But it was hard to acknowledge that your mother depended upon your good health and strength to keep food on the table and a roof over her head. That tended to make a man think twice about unnecessary risks. “And what about the guests I pick up at the airport? Or the ones like Pepper, who don’t want to be bothered with driving at all?”
Katie rolled her eyes. “Those duties are so much easier to find a replacement for than a legitimate wild-horse trainer.”
“At least think about it, Conner.” Ethan approached the first transport. “Now, let’s see what you’ve got here.”
Katie moved on to other ranch business. Conner and Ethan removed horses from the trailers one by one through a chute into the corrals. From there they worked another chute system to get them into smaller, individual pens. Ethan examined every horse as best he could by a quick visual inspection, making sure none of them showed signs of illness that might infect other stock.
“This fella’s got parasites.” Ethan stood near the gray horse that had lunged at Conner and Lily. He pointed to an unusual-looking pile of manure.
“Stomach upset.” Conner nodded. “That explains his poor temper. Do you want him in the quarantine paddock?”
“Yes.”
“They’re here! They’re here!” Pepper skipped toward the horse pen area like a little girl, followed by Natalie, Lily and a man Conner didn’t know. “I want to see Royal.”
“We’re naming them now?” Ethan arched a brow at Conner.
Conner shrugged. “Royal’s already been delivered to the Rocking H, along with Lily’s two purchases.” And given the parasite problem they’d found, he’d have to have Ethan come over and give them an exam.
“Morning,” Lily said in that small voice of hers that he’d hoped never to hear again. She wore leggings and a T-shirt, city-girl clothes except for her boots.
“Morning.” Conner smiled at Lily because she had to know someone didn’t find fault with her. “If you’d like to watch, there are benches over by the barn.” Given how skittish the mustangs were, rail sitting was dangerous.
“This is so exciting.” Pepper introduced her beloved Ken, insurance salesman and future saint.
Conner plucked a size sticker from the chest of the groom’s shirt. He handed it to Pepper.
“Oh, Ken.” She giggled. “I miss removing tags sometimes, too.”
Conner bet not, but kept that sentiment to himself.
“I hear there’s a new Blackwell in town.” Ethan gave Lily a mischievous smile. “Just don’t ask to drive my rig.”
Lily didn’t miss a beat. “Drive a getaway vehicle once and your reputation is ruined forever.”
“Nice.” Ethan nodded approvingly. He turned to Conner. “I like her.”
Conner did, too. Too much. He stopped to reassure himself she was all right. No signs of tears. No furrowed brow. “No second thoughts this morning?”
“Now that I’m here, not even thirds.” She gave him one of her radiant smiles.
It warmed him completely, not that he needed it on what promised to be a hot summer day. But it was the kind of warmth that melted hard edges inside and smoothed tough roads ahead.
“Why did the Blackwells want so many mustangs?” Ken sat next to Pepper, store creases in his new blue jeans and not a smudge on his new cowboy boots. “Pepper said you bought twenty.”
“We’re trying to be environmentally friendly.” Ethan didn’t break stride on his way back to the barn.
Conner felt compelled to explain since Lily was present. “The Blackwell Ranch leases government land where wild horses roam. Cattle and mustangs compete for the same resources—food and water. The government rounds up the mustangs and the Blackwell cattle benefit, but that means there are wild horses in need of a home.”
Ethan had stopped at the barn door to listen. “Are we arguing?” He frowned. “We don’t adopt out of guilt. It’s a responsibility of ranching, giving back where you can. And in addition to donating my time and the ranch donating vaccines to help control the wild-horse population, we’re offering them good homes, food and shelter.”
“We’re not arguing. We’re discussing the whys and whats.” A mustang kicked a post near Conner, rattling the railings and his memories. “As a Blackwell, Lily should know more than a sound bite.”
“As a Blackwell, I need a photogenic horse to ride down the aisle.” Pepper hung on Ken’s arm. “Can we pick one out today?”
