Bobby tapped restless fingers on his denim-clad thigh. “I don’t have ponies or donkeys or anything like that. But we could try Rosalind and Beatrice.”
“Who?” Wes glanced at Emily, a brow raised. But she didn’t know who Rosalind and Beatrice were, either.
“My retired ewes,” Bobby said. “Their lambing days are behind them. They just lie around and eat, and produce some nice wool in the spring.”
“Those are some pretty grand names for sheep,” Emily said.
“Oh, I don’t know about that. Sheep have all kinds of dignity when you get to know them. Besides, I name all my sheep after Shakespeare’s characters.”
Of course he did. If Bobby found a time machine, he’d set the dial for bygone times without a second thought.
“Let me go get them. Hang on.” Bobby jogged to an old green truck parked nearby. He jumped in, got the engine sputtering to life and drove off down a dirt track leading east. Soon he was out of sight.
“You weren’t joking when you said he was a character,” Wes murmured.
“He’s a really special guy. He does amateur theater, he raises sheep, he goes to Renaissance fairs and speaks like someone from back then, too. Shelter Creek has its fair share of interesting folks, but Bobby is one of the nicest, and the oddest, for sure.”
They walked over to the fence to observe the mare. “You should take her,” Wes said. “She wants to be your horse.”
Emily stared at him. “Did she whisper that to you?”
He laughed softly. “No, I could just tell from her body language around you. She feels safe with you. That’s the most important thing for her right now, to feel safe.”
“I can’t have a horse, Wes. I work all the time.”
He nudged her gently on the arm with his elbow. “Hire me, and you’ll have a lot more free time. And you need it. No one should work as much as you do.”
He had a point. If she asked him to stay another month, she could get him settled into the routines of her practice. He was certainly capable of taking cases on his own and she could actually do something besides work. The thought was a little unsettling. She’d done nothing but work for so long that she wasn’t quite sure who she was without it.
“When I dreamed of getting a horse I didn’t imagine one that was such a fixer-upper.”
The mare seemed to understand her words. She put her head up, oat hay hanging out of the side of her mouth, with the most indignant expression on her face. Then she walked a few steps toward the fence and stuck her nose through the slats to poke at the hand Emily had placed there.
Wes laughed softly. “See? She chooses you.”
Emily reached out and stroked the mare’s soft, mottled nose. Her pale eyelashes dipped over the bright blue of her eyes. “You and that fancy face of yours. You’re a charmer, aren’t you?”
“I think you have a name for her, too.” Wes smiled when she glanced at him. “Fancy Face. Fancy for short.”
Emily smiled. “It does seem to fit her. Hi, Fancy. Do you like that name?”
The mare tossed her head, turned and went back to her hay pile.
“She probably feels like if she lets that food out of her sight for long, it will disappear,” Wes said.
The sound of an engine reached them and they turned to see the green truck puttering their way. Bobby parked, hopped out and gestured to the back. “Rosalind and Beatrice, at your service.”
Two ewes looked at them balefully from their thick bed of straw in the back of the truck. One had a white face. Bobby introduced her as Beatrice. The other, Rosalind, had a black face.
“You’re right,” Emily said. “These two look quite dignified.”
“They might be just what Fancy needs,” Wes said.
“Fancy?” Bobby looked puzzled.
“We named her while you were gone,” Emily said. “I hope that’s okay.”
He shrugged. “Personally, I was leaning toward Ophelia. But Fancy will do. It’s not Shakespeare, but it’s a good horse name.” He smiled. “Besides, I have a feeling this is your horse, fair Emily.”
“That’s what I just told her,” Wes said. “And I’m pretty sure Fancy agrees.”
“I don’t have time for a horse,” Emily repeated her earlier protest.
“Let your apprentice here take on a little more responsibility,” Bobby said. “I’m not sure I’ve met anyone who works as hard as you. As the Bard said, ‘Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore, so do our minutes hasten to their end.’”
