Читать книгу Christmas Kisses with My Cowboy - Kate Pearce - Страница 8
ОглавлениеChapter Two
Parker burst out laughing. “A plastic bag.” He shook his head. “Horses are nervous creatures, to be sure.”
“You said they were prey animals,” Teddie reminded him shyly.
“They are.”
“How do you tell that?” the little girl wanted to know.
“Prey animals have eyes on the sides of their heads, not on the front like humans do,” he replied. He went on to explain about the evolution that produced such a trait.
Katy was watching him curiously.
He gave her a dry look. “Oh, I get it. A horse wrangler shouldn’t know scientific things like that, huh? I minored in biology in college.”
She flushed. “Sorry.”
He shrugged. “We’re all guilty of snap judgments. Don’t sweat it.” He glanced toward the house. “Those steps need fixing as much as this fence does.”
“Know any reliable handymen hereabouts?” Katy asked him.
He chuckled. “Sure. Me. I work cheap. A couple of sandwiches and some good, strong black coffee. It will have to be on a Saturday, though. Boss keeps me pretty busy the rest of the week.”
She flushed. “Oh, I didn’t mean—”
“He doesn’t mind if I help out neighbors,” he interrupted. “He’s a kind man. So is his wife.”
“You said she wrote for Warriors and Warlocks,” she added, glancing at Teddie amusedly. “Teddie loves it. I have to keep her locked in her room when it’s on, though. It’s very grown-up.”
He was grinning from ear to ear. “It is. If you saw the boss’s wife, you wouldn’t believe she was somebody so famous.”
“I still can’t believe we have somebody that famous here in Benton.” She laughed.
“Yeah. Gave us all a start when we found out. Cassie Reed, now Cassie Denton, was working as a waitress in town. Her dad, Lanier Roger Reed, was working at the farm equipment place. None of us knew they were running from a big scandal in New York. Her father was falsely accused of ”—he stopped and glanced at Teddie—“a grown-up thing. Anyway, the woman who accused him is now occupying a comfortable cell in state prison. J.L. married the writer and she came back out here to live. Her dad produces a hit show about a musical group from the seventies.”
“Oh, my goodness, those are about the only two shows I watch on TV.” Katy laughed. “What a coincidence!”
“She’s a good writer. And she’s a sweet person, too. She’s very pregnant, so we all sort of watch out for her. It’s their first child. Due pretty soon, too. J.L. says the baby’s going to be a Christmas present.”
“Is it a boy or a girl?”
“Bound to be.”
She glared at him.
He grinned. “They don’t know. They wanted it to be a surprise. So all the shower gifts they got were yellow.”
“I didn’t want to know, either,” Katy said, smiling at Teddie. “But my husband did. So they told him and he didn’t tell me.”
“A man who could keep a secret. That’s rare.”
“He was a rare man,” she said quietly. The loss was still fresh enough that she had to fight tears. “Okay, about the porch, I’ll need to get lumber. Can you tell me what to get and where to get it?”
“I’ll come back Saturday morning and do some measuring,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“And we could teach young Annie Oakley here how to saddle a horse,” he teased, smiling at Teddie.
“That would be great!” Teddie enthused.
“So I’ll see you both then.”
“Thanks. I’d like to pay you, for fixing the fence. . . .” She stopped at the look on his face. She flushed. “Well, I’m not exactly a charity case and you work for J.L. Denton for wages, right?”
He pursed his lips and stared at her with twinkling eyes. “Sort of.”
“Sort of?” she asked.
He smiled. “I work for him except in the summer. I go away to work for other people.” He didn’t elaborate. “I make a good bit then.”
“Oh.”
“So I can do a favor for a new friend”—he smiled at Teddie—“and her mom without having to worry about getting paid for it. Okay?”
She smiled. “Okay. Thanks, Parker.”
“No sweat.” He mounted the horse, turned it gently, and rode away, as much a part of the animal as its tail, using just his legs and the light bridle to control it.
“That’s such a beautiful horse,” Teddie said with a sigh as she watched the man ride away.
“It is. Wings suits her for a name,” Katy agreed. She gave her daughter an irritated look. “But just for the record, if you ever do anything like that again . . .”
