I found Teller hopping the fence by the horse pasture.
“I think I’m going to head out—” Blood dripped down our roan gelding’s face. “What happened to Tenpin?”
“Not sure.” Teller tried to get close but Tenpin tossed his head. “Whatever it is, it hurts.”
Shit. “I’ll call Dr. Sanders.” The semiretired vet now only worked weekends, when he could charge emergency rates.
“Yeah, I don’t think we’ll be able to take care of this ourselves.”
Dr. Sanders would have the good stuff.
I called him. Teller and I managed to coax the horse into the barn. We had a stall where we could treat him without outside disruption, and since the horse was in pain and anxious, we needed all the advantages we could get.
The next two hours went by in a whirlwind. Tate had dropped by to see what was going on. Then Chance had to take a look. It was good experience for the kid since this would be all his one day.
Unless I had kids.
No. I wasn’t getting ahead of myself, and I wasn’t goingthere. I’d only just started dating after swearing I wouldn’t.
You’re going to hold my daughter back.I shook the words out of my head.
I folded my arms across my chest and watched Dr. Sanders as he rattled off instructions to Tate. I should have been listening, but my brain was stuck on a pretty little social media manager.
I stayed where I was as Dr. Sanders drove away in his early-aughts Chevy pickup.
Mama was standing next to me, her arms crossed like mine. “He was probably playing with Nugget and caught his face on a fence post.”
“I’ll see if I can find where he hurt himself,” Teller said. “Remove the hazard.”
Mama chuffed. “Horses will create a hazard if there isn’t one.”
We all nodded.
I started backing away. The siren song of Ruby in my house called to me. “I’m gonna head out.”
“I can always tell it’s a Ruby weekend,” Teller said.
Tate smirked. “Every weekend’s been a Ruby weekend.”
I wanted every day to be a Ruby day.
I ignored them and walked out.
“Hey,” Teller called and I turned. “I checked my email this morning. Tell her we got two inquiries for next summer. Weddings, and both brides wanted to know if they could name a mocktail or a cocktail.”
My grin spread wide. It’d only been two weeks since the Crock wedding, but Ruby had rolled out a dozen posts. Wynter had commented that they were getting more engagement than our normal content. I wouldn’t be able to tell if it translated into sales for a while, but the possibility of booking more events was promising. “She’s a natural.”
“We also had to add more tours for the rest of summer,” Teller said. “Her shit works fast.” He exhaled a frustrated sigh. “I might have to get in front of the camera.”
“We don’t want to scare the tours away,” I joked.
He glowered at me. “I’m gonna get you in a shot one day. We can compete to see who gets the most likes.”
I didn’t need to be compared to my brothers more than I already was. I didn’t need more proof that I didn’t measure up in the public eye. “Sure.”
“She’s good for you,” Tate said.
I shrugged as panic clawed at my chest. I gave them a salute and continued walking away before they could sense something bothered me.
