Page 2 of Cowboy Stole My Heart
She nodded, embracing her brother and laughing when he squeezed her too hard and lifted her clean off her feet. He was tall, well over six feet, and he dwarfed her as she stood in front of him.
“How long are you away for this time?” she asked.
Tanner shrugged, running a hand through his too-long hair when it brushed his eyes. “A month I think. Depends how well I do.”
Mia grinned at him. Healwaysdid well. He’d fast become the state’s top bull rider, and she was fairly certain he’d be in the running for being the best in the country if he kept going the way he was. She worried about him a lot, but telling her brother to give up bull riding would be like him telling her to give up horses, so she never bothered to tell him how dangerous it was or how badly she wished he’d choose a different career. Since she’d come home it had been nice spending time with him, and all she cared about was that he was happy.
“Good luck,” she said. “Knock ’em dead, and don’t come back until you have another big fancy title belt to show me.”
Tanner laughed at her and held his hand up in a wave, shielding bright blue eyes from the sun. “I heard the old man talking earlier about someone coming to help out with the horses. He mention it to you?”
Mia slowly shook her head, panic rising. Why would he do that? Why did her father always have to try to micromanage everything in his life, including his daughter? She sucked back a breath.
“Who is it?” she asked.
“That horse whisperer guy, Sam Mendes,” Tanner told her. “Something about having him come by the ranch todiscuss working here for a bit. I think Dad’s convinced that damn stallion’s going to kill you, if he doesn’t get someone to help with him.”
A shiver ran through Mia that had nothing to do with her bare wet legs.Sam Mendeswas coming to their ranch? She might not have been back home for long, but she’d have to be living under a rock not to know who the famous horse trainer was. “Thanks for the heads up.”
She waved to Tanner and then headed back inside her house. She’d built her own place, well away from the main ranch house, and it was the complete opposite of the big house she’d grown up in. Her place was small and ultramodern, with a flat angled roof and glass engulfing every side. She had views of the ranch from every room, as well as out to her pool, and there was nothing about it she didn’t love. Whereas her family home had been filled with period pieces and exquisite, expensive antiques that her father loved, her furniture was minimalist to match her white walls and high ceilings. The house was perfectly matched to her, and some days she found it hard to leave.
Mia changed into tight cream riding breeches and a T-shirt, grabbed her phone, and stopped to give her cat a scratch under the chin. “See you later, little man.” She dropped a kiss to his fluffy black head, smiling at his big yawn, eyes still half shut as he put up with her petting. She’d rescued him from an old barn on their ranch only months earlier, and already he was basking in the luxuries of being a house cat.
She ran down the path that led from her home to the stables, looking forward to seeing her horses before finding her father and demanding to know what he’d done, and why exactly he thought she needed the help of SamMendes. It wasn’t that she was opposed to spending time with the gorgeous horseman, but she’d have preferred a heads up first.
She slowed to a walk and took her phone from her pocket, searching his name and pulling up his photo on Google. She hardly needed reminding of what he looked like, but it was a good excuse. She remembered him from the time she’d spent at the King family ranch as a girl. He was five, maybe seven years older than Mia, and she’d watched with awe as he’d ridden around the place bareback, always going at a hell of a speed. As a young woman, she’d been one of hundreds of adoring fans at one of his local events when he’d first started out, but their paths had never crossed.
She sighed and put her phone back in her pocket. Working with him one-on-one would be amazing, a dream come true for her professionally, so long as he understood how important the stallion was to her. Her horses were her life, and she wasn’t about to let anyone come on to her ranch and tell her that horse was a lost cause. Horse whisperer or not.
