LITMIR.BIZ

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      Finn was lost once again in eyes as blue as the Montana sky above them. As their gazes held, his heart beat faster and his breath became ragged.

      Then she blinked and released her grip on him.

      As he took a step away from her, he had to force his emotions back to equilibrium, frustrated with his reaction to her. It was as if he had never held a woman in his arms.

      He lowered his hands as she pushed her hair away from her face, looking everywhere but at him.

      “So, Jodie, you figured out what you want done with your horses?” Vic asked, slapping his dusty hat against his equally dusty blue jeans as he joined them.

      Jodie shrugged, looking past Finn to the corrals, where the horses were slowly settling down. “I’m not sure. I was hoping I could ride one or two of them.”

      “Today?” Surprise tinged Finn’s voice.

      “No. Oh, no. I’m not that optimistic,” she said with a nervous laugh, obviously still shaken up by her close encounter.

      With him or the horses?

      Don’t flatter yourself, Hicks.

      “You did say they were wild,” Jodie said.

      “So when were you hoping to ride them?” Finn asked.

      “I thought in a week or so?” She gave him a tight smile.

      “You’re here that long?” Her sister was gone, and he’d assumed Jodie would be leaving soon, as well.

      “Unfortunately, I’m here for a couple of months.”

      “If you spend some time with them, you might be able to catch one or two eventually,” Vic jumped in before Finn could quiz her. “Your dad let them run wild.”

      “Even if you catch a few, I wouldn’t recommend riding them until you’ve done some groundwork and round-pen work with them,” Finn added. “Settle them down.”

      “I thought they were trained?”

      “So did Finn when we tried to round them up,” Vic said with a laugh. “Guess it didn’t take.”

      “It’s been a few years since I worked with them,” he retorted.

      “You trained some of my dad’s horses?” Jodie’s eyes went wide and her eyebrows hit her hairline. “But you’re a deputy.”

      “He multitasks,” Vic said, slapping his hat again, grinning. “Catching crooks by day, horses by night.”

      “I didn’t know you were a trainer,” Jodie said to Finn.

      “It’s something I do on the side.”

      She nodded, as if storing that information away.

      “Tell me what you want done with these cayuses, Jodie,” Vic stated, plopping his battered, worn hat on his head. “I’m sorting mine out and loading them up on my trailer. Do you want to move these to the pasture just off the corrals or do you want me to let them go again?”

      She caught her lip between her teeth, as if thinking. “I’m not sure what to do. Dad’s will said we could offload the moveable assets whenever we wanted. Just not—” She stopped abruptly, waving her hand as if erasing what she’d said.

      “Offload as in sell them?” Finn asked in dismay. They were top-notch horses and had some superb bloodlines, though they were a bit wild. It would be a crime to sell them at an auction.

      “I can’t keep them if I’m not staying, so I guess I’ll have to. I should get a decent price. They’re good horses. Dad always needed to own the best.”

      “If you try to sell them right now, you’ll only get meat prices for them,” Finn said. “The only place you could sell them is at the auction mart.”

      “So they would get sold for slaughter?” Jodie sounded as concerned as he was. The horses now stood quietly, a sharp contrast to their behavior a few moments ago. The pinto hung her head over the fence, looking almost apologetic.

      “Hey, Spotty,” she said, walking over, her hand held up. To Finn’s surprise, the mare stayed where she was and allowed her to come closer. Jodie rubbed her nose, an expression of such yearning on her face that it caught Finn off guard. The horse nickered softly, as if responding to her.

      Jodie stroked her neck and then another mare, the roan, joined them. Spotty stepped to the side, her head down in submission. Obviously the other mare was higher up in the pecking order.

      “Do you remember me, Roany?” Jodie murmured, rubbing her nose, as well.

      “Some really original names for those horses,” Finn teased. “Roany for a roan, Spotty for a pinto.”

      “We were city kids. What did we know about proper horse names?”

      “You could have done an internet search,” Finn joked.

      Jodie shot him a wry look. “Internet? That complete waste of time? Besides, back then it would have been slow dial-up service.”

      “That’s right,” Finn mused. “We just got the wireless towers in the past few years. Now I can waste time even faster.”

      Jodie’s light chuckle made him feel better than it should.

      “So when you two are done...” Vic waved as if trying to catch Finn’s attention.

      “Sorry, Vic,” he said, feeling foolish as he turned away from Jodie. “What do you need?”

      “I’ll get my horses sorted out and we can load them up and be out of Jodie’s hair,” his friend said. “You stay here with the riding horses. I want to put them on the trailer last, and these two will get all antsy if I leave them alone.”

      Finn wasn’t keen on the idea. He knew he should get going. Jodie had held a dangerous fascination for him once. But she was too much like his mother, not enough like his beloved Denise.

      Before he could object, however, Vic was gone, leaving the two of them alone again.

      “So, if you behave, I can take you out in the back pasture,” she was saying, still rubbing Roany’s nose. “Just like old times.”

      “You enjoyed riding, didn’t you?” Finn asked.

      “It was one of the few things I liked about being on the ranch,” she countered, stroking Roany. The horse closed her eyes as if reveling in the attention. “Erin and I rode more than Lauren did. I missed it when...” Her voice trailed off again, as if she had other things to say, but either didn’t want to or didn’t dare.

      Which immediately made him curious as to what she’d been planning to say.

      “Anyhow, I wouldn’t mind going riding again,” Jodie was saying. “I’ll have nothing but time the next two months.”

      Finn knew he should let it go, but she’d raised his curiosity. “So why are you staying a couple of months?”

      For a few seconds she said nothing, just kept stroking Roany’s coat. Then a couple other horses came close, and the mare pinned her ears back and charged at the newcomers.

      Jodie stepped away, then wiped her hands on her skirt. “I’m between jobs right now.”

      “The waitressing one or the playing-piano one?”

      “How do you know about that?”

      “Your father told me. We did spend a lot of time together at one time.” And Keith had always talked of Jodie’s occupations with a hint of anger. He was much prouder of Lauren, who had gone on to become a civil engineer, and Erin, who was a graphics designer.

      “Both. But I have an opportunity with a band that hopes to start touring soon. They need a pianist and I’m on the short list.”

      “No

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