by Karis Walsh
She sighed and looked at the photo again. She had to admit Alana had been smart to suggest putting the picture here, where clients had little else to do besides look at the walls while waiting for their appointment to start. Even without making them wait an extra few minutes—as Alana had suggested—the picture was working. Aside from Amy, Tegan had two other clients who had expressed interest in them. Once Lace’s six were adopted, Tegan decided she’d continue to highlight animals from the local shelters. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t thought of it before, especially since she would know exactly what kind of home her clients were offering. She had a bulletin board near the reception counter, but it was covered with flyers and too cluttered to negotiate in a short time. A single photo in here drew concentrated attention.
Tegan opened the door to the waiting room and called in the cat’s owner. She cleaned and rebandaged the cut on her patient’s leg, and then disinfected and bandaged the puncture wounds he left in her wrist. Yet another glamorous workday. She locked the front door after Dez left for lunch and went out to the barn to meet Alana.
Alana already had Charm tied to the fence and was grooming her when Tegan got outside. She’d come a long way in a little over a week, and she moved around the horses with a soft confidence in place of the stiff nervousness she had shown at first. Practicing with ten to twenty horses a day had given her an intensive introduction to the animals, practically squashing months of lessons into mere days. Still, she had an overwhelming amount to learn before she’d be ready to lead trail groups. Even though she hadn’t brought it up yet, Tegan had been assuming she would accompany Alana with guests for a while. She hadn’t taken a vacation for ages, so she could shuffle her clients around for a month or two and find the time. She’d pretend she was just along for the scenery—which wouldn’t be a lie, since she’d be riding behind Alana. She’d let Alana be in charge, but she’d be there in case one of her dreaded ifs happened.
Alana looked up at her and gave her one of those smiles that left Tegan’s common sense in tattered ruins.
She stayed on the other side of the fence from Alana, as if the narrow boards could protect her heart. “Hey, there. I have another client who might call you about coming to see the puppies. Her name is Amy, and she and her partner and their kids adopted a poodle last year. He’s a lot bigger than they’ll be, but he’s a gentle giant.”
Alana paused with her brush in midstroke. “Are they nice?”
“I wouldn’t send them your way if they weren’t.”
“I know. It’s just happening so fast, and Chip is going to be really disappointed when they’re all adopted.”
Tegan rested her chin on her arms and smiled. She had a feeling Alana was the one who was going to find it harder to let go of the little pups than she had anticipated. “Do you think he’ll want one?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to take one, but I don’t want to take any chances.” Alana stepped closer and lowered her voice, as if she didn’t want anyone to overhear her devious plan. “I’m trying to figure out which one he likes the most, and then I’ll give it to him as a present. He can’t say no to a puppy with a sweet little bow around its neck.”
“Just in case you’re going to try the same trick on other people, I should warn you that I’m not going to open any box from you, especially if it’s perforated with air holes, until they’re all adopted.”
“Please,” Alana said with a dismissive wave. “I know where you’ve stashed the spare key to the clinic. Don’t be surprised if you show up one morning and more of your kennels are occupied than there were the night before.”
Tegan laughed uneasily. She was sure Alana was joking, but she decided to move the key, just in case. As soon as Alana had saddled Charm, she came into the arena with her.
“I’d like to have you try to canter today, even though it’s not a gait you’ll use on your trail rides. You need to feel what the movement is like, so you won’t panic if a horse you’re riding breaks into a canter from a trot.”
“A canter? Are you kidding?” Alana slumped in the saddle with an exaggerated sigh. “I can barely get Charm to trot.”
“She thinks if she waits you out, you’ll get tired of asking and give up. You just have to be more determined to move than she is to stand still.”
“My mind is stubborn enough, but my body is on her side. I’m so sore I can barely get in and out of my truck.”
“You need a massage,” Tegan said without thinking, mesmerized by the way Alana was rubbing her thigh.
Alana’s hand stilled, and she looked at Tegan with a slow smile curving her lips. “Are you offering?”
Tegan stalled, searching for something to say that would sound witty or suggestive, or even that would change the subject entirely, but her mind was empty of everything but the truth. “I’m thinking about it,” she said.
Alana’s smile opened into a laugh. “Good. Let me know what you decide.”
Tegan tried to forget the conversation, at least until the lesson was over and she’d have time to consider every angle of it. While Alana was riding, however, she needed to be focused on keeping her safe and teaching her as much as possible. Still, Tegan spent a significant part of the hour contemplating which muscles she would most like to massage.
They managed to get through the lesson without incident. Charm’s canter wasn’t much faster or bouncier than her walk and jog, so Alana didn’t have any trouble staying balanced in the saddle. Her face was flushed by the time she managed to convince Charm to move, though.
“She didn’t even get sweaty,” Alana complained as she removed the saddle pad and revealed Charm’s pristine coat underneath. “To look at us, you’d think I was the one carrying her around.”
“She’d probably prefer…”
Tegan didn’t finish the sentence because she saw an ancient and bright blue Chrysler parking next to Alana’s truck.
“Your next client?” Alana asked.
