Winning the Cowboy's Heart

“They’re out of luck, unless we find them.” And it wasn’t looking good. Most stolen horses ended up in an out-of-state auction within days of being taken. The Martinez horses had been gone for three days.

“Should have freeze-branded them,” Kylie murmured before turning back to her homework.

“Ever hear that saying about the barn door and the horse?”

“Only when you say it,” she replied in a way that made him feel very old and out of touch.

Will settled in the kitchen chair across from his daughter and pulled his account books closer. He’d developed the habit of doing his paperwork while Kylie worked on her homework, finding that it kept them both on track. He now had a set of books he was proud of and Kylie was proving to be a much better student than he’d been.

Now if she could just stay out of trouble for a day or two.

THE MARE WAS no longer on the market. Charley called early Saturday morning to give Regan the news.

“Did you sell her?” she asked, thinking that if he had, he’d sold her within the past twelve hours.

“Not exactly. I just…changed my mind.”

Regan hung up the phone with a frown. Weird. The guy’d seemed anxious to sell the horse less than a day ago. She decided to chalk it up to small-town eccentricity.

She gathered her purse and car keys, ready to start phase two of her horse hunt.

Madison White operated the indoor riding arena at the edge of town and, according to people at school, if she didn’t have a horse, she at least had the connections to find one. Regan had already decided to see what the woman had to offer before making a decision on Broomtail, which was fortuitous, since the mare was now mysteriously off the market.

As it turned out, Madison had a horse for sale that was stabled at the arena. A nice, big horse with a nice, big price tag. A Thoroughbred that had been purchased as a jumper and had proven to be too hot for the girl who’d bought him.

Regan borrowed a saddle and mounted what felt like a bundle of dynamite. But once she got him moving, she found that he was smooth and smart. He just needed work, and Regan was looking for a project to fill her free time.

She did a quick calculation, decided to eat less for a few months and told Madison she wanted the gelding. She managed to dicker the price down by a couple of hundred dollars, but the purchase was still going to eat a hole in her budget. Regan didn’t care. She had a horse.

She made arrangements to continue boarding him at the arena until she got her pasture properly fenced, and then drove home, feeling richer rather than poorer.

Now all she had to do was hire a fencer, buy a water tank, arrange a vet check, send for her saddle and watch her pennies for a few months. Okay, maybe a year. But it didn’t matter, she had a horse.

CLAIRE TRIED TO BE EXCITED for Regan when she called to share her news. But since Claire had never owned an animal in her life, Regan knew her sister was having a hard time relating. Claire soon turned the topic to her primary concern.

“I can’t believe you left me alone in this city with Mom.”

“How’re your classes going?”

“I’m not wild about them. I mean, they’re easy enough, but…I don’t know. Something’s missing.”

Only Claire would say that engineering classes were “easy enough.” She was accidentally brilliant, according to their mother. She could do upper-level math with ease, but she found the things she was good at boring. She liked to dive into subjects she knew nothing about, learn what she could and then move on. An attention-deficit engineer. Probably not what the world needed.

“What’s missing?”

“I don’t know. Passion?” Claire must have sensed Regan’s smile. “Hey, you feel passionately about your job. Why shouldn’t I feel the same about mine? And you put your foot down when Mom wanted you to go to law school.”

“Yes, and you can do the same.”

There was a slow intake of breath on the other end of the line, followed by a long exhalation. “I’m not quite ready for that.”

KYLIE STAYED LATE on the day she returned to school, making up the science lab she’d missed the day before. Regan attempted to initiate a conversation once the girl was finished—attempted being the key word. In the wake of the smoking incident, Kylie wasn’t exactly warming up to Regan.

“Do you ride?” Regan asked after a string of frustrating monosyllabic replies to other questions. The conversation was becoming a battle of wills, but Regan wasn’t ready to give up.

“Yes.”

“Does your dad ride?”

“It’s his job.”

“Riding?”

“He starts colts for people.”

“I see.” Regan was beginning to feel as if she were starring in an episode of Dragnet.

“That’s what I’m going to do, too.” Ah, progress. Two answers with more than two words. Regan decided to press on. “Has your dad always been a horse trainer?”

“Pretty much.”

“What did he do before he started training horses?”

“I think he’s always trained horses. He used to ride rodeo, before he got hurt. I do junior rodeo in the summer.” Kylie pushed back the dark strands of hair that had escaped from her ponytail.

“You’re a lot like your dad, then.”

“Yeah.” Kylie gave a wry twist of a smile. “Even in ways he doesn’t get.”

Regan cocked her head. “Like how?”

“Like he keeps telling me I can’t be rescuing things, but he does it all the time.”

“He rescues things?”

“Horses. People.”

“People? How does he rescue people?” Kylie shrugged nonchalantly. “He saved

you from buying Broomtail, didn’t he?”

Regan just managed to keep her jaw from dropping. That was the end of twenty questions and Kylie knew it. Regan gave the girl a tight you-win smile and went to tidy up the lab equipment. She would be discussing the Broomtail matter further, but it would be with the father and not the daughter.

About a minute later Will’s big diesel truck pulled into the school parking lot. Good timing. Regan would just as soon get this over with while she was still annoyed.

“I’d like to talk to your father alone.”

“I’ll wait here.” It sounded like a procedure Kylie was familiar with.