Читать книгу High Country Cowgirl - Joanna Sims - Страница 11

Chapter Three

After dinner, Gabe found Bonita in the barn, sitting on a tack box across from Val’s stall, holding another glass of wine in her hand. When she saw him, she scooted over and made room for him to sit down beside her.

“They’re a loud bunch,” Gabe said as he sat down next to his client, careful to make sure that there was plenty of space between Bonita’s body and his.

She had been staring at her horse, swirling her wine around and around in the glass. She seemed lost in her own thoughts and from the look on her face—a sincerely pretty and compelling face—they weren’t the happiest thoughts in the world.

“They are wonderful.” Bonita’s full mouth turned up in a slight smile. “Truly. Stopping here was a real blessing.”

“Good.” Gabe was glad to hear it. Even though he hadn’t wanted her along for the trip, he had an instinct to make sure she was safe and cared for while she was with him. Not that he had anything in particular against Bonita—he just preferred to travel alone. It was his policy and that way he could say no to anyone and everyone who asked. And clients did ask. Bonita was the only client who wouldn’t take no for an answer. And he’d adapted. That was his way. He hadn’t liked it, but he dealt with it.

His mother died when he was just a kid and his father, Jock, told him straight up that he’d better learn to deal with life’s curveballs quick, because they came fast and furious sometimes. It was one of his father’s better pieces of advice and Gabe had been adapting to change quickly ever since.

Bonita took a small sip of her wine. She seemed a little more relaxed and if he had counted correctly, she was on her third glass. She said, “Janice is crazy. I love that about her.”

Looking straight ahead, Gabe nodded with a little smile. “She’s a nut, that’s the truth.”

“You’ve known her a long time.”

It was more of a statement than a question.

“A long time.”

His companion took another sip of the wine before she said, “The way she is with her ex, you’d think they were still a couple.”

Janice had invited her ex-husband, Gary, for dinner, along with a group of friends, all from the same horse community that Gabe hadn’t seen in a long time. Gary was a solid horse trainer in his own right and Janice still regularly referred her clients to him if they had a horse with training concerns.

“They’re much better friends than spouses.”

“That’s rare.”

He nodded. He’d never managed to stay friends with his exes. For him, once it was over, it was time to move on. It had been quite a while since he’d had to move on from a woman, though. He’d managed to fill his life with his horses. The last time he had to move on had broken his heart good and proper.

“I love the barn at night,” Bonita mused quietly. “Don’t you?”

He glanced at Bonita’s profile. It was his favorite time in the barn. In that moment, Gabe realized that he was enjoying sitting in the barn with Bonita a little too much. Instead of answering, he stood up.

“I’m going to turn in. We’ve got a long stretch tomorrow. I want to leave by four.”

His client’s sleepy eyes opened wide as she looked up at him. “In the morning?”

He nodded.

“That means I have to get up at three?”

“If it takes you an hour to get ready, then I suppose so.”

Bonita frowned.

“I want to get to our next stop by late afternoon. That’ll give Val plenty of time to stretch out his legs.”

Still frowning, Bonita asked, “Where’s our next destination?”

“I have Val booked for a stall in a facility in Grimes, Iowa.”

“Iowa,” she repeated so morosely that it made him smile. “How many hours to Grimes?”

“Ten,” he told her. “Today was a short day.”

“It didn’t feel short.”

“It was.”

They stared at each other for a second or two before Gabe broke the eye contact and waved his hand. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Hey...”

He turned back to her.

“Do you mind if I keep Tater with me tonight?”

He couldn’t believe how long it took him to process that question. He was just used to having Tater with him.

“Sure,” he finally said. “If it’ll make the night better for you.”

“Gracias.” Bonita said, the word of thanks rolling off her tongue in a way that sounded mighty pleasant to his ears.

“De nada.” His you’re welcome came out stilted and heavily accented, but it made her smile, and he liked to see that smile.

With one final nod to his client, he left the barn and headed out to the rig. He planned on taking a quick shower, climbing into the sleeping bunk above the front cab and getting at least eight hours of shut-eye. He was lucky that he could fall asleep on a dime, and now that he didn’t have to worry about walking around the rig in his boxers, he could get comfortable and get down to the business of sleeping.

