Page 37 of Christmas with the Cowgirl
“Well, that’s something anyway.Maybe he’s not city-boy soft.You give Maggie a hug for me, all right?”
She smiled.“I’ll do that,” she said, bending down to give him a hug right now, hoping he’d be better soon, not for her sake, or even that of the ranch, but for his.Her father did not take well to being sidelined.
She glanced at her watch, decided she had time for one last in-person check on Goldie, who was due to drop any day now, and headed out that way.The mare looked utterly placid, nudged her to check for a treat, took the apple slice she’d grabbed on her way out here, then went back to contentedly munching on her hay as if she wasn’t the size of a small submarine at the moment.
Riley smothered the ancient bit of sadness that wanted to rise in her, sadness that she would never be faced with that situation and worked up an expression she hoped looked normal when she heard tires on the packed earth driveway outside the barn.In a perhaps twisted way, she should maybe be grateful for that moment of solemnity, because it had calmed—or smothered—the churning that wanted to start up inside her at the thought of an afternoon spent with Miles.
It would have been easier if Nic and Jackson were coming, too, but she knew that they had a new batch of devastated children coming in for their first session atThorpe’s Therapy Horses, and they both needed to be there.
She walked out of the barn just as Miles was sliding out of the driver’s seat.He was in Nic’s older pickup, the first vehicle her friend had ever bought and paid for herself.Riley had felt honored when she’d stopped on the way home from the dealer to give Riley the first ever ride in the passenger seat.She’d earned it, Nic had told her with a grin, since she’d been the one to tell her to go for a vehicle she loved and would use, rather than the flashier, trendy thing the saleswoman had tried to convince her she needed.
Riley, a forever in blue jeans ranch woman, would never have thought she’d like the kind of khaki pants she’d seen Miles wear a couple of times now, but she had to admit they were growing on her.The light tan color almost matched his sandy-blond hair.And she remembered smiling when he’d been giving Jeremy’s golden Maverick an enthusiastic tummy rub, thinking of the three shades of blond there.She supposed that the dog had taken to him so quickly should be a sign, although Nic had laughed and said the dog loved everybody.
“So if he ever growls at someone, I should shoot them on sight?”Riley had teased.
“I would,” Nic had told her.“I mean, he only ignores Swiffer, and he’s one of the nastiest people I’ve ever met.I don’t know how Miles hasn’t decked him by now.”
“Actually,” Jackson had said as he’d come up beside them, “he has.”
They’d been distracted by Jeremy at that point, and she never had gotten the story.But she could now, she thought as she got back in the passenger seat of Nic’s truck.
“I should probably have you drive,” Miles said as she closed the door, “but I’m trying to learn my way around.”
He was?She couldn’t help wondering why.Was he really going to be here that long?Or be coming here more often, often enough to need to know?
“It’s easy enough to find.They’re right off the Hickory Creek Spur, just like we are, just in the other direction from town.”
He rolled his eyes, but his mouth had quirked in a rueful expression that was clearly self-directed.His next words proved it.“You’re talking to a guy who lives where there are street signs everywhere.”
“City necessity,” she said.
“You say that as if it were…”
“A sign of overpopulation?Something to be avoided at all costs?Symptoms of a disease?”
He was laughing now.“There are times,” he said, grinning, “when I would agree with any one of those.”
“Then there’s hope.”
She was laughing herself by now, but it faded when, as they slowed prior to the turn onto the spur, he looked at her and said, very neutrally, “Is there?”
It took her a moment to steady her voice.“There’s always hope.I hope.”
It sounded so silly she grimaced.But thankfully Miles didn’t see, as he turned his full attention to driving now that they were out on the road.And she went back to what Jackson had said.
“Did you really deck Swiffer once?”
He gave her a startled glance.“Let me guess.Jackson?”
“He mentioned it,” she admitted.“But that’s all he said.Was it for something specific, or just on general principle?”
His mouth quirked.“He didn’t give you the whole silly story, then?”
“No.Will you?”
She saw him take in a long breath, then let it out.“He kicked one of the dogs on set.”
She blinked.“He what?”
