Yeah. Me, too. One lost, sorry sonofabitch. Beat it, dog.
“Andy China.” Kyrie stood at the screen. “Mommy’s sweepin’.”
“Then come out here and sit with me.” China opened her arms and immediately Kyrie pushed the screen door aside and scampered to her aunt’s lap.
Maverick felt the child’s eyes on him. He didn’t look her way—it wasn’t like she could see through the Oakleys, but still. She might smile and that would wreck him for sure.
They sat in silence, the stray dog waiting to be invited onto the porch, and Maverick wishing the damn mutt would leave. It kept its distance. Maybe it could read minds.
Read this, Fido. Get the hell out of here and don’t come back.
“Oh, yook. A puppy.” Kyrie pointed her index finger at it. Of course, her finger was firmly attached to her blankie, so she ended up pointing the whole thing at the dog.
Fido noticed the flag she had raised. Both ears perked up. He came to his feet in rapt attention, his dumb tail wagging, like he had half a chance of a handout or staying. Maverick shrugged any kindness he might have felt for the homeless beast out of his heart. Not today. You better leave before you get hurt, too. Before you die.
Thundering hooves announced a runaway Percheron. Of all the horses it could have been, it had to be Star. X followed close on the big guy’s heels with a lead and a broken halter. Once Star rounded the burned shell of the barn, he stopped and reared back on his haunches, both front hooves flailing. He snorted, the whites of his eyes wild.
Poor Star’s whole world had changed, and he didn’t understand. It smelled bad enough with the fire and ash, but Maverick suspected the big fellow could smell death, too. He certainly could.
Maverick rolled his weary butt off the porch step. He raised both palms toward Star and walked toward the horse. “Whoa now, big guy. Settle down. You’re okay.”
Star fell to all fours, snorting as he tossed his mane in what sure looked like disagreement.
“It’s okay, Star. It’s gonna be okay, buddy.”
“He won’t let me touch him,” X said softly. “I’s jes tryin’ ta help.”
“’S okay. “I’ve got this.” Maverick kept walking. Star kept snorting and tossing his head, but Maverick didn’t hesitate. He took one final step before he pressed a calming hand to the middle of Star’s forehead, the other to his neck under his ear.
Star blew out one final snort before he lowered his forehead against Maverick’s shoulder.
“There, now. Whoa. You’re going to be okay, boy.”
Star shuddered and Maverick shuddered with him. The horse was just scared. His life had been brutally changed, and no doubt, he had heard the final screams of the two animals that died in the fire. Maverick felt a kinship with the beast. Star’s fear became his. He was there, too. He had heard the pain of a brother dying—alone. Without his big brother to hold his hand.
“It ain’t easy, is it?” He asked the right question.
Star huffed, but closed his eyes. His long tail swished and he stomped one rear hoof as if saying, ‘You’re damned right. It’s hell, and I’m still scared.’
“Me too, boy. Me, too.” Somehow the touch of Maverick’s hand sent strength to this frightened animal. They knew what the other felt. Star nickered soft and low. He sent enough strength to hold on for one more minute right back. Maverick knotted his fingers into Star’s black mane and bowed his forehead to what seemed like his only friend in the world.
The memory of what they’d lost was too much to endure alone. The smell and feel of the mighty horse at his fingertips pulled the grief right out of Maverick. He couldn’t stop the tears. Didn’t even try. Just held on for dear life as the anguish poured out. He had seen so much ugliness and suffering in his life, and now it had followed him to the beautiful wilds of Wyoming, a place so rare with skies as blue as the heaven in China’s blue eyes. Even now, she sat on the porch waiting and trusting. God, was the woman out of her mind to trust him the way she did? Did she have a clue what kind of a man he was?
“I let my brother die,” he confided in the horse. “I couldn’t get to him. He fell. I ran, but Gabe knocked me down trying to save me. Me! Me! Then Gabe got shot, and Taylor tried to save him and me, but... God. They outnumbered us. We were taking heavy fire. None of us stood a chance. We had to haul ass out of there just to save... ourselves.”