* * *

Morning came too early for Bonita. Soon after Gabe gave her the bad news about her three o’clock wake-up time, she finished her wine, made sure Tater had one last visit to a grassy spot on the lawn, said good-night to her new friends and then retreated to the guest room. After a long, hot shower and going through her nightly routine of brushing her teeth and putting on her face creams and brushing all the tangles out of her waist-length hair, as she always did, she called her parents to say good-night.

“I have to get up at three o’clock in the morning,” Bonita complained to her father. No matter how far into adulthood she got, she still went to her dad for comfort when life seemed unfair.

“And I’ll be subjected to another ten hours of country music, which feels like a form of torture.”

“I don’t even know why you insisted on going,” her father said. “I told you I trusted the man.”

“I know,” she acknowledged. “I didn’t.”

“How about now? You’ve spent the day with him. What’s the verdict?”

Bonita knew exactly what her father was driving at. He wanted her to admit that she was wrong.

“He seems competent,” she admitted, not saying the words you were right, I was wrong.

“Then come home now,” George suggested. “You’re right there near Columbus. I’ll send my pilot to come pick you up. There’s an executive airport there—I’ve used it before. If you’re not happy, come home.”

Yes, she didn’t want to get up at three o’clock in the morning. Who did? And, yes, she dreaded the hours of monotonous highway and basting in the music of every country artist known to mankind, but it hadn’t occurred to her—not once—to throw in the towel.

“I’m not unhappy.”

“You could have fooled me, mi corazón.”

Did she want to take her father’s offer and bail on the trip? Gabe was more than competent. He knew how to handle horses, that was easy to assess after a day. The way he handled a flighty, excitable horse like Val had been impressive.

“I’m just talking.” She backpedaled a bit. “Val is my horse. I’m responsible for him now. I’m going to stick it out. This is far from the worst experience I’ve ever had to go through.”

After those words, they both were silent and Bonita knew exactly what her father was thinking: her mother’s illness was the worst thing either one of them had ever gone through and the worst was yet to come.

“Is Mom awake?” Bonita was the first to break the silence. “I’d like to say good-night.”

“She asked the nurse to put her to bed early tonight.”

Bonita had been lying back on a stack of pillows, but she sat up instinctively. “Is she okay? Do I need to come home now for her?”

“She’s fine,” George said and for the first time Bonita heard weariness in her father’s voice. “It’s been a bad day... She has those. Tomorrow will be better. If you want to stay with Val, your mom will be fine until you return.”

After she hung up the phone with her dad, Bonita spent some time catching up with friends on social media. She sent a friend request to Janice—they had struck up a friendship in a short time and they both wanted to keep in touch—and then she shut off the light.

Bonita had been an insomniac for years. Even with the three glasses of wine, she was wide-awake listening to the sounds drifting up the hallway from the kitchen, staring at the ceiling.

It felt as if her life had taken some odd turns of late. She was in a farmhouse in Ohio, getting ready to head off to Iowa with a cowboy she didn’t know all that well, instead of starting her first year of medical school. Her mother’s illness was a major driving force for her eventual return to the pursuit of a medical degree. She wanted to be able to help other families whose lives had been turned upside down, much as hers had, by a single diagnosis. Bonita didn’t regret putting her dream on hold to spend time with her mother in her final years. Her only regret was that she hadn’t come home sooner.

* * *

Gabe was already in the barn with Val when Bonita shuffled into the barn, blurry-eyed and running on only two hours of restless sleep, carrying Tater in one hand and rolling her suitcase behind her with the other.

“He’s been fed.” The cowboy seemed to forget to engage in the social routine of greeting each other before getting down to business.

“Good morning to you, too,” she said grumpily.

Gabe glanced at her before he kept on shoveling the manure out of Val’s stall. “If you want to grab his shipping boots, I’ll get him ready to load.”