“No, my grandparents.” Tegan watched them get out of the car with a familiar sense of foreboding. She usually saw them on the weekends, but they rarely came to the clinic during the week, unless Tegan’s mother was somehow involved. Her suspicions were confirmed when her grandmother got some containers of food out of the back seat.
“Hello, Tegan dear,” her grandmother said, giving her a one-armed but tight hug. “I brought you some food. Peach pie and tater tot casserole.”
“Thanks, Gran,” Tegan said, taking the containers from her and trying to smile. She glanced at Alana, hoping she would take Charm and go into the barn, leaving her to deal with this in private. Of course, she didn’t but walked over to join them instead.
“Alana, these are my grandparents, Maisie and Howard. This is Alana. I was just giving her a riding lesson.”
“You’re teaching lessons now?” Maisie asked Tegan with a frown after they had all greeted each other.
“Just the one.”
Her grandparents looked at her with nearly identical expressions of concern. “I didn’t realize you were going through a rough patch. Howard, write her a check.”
“Sure thing. How much do you need, pumpkin?”
Tegan winced, not making eye contact with Alana. Maybe she somehow had missed the pet name. A sound of quickly muffled laughter behind her let her know Alana had most definitely heard. Great.
“Gramps, please put your checkbook away. The clinic is doing well, so don’t worry. Alana is a friend. She wanted to learn to ride, so I’ve been helping her.”
Her grandfather finished writing and tore out the check, sliding it in between the two Tupperware containers. “Well, here’s twenty for you, anyway. You can use it for groceries.”
“Thank you,” Tegan said, knowing from experience not to bother arguing. She was just going to redeposit the money into their account anyway. “So, is she staying with you again?” she asked, referring to her mother without identifying her as such.
Maisie put her arm through Howard’s, pr
obably seeking moral support because she hated talking to Tegan about her mom. “She’s coming over on Saturday and she wants to see you. I told her I didn’t think you’d want to, but I promised I’d try.”
“We can have lunch. Roast chicken,” Howard said.
“Yes.” Maisie beamed at him as if he’d come up with the perfect way to make Tegan feel better. “And ice cream.”
Tegan stood in silence, feeling the old anger washing through her yet again, the way it did every time her mother returned. She always wanted something from Tegan and her grandparents, whether it was their presence and attention, a place to stay until she felt like leaving, or cash. Usually all three. Tegan hated being manipulated, but she would go to lunch for her grandparents’ sakes.
“Goodness, look at the time,” Alana said, even though there wasn’t a clock in sight. “I need to make an appointment with Dez for the pups’ next visit before I get back to work. It was lovely meeting you both. Tegan, thank you for the lesson. Should I put those containers in the break room fridge for you?” She spoke in rapid-fire sentences, as if she’d just realized how uncomfortable Tegan was and wanted to get away as quickly as possible.
“Thank you,” Tegan said, handing her the food and giving her hand a quick squeeze of gratitude. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“She’s pretty,” Maisie said before Alana had gotten very far away. “Are you dating her? Why don’t you bring her over for dinner some weekend?”
Tegan groaned. She could only handle one uncomfortable conversation at a time. “I’ll come Saturday, but let’s not make it a special occasion. I can go through a drive-through on the way and bring burgers or something.”
“It won’t be any trouble. Besides, you know we’d want to make it nice for you, not because she’ll be there.”
“I know,” Tegan said. “I appreciate it.”
She walked them back to their car, thanking them for the food and promising again to be there on Saturday. Once they had driven away, she put Charm in her stall and went through the back door of the clinic and into the waiting room. There she found Dez and Alana standing on either side of the reception counter, eating her peach pie directly out of the tin with plastic forks.
“Hey, pumpkin,” they said in unison when she walked in.
Tegan ignored what they said, concentrating instead on what they were doing. “I don’t remember saying you could eat my food.”
“You’ve seen my paychecks,” Dez said, in between bites. “I think throwing in a dessert now and then is the least you can do.”
“This is amazing,” Alana added. “How does she make the peaches taste like this?”
“Taste like what?”
“I don’t know. Extra peachy.”
Tegan figured she was used to canned ones, or the supermarket produce that was picked well before it was ripe. Neither of which was anything like the real thing, fresh and warm and juicy, right from the tree. Tegan pictured feeding her one when they came in season, and she filed the image away for later. “She buys them when they’re in season and cans them herself. Go ahead and take the rest home with you, if you want. I’ll probably get another one this weekend.”
“Hey!” Dez protested when Alana picked up the pie tin and headed for the door.
“Don’t complain. There’s casserole in the fridge,” Alana told her. She turned to Tegan. “Walk me out?”
Tegan held the door for her, and they headed across the parking lot. Alana put the pie on the front seat but didn’t get right in the truck.
“I told her about the pet name,” she said, wiping her hand across the top of the dusty rearview mirror. “But I didn’t mention anything else you talked about. I didn’t want you to worry I did.”
Tegan took Alana’s hand and gently rubbed the smudge of dirt off her finger. “Thank you,” she said. She hesitated, relieved because Alana wasn’t asking prying questions, but rather allowing her to share if she chose to. “It’s my mother. She’s coming for lunch on Saturday, or maybe to stay with them longer. I never know.”