“That’s kind of depressing,” Emily told him.
“Nay, it is simply a reminder that time is passing. Don’t put off the things you dream of for too long.” Bobby smiled at her, kindness creasing extra lines around his eyes.
“I’ll think about it,” Emily said. “I will. But it’s a big responsibility. Fancy deserves someone who can help her heal.”
Wes and Bobby exchanged a glance that Emily chose to ignore. She couldn’t take on a horse right now. She’d already taken on Wes. “Let’s try her with these sheep. But I think we should put out a separate pile of hay for them, well away from Fancy. Wes pointed out that she might be worried about the availability of food.”
“Good idea, apprentice. Come with me to get some hay?”
“Sure.” Wes grimaced at Emily as he walked by and mouthed, Apprentice?
She shrugged and laughed quietly. Bobby was good for tough, serious Wes. He should learn to laugh at himself more often.
Once hay was piled on the other side of the corral from Fancy, Bobby let the sheep in. They went straight to their hay and started munching, totally incurious about the horse in the pen. Fancy was interested in them, however. She left her meal and walked toward them. For a moment Emily thought there might be trouble, but the mare just snuffed at the ewes and settled down to share their hay.
“Look at her ears,” Wes said quietly. “They’re floppy and relaxed. She’s glad to have some company.”
“I’m glad Beatrice and Rosalind can be a comfort,” Bobby said.
“Can you keep Fancy for a few days?” Emily glanced at her watch. “We have to get going, but we’ll come back and see how she’s doing. Maybe tomorrow she’ll be comfortable enough for us to get those ticks off her.”
“I’ll keep an eye on her, and make sure she and the gals are treating each other well. Farewell until tomorrow, fair Emily and Apprentice Wes.”
Back in the truck, Wes turned to her. “Why is he calling me your apprentice?”
Emily laughed. “I have no idea. I guess he thinks you’re learning from me. Though when it comes to horses, I think I’m more of the apprentice.”
“You have a great touch with horses,” Wes said. “Don’t sell yourself short.”
Moments like these, when Wes said kind things that warmed her from the inside out, made it hard to maintain the professional distance Emily had promised them both this morning. But she had to. Staying neutral with Wes was a muscle, she reminded herself. She just had to keep flexing it. Practice makes perfect. She nodded in response to his compliment and started driving. Just move along, nothing to see here. She wasn’t going to get personal with the handsome vet riding next to her.
As they neared the main road, Emily’s cell phone rang. She slowed to a stop and answered. It was Maya. “Hey, what’s going on?” She glanced at Wes and mouthed, Sorry.
“What’s your schedule like today? Is there anything that can be moved?”
“We have a few routine vaccinations coming up. I can move them if we have to.”
“I hate to do this to you.” Maya’s tone was apologetic, but Emily knew her well enough to hear the excitement there, too. “Apparently there’s an injured bald eagle out at Long Valley Preserve. I don’t know much else about it. Someone saw it flopping around in one of the ponds. Want to help me catch it? Vivian’s not feeling w
ell and Trisha is too pregnant.”
Emily glanced at Wes. “Want to catch a bald eagle?”
“What?” He looked alarmed, then shrugged. “Um…sure?”
“Okay, Maya, we’re in. Let me call Lily and have her reschedule our next two clients. We’ll meet you at the parking area in Long Valley.”
“See you soon.” Maya hung up.
Emily called Lily to let her know about the change of plans. Then she turned to Wes. “So, this is the part of the job you haven’t seen yet. And it doesn’t have to be your responsibility at all, if you don’t want. When we find injured wildlife, I usually reschedule clients so I can help out.”
“And your clients don’t mind?”
“People in Shelter Creek are pretty aware of what it takes to preserve wildlife, thanks to Maya’s work with the wildlife center. They don’t mind, though sometimes it can get tricky if we have a wildlife situation and a domestic animal emergency at the same time.”
