Love Under Two Reluctant Heroes by Cara Covington (ebook reader screen TXT) 📗

was if he could see her mental wheels turning. “I have a best friend, Bonnie Dorchester. We’re sisters. We share everything. Sort of like that?”

The little minx. The eagerness in her expression gave Trace an idea of what was on Libby’s mind. I’ll just pretend I don’t understand. But he wouldn’t be above putting a good word in for either of them. “Yes, Libby. We’re exactly like that.”

Trace opened the door of Sugar’s stall and waited while Libby released the horse into it. Once the door was closed—with an extra little caress for Sugar from Libby—they walked to the stall directly across from the equine flirt.

“This is Pete. He, Sugar, and Coco,”—she nodded to the brown horse in the stall next to Sugar—“they’re the originals.”

“Ernie mentioned they began with these three horses. Now they have ten they can use?”

“Jesse, Barry, and Shar each use their own horses when they have students. Since the guys also work the ranch, they keep Domino, Jesse’s horse and Dancer, who belongs to Barry, in the other barn, closer to their house. Shar’s horse, Javelin, is on the other side of Cocoa.”

Trace couldn’t help but notice there was nothing childlike in the way Libby communicated. If he hadn’t already known she was fourteen, he’d bet she was a few years older.

“Then we have Fiona, Pepper, Murphy, and Dragonfly.” She’d pointed to each horse in turn, two on each side of the aisle.

“Ernie said they were going to use the indoor ring for the next hour. Want to saddle up Pete and Cocoa and head to the outside one?”

“Okay. Which horse do you want me to take?”

“Which one would you prefer?”

“I haven’t ridden Pete for a while.”

“All right, then, you go ahead and saddle him up.”

The stalls here were larger than most he’d seen. Trace understood the reason for that was that each stall had that particular horse’s tack. It made it easier for students, and since a horse might be ridden twice in one day, the arrangement made perfect sense.

Trace took a moment to stroke and talk to Pete, a beautiful bay. “You’ve got some handsome black points on you, don’t you, boy?”

“Ernie said that Pete’s middle aged in horse years,” Libby said.

“He’s the same years in people years as you are,” Trace said.

“Huh.”

He kept an eye on Libby saddling Pete even as he began to get to know and then saddle Cocoa. She knows her stuff. Libby displayed no hesitation whatsoever, which was good. When they were ready, they walked the horses down the aisle to the far door then outside to access the outdoor paddock.

Once they were inside the fenced area, they mounted up.

Trace was able to focus on his horse and on Libby. He already liked her. She was smart and self-possessed. His gaze flicked up to her face, and he wondered what she was thinking.

“So, my life story.” They rode their horses, side by side in a large circle around the paddock. They kept them to a walk for the moment.

“I was born in Abilene, and I have a younger sister and brother. And when I was fifteen years old, my dad, who was an Army Ranger, was killed in Afghanistan.”

“That’s horrible. Losing a parent. My friend Bonnie, her mom died when she was nine. They lived up in Canada, but her dad’s grandma—that’s Grandma Kate—lives here in Lusty. So he brought them here.”

“I’ve met the Dorchesters. They’re good people. My mom answered an ad for a job here. She wanted out of the bigger city, and I didn’t know it at the time, but she wanted an entirely new part of the state. That was when I was seventeen, the move here. It became home to us all real fast. I got work after school with Steven Benedict at the original Benedict ranch, and then with Chase and Brian, when they started up the Benedict North ranch.

“I volunteered at the fire house and knew I’d found what I was meant to do with my life. Grant and Andrew Jessop, Lusty’s fire captains…they made a difference to me. I met Brandon near the end of that first fire season. Anyway, after college, I worked for a couple of years in California fighting fires, but after the last round of wildfires, I decided to come home. Not just to work here but because I need to be here for my mom. My brother is still here, but my sister Dani is back in Abilene, attending college. I expect she’ll move back home once she graduates.”

“I know Brad Langley,” Libby said. “He’s in my class. He’s not a complete jerk.”

Her eyes widened as she seemed to realize what she’d just said. Trace laughed. “No, he’s not a complete jerk. Most of the time.”

They rode for a few moments as Libby gathered herself. “How’d you meet your best friend?”

“Brandon’s mom is Jillian Jessop—the doctors’ wife?” He waited, and she nodded. “He spent a summer here about a year after we moved here. He, too, volunteered for some firefighter duty, even though he was already in the Marines. We just clicked, he and I. You know how that is—you just meet someone and it’s like you’ve been friends forever?”

She met his gaze. “Yeah, I do. That’s how it was with me and Bonnie.”

They rode in silence for a few minutes then, without words, broke into a lope. Both Pete and Cocoa liked the quicker pace. Trace wondered how often the horses were taken for a trail ride by the pros who knew how to handle them. He’d have to ask.

His gaze was never far from Libby. By the expression on her face he could tell she had something on her mind.

“Want to share what has you frowning? I’m a good listener.”

Her face turned just the slightest bit pink again. Then she exhaled. “I was thinking…but I’ve changed my mind. It was kind of a really dumb idea.”

“Hey! Those are my favorite kind,” Trace said.

Together they brought their horses to a stop. Libby reached forward and