Alana was quiet for a moment, turning her hand so it was loosely clasping Tegan’s. “They seem to love you very much.”
Tegan nodded. “They raised me. My dad…I remember how angry he would get. Smashing plates, screaming at my mom. When it got real bad, she’d take me and we’d show up at my grandparents’ house in the middle of the night. She’d cry and say she was leaving him for good, and we’d spend a week or two at their farm.”
Tegan laced her fingers through Alana’s and rested against the truck so their shoulders and arms were pressed together. “It was such a peaceful place. So quiet. Gran would bake cakes and pies for me, and I’d spend hours wandering through the woods and playing with their animals. And then my father would come. Cry, apologize, say it would never happen again. You know the pattern. And Mom would pack our things and we’d go back.”
Alana inhaled slowly, trying to calm her own anger while she listened to Tegan talk. She dropped her head to one side until it rested on Tegan’s shoulder.
“It would happen again, of course. I was five the third time she was packing our bags after he’d come with flowers and tears. Gramps came into the room and picked me up. He told her she was an adult and she could make the decision to go back to an abusive man if she wanted, but he and Gran weren’t letting me go.”
“She left you?”
“She chose him.”
Alana shook her head, her cheek brushing against Tegan’s shirt, wishing she could deny what Tegan was saying. She couldn’t imagine what conflicting emotions the little girl must have been feeling. Abandoned, as her mother walked away from her, but also relieved to stay on the farm.
“Have you seen her since?”
Tegan’s laugh was harsh and humorless. “Plenty of times. The pattern didn’t change just because my thread was pulled out of it. For the first few years, I’d try so hard to take care of her when she’d come running back to us. I thought if I could make her feel as happy with my grandparents as I was, then she’d want to stay forever. By the time I was twelve or so, I stopped making much of an effort. Now, I’d be happy not seeing her at all, but she knows I’ll come over when she asks me to because I don’t want my grandparents caught in the middle.”
“I’m sorry,” Alana said. The words were useless because they couldn’t change the past or make the present any easier, but Alana hoped Tegan could sense how much she cared.
Tegan squeezed her hand and rested her head against Alana’s for a moment before she straightened up and stepped away.
“I need something to look forward to on Sunday. How about a trail ride? We can take a couple of your horses and I’ll show you some of the trails you’ll be using.”
“I’d love to,” Alana said, feeling her mood brighten at the thought of an afternoon of solitude with Tegan and the horses. Maybe they could discuss the massage Tegan had so enticingly mentioned. “I’ve ridden every day, but I haven’t been out of the corral yet.”
“Great. I’ll see you then.”
Alana got in her truck and started the engine, lowering the window and calling out to Tegan who had just reached the porch. “Hey, Tegan. If your grandmother feels like baking a chocolate cake this weekend, bring it along.”
Chapter Eleven
“Oh, Alana, I thought I heard you come in,” Chip said, walking into the reception area with a jar of dog treats in his hands and craning his neck to look behind her into her office, as if she was hiding the puppies from him.
“They’re at home today,” she said, answering his unspoken question. “I only came in to make a few calls, but I’m heading back to the house to check on them. It’s my day off, remember?”
“Of course,” he said. “Why are you here, again? Isn’t Marcus feeding the horses?”
Alana’s first stop when she had arrived an hour ago was the corrals to make sure the barn chores had been done. She probably should make an appointment for a full body scan to find out what strange, horse-
smelling, puppy-sitting alien had taken over her body. On a normal early morning in Philadelphia, her first stop would have been the hotel’s spa for a free manicure.
“The horses are fine. I called the pool service this morning, and someone will be here Monday to check the pump and filter, and then fill the pool. I didn’t realize I needed to give them the serial number from the pump, so I came in to get it.”
“You’re amazing, Alana. Thank you.”
He said the exact same words to her at least once a day, usually after she had taken care of some aspect of his job he either had forgotten about or was trying to avoid. In this case, he had probably thought he could just stick a hose in the pool the morning the guests were due to arrive. “No problem,” she said, before tackling the next item on her list. She tried a tactful approach first. “So the grand opening is getting closer. Exciting, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. I mean, sure is!” He looked more concerned at the prospect of having guests than he ever had at the possibility of never actually opening the ranch.
“We have guests booked?”
He nodded. “Five rooms starting the Thursday before, and ten over the weekend.”
“That’s a good start. Have you decided what to do for the grand opening weekend? Any activities?”
He frowned, spinning the jar of treats. “Well, we’ll have trail rides. I wanted to lead some nature hikes, and maybe some more challenging climbs for the more experienced guests. There are some great walking trails along the Naches. I might not be able to get away from the desk, though, since I’m sure problems will come up on our first weekend.” He sighed, obviously already in dread about dealing with those inevitable issues. “And I was going to get a Grand Opening sign made and hang it over the door.”
“All excellent ideas. Have you considered maybe doing something to involve the community? Some sort of party?”
“No.”
Alana made a conscious effort to unclench her hands and relax her hold on the slim folder she was carrying. The circuitous approach was clearly not working, so she opted for a more direct one. She didn’t want to stand here all day having this conversation.