Page 14 of Home Hearts Hooves

“The pool.”

“Okay, you got it.”

I set the basket of eggs on the post by the path to grab on my way back, but knowing the guys, one of them will spot it and take it up to the house before I can.

“So why’d you decide to put in a pool?” Preston asks as we walk slowly along the path.

“Jealousy,” I reply, and he laughs.

“What? You can’t be serious.”

“Yep. I was so jealous of all the kids who used to spend those scorching summer days at the falls swimming all day, while I was here working the ranch. I always thought the clearing up ahead would be the perfect place for a pond. Nearly had Gramps convinced to let me dig one out, too.”

We round the corner, and he spots the fencing first.

“Wait, it’s fenced. Then how is Chewie getting in?”

“No idea. I swear that lama is a magician.”

“Wow, this is amazing,” he says, resting his head on his arms as he leans on the fence rail. “I love how you have the natural rock, too.”

“Some of it is fake,” I admit, and he squints, his gaze moving over all the stone.

“Really?”

“Yep, the cave at the end is fake. I wanted a mini waterfall for the pool and couldn’t use real stones for that, so this was the next best thing.”

“You can’t even tell.”

“Yeah. Now you see why it’s my favorite new addition.”

“Do you swim much?”

“Not as much as I’d like. It’s hard with all the work and then the guests.”

“I guess that’s the same for me. I love being a vet, but I always thought I’d have a bunch of animals of my own by now, too.”

“Why don’t you?” I ask, gesturing towards the path, and we continue our walk towards the cabins.

“I’m not home as much as I thought I would be, so it wouldn’t be fair to a pet to have it cooped up in my apartment all day.”

“You could have it down in the clinic with you, though, right?”

“I thought I could maybe do that, too, but it just hasn’t happened yet. Look at you, though, doing all the things here you always wanted to do. The cabins were a great idea. Is that one there?” he asks, pointing towards where Cabin One can just be seen through the trees.

“Yep, one of twelve with three more planned. Would have been four, but we put Atlas’s trailer in that spot. It’s the furthest from everything else.”

“Atlas doesn’t like being near the main house or the guests?”

I laugh. “He’s a nudist, so it’s more we don’t want the guests near him out of work hours. I’ve told him to keep the nudity to his trailer, but he’ll step out with his lower half wrapped in a sheet on a breezy day and think nothing of it.”

“Right, I heard he was trying to get you to agree to a naked retreat weekend thing or something, wasn’t he?”

“He’s been trying since I hired him. No way will Beaker Brothers ever be hosting a nudist retreat. Gramps would have my guts for garters.”

“I guess a guy can dream,” he replies, shoving his hands into his back pockets and looking up at the darkening sky as he steps in a circle. “I love the sunsets out here,” he says, and I follow his gaze.

“It’s one of my favorite things about Bellerelle, too. I doubt anywhere in the world has a sky quite like that. Well, you’d know.”

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