by Joanna Sims
“Well then.” She cleared her throat. “It’s good to know that we have a jack-of-all-trades with us this summer.”
Lee wrapped up the session and the agitation Colt had triggered inside of her body dissipated as she circulated through the small group of volunteers, shaking hands and thanking them each personally for their time. Colt leaned against a wall in the back of the classroom, seemingly waiting for his turn with her. It didn’t go unnoticed that each female volunteer paid court with the cowboy, stopping by to chat with him before heading out the door.
When she finally reached him, Colt took off his hat in a gentlemanly gesture and held out his hand to her.
“I’m Colt Brand.”
“I know.” Her response was snappier than she had intended. To soften her tone, she gestured to the name tag on his hat. “I can read.”
Colt reached up with a quick grin, tugged the name tag off his hat and balled it up in his hand. Colt Brand was tall, lean, with corded muscles on his neck and forearms. The man smelled deliciously to her senses, like leather and saddle soap.
“I just reviewed your application this morning.” She fought to keep her mind focused on business and not on how fantastic he smelled. “Why don’t you come to my office and we can discuss your particular circumstances in private?”
Colt flashed straight white teeth at her. “It’d be my pleasure to accompany you, ma’am.”
He was quick to move in front of her to open the door so she could walk through. Lee said, “Thank you,” but scrunched up her face at the thought of being called ma’am. She was only in her mid-thirties! She wasn’t old enough to get ma’am-ed yet by a man in his twenties, was she?
“I always know when I’m in the South or in Montana, because I get the ma’am treatment. But please try not to ma’am me. It makes me feel like I’ve got one foot in the nursing home.”
Colt smiled down at her and darn it if her heartbeat didn’t quicken.
“I didn’t mean any disrespect.”
“I know you didn’t.” She slipped through a cattleman’s gate so they could take a shortcut through one of the pastures situated between the barn that housed the classroom and the office at the front of the facility.
The minute the mares in the pasture saw her, they headed over to greet her. This was one of the greatest pleasures of her life, her stolen moments with these beautiful and elegant animals.
“Hello, my sweet babies.” Lee rubbed their noses and spent a moment giving each of the horses some individualized attention. Sweet Girl, a Thoroughbred off the racetrack, enjoyed a belly rub and Ruby, a grumpy black Shetland pony, loved to have her ears scratched. Lee knew the quirks and behaviors of every single creature on her property, from the horses to the dogs and cats. They all mattered. They all were her family.
Colt watched Lee from a couple of feet away. It was a chance to stand back and observe this woman who had caused a seismic shift in his brain without even trying. So many females—really smart, beautiful females—had tried to gain and hold his attention but none had ever succeeded. He was still a young man, not even thirty, and the thought of settling down with one woman for the rest of his life had never appealed to him. The thought of a wife and family had always been way off in the distant future—so far down the line that he couldn’t even imagine it. Until now. Until Lee.
Something strange, and completely unexpected, had happened when he finally looked up to see the woman who matched the sweet, lilting voice standing at the front of the classroom. Lightning struck. One minute he was Colt Brand and the next moment he was Colt Brand in love. She had a lovely face to match that easy-on-the-ears voice and her eyes, a golden hazel-brown, held a depth of feeling and kindness he had only seen in one other woman in his life—his mother. Once he laid eyes on Lee, Colt was certain he would never want to take his eyes off her again.
That’s my wife.
This was the one thought so clear in his mind when he raised his hand to gain her attention in the classroom. Colt didn’t know how he knew that he had just fallen in love at first sight; he just knew that he had. She was so pretty, this woman, with her creamy skin, hazel eyes and a button nose housed in an oval face framed by layered brown hair. Her dark blue jeans were snugly fit to her hips and legs. She was slender and not as curvy or busty as he typically favored. But it hadn’t been her body or her hair or even her classically pretty face that had sent a bolt of lightning into his brain. It had been those eyes—so sincere, so penetrating and so honest—that had made him sit up and take notice.
As he watched her now, with the late morning sunlight touching her silky hair, and her pretty face so filled with love for her horses as she hugged them and stroked their soft noses, his stomach was tied up in knots with excitement and he had adrenaline setting off little sparks of electricity all over his body. He had just found something he didn’t know was missing in his life—he had found the woman he was meant to spend the rest of his days loving.
“Seriously?” Lee gave a half laugh in surprise. She was left standing alone when Sweet Girl, and then Ruby, walked away from her to join him instead.
“What can I say? Women love me.” Colt smiled at her broadly while he wrapped his arms around Sweet Girl’s neck for a hug and patted her on the shoulder. Ruby nudged his hip with her muzzle and the Thoroughbred spun her large head around and pinned back her ears in jealousy.
“Okay.” Lee waved her hand at him. “Let’s keep moving before you cause a fight between these pasture mates who never fight—not even at mealtime.”
Colt gave each mare one last bit of affection before he jogged a couple of steps to catch up with Lee. He had long legs and a lengthy stride but he had to work to keep pace with her. Lee was a woman of average height, which was the only thing average about her. She walked quickly, with purpose, as if she were always late for something.