“You mean you haven’t learned to clone yourself yet?”
Emily laughed. “Not yet.” Then she started up the truck again and turned right at the main road instead of left. “Come on, Apprentice Wes. I’ll teach you how to treat an injured eagle.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
LONG VALLEY WAS west of Shelter Creek, just off the road that led out to the coast. It was surrounded by steep green hillsides. Getting out of Emily’s truck, Wes could see a boardwalk, which led out into the valley and kept visitors above a series of meadows with a stream that meandered between a couple of ponds. “I don’t remember this from when I lived here before.”
“It was private property then,” Emily said, rummaging behind the driver’s seat. She pulled out an old blanket. “Jace Hendricks bought this land when he moved here.”
“This is where Vivian found the salamanders?” Wes grinned. “He told me about that. Not a great way to start a relationship.”
Emily laughed. “I didn’t know Vivian as well back then, but I hear it was pretty much fireworks between them at the beginning. They’re happy now, though.”
“I guess we don’t all get things right at the beginning of a relationship,” Wes said, reaching into the cab to scratch Rex’s ears.
If Emily heard him, she didn’t let on. “This valley is also an important fall sanctuary for tule elk. It’s their only water source at that time of year. And apparently bald eagles live here, too, which I never realized until Maya called just now.”
“So what do we do if we find this eagle?”
Emily reached across to the glove compartment and opened it to reveal a pair of binoculars. She took them out and draped the strap around her neck. “We’re going to observe it and try to figure out what’s wrong. If we need to bring it in, we’ll try to use this blanket to subdue it. I’m sure Maya will bring a crate in case she has to bring it into the wildlife center.” She grinned at him. “Have you ever held a chicken?”
“I spent a lot of time working on ranches. I know my chickens.”
“When did you work on ranches?”
“In the summers. Our neighborhood in Houston wasn’t very safe. I didn’t want Jamie running around in the streets getting in trouble while I worked. So I got a job at a dude ranch outside San Antonio one year and they let me bring Jamie along. He did chores right along with me and we’d get good, home-cooked meals, a paycheck and a place to live away from the city during summertime. We went back every year after that. It’s where we learned to ride, and where I realized I could understand a lot about horses by watching them closely.”
“There’s so much I don’t know about you.” She sounded kind of disappointed.
“Ask me anything. I’ll tell you. I’ve got no secrets to keep from you now.” He winced. Why had he said that? Why remind her, again, of how he’d left her, and how his whole life with Jamie had been a secret for so many years?
“Back to chickens.” She moved their conversation back to safer ground. “Holding an eagle is just like that, only they’re a whole lot bigger. You have to keep its wings down against its body or you’re going to get smacked hard. And you have to hold its legs together so it doesn’t shred you with its talons. And watch out for its beak, too.”
“So it’s not really anything like holding a chicken,” Wes teased.
“It’s like holding a huge, angry chicken who will do anything to get away.”
“All right, then.” Wes glanced around the valley. “This wasn’t what I was expecting from my workday.”
“Working in Shelter Creek is rarely boring,” Emily said.
“I’m realizing that. Here I was thinking I’d move here and retreat into a quiet, uneventful life.” Wes winked at her. “I was as wrong as a rainstorm in July.”
“It’s so strange when you talk Texan,” Emily said. “I don’t know if I can get used to it.”
Wes tipped the brim of his hat and gave her his best Texas drawl. “No, ma’am, I guess you won’t.”
“Stop!” But she was laughing and he loved that he could do that. That he could get a little silly and bring that out in her.
“Yes, ma’am.” Then he dropped the drawl, because Maya would be here soon. “I’m going to get Rex out of the back seat so he can get a little fresh air. Luckily, the fog’s still thick around here, so we can leave him in the car for a bit.”
“Good idea. This is one appointment he can’t join in on. No dogs at the wildlife preserve.”