Bonita checked to make sure the gates between the barn and the outside were closed before she put Tater down. She gathered up the tall, padded shipping boots and carried them over to Gabe.

“Hi there, Val.” She reached out and let the horse smell her hand. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s being a horse.” Gabe knelt down by Val’s hind leg and secured the shipping boot.

Val was throwing his head, backing up to avoid Gabe and acting like he was going to bite her.

“Hey.” Bonita pushed the horse’s mouth away with her hand. “He’s a lot more mouthy than I remember.”

Gabe finished his job and stood up. “He’s got a few bad habits.”

He looked fresh and crisp. He was wearing his usual button-down shirt, tucked in tightly, straight-leg denim jeans, cowboy boots, a cowboy hat and a leather belt with an oval silver buckle. It was indecent to look that put-together and awake in the middle of the night. In contrast, she had barely managed to get her hair into a ponytail, and she was wearing a baggy sweatshirt and jeans with no makeup. Her eyes were puffy, her face felt puffy—she needed coffee and some sort of food to help settle it.

“I don’t suppose breakfast is in our future?”

“I doubt we’re going to find anything open for a while. I’ve got some rations in the kitchen. You can help yourself.”

Gabe was ready to go. She stepped out of the way so he could lead Val out of the stall. She quickly scooped up Tater and followed behind with her suitcase. Again, it took Gabe several tries to get him in the trailer.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Candace swears he’s never had any loading issues.”

Gabe shut the back of the rig and secured it. “He’s got them now.”

There it was again, that little gnawing sensation in her stomach about her new horse. He was such a beautiful creature; maybe it was just going to take some time for them to bond.

“Goodbye, Hobby Horse Farm,” Bonita said as they slowly pulled out onto the desolate road. It was so dark that it didn’t feel like morning to her at all. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to say one more goodbye to Janice.”

“She’s not a morning person.”

“That makes two of us.”

“I love this time of day. No people. No traffic. It’s the best time to travel.”

Deciding not to argue with an obvious morning person, Bonita took Gabe up on his offer and found some breakfast bars in the kitchen. She also discovered that Gabe had made a pot of coffee and it was still warm enough to tolerate.

Tater found her bowls of food and water while Bonita searched for some creamer for her coffee.

“Do you have any creamer?”

“I drink it black.”

“Shoot.” So much for coffee.

With a bottle of water and a breakfast bar in hand, Bonita slumped into the passenger seat.

“You know, my father wanted me to fly home from Columbus. There’s creamer on the jet.”

“Hard to keep an eye on me from the sky.” Gabe didn’t crack a smile, but she believed that he meant for there to be humor laced with truth in that statement.

“I’m not keeping an eye on you,” Bonita retorted quickly. Then, she revised her answer a bit a second later. “I was keeping an eye on you.”

“That seat leans back,” Gabe told her. “Why don’t you shut your eyes and try to get some more sleep? I promise I won’t screw anything up until after you wake up.”

She didn’t know if he was trying to avoid her grumpiness or was sincerely concerned for her well-being, but it didn’t matter. It was a good idea and she took him up on it. She finished her breakfast bar and water, then leaned back and closed her eyes. It seemed that Gabe didn’t listen to music early in the morning, and that suited her just fine. She felt herself drifting to sleep but was awakened by Tater yipping next to her. Not opening her eyes, she reached down, felt for the little dog and lifted her onto her lap.

“Go to sleep,” she mumbled. Those were the last words she wanted to utter until the sun rose and it was officially morning.

* * *

Gabe drove for hours without his usual music in the background. Bonita had fallen asleep quickly and he didn’t want to disturb her.

It wasn’t ideal that he had someone else to consider on this trip. He had his routine, his way of doing things to make the trips easier, but he also found some upsides to having a passenger. Even though they hadn’t passed the time talking, just having Bonita’s presence had made the trip go a bit faster for him. And she smelled nice—like lavender. In fact, the last thought he had before he fell asleep was how sweet Bonita smelled when he was sitting so close to her on that tack box.

She didn’t snore, but she mumbled several times in her sleep. He couldn’t make out the words, but he found himself wondering about Bonita Delafuente.