“All horses are beautiful.” Ethan continued to linger. “We’ve got a young palomino you might ride, if Conner approves. She’s a descendant of my mother’s horse.”
Pepper leaped to her feet. “Can I see her?”
“Sure. Give me a minute.” Ethan disappeared inside the barn.
Conner hurried after him. “Hey. Katie wanted to offer ponies for liability purposes.” Tall ponies, but ponies nonetheless.
“You and I both know Grandma Dot is trying to make Pepper’s dream wedding come true.” Ethan kept his voice down. “Dream weddings don’t entail ponies. Katie might be willing to stand up to Grandma Dot over this issue, but I’m not.”
Conner shook his head. “There are too many cooks on this ranch.”
“If you really feel that way, you’ll quit and get back to running your own spread and training those horses.”
Conner glanced back at Lily. The only way he’d take on the ranch again was with someone like Lily at his side. But that seemed as impossible as riding a horse on the moon.
* * *
AFTER FALLING IN love with her wedding mount, Pepper led Natalie and Ken off to sample wedding cake, and Ethan drove into town, leaving Conner and Lily with all those horses.
They didn’t talk, which was rare. Usually, they weren’t at a loss for topics. But Conner felt like there was something that needed to be said. He just wasn’t sure what that something was.
So he went about the business of feeding and watering the mustangs, which didn’t take long. And then he hesitated. He wasn’t on guest duty. Katie wasn’t around to review budgets. It was just Conner, Lily and twenty horses nervously shifting in their pens. They wouldn’t be nervous once they adjusted to their new roles. And they wouldn’t adjust without human intervention.
With a sigh, Conner turned to the closest pen and opened the makeshift gate.
“What are you doing?” Lily moved to the corner of the enclosure.
“Keep away from the fence.” Conner entered the temporary home of a sturdy brown mustang. It had a nylon rope halter on and a government tag. Fear had the horse jolting. “It’s been a hard few days for these horses and it’s best to get started. Sometimes gentling an animal is the most difficult part. It’s best to start with a welcome.”
“I thought you weren’t going to train horses.” Lily sounded like she was right behind him.
He didn’t dare take his eyes off the skittish mustang to warn her away. “Getting them used to humans and being handled isn’t serious training.” Conner praised the horse when he swiveled his ears in Conner’s direction.
“Really? Is this where soft words and carrots come in?”
He chuckled. “Maybe not carrots until later. Do you want the truth?”
“Always.”
If only he could always give it to her. “The Blackwells want me to be involved in training the mustangs and... Good boy.” The horse took a small step. “It’s not a hardship to show an animal kindness.”
“You need to be in the pen with it to be kind?” With every comment, she inched closer.
Too close. The horse pivoted, banging into the metal fencing.
Conner’s muscle memory flinched. He stiffened. “Back up a little. There are too many humans in his vicinity right now.” He waited for Lily to take a few steps away from the pen. “That’s it. All I’m doing is getting him used to me. I’m measuring his acceptance of my presence. Good boy. See that? He lo
oked at me. I’m just standing here, hands at my sides, calm voice. Good boy.” An ear flicker. A head swung in his direction once more. “Good job, buddy.”
“Are you scared?” Lily asked.
“My heart’s pounding.” He spared her a brief grin. “No more than when you look at me sometimes.”
He’d crossed a Blackwell line with that tease, and he hadn’t even been on a darkened dance floor.
The horse didn’t feel comfortable with Conner paying attention to someone else. He pranced around his side of the enclosure, testing the fence with a kick or two.
“It’s okay, fella,” he said.
“Why do I feel like this is a game of chicken?” Lily’s voice was pitched too high. The horse danced again.
“It’s not like that. Good boy. Good boy.” The horse settled. “It’s like walking into a bar and taking a seat. You wouldn’t march up to the first cowboy you set eyes on and ask him to dance. You’d follow him with your eyes. Maybe smile a little. Maybe exchange small talk.”