“I won’t,” Teddie promised. She grinned irrepressibly. “But I got us a new friend who knows all about horses,” she added. “Right?”
It was impossible for her to stay mad at her daughter. “Right. Anyway, let me go and try to get the vet again. Your new friend Parker was right. The horse needs a lot of work done on him before you can ride him.”
“It will cost money,” Teddie said. “I’m really sorry. . . .”
“A vet bill won’t break the bank,” her mother said gently. “We have the money that comes from the service, after Dad . . . well, anyway, we have that and we have my salary. We’ll get by.”
“It will be nice to have him healed,” Teddie said. “I didn’t realize he’d need so many things done. I’m really sorry.”
“He’s a beautiful animal and he’s been badly treated,” came the curt reply. “I really hope his owner goes to jail. Nobody should treat a horse like that!”
“That’s true,” Teddie agreed.
“Come on inside. It’s very cool out here.”
* * *
The vet came out and looked at the poor horse, treated his cuts, recommended a farrier for the hooves, and gave Bartholomew an antibiotic injection. He promised to come back the following week and check on him, just to make sure he was healing.
“Going to be a scandal, when that man comes to trial,” the vet, Henry Carr, told Katy. “In all my years as a vet, never saw a horse in such shape. He had two others, but the county animal control people took those away from him. Well, those horses, and about twenty dogs he had in cages for breeding purposes. They took those, too.”
“Why isn’t he in jail?” she asked angrily.
“Because his people are rich and they protect him,” he said flatly, and with some anger. “If I get called to testify, they’re going to get an earful from me!”
“Good for you,” she said.
“You need to get the farrier out here before those hooves get any worse,” he said.
“I’ll call him today.”
He smiled. “I’m glad you and Teddie decided to come and live here. Benton’s a nice place to raise a child. I raised three, with my late wife. I miss her every day.”
Katy took a breath. “I miss my husband. He was a good man.”
“Life goes on,” he said. “It has to. Have a good day.”
“You, too. And thanks for coming out.”
“No problem.”
She watched him drive off and called the farrier. He agreed to come right out and check the poor horse’s hooves after Katy had described the state they were in.
He cleaned them and replaced the shoes with new nails. “Hell of a condition for a horse to get in,” he said.
“Yes, it is. They’re prosecuting the former owner.”
“I know him. Bad man. Really bad. I hope they’ll get farther than they did with the last case they tried against him.”
“Me, too.” She watched him put in the last nail. “Do you know a man named Parker who works for J.L. Denton?”
“Parker.” He rolled his eyes. “He’s fine as long as he’s not within earshot,” he added on a chuckle. “J.L. has to keep women away from him.”
“Why?” she asked, with some shock.
“His mouth,” he replied. “Nobody cusses like Parker.”
“But he caught Bartholomew–that’s the name of the horse you’re working on–and promised to help my daughter learn how to take care of him.”
“Nobody knows more about horses than Parker,” he agreed. “He likes kids. But he’s hell on women. Tried to date a couple of local girls and when they got a whiff of his language, they ran for the hills.”
“But he never used a bad word,” Katy continued, trying to explain.
The farrier looked at her with total shock. “We talking about the same Parker? Big guy, long black hair, breaks horses for Denton?”
“Well, yes.”
He caught his breath. “That’s one for the books, then.”
Teddie laughed softly. “Well, apparently my daughter has a good effect on him.”
“I would say so.” He finished his work, accepted a check for it, and said his good-byes after giving Katy instructions about keeping the horse in the stable for a few days until the worst of the damage healed. She didn’t mention that the vet had told her the same thing.
“How is he?” Teddie asked when her mother came into the house.
“He’ll be fine,” she assured the girl. “He just needs to rest for a few days while he’s healing. By Saturday,” she added with a smile, “he should be ready for Horses 101.”
Teddie laughed. “That’s a good one, Mom. Horses 101.”
“Well, let’s get supper going. Then we need an early night. School tomorrow, for both of us.”
“I know. It’s not so bad here, I guess. I made a friend yesterday: Edie. She loves horses, too. She’s got a palomino.”