And there it was, the truth, finally spoken out loud. To a horse. I saved myself. Not Darrell. Not my baby brother.
Star nickered low and soft.
“They say it just takes time,” Maverick whispered, “but I’ve been walking a damned long time and it never gets better. Never.”
The morning sun warmed his shoulders, but Star’s gentle presence warmed him more. Maverick coughed and wiped his face. He had been walking a long time, but he’d brought Darrell with him every step of the way. The kid’s brown eyes were in the setting of every sun, the rising of every moon. He heard Darrell’s voice in the hoot owls’ lonely call at night and the cooing of doves at morning. And he didn’t want it any other way, because he would never—never—leave his brother behind again.
He leaned away from the horse and gave the big fellow one more scratch behind his ears. “You going to be okay now?”
Star didn’t answer, but he purred just like he had done up there on the hillside. Damned if that wasn’t the perfect answer for a man packing a shitload of guilt. Darrell would’ve gotten a kick out of this horse.
Maverick took a deep breath and let it release slowly. He had walked all the way to Wyoming, and just maybe—maybe—he’d finally found what he needed to heal.
He stepped away from Star, immediately worried if China had seen. He shot a quick glance over his shoulder. Of course she’d seen. She hadn’t moved an inch, just sat there on the top step rocking Kyrie, her eyes on him and Star.
Maverick swallowed his pride and reached down for the broken halter and lead. He looped the lead around Star’s neck and fastened the snap. “Let’s go see China.”
“Come on, sweetheart,” China called out.
Maverick didn’t want to know which of them she meant that word for, him or the horse clomping along behind him. He kept his head down and his feet walking. Thank God for Oakleys.
“Come on, my handsome guy,” she crooned.
Had to be talking to the horse.
Finally, Star stretched his nose to her outstretched fingers, and Maverick sat beside her, blinking the moisture out of his eyes and forever wishing he were tougher. Meaner. Hard enough not to break.
“Are you okay?” she asked, and Maverick had to look at her again to see if she meant him or Star. Things had taken too personal of a turn last night after the fire. He wasn’t sure where he stood with China anymore, but he didn’t want to take any chances. It was easier to assume the worst and be pleasantly surprised if things turned out better than they usually did.
Her hand was stretched out to the horse. Not him. Good enough. Star’s ears pitched forward, but he didn’t approach China. Instead, he spotted Fido and stood with nostrils flared.
The stupid dog wagged its tail. Fido took one step forward. The dog crept on its belly until it was nearly to the horse’s mammoth hooves.
Star tossed his head and watched.
“Look, Andy China.” Kyrie wiggled in excitement. “The puppy wants ta play.”
“He does, huh?”
Maverick heard the sadness in her voice. China was bone-weary and empty inside, too. She had nothing left to give, and he knew exactly where that hollow feeling came from. He had been there. Heck, he was still there.
Fido didn’t give up. He barked once and the horse tossed his head. Other than that, the two seemed content to size each other up and stare each other down at a safe distance.
The miracle happened slowly. Star stretched his nose toward the dog, his ears forward and his eyes alert while Fido stretched up to the horse. It looked like an old-fashioned slow motion picture, frame by frame, happeni
ng cautiously until the animals’ noses touched.
Star sniffed noisily. His lips reached out to sample the dog’s snout. Fido shied back a step, but no more than that. In a second, he was back at the horse’s muzzle, sniffing and wagging his tail. Star bumped the dog’s head with his nose, and just like that, friends were made. Fido wagged his tail and sniffed Star’s very impressive front hooves, then returned to the horse’s nose for another tail waggling round of meet and greet.
There was no wild neighing or flying hooves. No frantic barking or biting. No nipping. Only a very unhappy horse who needed a true friend in the worst way. What was God thinking? He had sent a stupid mongrel dog to be that friend. A mutt and a registered Percheron? Fido and Star? Who would’ve thought?
Maverick summoned his inner Marine and turned to face a very sad China. She bit her lip and he wiped his eyes beneath his dark glasses. They were Fido and Star all over again. He the mutt. She the purebred. And a world of hurt between them.