“Were you able to take the tour with Hilda earlier?” Lee asked him.
“A tour? No. I missed that one.”
Colt had chosen to sleep in on his last official day of freedom for the summer. He had been angry at the thought of wasting his time at Strides of Strength, babysitting a bunch of kids. Now he was convinced that his arrest and subsequent sentence had led him directly to the woman he was meant to marry.
“You built all of this?” he asked, impressed.
The facility was a major operation with five separate barns, enough fenced pastureland to accommodate a large herd of horses, hay fields for growing hay, an indoor riding arena and several buildings dedicated to different therapy disciplines.
“There was just a couple of old buildings and barbed wire fencing when I wrote the grant application to buy this place,” she said, leading him into one of the barns. “It’s still a work-in-progress, but we’ve come a long way since those days.”
“I’d say.”
She sent him a quick smile in between the chore of checking the water buckets in each of the stalls.
“Would you grab me that hose over there?” She pointed to the garden hose hanging up across the aisle from where she was standing. “Lift that blue handle to turn the water on.”
Colt brought the hose over to her, glad to be able to help her. If anyone had told him that he would want to be of service to Strides of Strength just a short hour ago, he would have laughed in his or her face. But now? It felt good to help Lee. He knew instinctively that the way to this woman’s heart was through her horses and her therapy program.
Lee handed the hose back to him after she filled the water bucket. “Thank you.”
“Not a problem. I’m here to help.” He said it and he knew that he meant it.
His companion studied his face for a moment, as if she were studying something unusual under a microscope. Her eyes were guarded as she looked around the barn. “This is the oldest barn on the property and I’m afraid it’s in need of the most TLC.”
“What’s the list?”
She started walking again and he followed. “What isn’t on the list? The roof needs to be patched and sealed, the entire outside needs to be stripped, primed and painted, fans need to be installed in every stall, and I wrote a grant for automatic watering systems, but we haven’t had the money to hire a plumber to install them.”
“I can start tackling that list tomorrow.”
Lee suddenly stopped in her tracks and looked up at him again. He loved it when she looked at him and he had a chance, in that moment, to admire her pretty face.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes, ma’am.” She grimaced and he quickly rephrased, “Yes, Lee, I’m serious. I can do everything on that list.”
“Even the automatic watering systems?”
He nodded, liking the way she was looking at him in this moment. There was a flicker of respect in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. She stared at him for a second or two longer before she continued walking.
“I have to say, Colt, that I didn’t think this was such a great idea, having you here this summer.”
“Neither did I.”
“But if you’re as handy as you say you are...”
“I am.”
“Then perhaps this isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever had.”
Colt tilted his head back and truly laughed for the first time that day. “Is that what I was? The worst idea you’d ever had?”
Her bowed lips quirked up sheepishly as she tried to stop herself from smiling too broadly. “Well, perhaps not the worst idea.”
“But close?”
Lee’s response was interrupted by the sound of a familiar squeal and his name being shouted from a nearby paddock.
“Uncle Colt! Uncle Colt!”
Colt saw his niece, Callie Brand, running through an open gate, her arms pumping furiously, her cheeks flushed with excitement.
“Shut the gate, Callie!” Lee called out to her.
“Oh!” Callie spun around, raced back to the open gate, shut it and then ran toward him, her face pink from exertion, until she threw herself into his arms.
“What are you d-doing here, Uncle Colt?” Callie exclaimed, her arms like a vise-grip around his torso. A young woman in her early twenties, Callie was short in stature like most people living with Down syndrome, so her head barely reached his chest.
There was one person in his life who could always make Colt smile and that was Callie. His older brother Liam had married Callie’s mom, Kate, and soon after the marriage, Liam had adopted Callie, even though she was already an adult. Ironically, the same judge who had refused to drop the charges against him and assigned him to Strides of Strength for community service had officiated Callie’s adoption into the Brand family.
Colt hugged his niece tightly before he looked down into her happy blue eyes.
“I’m volunteering here for the summer,” he said before he asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I—I work here,” Callie proudly told him. “I—I have a job now. And I—I get a paycheck. D-didn’t you know that?”
He shook his head—why didn’t he know that about his niece?
“No. I didn’t. But I’m real proud of you, Callie.”
Callie kept right on hugging him, her head resting on his chest. “Thank you.”
Callie finally finished the hug, stepped back and held up her left hand and wiggled her ring finger for him to see a small diamond ring. “I—I’m engaged, Uncle Colt.”
Colt put his hands on both of Callie’s shoulders and leaned his head closer to her so she could look right into his eyes. “I know, sweet pea. I have the invitation to the engagement party on my refrigerator where I can see it every day.” Colt felt Lee’s eyes on them, so he kissed Callie on the top of the head, “You’d better get back to work before you get in trouble with the boss. I’ll see you later.”
“Okay. Bye.” Callie giggled behind her hand before she spun around and headed back to the wheelbarrow she had abandoned in the paddock.