“I’m glad. You’re like me, sweetheart. You don’t warm up to people easily. Your father was the very opposite,” she added with a wistful smile. “He never met a stranger.”
“I miss Daddy.”
She looked at her daughter with sad eyes. “I miss him, too. It takes time, to get over a loss like that. But we’ll make it.”
“Sure we will.” She looked up at her mother hopefully. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Katy said, but she turned away quickly. “Now, let’s get something to eat. Do you have homework?”
Teddie was resigned to never getting a hug from her remaining parent. She and her dad had been close. He hugged her all the time when he was home. But her mother almost never touched her. It was the only thing that made living with her hard. Teddie couldn’t change it, so she just accepted it. “Yes. Math.” She groaned. “And history.”
“I used to love history.”
“I would, if we didn’t have to memorize so many dates. I mean, what does it matter if we don’t know the difference?”
“It would if you ever started writing books and you had George Washington helping the men fight in Vietnam,” Katy replied, tongue-in-cheek.
Teddie glowered at her and went to wash up for supper.
* * *
Saturday morning, Parker was at the door just after breakfast, while Katy was mending a tear in Teddie’s jeans.
She went to the door and laughed. “You’re early. I’m sorry, I meant to . . . Teddie’s watching cartoons. Should I get her?”
“Not yet. I just need to do some measuring,” he added with a smile. “For the steps.”
“Oh, yes. Of course.”
She went out onto the porch with him while he marked wood with a pencil and wrote figures on a piece of paper. He handed it to her. “That’s what I’ll need, to do the repairs.”
It wasn’t even a lot of money, she thought with some relief. The vet and the farrier had made inroads into her budget. “I’ll phone the hardware store and tell them to let you get what you need. Are you going right now?”
“I am,” he said. “Shouldn’t take too long. Then I can show Teddie how to saddle Bartholomew.”
“The vet said he should be all right to let out by today,” she began.
“And you’re worried,” he guessed. He smiled. “Don’t be. We’ll keep him in the stall or the corral while we work with him. What did the vet say?”
“Not a lot. He gave him an antibiotic injection and stitched up his cuts. He gave me the name of a farrier, too, and I had him come out and clean Bart’s hooves and replace his horseshoes.”
“You’re having to go to a lot of expense,” he said.
“It’s not so much,” she replied. “And it’s nice to see Teddie interested in something besides TV. She’s been sad for so long. She and her dad were really close. It was hard for her, just having him in the service overseas. And after what happened . . . well, she wasn’t looking forward to moving here. She’s been very depressed.”
“Not surprising,” he said. “I still miss my mother, and she’s been gone for years. I lost her when I was twelve. Another family on the rez took me in and adopted me. We have good people there.”
She cocked her head and looked at him. “Which one of your parents was white?”
“My father.” He closed up. “I’ll run to the hardware and pick this stuff up, then I’ll come back and fix the steps. Don’t bother Teddie right now,” he added, and forced a smile. “Won’t be long.”
He went to the truck and drove away, leaving Katy guilt-ridden. His father must have been bad to him, she decided, because that look on his face had been disturbing. She was sorry she’d brought up something that had hurt him. It had been a casual remark, the sort you’d make to just an acquaintance. But it had really dug into Parker. Considering how little emotion escaped that face, it was telling that he reacted so quickly to the remark. She’d have to be careful not to bring up the past.
She recalled what the farrier had said about his language and she just shook her head. He hadn’t said a single bad word around her or Teddie. Maybe he only cursed around people he didn’t like. He was very good-looking, and very athletic. She smiled to herself. It was much too early to be thinking about men in her life. She’d tried to explain that to the attorney back home, but he hadn’t listened. He’d invited himself out to see them next month, but he was in for a surprise if he thought he was staying in the house with Katy and her daughter. She didn’t know him well enough, or like him well enough, for that sort of familiarity.
It was disturbing to think of herself with another man right now. Maybe, in time . . . but it still wouldn’t be that smarmy lawyer, no matter how desperate she got. And that was a fact.