“You gave me cookies and milk.”
China looked at him as if he were daft. “I what?”
He repeated himself. “Cookies and milk. Last night. You gave me cookies and milk like I was a little kid.”
A tear eked out of the corner of her eye. She wiped it away. “Guess I thought chocolate chip cookies cure everything.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save them all,” he whispered as he reached for her hand.
China nodded sadly at Star. “But you saved him and everyone else. Thank you. You could have died, then I would feel so much worse.”
She leaned her head into his shoulder and that was all it took. Tears fell onto his shirt. He wrapped an arm around her and Kyrie, and prepared for the meltdown of his heart. Again.
“I couldn’t get them to move.” Even he heard the angst in his voice. He had pushed and slapped enough horse butts last night that they all should’ve run from him. He’d changed into the devil incarnate, screaming to be heard over the roar of the flames, waving his arms and beating the horses to get them to move. The only one who ran out the first time like a good boy and didn’t come back was Joker.
China interlocked her fingers with his and nodded against his shoulder. “Horses lose their heads in a fire.”
“But I thought once I opened the barn doors, they would get out of there.”
“You saved twenty-one. I’ll never be able to thank you enough.” She wiped her eyes and faced him. “Let’s focus on the good you did, not the miracle no one could’ve worked. Twenty-one is better than two. It could’ve been a lot worse.”
He gulped. Not a hint of recrimination lingered on her face. If anything, she looked grateful. At peace. He turned away, his feelings too raw. Twenty-one wasn’t good enough. He had lost two very precious friends. He choked as the memory of the mare’s big face in his chest came back to him. She had liked him instantly, but now she was gone.
Maverick knew it right then and there. He’d worn out his welcome. Pain followed him everywhere and China deserved better, but her touch anchored him. He looked down at her fingers still interlocked with his. She didn’t clutch or rub up against him like Leezel had. China was just there, breathing the same air and letting him breathe, too. Letting him decide to leave or to stay.
He removed the Oakleys, folded them and stuck them in his shirt pocket. His eyes were red, probably puffy, too. Well, so be it. She might as well get used to it.
“Morning,” he said sincerely.
“Good morning, Maverick,” she answered with a sad smile.
He nodded to Fido. “Looks like you got yourself a new dog.”
“Oh, goodie.” Kyrie clapped both hands and scrunched her shoulders. “Kin I keep him? Huh, Andy China? Pwease?”
China smiled down at the happy child, but then turned to Maverick with a pointed brow. “You do know that’s not fair, don’t you?”
He studied the stupid dog. “But he looks lost.”
China tightened her hold on his fingers. Damn, she had tiny fingers. How the hell could she manage the ranch? He honestly didn’t understand her will or her heart. It seemed a damned big challenge for one woman.
“Do you think he’s smart enough to stay?”
Maverick shrugged. He knew what she was really asking. Hell. He knew what he was really answering. He squeezed her fingers. “Maybe.”
Chapter Sixteen
The neighbors showed up in droves.
Fire Marshall Garth got the word out, and by noon, an army of good people descended on the Wild Wolf Ranch. Oscar Higgins from two ranches over brought a flatbed trailer with twenty-foot eight-by-eight beams for the skeleton of a new barn while Lon Denton from town showed up with his caterpillar and backhoe. The local vet, Betsy Connelly, arrived to give all the horses a thorough examination, and the local diner promised refreshments for everyone for as long as the rebuild took. All China had to do was stand and watch while the kindness of neighbors stepped into the tragedy and lifted her burden.
Before long, the smoking debris was fully extinguished and bulldozed from the burn site to the acre behind the barn. Leezel showed her puffy, hung-over face around one in the afternoon, angry no one had thought to wake her up from her stupor so she could’ve watched the barn burn. She had no comment on the tragedy that had occurred, only petulance that she had missed it.
