“Don’t worry, I will.”
“I assume he’sdropping bytoday? Or has he already?—”
“At one o’clock.”
“One o’clock? Gobble up that sandwich, girlfriend. You need to keep up your strength.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
When Angie and her crew had invited Adam to the Raccoon for lunch, he’d hesitated, knowing Tracy and Mila would be there. But socializing with the Rowdy Ranch crew was fun and meals together usually inspired more cool ideas for the bookstore.
He'd driven over separately and parked by the courthouse. He’d explained that he and Tracy had an online call regarding the road project and he wouldn’t be coming back to the house until later. It wasn’t a total lie.
A Canadian lynx pair had been spotted near the mountain road in question, but they might be an anomaly. The populations being monitored lived in the northwest part of the state and were rare south of Missoula. Their status was listed as threatened but not endangered.
That said, it wasn’t in his nature to ignore the impact of road construction on wildlife. At three this afternoon he’d be on a call with the leadership of two of the environmental groups voicing concern.
Tracy and Mila left the Raccoon at twelve-thirty, each of them giving him and Angie’s crew a wave on the way out thedoor. He could tell from Mila’s expression she was itching to question him about this latest development.
He’d expected either her or Claudette to track him down yesterday, but they hadn’t. When his mom told him the Valentine’s Day adoption promo had eclipsed their wildest dreams, he’d understood why they were AWOL along with Luis.
“I forgot to tell Mila,” Angie said. “This morning I texted my mom about that digital adoption program. She’s putting a link to it in her monthly newsletter. Her readers will love the idea of choosing a wild horse to sponsor.”
“I love it, too,” Kendall said. “I’ve already adopted a bay named Rocky. He’s a handsome boy.” She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her emails. “Here he is.”
Adam studied the picture. “Nice. I’ve seen that horse several times. We just got him last year. Luis put him on a list of potential trainees.” He handed back the phone.
Jodi reached for it. “Wanna see, Mama.”
“Say please.”
“Please.”
“Hold it very carefully.”
When Jodi gave her a solemn nod, Kendall gave her the phone and turned back to Adam. “Then Rocky might be adoptable for real some day?”
“Possibly. Luis never knows for sure until he’s worked with them and then they need to pass Monty’s vet check.”
“I can wait. We don’t need four horses yet, but I’m sure we will eventually. Although between my work schedule and Cheyenne’s, we barely have time to make another kid.”
Angie laughed. “That’s what we get for marrying firefighters.” She reached for her phone and scrolled to a picture. “Here’s the horse I adopted because he has my husband’s name, Dallas. Jodi, here you go, sweetie.” She exchanged her phone for Kendall’s.
Kieran leaned over to take a peek and chuckled. “Looks just like the fella you married, Angie. Same gleam in his eye.” He pulled out his phone. “Fancied a mare, I did. Twinkle Toes. Givin’ her to my granny.” He showed everyone a picture of a dainty sorrel with a white blaze. “Then here’s Autumn. Fancied that one for Sara because of the reddish coat. Kinda goes with her hair, it does.” Then he turned over his phone to the little girl and Angie got hers back, all without incident.
“You guys are awesome.” And Jodi was the best behaved toddler he’d ever met. “Be sure and tell Mila and Claudette what you?—”
“Oh, they know already,” Kendall said. “They emailed almost immediately with a lovely, personalized thank you. Those women know customer service backwards and forwards.”
“They love what they do.”
“You can tell.” Angie signaled for the check. “And speaking of loving the work, we need to get cracking on ours. And you have that online meeting coming up.”
“I do.” He glanced at his phone. Ten minutes. His body reacted immediately with a rush of heat. “Thanks for lunch. This was great.”
“We love coming over here.” Kendall extracted Jodi from her highchair. “Don’t we, snookums?”
Jodi nodded. Then she looked straight at Adam and held out her chubby arms. “Hug.”