“You’re giving him another character test,” she surmised in a much calmer voice.
Conner nodded. “And he’s giving me one of his own. Good boy.” The horse had looked at him again.
“Can I try?” So typical Lily, ready to jump in with both feet.
“Why don’t you watch me with a few more horses first?” He backed out of the enclosure and led her to another.
Lily observed him say howdy to two more horses before succumbing to her Blackwell genetics and demanding to have a turn.
Conner faced her, placing his hands on her shoulders, willing himself not to draw her near. “First off, tell me what you learned by watching me.”
“I...uh... You’re quite nice to look at.” Her cheeks pinkened. “But as for what I learned, I’m going to stand still, hands at my sides, slow and even conversation, positive reinforcement when I get an acknowledgment.” There was excitement in her eyes, but not the hyper Pepper kind.
He nodded, kneading her shoulders a little because he was just a man who remembered how this woman felt in his arms. But he knew that he was crossing another line. “When it comes to mustangs, slower is faster. We want to establish trust and let the horse tell us what tempo they need for their training. We aren’t here to break them. We’re here to teach them to be part of our herd.”
Lily grinned. “Wish me luck.”
“I’ll do better than that.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. Another line crossed. It was helpful Big E had yet to return. “I’ll be the good luck charm who has your back.” He’d yank her to safety if anything went wrong.
The horse in the enclosure was caked in mud. His head hung low and his back was to them. Conner opened the gate enough to allow Lily inside and then stood behind her.
“Hello, big fella.” Lily’s voice was coarse and barely above a whisper.
The horse swiveled his ears around.
“What a good boy. He looks like he’s had a bad day.”
“They often do.”
This was a quiet part of the ranch, a barn for working cowboys rather than the smaller stable, where guests came for their trail rides, or the main barn, where they stored equipment and Ethan had his office.
Lily and the horse worked uninterrupted for a few minutes. The mustang appreciated her relaxed approach.
“What are you doing?” Danny shouted. “Get her out of there, you stinkin’ cowboy. Now!”
The horse spooked, bucking and kicking in the ten-by-ten enclosure. Conner yanked Lily to safety and closed the fencing just as the horse ran past. The other mustangs reacted to the emotion, tossing their heads and kicking with fear.
“Danny, not so loud.” Lily rushed toward him, her voice low and urgent.
“I agree with Danny.” A new voice rang out. Rudy, Lily’s stepfather, marched toward her. “Elias assured me you’d be safe. And yet what do I find? You’re nearly trampled by a horse. I should have known you’d find trouble.”
Lily’s shoulders hunched. Her chin fell. Conner came to stand beside her.
The mustangs pranced and kicked, heads high. The air was filled with their shrill voices.
“Let’s all go elsewhere before you cause a stampede, Rudy.” Moving with surprising speed, Big E cut Lily’s stepfather off before he could reach Lily. “If you can’t keep your voice down, then keep your mouth shut.”
Rudy scowled at Big E and then at Lily. He gestured for Danny to come forward.
Lily jerked back when Danny tried to take her arm, recovering some of her spirit. “I’ll go, but only because I don’t want you to upset the horses.” She stomped ahead in the direction Big E suggested.
Rudy and Danny glowered at Conner.
“She could have been killed,” Rudy whispered angrily. “What were you thinking?”
“That she knew what she was doing and the choice to do it was hers,” Conner whispered back. “Which is something you two seem to forget.”
They huffed off.
Conner wanted to join them, but he waited for the mustangs to settle down. They did so quickly.
He doubted Rudy Harrison would do the same.
* * *
“I COME ALL this way...” Rudy marched up to Lily in the busy ranch yard, red in the face. “Reassured by Elias that you were safe, and what do I find? You’re succumbing to your impulses again. Putting yourself in danger. That horse could have killed you.”
Cowboys rode up. Cowboys drove off. Hay was being transferred from a truck to the barn. Rudy didn’t care who heard him rail.