Wes hooked Rex’s leash to his collar and let the dog out. He took him along the side of the road, away from the boardwalk, jogging with the big dog to help him work off his energy. He needed the run, too. This day was a roller coaster. He’d woken this morning convinced that he and Emily were going to rediscover the feelings they’d had. Then she’d told him how much she regretted the kiss and they’d argued. Then there was the Shakespeare-obsessed rancher, the poor abandoned horse and now an eagle? All these years he’d thought of Shelter Creek as a rural dreamscape. A place where he would finally live the quiet life he’d always wished for. But he wouldn’t call this day quiet. Far from it.
When they got back, Rex was panting and ready for his midmorning nap, and Maya was there, unloading a plastic animal carrier from her truck. “Aren’t those usually for small dogs?” he called to her.
Maya waved the crate in his direction. “Dogs…eagles, you name it, we crate it.”
Wes grinned and gave Rex a drink of water. When he put the dog in the truck, Rex immediately flopped down on the back seat with a doggy sigh of contentment.
“That dog has two speeds,” Emily said. “Run and flop.”
“Pretty much.” Wes grinned. “Thanks again for putting up with him.”
Emily smiled. “If he didn’t have such fuzzy ears, I might not. They’re therapy ears.”
He couldn’t resist the opening she’d offered. “A little therapy might do you some good.”
She put her hands to her hips. “I’ll sure need it after spending this week with you.”
Maya was watching them with a small smile playing on her lips. “Are you two done with the witty banter? We should get going.”
“Sure.” Wes double-checked that the windows were rolled partway down. “Be good, boy.”
Rex lifted his head as if it weighed several pounds, then flopped it back down with a sigh.
Emily walked past him and gave him a mock glare. “Therapy? I think I know a cowboy who could use it a lot more than me.”
Wes winked at her and offered to carry the crate for Maya. She seemed happy to give it to him, though he caught Emily rolling her eyes. That woman had such a chip on her shoulder about independence. What was wrong with him carrying the crate? He had to be at least two feet taller than Maya. It made sense for him to carry it.
There was nothing unusual at the first pond. A great blue heron picked its way through the shallow water at one end, pr
obably hoping to spear itself some brunch. They continued on the boardwalk to the second pond. Emily stopped and put her binoculars up to her eyes, scanning the far shore. “There it is,” she whispered.
Wes squinted to see where she was pointing. It took a moment but then he saw it, huddled in the shallow water at the far side of the pond. It had one wing stuck out and one folded in and its head was just barely above the water.
Maya borrowed Emily’s binoculars and watched the eagle for a moment. “This is tricky,” she said quietly. “We really don’t want to go around the left side of the pond. That is known salamander habitat, and since it’s almost spring, they might be out and about. That means we have to go around the right side to get to the eagle.”
“So we’re hiking through that marshy area.” Emily’s mouth crumpled into a grimace. “It’s going to be wet and muddy. Wes, you’re under no obligation to do this.”
Wes glanced down at his fairly clean jeans and tan suede work boots. “I wish I’d brought some waders, but these will have to do.”
Maya flashed him a grateful smile. “I like your attitude. And with three of us, we have a much better chance of grabbing the poor guy if he tries to get away.”
“How do you know it’s a guy?”
“The males are smaller than the females,” Maya said. “This one isn’t that big, but it’s got all its adult feathers.”
Emily took the binoculars back and peered through them again. “Maya, I think it might have been in a fight with another eagle. It looks like it’s missing feathers, and I can see a spot that might be a puncture wound on its shoulder.”
“That sounds like some fight.” Wes held out his hand for the binoculars. “Mind if I take a look?”
“They battle for territory,” Maya said. “This valley, with all these ponds, would be pretty attractive for an eagle. It’s protected, there’s water and they’re not that far from the ocean, either. I guess they decided it was worth fighting for.”
Wes focused the binoculars on the eagle. Its beak was slightly open, as if it were panting. “It looks really stressed.”
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