* * *
Parker was back in an hour with a load of lumber. He lifted it out of the truck with incredible ease. Katy marveled at how strong he was. Involuntarily, she mentioned it.
He chuckled. “I live at the gym when I’m not working. Muscles turn to pure flab if you don’t keep up the exercise. I got used to it in the military and never really lost the habit. I have to keep in shape to do the work I do.”
“You have an amazing way with horses,” she commented.
He smiled. “I get that from my mother’s father. He could outrun any horse on the place, but even the wildest ones responded to him. He never used a whip or abused his horses in any way. But he could do anything with them.”
“I think that must be a very special skill,” she remarked. “There’s this guy on YouTube who works with horses like you do. It’s a treat to watch him work an unbroken one.”
“I know the one you mean. His father was vicious to him. He didn’t understand that some people have talents that aren’t mainstream.”
“Like yours,” she said softly. “Did you take a lot of heat for it, at home?”
He shook his head. “I was very small when my mother and I came back here to the rez.” He smiled. “My people don’t have the same attitude toward special abilities as some people off the rez do,” he added. “We think of the supernatural as, well, natural. We have people who can dowse for water, people who can talk out fire. We have people who know more about herbs than laboratories do. We’re a spiritual people in an age when it’s frowned upon to believe in a higher power.” He shook his head. “Nobody who’d been in combat would doubt there’s a higher power, by the way. No atheists in foxholes, and that’s a fact.”
“You were in the army?” she asked.
He nodded. “It was a bad time. I saw things I wish I could forget. My old sergeant works near here. He’s just taken in a three-legged wolf that was stalking calves over at the Denton place. Poor old creature was almost blind and couldn’t hunt. They gave him to Sarge. He’s a rehabilitator,” he explained. “Except that you can’t rehabilitate a half-blind, old, three-legged wolf. So the wolf lives with him now. Even watches TV, we hear,” he added with a chuckle.
“My goodness! We had packs of wolves up in Montana who were predators. We lost cattle to them all the time.”
He nodded. “It’s hard to co-exist with wild animals. But the earth belongs to everything, not just to humans. Starving creatures will eat whatever they can catch. That’s nature.”
“I suppose so.”
“Now, let’s get those steps fixed before one of you breaks a leg on them,” he said, and started ferrying lumber to the house.
Teddie spotted him and came flying out the door. “Parker!” she exclaimed. “Are we doing Horses 101 today?”
He chuckled. “Nice. Yes, we are. But first I have to fix your steps.”
He put down the load of lumber and went back for another one. “Still got that fancy toolbox?” he added.
“I’ll go get it,” Teddie volunteered.
“Good girl,” he said.
She brought the toolbox while Katy went in search of the coffee can where the nails were kept. Then Parker got to work with a skill saw and a pencil over one ear.
* * *
He was methodical, but quick. In less than an hour, he had the steps replaced.
“We can’t stain them yet,” he said. “That’s treated lumber. It will last a long time, but you have to let it season before you can stain or paint it.”
“That’s fine,” Katy said.
A truck came down the road and pulled up beside Parker’s. A tall, well-built man in jeans and a denim jacket and a battered old hat came up to them.
“This is Jerry Miller,” Katy said, smiling at the newcomer, who smiled back and offered a hand.
“Hello, Parker,” he greeted.
Parker shook hands with him and smiled, too. “Nice to see you. I’m doing a few repairs.”
“Looks good. I’d have offered, but I can’t even measure, much less do woodwork,” the other man said ruefully. “All I’m good for is nursemaiding cattle.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” Katy instructed. “You made us a nice nest egg with that crop of yearlings you took to auction for us. Which pays your salary, by the way.” She laughed.
He grinned, tipping his hat back over sandy hair. “And my wife’s hairdresser bills,” he added.
“Your wife looks pretty all the time,” Katy said. “And she’s sweet, which is much more important than pretty.”
“Yes, she does,” Jerry had to agree. Then he asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?” He chuckled. “Well, except for offering to cut wood, which I can’t do.”
“Not a thing. All done,” Parker said. “But we have some leftover lumber. If you’ll help me get it in the shed, it may come in handy for another job later on.”
“Good idea.”
