LITMIR.BIZ

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she was also making a plan.

      The phone buzzed in her pocket and Dani pulled it out as she headed to the cow pasture to check the water tank with the sticky valve. “Hey, Kelly,” she said.

      “I might be a few minutes late. My brother went to town and Corrie needs me to help her load some hay, but as soon as we’re done, I’ll head over.”

      “Not a problem. See you soon.”

      Dani pocketed the phone again. Living alone was one thing. Training alone was another. It was so easy to get hurt and if no one was around, who would render first aid? So she’d arranged the equivalent of a babysitter until Jolie moved home. Her friend Corrie’s young sister-in-law was studying for the SATs, so Dani had arranged for her to study at the house during her training time. She’d have to come up with something else once school started, but for now, this worked. When Jolie came back home, as she promised to do when her internship ended, the problem would be solved.

      As she walked back to the house, she saw Gabe’s low-slung car cruise by her house. She was surprised he was awake this early, since as near as she could tell, he didn’t sleep at night. For the past few nights—since the standpipe incident—she’d woken up every few hours on alert, despite the fact that Gus hadn’t stirred. Every time she’d awoken, the lights across the field had burned brightly. City guy.

      Well, until recently she’d been a city girl, although she had a feeling that Gabe would not consider Missoula a real city. She didn’t know his background, but his demeanor didn’t cry out rural. Rural guys didn’t wear ironed button-down shirts with their jeans. Not that he didn’t look great in those shirts. And not that she was looking. Much.

      * * *

      BUYING A HORSE that needed training was more of an ordeal than Gabe anticipated. His goal was to find an animal that needed work, but not one that was so ill-tempered that it would be a danger to Dani. And then there was the matter of him actually riding it...he hadn’t been on a horse in two decades and he had a feeling that Dani might notice a small detail such as that.

      As he walked to his car from his fourth unsuccessful attempt to buy a suitable mount, his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket, noted the name on the screen and smiled wryly as he brought the phone to his ear. “Serena, I thought you weren’t going to call.”

      She gave a small sniff before saying, “I’m just checking on you as a friend, not as a business associate.”

      “Ah. In that case, I can tell you that living alone in a rural area is trying my patience. I need to find a hobby.”

      “What about the park you’re designing?”

      “Done.”

      “Design another.”

      “I’m working on a spec project.” It was a design he doubted he’d be able to use, but just in case Stewart was amenable to moving Dani’s house, he was trying to come up with suitable surroundings. It seemed a logical way to fill downtime.

      “I see.”

      “So, how’s vacation?”

      “Good. Good.”

      “Great.” A healthy stretch of silence followed, which Serena finally broke by saying, “If I had called about business, what would you have said to me?”

      “I would have said that getting to know Dani is slow going. I don’t really have a reason to hang out with her.”

      “After getting shot down.”

      “Yes. Twist the knife, Serena. You know how much I like that.”

      She laughed softly. “I’m sorry. It’s just that getting shot down does limit your options a bit, unless you two join the same club or something.” She paused for a thoughtful moment before going on to say, “How did you originally plan to make and keep contact?”

      “I planned to wing it.” He figured if he could dig up some information on her, he could decide how to proceed. It had seemed to work the first few days—the horse sale, her call to come and help her with the standpipes. Even the horse escaping had been fortuitous. But since calling her to make certain that everything was okay on her property—nothing. Not one bit of contact and Stewart’s call had only served to remind him that the days were slipping away.

      “And now?”

      “I’m buying a horse.”

      “Great idea. Do you know which end to feed?”

      “Yes. One of the few things I do know.”

      “So...you’re going to buy a horse and have her train it.”

      “Yes.”

      “And somehow not let her know you don’t ride.”

      “I’ve ridden.” In fact, some of the happiest days of his life had revolved around a big brown gelding of uncertain breeding, owned by the only foster family who’d treated him like one of their own kids.

      Serena made a disparaging noise. “When?”

      “A long time ago. Okay?”

      “So what are you going to do? Ask her to give you brush-up lessons?”

      “She prefers horses to people.”

      “And therein lies your problem,” Serena said on a note of amusement.

      “Maybe I could flip the horse.” The idea struck him out of nowhere, which was why he needed to talk to actual human beings sometimes. “Then my rusty riding ability won’t be an issue.”

      “Is horse flipping like cow tipping?”

      Gabe frowned, wondering what the hell she was talking about. “It’s like flipping houses. I could buy a young horse, have Dani train it and then sell it at a profit.”

      “Not a bad idea,” Serena said slowly. “Except I kind of wonder how cost effective that would be. And flipping horses might sound kind of mercenary to a horse lover.”

      “Okay, forget flipping. Maybe I had a traumatic horse incident as a child that I want to get over.” And maybe he needed to be careful not to stack up too many lies. Or any lies for that matter, other than those made by omission, which really weren’t lies in this case. Stewart needed the land. Dani and her sisters had once been on the brink of selling. Timberline personnel couldn’t find out about the prospective purchase. Given all those factors, omission was the only sane course of action.

      “From what I hear from Neal, your entire childhood was a traumatic incident.”

      “I overcame,” he said darkly, and then he smiled as the perfect answer struck him. “I’m going to give the horse to you.”

      “No, you’re not.”

      “Yes. I am. You can keep it here. Sell it. Whatever. That way I can have it trained and not have to ride it.”

      “Well, this has been a great hypothetical conversation. Would you keep me posted so I don’t have to call and not ask about business?”

      “You bet, Serena. Enjoy the rest of your time off.”

      “I hope I can,” she said softly. “Bye, Gabe.”

      “Bye.”

      Gabe pocketed his phone and started the car, waving at the horse owner, who’d started toward him and was possibly wondering if Gabe had changed his mind about the nasty beast he’d advertised as being the perfect mount for the right person. The right person apparently needed to be able to mount a horse that skittered sideways and reached back to try to bite the rider’s knee. Granted, the owner had been suitably embarrassed by the animal’s performance, but Gabe had no doubt that the guy would sell to anyone just to get rid of the horse.

      He turned onto the main highway and started following the GPS directions to the final place on his list. Now that he had a plan,

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