Fire Marshall Garth cornered Maverick, and together the two men constructed a nighttime holding pen for the horses until the new barn was completed. They barely spoke as they worked. The serious expression on Maverick’s face made China smile. She remembered with a bittersweet tear the practical joke she’d played on him. He had been disgusted to feel a horse’s teats, but then he had stayed steadfast beside her through the delivery of that beautiful foal. She wiped her eyes. Her heart would hurt for a long time.
“Ya know, little girl.” Rich Williams stood at her elbow with a sizeable wad of chew in his cheek. He was one of the good ol’ boys in town. He still owned the tract of grazing land that bordered hers, but had given up ranching, content with just a few head of cattle and a couple of horses. He said arthritis took too much of his strength, and that ranching was meant for younger guys. “I’d be glad to loan you my Savannah Joy if’n you want to try your luck at breeding a white again.”
China clasped his proffered hand. Savannah Joy was a beautiful animal, too, but there’d be no replacing a mare like Gorgeous. Not yet.
“That’s very kind, Rich. I just might take you up on your offer one of these days.”
“Well, she’s yours for the asking.” Rich had a habit of working his jaw from side to side as he talked and chewed. Right now it sat to the right of his normal jaw line. “You know what I mean?”
“The whites are special, aren’t they?”
Rich nodded wisely. “Yep. They kinda glow in the dark, especially that Gorgeous—well, she was just like you named her. Never seen such a handsome mare in my life.”
China blinked fast and looked away. It was too soon to chat about the treasure she had just lost.
Rich put a kind hand on her arm. “I’m right sorry, Miss China.” He placed a whiskered kiss to her cheek. “They’s kinda like our kids, ain’t they?”
She bit her lip and nodded.
“I’ll let you alone, young ’un, but you ever need anything, anything at all, you come see me.” He tipped her forehead to his. “Lots of us folks think the world of you, little girl. You done your daddy proud the way you took over this place.”
China could only nod. Good ol’ Rich Williams had better turn around and leave before she burst into tears. A warm hand wrapped her waist. She looked up into Maverick’s dark eyes.
“Sorry, Mr. Williams, but I need to steal Miss Wolf for a minute, if that’s okay with you.”
Rich nodded and winked at China. “You steal her for as long as you’d like, young man.”
Maverick guided China to the porch steps where he had an icy glass of lemonade waiting for her. He sat next to her. They watched the neighbors scurry back
and forth, chatting and helping each other.
China composed herself while she waited for Maverick to tell her what he needed, but it took so long. Honestly, the man seemed content to sit and say nothing. Her curiosity got the best of her. “What did you need?”
“Nothing.” He stretched his long legs down the porch steps, leaned back on one elbow, and made himself more comfortable, which only added to her confusion.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused.”
“No. I mean, what did you want to talk to me about?”
He turned to face her, the sunglasses perched on his nose again and creating the wall he so easily maintained. “Already told you. Nothing.”
“Okay then.” She sighed a deep breath. For now Leezel was actually helpful as she worked with the lady from the diner, distributing bottles of water to the men at work and cookies to the little ones. Kyrie played with her new dog, Puppy. The temporary corral was finished, but for now, twenty-one four-legged kids grazed on the hillside.
China leaned back onto her elbows. Life was damn hard sometimes, but the good will of neighbors and friends had come to her rescue. She turned and stared at Maverick until he grew uncomfortable under her gaze.
“What?” he asked.
She gave him a small smile and a wink. “Nothing.”
The barn raising took seven days, and then they rested, which seemed appropriate because it was Sunday. The upright beams had been planted, the electrical lines were installed, and the concrete flooring needed time to cure. The neighbors promised they’d return in a week to finish the job, but for now the barnyard had fallen peacefully silent.
China toured the new facility before anyone else woke. By the time the barn was finished, it would be larger and better constructed than her old one. An indoor horse-washing station with a built-in hot water heater was in the plans. The feed store had already promised a free week’s worth of premium horse pellets. Even with all the generosity of her neighbors and the insurance settlement, she would still owe a hefty bank loan, but she would be okay. Loans were a way of life for farmers and ranchers.
Maverick Page 15