The men moved the lumber into the building. Katy and Teddie put up the toolbox and the nails.
“So,” Parker told Teddie, “Horses 101. Let’s go.”
“Yes!” Teddie enthused and followed Parker into the barn.
Parker put a bridle on Bartholomew and led him out into the corral that adjoined the stables.
“Where do your cowboys keep their horses?” he asked.
“Oh, Jerry keeps them at his place,” Teddie said. “He and Lacy, that’s his wife, have a big stable that his father built years ago. Mom says it’s much nicer than ours, and he’s got lots of room. There are two line cabins on the place, too, and the full-time men live in them with their families. They have a stable apiece. It was a really big ranch when my grandmother was still alive.” She sighed. “They said she could outride any cowboy on the place, shoot a gun, rope a calf, even help with branding when she was in her sixties. But she broke her hip and she could never do it again. Mom says she lost heart and that’s why she died.”
“It’s hard for active people to sit still,” Parker replied. “I remember your grandmother,” he added with a smile. “She used to sell milk and butter. My mother, and later my uncle and aunt, bought them from her.”
“Your aunt and uncle, they still live on the reservation?”
He nodded his head. “Yes. They’re the only family I have, except for their son, my first cousin, who’s in the navy. He never comes home. I think he’s ashamed of us,” he added quietly.
“Why?” Teddie asked. “I mean, I think it would be awesome to be a member of a tribe and know all that ancient stuff that people used to know. It’s such a heritage!”
He chuckled, surprised, as he looked down at her. “Where did you get that from?”
“My mom,” she said. “She loves history. She had a friend who was Northern Cheyenne when she lived in Montana. They lost touch, but Mom knows a lot about native customs and stuff. She said that’s how people were meant to live, in touch with nature and not with big stone buildings and pavement.”
He pursed his lips. “That’s exactly how I feel about it.”
“Me, too. I hate the city. This”—she waved her arms around—“is the best place on Earth. Well, now that I’ve got Bartholomew, it is,” she amended. She grimaced. “I didn’t want to come here. I had a good friend where we lived, and I had to leave her. She sends me e-mails, though, and we Skype. So I sort of still have her. And I made a friend here named Edie. She has a palomino, too.”
“You have two friends here. I’m one of them,” he chided.
“Of course, you are.” She laughed.
“So. First lesson. Horses 101.”
“I’m all ears.”
He went over the various parts of the horse, from fetlocks to withers, tail to ears, and he taught her the signs to look for when she was working with Bartholomew.
“Watch his ears,” he told her. “See how he’s got one ear toward us and another swiveled behind him? He’s listening to us, but also listening for sounds that mean danger.”
“Wow.”
The horse looked back at Teddie and both ears swiveled forward.
“That means all his attention is on you,” Parker said, indicating the horse’s ears. “That’s important, when you’re training him.”
“I guess he’ll need a lot of training. Poor old thing,” she added.
The horse moved forward and lowered his head toward Teddie.
“Poor horse,” she said softly. She didn’t make eye contact, but she let the horse sniff her nostrils. He lowered his head even more, so that she could stroke him beside his nostrils.
“He likes you,” Parker said. “And he’s intelligent. Very intelligent,” he added, when the horse turned its head and looked directly at him.
He chuckled softly and put out a big hand to smooth over the horse’s mane. “Sweet old boy,” he said. Bartholomew nuzzled his shoulder.
“I was afraid he was going to be mean,” Teddie confessed. “You know, because he was hurt and didn’t trust humans not to hurt him anymore.”
“Some horses can’t be turned back after they’re abused,” Parker agreed. “But lucky for you, this isn’t one of them. He’s a grand old man. He’ll make you a dependable mount.”
“I wish I could already ride,” she confessed. “Mom used to go for horseback rides with Dad when we lived back East, before he . . .” She swallowed. “But I didn’t go with them because I was afraid of horses. But the first time I saw Bartholomew, it was like, well, I don’t know what it was like.”
“Like falling in love,” Parker said, smiling at her.
“I guess. Something like that.” She cocked her head and looked up at him. “You ever been in love?”
