Page 16 of Cowboy Stole My Heart
Chapter 6
SAMhad actually been looking forward to arriving at River Ranch since he’d woken, although he was tiring of the one-hour commute from his place. Walter’s personal assistant had left him a message the day before extending an invitation to stay, but lately he’d spent enough time travelling away from home and not sleeping in his own bed. For now, he’d put up with the drive.
His phone rang and he pressed answer on his hands-free. It was Nate.
“Hey, how’s it going?” he asked.
“So tired,” Nate replied. “Seriously, you have no idea what it’s like having kids. I mean, why does nobody tell you how goddamn exhausting tiny humans can be? Not that I’d have ever believed it anyway.”
Sam laughed. When Nate had married his sister, it had just about ruined their friendship, until he’d eventually realized that his sister was crazy for the guy and he would have to get over it and learn to embrace it. Now, he felt sorry for his friend. His sister kept him on his toes, and now he had twin daughters to wrangle on a daily basis.
“Want to come give me a hand with the stallion I’m working? He’d do a damn fine job of taking your mind off changing diapers.”
“Wish I could,” Nate replied, “but I’m on a plane to New York in an hour. My eyes are hanging out of my head, but at least I’ll be able to sleep in flight.”
“You leaving for long?” Sam asked, frowning as he thought about his sister being left alone with the two kids. They weren’t a year old yet and they’d been a handful from the moment they arrived. “I can swing past and check in on Faith if you need me to.”
“I’m only gone for thirty-something hours. They might drive me crazy but I can’t leave my girls for longer than a day or two.”
“So no chance of catching up for a beer any time soon?” Sam asked. He missed seeing Nate. Hell, he missed doing a lot of things since life had changed so dramatically. Right now all he wanted was to hang out with Nate and his brothers, talk shit and drink beer, and then spend a month or two working his own horses and relaxing at his own ranch. Only he had to remind himself that he wouldn’t evenhavea ranch if he hadn’t worked his ass off and toured the country.
“How about the night I get back? I’ll have my car at the airport, so I can swing past your place on my way through.”
Sam grinned. “I’ll say yes, but I have a feeling you’ll forget all about me and speed on past to get home by then.” He knew how it was, and he wasn’t exactly going to begrudge Nate time with his family. They’d both been bachelors long enough before Nate had settled down.
Nate laughed down the line. “You got me,” he said. “Love my girls, but I need that beer with you. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Sam ended the call and smiled to himself. Nate had been completely whipped by his sister, and even though he’d personally stopped believing in love, he knew his sister and Nate had the real thing going on. And if Nate ever let her down, he’d forget they’d been best friends since pre-K and beat the shit out of him.
Sam pulled up and opened the door, waiting for Blue to jump out. He could have left his dog at home, but after all the months of seeing way too little of his canine friend, he’d decided to let him tag along. He had good people working for him, and they took great care of his animals while he was gone, but his dog was like a family member, and he kept him close whenever he could.
“Come on,” Sam said to him, ruffling his head then shutting the door. His ex had taken a lot from him, but at least she hadn’t tried to take his dog.
***
“Morning,” Sam called out as he passed one of the ranch hands. “Mia around?”
“In the arena,” he replied, hefting a bale of hay and nodding his head. “Good luck with the horse.”
Sam laughed. “I think I need more than luck,” he muttered.
“We’re all placing bets on you walking off the job before the end of the week. That stallion thinks he’s the king of the ranch and then some.”
They both chuckled, and Sam raised his hand in a wave and kept walking, pleased Mia was busy training. That meant he could avoid her and start working with Tex before she had a chance to insist on joining him. As much as he felt for her over what had happened, he still preferred to work alone and he didn’t want to change his methods just because she had a serious emotional attachment to the horse.
He didn’t bother collecting a rope and halter, instead stopping by the barn to grab an armful of hay. He’d left Tex in the makeshift round pen overnight, and he wanted to reward his trust with some extra food.
Blue trotted faithfully at his side, but he ordered him to lie down well away from Tex. The stallion had serious issues about his own space, and he didn’t want his dog getting anywhere near the beast.
“Morning, Tex,” he called out, not making eye contact with him. Sam took a small amount of hay in with him. The horse hadn’t been fed since he’d left the night before, so he knew he’d be hungry.
He put the hay down and backed off, senses on high alert even though he didn’t look directly at the stallion. Tex cautiously approached the hay and snorted at it, as if he were inspecting it to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. Sam went back through the makeshift fence and leaned against the timber rails beyond it.
The horse was cautious, but he was eating, and Sam was hoping that it would help him with his trust issues to be the one who fed him each day. Once he’d finished and there wasn’t any hay left to distract him, Sam went back in. He still didn’t make direct eye contact. Instead he stood, looking away for a moment, and let the horse size him up. Once he’d done that for a bit, ready to react if the situation changed, he looked at Tex and started to walk towards him. The horse snorted, pawing at the ground for a moment, before starting to move away. What he was doing wasn’t anything special, it was simply him motivating Tex’s natural instincts. Horses were flight animals, and right now Sam was behaving like the predator. He moved him around the pen, forcing him to keep moving. Eventually he stopped and stood still. He could hear Tex breathingwhen he turned away, his back to the horse. This could go horribly wrong, but he had to try it. Others would have, hell, Mia had probably tried something similar, but the whole process could be ruined so easily by not following through with the precise steps required; he doubted anyone in the last year or more had trusted the unpredictable stallion enough to turn their back on him and completely let their guard down.
Sam felt vulnerable, but he pushed the feeling away, breathing deep. It was important not to look at the horse, not even a peek to see what he was doing. In the past he’d spent hours sitting on an up-turned feed bucket, waiting for a horse to approach him. He did that a lot with the mustangs that he worked with, gradually getting their trust by ignoring them and letting them inspect him on their own terms, but they were different. They were wild horses, curious by nature, who had no fear of humans and a completely different outlook on life. Tex disliked and distrusted humans, and Sam needed to start over with him, re-teach him and remind him that humans hadn’t always been so cruel to him.
He hadn’t ever been scared of horses, and as unpredictable as Tex was, he wasn’t scared of him, either. Stallions could be notoriously difficult to work with, but he wasn’t going to change the way he worked unless he had to.
