Page 33 of Here With Me

“Pretty sure I should be the pissed one here.” I mimic her stance. “If you’d bothered to respond, I could’ve told you I was the new farrier, and you wouldn’t have been so shocked to see me that you’d fall into a pile of horse shit.”

She drops her arms and narrows her eyes. “You knew?”

“Not at first, but I put two and two together once I learned your last name. I figured we’d talk later, and I’d tell ya then. But since you couldn’t return a text, I reckoned ya could find out the hard way.”

She shoots me a death glare. “So you knew before we slept together?”

I swallow hard and answer honestly, “Yes.”

“That woulda been nice to know.” She walks around me, and I follow.

“Would it have mattered?”

She ignores my question as she grabs a lead rope, then opens one of the horse’s doors. “This is Buttercup. He leaves tomorrow, so you’ll start with him. Then I’ll note which ones are a priority on your sheet. After you do the boarders, you’ll move to the trail horses, and then finally, our personal horses. I assume Ruby showed you their locations?”

“She did.”

She brings Buttercup out, and after sniffing me, he lets out a whine.

“He doesn’t like men,” she states flatly. “I’ll have to stay with him so he doesn’t try to kill ya.”

“I can’t tell if you’re bein’ serious or not.”

She holds up the rope. “Take him and find out if you don’t believe me.”

“I’d rather not risk it. I’ve been kicked enough to last me a lifetime. But I do wanna see him walk first.”

“I can tell you anythin’ about this horse ya need to know. Level heel. Thick frogs. No fungus. Size four shoe.”

“Unless you wanna domyjob, I need to witness his walk.”

“Fine.” She pinches her lips together as if she doesn’t want to cause a scene with Ayden and Ruby nearby. “Go to the end of the aisle.”

I go to the doors and then turn around just as Noah leads him toward me. Buttercup has a steady walk, and his hooves land at a good distance apart. His shoulders move freely, which means he’s maintaining his balance as his neck moves up and down in time with the rest of his body.

“Now turn around and walk away from me for a few seconds.”

With a huff of irritation, she does as I say. If I didn’t know any better, Noah Hollis isn’t used to taking orders, and she’s not a fan of it either.

Once they walk ten feet, she turns him around and comes back toward me.

“Well?” she asks as she approaches.

“He looks good and healthy. Nice gait.”

“Told ya. I’ve trained him for the past four months.”

“And you’ve done a great job, but in order to domyjob, I need to assess each horse properly before I work on them.”

“You’ll have to get someone else to walk them for ya, then because I’m either in the corral, at the trainin’ center, or workin’ on the fundraiser,” she says, following me back outside.

“What fundraiser?” I ask, intrigued.

Her shoulders relax. “It’s in a couple weeks. I’m raisin’ money for a charity that helps rescued and injured horses. It’ll be like a mini rodeo with barrel racin’, mutton bustin’, show jumpin’, and more.”

Wow, impressive.That’s a big undertaking, but I don’t say that. She’s being snippy with me, and I’m not about to go soft on her now.

There’s a post to secure the rope, and once he’s clipped in, I rub my hand over his back and let him sniff me.