Page 24 of The Cowboy's Christmas
He watched them make a beeline toward the Dunn Ranch, then started back up the trail he’d come down. He should have told Savannah not to bother returning, but she didn’t take to being told what to do, so it was just as well he hadn’t.
It was obvious that she didn’t want to like him. Didn’t want to trust him. That was fine. He was just there to do a job, then move on. But he did enjoy watching her try not to react to him. And he liked that she was talking to him. He had a feeling that she needed to talk to someone who wouldn’t worry about her or try to fix things for her.
After a good hour of riding over snow-covered cow trails and logging roads, he figured that Savannah had been right. With the exception of the small bunch in the aspens, all of the cows had been at the gate ready to come home.
He headed in the direction of the ranch, then pulled the gelding to a stop under a pine tree on the side of a hill, which seemed as good a place as any to answer nature’s call. He dismounted and tucked the reins under his arm as he took care of business, then turned back to the gelding who was eyeing him in a way that Quinn didn’t like. He’d seen that look on more than one of the pampered broncs he hauled after they’d decided that, no, they didn’t particularly want to get into the trailer.
Pete eased backward, tightening the reins, and Quinn gave the gelding a little slack, moving with the horse as he backed across the snowy sidehill. After a few steps, Pete stopped and lowered his head, disappointed that he didn’t get the fight he’d been angling for.
“Nice try,” Quinn said, reaching out to stroke the gelding’s neck. He gathered the reins and was about to put his foot in the stirrup when the sudden beating of multiple wings sent Pete into orbit.
Quinn lunged for the reins as the grouse flew over him, caught his toe and fell chin first into the snow as Pete whirled and shot off across the hill, the reins flying wildly over his back.
Quinn picked himself up out of the snow and disgustedly brushed off his jeans and coat as the gelding disappeared through a clump of trees. The two grouse settled on the ground ten yards away from him and began making contented bird sounds to one another.
“Thanks, guys,” he muttered as he set his hat back on his head. But grouse or not, he’d just lost his ride.
Some cowboy he was.
*
Savannah pushed thelast of the herd through the gate into the lower field where the hay was spread, smiling at the way the cows bucked and jumped when they smelled the alfalfa before breaking into awkward lopes. She’d just dropped the gate latch when a movement in the distance caught her eye. It took her a moment to realize it was a horse. Deke’s horse.
Make that Deke’s riderless horse.
“Great,” she muttered. This was all she needed—for the guy who’d gone out of his way to help her to get hurt looking for her cattle.
Heart beating faster, she rode out to catch Pete, who came to a stop near Rose, rolling his eyes and snorting. The reins were broken, but the saddle was still in place. She dismounted and caught the longer rein.
“Where’d you leave him?” she asked the horse. She untied the lead rope from the gelding’s saddle and remounted, leading Pete as she headed back to the mountain, intent on following tracks once they got past the snow trampled by the cows on their way back to the ranch. Hopefully she’d come across a man on foot, and not a man lying in a heap. She couldn’t deal with him being hurt.
He’s not. He can’t be.
She repeated the mantra as she crossed onto the neighbor’s property, her heart pounding against her ribs as she pushed aside one grim scenario after another.
As she rode over the top of a small rise half a mile from the gate, she almost wept with relief when Quinn’s dog bounded into sight, followed by Quinn himself who appeared none the worse for wear. He’d reached the gate by the time she and her dogs met up with him and Pepper.
“Open or closed?”
Really? He was going to do the nonchalant man thing after she’d just died a thousand deaths?
She ignored his question and fixed him with a hard look. “What happened?”
One corner of his mouth twitched a little. “I got off to check out something and my horse took off.”
“To check something?” There was more to the story than this.
“Yep.”
Obviously, he wasn’t going to volunteer details, so Savannah narrowed her eyes as she pointed at him with her chin.
“You’re kind of snowy.”
He looked down, apparently unaware there were clumps of snow still clinging to his coat here and there. He made a few haphazard swipes at his jacket front.
“I fell.”
When he didn’t elaborate, she said, “That’s your story? You got off and you fell down.”