“You’re blowing this out of proportion.” Lily felt like she was seven once more, being chewed out for an adventure-induced injury rather than comforted after a scare. And make no bones about it. She had been scared. “Rudy, I—”
“Rudy nothing.” The man who’d raised her stormed closer. “I’m your father.”
“And I’m Big E.” Lily’s grandfather stepped between them, looking like a tough sheriff from an Old West film. “Only strangers call me Elias.”
“And your wife,” Lily added softly, since she’d heard Dorothy call him by his given name.
“My name is Dad.” Rudy stood at attention, so rigid that Lily stood up taller. “And I’m here to make sure my daughter is safe. Today and forever.”
“She was fine until Danny boy launched himself like a firecracker.” Conner entered the yard and moved to Lily’s side.
I should have said that.
Lily dug deep for her backbone.
Danny pointed toward the mustang pens, his face distorted by anger and a reddish-purple bruise around one eye. “Elias—”
“Big E,” her grandfather corrected, with a wink at Lily.
“—was just telling us how dangerous training wild horses could be. And we walk up to see Lily in with one. She was very nearly trampled.”
“Because of you,” Conner reiterated. “Lower your voice. Can’t you see you’re the one riling stock and the one who put Lily in danger? As usual.”
Danny crossed his arms over his chest and glowered.
“The point is that the person who was supposed to be keeping Lily safe wasn’t.” Rudy swung a glare of his own, first at Conner and then at Big E.
The men had surrounded Lily, ringing her in and closing as if she were one of those mustangs and they wanted to direct her through a chute or into a pen.
“Stop.” She burst free of the circle. “I’m not doing this anymore.”
Four men stared at her. Rudy and Danny with scowls. Big E and Conner with head nods.
“I’m twenty-nine years old. I don’t need a chaperone or a keeper, Dad. I have my own life. I’ll make my own decisions from now on. And I’m not going to marry Danny. You should both just go home.”
“You don’t belong here, Lily,” Danny said firmly. “Not with this pair.” He used his thumb
to gesture toward Big E and Conner.
“I’m doing fine here.” There. Backbone found.
“Is that what this is about? Moving to Montana?” Rudy was beside himself. “It was bad enough you thought you could safely take people on adventures. What’s next? Training wild horses? Who will you call on to help you when you can’t get a jar open or put together a table you bought at IKEA?”
“Dad.” Lily sealed her lips, trying to hold in what she really wanted to say, but it was too late. “I’m not like you. And now I know why. You aren’t my father,” she blurted.
Rudy flinched.
“I don’t have a life plan or concrete dreams I’m committed to. And yes, I explore things that interest me. This week it’s horse training. Next week it might be a circus trapeze or the rodeo. Contrary to what you think, it’s not the adrenaline rush that drives me to try new things the way it does Danny.”
Her ex flinched.
“You know I’m never going to be a nine-to-fiver. I like to breathe the open air. I like to discover what the world of nature has to offer and, most important, decide if it’s for me.” She began backing up, moving away from the forces that had been so dominant in her life for so long, because she could sense the fight in her draining. “That’s what I need, Dad.”
He flinched again.
“Do you know why I’m so open to trying new things? Because I want to find a place where I belong. And if my search leads me to Montana, so be it. Be happy for me. Be proud of me. Mom would.” She turned and ran, the way Amanda had cautioned her not to, the way she’d run from her wedding five days before.
* * *
“THIS IS A mess of your making, Elias.” Rudy was a tall man. He leaned into Big E’s face, close enough that his forehead bumped the brim of the old man’s cowboy hat.
“You’re blaming this on Big E?” Conner tsked, earning him dark looks from the men most likely to make the next twenty-four hours difficult for Lily. “Lily is perfectly capable of independence. It’s just not the independence you or I might have.”
“I didn’t catch your name.” Rudy drew himself up again, like a dragon drawing in air before spitting fire. “But seeing as how you’ve only known my daughter a few days, I think I know what’s best for her.”
Montana Welcome Page 18