy.”

“You know why she does that, right?”

“Sure. She thinks she’s a dog. Or a person.”

“No, she’s trying to gain more control over you. Horses will push when they sense you’re not in charge.”

That made her laugh. “I think it’s pretty obvious by now that I’m not in charge. Far from it, in fact.”

“But you need to be,” he said quietly.

“Boy, that sounded serious.”

“It is serious. These are big animals, very strong animals. They’re used to having a leader of the herd, and if you don’t accept that role, one of them will take it. Rex may think he already has. Strawberry might decide to fight him for it. Losing control is dangerous to them and dangerous to you.”

Her pulse rate picked up, and this time it had nothing to do with how beautiful his eyes were and how much she wanted to do him. “Regan, you’re scaring me.”

“Good. I mean to. You’ve been lucky so far. Most of the horses haven’t been here very long, and at least six of them are too old to harm anyone. But you need to let them all know you’re the boss, and very soon.”

A shiver ran down her spine. “I don’t have the skills to do that, yet. I’ll need training as much as they do. And practice. I’ll call somebody first thing in the morning about fencing in a couple of acres. Oh, wait, what’s tomorrow?”

“Saturday.”

She groaned. “Some fencing companies will be closed, and even if I find one that isn’t, they probably won’t be able to finish it up until the first part of next week.”

“I could ask Nick if he could pull in a favor. The Chance name might help.”

“Sure, okay.” She combed her fingers through her hair while she thought through her options. “I’m not too proud to accept that. If you’ll call him now, I’ll let the horses out.”

“Look, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m worried about you.”

“I know.” She drew in a shaky breath. “I just never imagined that my good deed could turn into a life-threatening situation—for me or for the other horses. Call Nick. I’ll be right back. Then we should feed the pigs and the chickens.”

Turning, she walked toward the barn. Her rose-colored glasses were smashed to smithereens, and as she entered the overcrowded space, she could swear ominous music played in the background. The horses looked the same, though, and gazing into their liquid-brown eyes as she opened each stall door calmed her. She gave an extra pat to Sandy, who seemed to have recovered from his fright.

They all walked out of the barn in the same leisurely fashion they normally did. But she couldn’t quite erase her mental image of Rex and Strawberry battling to the death for control of the herd. That wasn’t going to happen, though. She had Regan on her side, and he knew his way around these animals, thank God.

At last she opened the stall where Sally stood with a chestnut gelding named Brown Sugar. The gelding meandered out, but Sally lingered as if hoping for a treat. That was Lily’s fault. She’d often slipped the little mare pieces of carrot and apple.

“Sorry, girl. No treats on me, tonight.” She stroked the horse’s silky neck. “You aren’t really trying to control me, are you? You just want to be good friends.”

Sally butted her head against Lily’s chest.

“See, that’s what I thought. Come on. Everybody else has left the barn, so you might as well, too.” She turned and started down the wooden aisle.

Sally followed, but she didn’t stay slightly back the way Rex had when Regan had led him toward the corral. She came right up to Lily, her nose often bumping Lily’s arm. Lily moved over, and Sally moved with her.

As an experiment, Lily kept moving to the right each time Sally crowded her. Pretty soon she was out of room. She turned to face the mare. “Are you herding me?”

Sally’s big brown eyes gave nothing away.

But Lily had her answer. Sally was in charge, and Lily wasn’t. She had no rope or quirt, so she untied the tails of the shirt knotted at her waist and flapped those in front of the mare’s face. “Back off, sweetheart!”

Sally’s head jerked up and she took a couple of steps backward.

“Yep, that’s what I’m talking about! Give me some room!” Lily flapped her shirt a few more times, and Sally retreated again. “Huh. Amazing.”

She’d managed to intimidate Sally a little bit, but she had no illusions that she’d get the same respect from Rex or Strawberry. For that matter, most of the new arrivals might not pay any attention to her efforts. She had a lot to learn, and not much time to learn it. Knotting her shirt at her waist once again, she walked out of the barn into the soft twilight, followed at a respectful distance by Sally.

Regan, looking better with every minute that passed, came to meet her.

She was excited to share her small triumph with him. “Hey, you may not believe it, but I backed Sally off by undoing my shirt and flapping the ends in her face.”

“Excellent!” He smiled. “Creative solution. Maybe you don’t need a rope after all.”

“Yeah, I do. I don’t think my shirttails will make much of an impression on Rex.”

“Maybe not. Anyway, I talked to Nick, and he’ll do what he can, but summer is the worst time to get a crew ASAP. Busiest time of the year for fence companies because it’s when they repair winter storm damage.”

“Not surprising.” But it wasn’t the news she’d hoped to hear.

“He said he’d offer to send out some of the ranch hands, but there’s a special riding event in Cheyenne this weekend, so he’s short a few guys as it is. He can get right on it Monday morning, though.”

“So I’m on my own with twenty-one horses who could decide to revolt at any moment.”

“No, they won’t.” Concern shadowed his eyes. “I didn’t mean to scare you that much. I just wanted to make a point.”

“You made it, and I’m not sure how well I’m going to sleep tonight.”

“You’ll be fine. You can call me if there’s a problem. I don’t have any appointments tomorrow, so I can come out and check on you. I can do the same thing on Sunday.”

“I have a better idea.” It wasn’t a wise idea, but desperate times called for desperate measures. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but would you be willing to spend the weekend with me?”

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