“You’re damned right I do. That’s Henry, Jenn’s brother. She must have put him up to all of this. It wouldn’t surprise me if she did the other incidents herself and then went to Pittsburgh and got him to do some of her dirty work for him.”
“Hey, Jameson,” Brendan called. “Did Grandma ride back from Pittsburgh with you and Mommy?”
“Yes. Grandma rode back wif us, and Uncle Henry too.” Jameson made a face. “I don’t like him. He looks mean and grumpy.” Jameson climbed on his lap. “I wanna watch too.”
Brendan scooped Jameson up. “How about we make lunch. What do you want?”
“Crunchy cheese!” he cried.
“Okay. Grilled cheese it is. I’ll make them if you wanna play.” Jameson hurried out of the room, and Brendan leaned over. When Lucas turned toward him, Brendan took a second to kiss him. “You really are pretty amazing.”
“And this guy is pretty dumb. Here he is on camera going in the barn, and out come some of the horses. Then, on camera, he opens the paddock gates. The thing is, if he had just gone in andleft the barn door open, all the horses would have been gone. But he opened the side doors as well, not realizing that not all the paddocks have a way for the horse to leave. Now he closes the barn door, probably to cover his tracks, but that also saved us work.”
“Yes, and look, there’s a real good look at his face.” Brendan picked up the phone and called Greg. “We have images of the person who has been causing trouble,” he said as soon as Greg answered. “What do we do with them?”
ChapterEight
Lucas halflistened as Brendan and Greg figured out their strategy. Rather than just sit and listen, he got the bread and cheese to make the sandwiches.
“Can I help?” Jameson asked. He had become Lucas’s little helper in the kitchen. There was always something that Jameson could do, so Lucas had him open the cheese slices while he buttered the bread. Some of the cheese came out in pieces, but Lucas put them on the bread and set the buttered sandwiches on the tray. Then he heated up the pan and got the sandwiches cooking.
“What’s the rule about pans and the stove?” Lucas asked Jameson.
“No touch,” he said, and pulled his hands back.
Lucas grinned at him. “Perfect.” He turned the sandwiches. “Look at those.”
“Yummy,” Jameson said, and jumped down from his stool. “We make crunchy cheese.”
Lucas got plates and took the finished sandwiches out of the pan. He cut Jameson’s in quarters and put it in front of him. Then he took the other and gave it to Brendan, who finished his call and sat the phone on the table.
“Greg is going to stop by on his way home.” He took a bite of the sandwich. “Thank you for cooking… again.” He smiled.
“Lucas cooks good,” Jameson said with a cheesy smile.
“Better than me?” Brendan asked, cheekily.
Jameson didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Lucas laughed and held up his hand. Jameson gave him a high five and then broke into giggles. Brendan, thankfully, took it good-naturedly. Lucas got a glass of apple juice andmugs of coffee before sitting down with his sandwiches. “What a morning. It seems like we’ve had so much happen already today.” It almost seemed like they should be having dinner for as much time it felt like had passed.
“Yeah. I’m worn out, and I’m supposed to teach a class this evening, but if this rain doesn’t let up, I swear we’re all going to wash away.”
“Do you go ahead with classes even though it’s raining?” Lucas asked.
“Probably not. I have my young riders tonight, and the last thing I want is for them to get sick. I probably would hold class if it were the adults because they know how to dress for this kind of weather.” He looked out the window as the rain continued coming down. It wasn’t pouring, but steady and just enough to make everything wet and drippy.
“What do we have to do this afternoon?” Lucas asked. “I know you wanted to relocate the goats, but today probably isn’t the best time for that.”
“No. The animals are pretty much bedded down with the wet. All the horses are inside and dry. Tomorrow there will be a number of them that will need exercise, but for today, they’re fine. I’ll need to spot-check the stalls, because with all the horses in the barn, they make a lot of poop, and I hate a stinky barn.”
“Daddy, you said poop.” Jameson chimed up.
“Yes, I did.
“That’s a bad word.”
“Why?” Brendan asked. “Horses poop, goats poop, so do the chickens. You poop too. With a home like this with lots of animals, there’s lots of poop. Daddy has to shovel it out of the barn so it stays clean.”