Colt waited until his niece was out of earshot before he turned to Lee. “It’s really good of you to give Callie a job.”
“She earned her job with me.” Lee stared after Callie. “I didn’t give her anything. The Callies of the world are the reason I do what I do. Everyone deserves a chance to have purpose in this life—that’s what we do here. That’s why we exist, to help people break through barriers in their lives so they can do whatever it is they want to do.”
“And if there are some barriers that they can’t break through?” Colt asked, watching Callie talking to herself as she picked up manure with a fork in the paddock.
Lee was observing Callie, as well. “If they can’t break through, then we get a really big piece of equipment and mow them right down.” As almost an afterthought, Lee added in a lowered tone, “There’s always a way.”
Chapter Two
On the way back to her office, Lee gave Colt the ten-cent tour of the property and introduced him to the permanent staff. It was hard to miss that every woman who came in contact with Colt, young or old, seemed to melt just a little in his presence. Yes, he was inarguably a very handsome, appealing man. But it really did shock her that even Gail Allen, a devoted Baptist and church pianist who provided free lessons to Lee’s students, seemed to take a liking to the tall cowboy. Colt was charming and polite and deferential to all the ladies, tipping his hat, giving them little compliments in that silky baritone voice of his. By the time they reached her office, which was housed in a small tin-roofed, single-story farmhouse that had been on the property since the turn of the century, some of Lee’s initial worry about having him with them for the summer had lessened.
“This house was one of the few buildings we could save on the property,” she said at the front door. “All of the wood planks you see on the floors inside were salvaged from the buildings we couldn’t save.” She let the door swing open. “It makes me feel happy that we were able to give them a new life. A new purpose.”
“You’re very big on giving things new purpose,” Colt observed.
“Of course.” She closed the door behind him. “Isn’t that what it’s all about?”
“I never thought about it like that.” Colt removed his hat and hung it on a hat rack just inside of the door. The sight of his hat hanging on her hat rack temporarily distracted Lee. It was as if she had seen that hat hanging there before—as if it had always been there. As if it were meant to be there.
The sound of a familiar and comforting meow brought her mind back to the present. A twenty-two-pound dark gray feline came out of her office, tail upright with the tip slightly curled over so it looked like a question mark. The cat came directly to her and rubbed up against her leg.
As she always did whenever she saw Chester, she smiled and leaned down to give him a scratch beneath his chin.
“This is Chester.” She made the introduction.
Lee watched Colt closely to see his reaction to the cat. Her grandmother, for whom she was named, had always told her that you could tell a lot about a man by the way he acted around cats. Most men favored dogs and thought it was emasculating to like a cat; according to Grandmother Macbeth, men who could relate to a cat were simply more secure in their manhood.
Chester picked his favorite spot on the southwestern print rug that occupied the space in the entryway, flopped onto his side, trilled and yawned.
“I don’t want to tell you your business,” Colt said, “But you may want to consider putting Chester on a diet.”
Lee frowned at him. “He is on a diet, thank you very much. We try not talk about his diet in front of him. Chester knows he’s on a diet and he’s very sensitive about it.”
Chester rolled onto his back, thick cream-and-gray belly fur sticking up in the air, his hind legs flopped out to the side while he busied himself intermittently
licking a front paw and rubbing it over his ear.
Colt looked at Lee with his lips quirked up in amusement. “I see that.”
Lee noticed the clock on the wall and realized that she was frittering away valuable daylight just hanging out with Colt when she needed to be having a serious discussion with him about his placement at Strides of Strength for the summer program. Even she had been sucked unwittingly into the charm vortex! Instead of discussing the very serious matter of his arrest and subsequent community service sentence, she was bantering with him about Chester’s very successful diet!
With a shake of her head at her own susceptibility to cowboy charm, Lee ushered Colt into her nearby office, waiting for Chester to mosey his way into the room before she closed the door for privacy.
“Have a seat.” Lee gestured to one of the armchairs, unmatched flea market finds, situated in front of her desk.
Colt sat down on one chair and Chester managed to hoist his hefty self into the chair next to him. Chester sat facing Colt, purring loudly and gazing at him with his large green eyes. He reached out his paw toward Colt to get his attention.
“He wants you to pet him,” Lee noted, taking a seat behind her desk.
Colt obliged the feline while looking around her office, studying the framed degrees and awards and pictures she had used to fill the empty spaces of her walls. Something caught his interest and he stood up and covered the distance to the other side of the room with a couple of long-legged strides. It was a picture of her standing with her first group of riders. She had started the program with two of her own horses, one speech-language pathologist and one physical therapist. Now she had enough riders to contract three therapists in each discipline.
“You’ve been busy.” He walked back toward the desk.
“Always.” She unlocked the drawer, pulled out his file and put it on the desk.
Lee had discovered in her twenties that the best way to put the past behind her was to run as fast as she could into the future. If she was busy, her mind occupied, it was easier to forget. Unfortunately, the past had a way of sneaking up on her when she had downtime. She had learned to resent downtime.