She wasn’t quite as one-dimensional as he had judged after their first meeting. Yes, she was entitled, as most people from wealthy families were, but she wasn’t a snob. The way she took to Janice and Hobby Horse Farm, the kindness she had shown to all of his friends, made him realize that he had labeled her too harshly. Bonita held herself a bit stiff, and her appearance was polished—her nails perfectly done and her expensive jewelry was part of the uniform—but she had a million-dollar smile and a laugh that made a man want to listen for a long time. And she was smart. That he especially liked. It wasn’t too often that he saw a woman go toe-to-toe intellectually with Janice, but Bonita did. Easily.

His client stirred in the passenger seat, making sounds that let him know she was waking up from her nap. Yawning long and loud, Bonita opened her eyes.

“What time is it?”

“Just after nine.”

Tater, who had jumped down from Bonita’s lap some time ago, heard her voice and raced up to the front from the back of the rig.

Sitting up, Bonita reached down to pet Tater. “I’ve been asleep for five hours?”

“Just about.”

She stretched her arms, groaned and then yawned again. “Coffee.”

That one word made Gabe smile. He didn’t know why he found Bonita’s grouchiness adorable instead of annoying.

“I’ll pull off at the next exit. Tater needs a break and we could use some gas.”

“How’s Val?”

“Eating hay.”

Out of habit, Gabe glanced at the screen to his right showing a live video stream of Val. If he was eating hay and making manure, most likely all was well with the Oldenburg.

Gabe had a feeling from his first meeting with Bonita that she had him written off as a dumb cowboy. It wouldn’t be the first time in his life that high-end horse owners had prejudged him. But his ability with horses spoke for itself and people who wrongly judged him usually paid a premium to hire him again. He’d seen a small shift in Bonita; yes, she was a skeptic or she wouldn’t have insisted on babysitting him on a road trip, but he felt her trust in him growing. And for whatever reason, in particular, he wanted Bonita to trust in him.

“Can I get anything for you?” Bonita asked after another yawn and stretch.

“No. I’m good.”

He had stopped to fill up the tank with fuel and give his passenger and Tater a break from the road. Bonita wasn’t used to road trips; she was used to taking a quick flight to her destinations on her father’s private jet. Traveling on the road could be tedious, he more than anyone knew that, and they would just be reaching the halfway mark when they would pull in to Grimes later on today.

As he watched Bonita walk toward the convenience store, her oversize sweatshirt swallowing the top half of her body and her long, ponytail swinging behind her, he was actually shocked that she hadn’t jumped at the chance to fly back to Bozeman. His first thought was that she didn’t trust him to get Val home safely, but then he reconsidered. Bonita appeared to be the type of woman who didn’t like to fail at anything. Perhaps leaving a challenging trip early would have been a sign of defeat to her. If he was right, he could respect that about her.

He was just wrapping up his business at the pump when Bonita rejoined him, carrying two fountain drinks and a bag full of donuts.

“I got some for you, too,” she said, unhappily.

“Thank you.” He didn’t indulge in sugar too much with the hours of sitting he had to do when he was transporting. But he wasn’t going to turn down a nice gesture on her part.

Still frowning, Bonita looked at her purchases. “Just look what this trip has done to me already. I’m in sweats, I haven’t brushed my hair, no makeup, and I’ve completely abandoned any semblance of a healthy diet.”

He was about to banter back, when Bonita suddenly started to run in a circle, screaming about a bee.

“Is it on me?” She was swiveling her head around from one direction to the other, trying to look behind her.

Gabe walked over to her to inspect the parts of her back that she couldn’t see. “It was just a little ol’ honeybee.”

“You don’t understand! Those little suckers hunt me down and sting me wherever I am! I’m not paranoid. They come after me in particular. I was stung three times last summer! You laugh, but it’s true.”

“Well, he’s gone now,” Gabe reassured her. “They weren’t bothering me.”

“Well...maybe you just aren’t as sweet as I am.”

Gabe opened the passenger door for her and gave a little tip of his cowboy hat. “There’s no denying that.”