He averted his eyes. “Once. A long time ago. I lost her.” He didn’t say how.
“Maybe you’ll find somebody else one day.”
He smiled sadly. “Not on my agenda. I like my life as it is. I have absolute control of the television remote and nobody to fuss when I don’t take out the trash on time.”
“Have you got pets?”
“Just Harry.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Harry?”
He pursed his lips. “You scared of snakes?”
She shivered a little. “Oh, yes.”
“Me, too.”
“Is Harry a snake?”
He smiled. “Harry’s an iguana,” he said. “He’s four years old and about five feet long.”
“Wow! What sort of cage do you keep him in?”
He pursed his lips. “Well, that’s sort of the reason I’m still single. See, he’s a little too big to keep in a cage. I just let him go where he wants to. His favorite spot is the back of my sofa. He watches TV with me at night.”
“An iguana who watches TV.” Teddie sighed.
“Well, Sarge has a wolf who watches it. Maybe animals understand more than we think they do, huh?”
She laughed. “I guess so. Could I see your iguana sometime?”
“Sure. I’ll invite you both over when we get a little further along with the repairs and your Horses 101 training.” He looked down at her. “Is your mom afraid of reptiles?”
“Oh, no. She’s not afraid of anything.”
“An interesting woman,” he mused as he turned back to the horse.
“That man’s coming out here next month,” Teddie said miserably. “For Thanksgiving, he said.”
“That man?” he asked, trying not to sound too interested.
“That lawyer who helped her settle Daddy’s business,” she explained. “He doesn’t like me. I really hope Mom doesn’t like him. He’s . . .” She searched for a word. “He’s smarmy.” She laughed. “I guess that’s not a good word.”
“It suits,” Parker replied. “It says a lot about a person. But are you sure it fits him? Sometimes people aren’t what you think they are at first. I hated Sarge’s guts until we were under fire and he saved my life.”
“Gosh!”
“Then I saved his, and we sort of became friends. So first impressions can be altogether wrong.”
She drew in a long breath. “That would be nice. But it’s not really a wrong impression. I heard him talking to another man, when Mom wasn’t listening.” She pulled a face. “He said that my daddy had lots of stocks that were going to be worth big money and that my mom wasn’t all that bad looking. He said if he could get close to her, and get control of those stocks, he’d be rich.”
Parker’s black eyes sparked. “What does he have in mind, you think?”
“I think he wants to marry her. She doesn’t like him. She told me so. But he thinks he can wear her down.” She drew in a breath and looked up at Parker with sad eyes. “If she marries him, can I come and live with you and Harry?”
He laughed softly. “Come on, now. You won’t have to do that. Your mom’s a sharp lady. She’s intelligent and kind and she has a sweet nature.”
Teddie’s eyes were widening. “You can tell all that, and you’ve only known us for a few days?”
He nodded. “I have feelings about people,” he tried to explain. “You know how horses respond to me? It’s like that, only I sense things that are hidden. My mother had the same ability. Nobody could cheat her. She saw right through confidence men.”
“Maybe you could talk to Mom, if that man comes out here?”
He chuckled. “I don’t mind other people’s business, sweet girl,” he said softly. “Life is hard enough without inviting trouble. But I’ll be around in case I’m needed. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said.
“Now. Let’s go over the diamond hitch again.”
She groaned.
“Might as well learn these things. You’ll need to know them in order to be able to ride.”
“There’s bridles, and all sorts of bits, and ways to cinch a horse, and what to do if he blows his belly out when you tighten it . . . I can’t remember all that!”
“You’ll learn it because we’ll go over and over it until the repetition keeps it in your mind,” he said. “Like muscle memory.”
“Dad talked about that,” Teddie recalled. “He said it saved his life once when he was overseas and he got jumped by three insurgents. He said he didn’t even think about what he needed to do, he just did it. He learned it when he was in boot camp.”
“That’s where all of us learned it,” Parker said complacently. He indicated the horse. “And that’s how you’ll learn what you need to know about how to take care of Bart and ride him: muscle memory.”
She laughed. “Okay. I’ll do my best.”
“That’s all anybody can do,” he replied warmly.
