“I didn’t give him a direct answer because I decided to settle it with you, first.We can’t take risks like that with the guests, Freddy.No more rodeos.”
So it starts.The greenhorn dictator.“You’ll probably lose business,” she said.“Lots of people come to the ranch just for the rodeo.”
“I don’t care.A lawsuit could bankrupt us.”
Freddy sighed.That was big-city thinking, all right.And to be fair, he had a point.Her father had loved the rodeo and hadn’t worried at all about lawsuits, but her father had been a lousy businessman.Maybe Ry and his partners would be the first to turn a profit from the True Love.
He paused and reined Destiny to the left.“Let’s check out that herd of cattle over there.”
Freddy surveyed the group of about twenty white-faced Herefords, their rusty coats burnished by the orange light of sunset.“That wouldn’t be a good idea, Ry.”
“Why not?”
Ordinarily, she’d have let him find out for himself, but all this talk about lawsuits had made her jittery.He didn’t own the ranch yet, and she and Westridge would be responsible if he decided to sue.“Destiny’s been trained as a cutting horse.Get him around a stray animal and he lays down some funky moves.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“Look, Ry, I don’t think you understand.He ca?—”
“Let me try, Freddy.”He nudged Destiny into a lope.“How bad can it be?”
“Ry, slow down!”She started after him.“You’ll spook them!”she called, too late to stop the cattle from scattering in several directions.They were used to crazy greenhorns, so they wouldn’t run far, but any minute, she expected Destiny to spring into action.
He did.
Freddy groaned aloud, but still she loved watching the hairpin turns and dramatic spins of a good cutting horse working cattle.Ry seemed to love it less.First he lost his hat, then his stirrups.Finally, when Destiny sat back on his haunches and wheeled a hundred and eighty degrees after a bolting calf, Ry lost his seat and landed with a thud on the ground, catching part of a prickly pear on his way down.Destiny continued rounding up cattle with even more efficiency now that he’d dispensed with his bothersome rider.
Freddy started toward Ry.It wasn’t as if she hadn’t warned him.That should stand up in a courtroom.She leaned from the saddle and snatched his new hat from the branch of a creosote bush.
“Have you noticed that the cactus are in bloom?”she asked.“That beaver-tail prickly pear is especially pretty in yellow, don’t you think?”
Ry looked up at her, his hair tousled, his face a grimace of pain.
She dismounted and dropped Maureen’s reins to the ground before she walked toward him.One of the prickly pear pads had stuck to his left hip, but he’d avoided landing in the middle of the plant.
“Just think, you can tell all your friends you were thrown by one of the finest cutting horses in Arizona.”
He rested his forearms on his bent knees.“I’m going to learn how to stay on that four-legged amusement ride,” he said grimly.
“In a week?I don’t imagine so.Leigh’s a good teacher, but she can’t work miracles.”She crouched in front of him.“Here’s your hat, and you seem to have a piece of prickly pear sticking to you.”
His blue eyes met her gaze as he put on his hat.“I’m aware of that.”
She didn’t dare look into those eyes for very long.He might be a city slicker, but his calm acceptance of disaster was a very compelling trait, and there was no Dexter around to chaperone them this time.“You’re lucky you didn’t tangle with that cholla over there.”She pointed to a jointed cactus with segments the size of hot dogs.“Now that’s a cactus with an attitude.”
“I’m developing one myself.”
“Stay there and I’ll help you get the cactus off.”She pushed to her feet and looked around for a stick.
“What about my horse?”
She walked over to a dead palo verde.“Destiny will wander back once the cattle are rounded up.He’s very well trained.”She snapped off a dried branch and returned to where he sat.“Now hold still,” she cautioned, crouching next to him again.“We might get all the needles to come out when I pry the cactus away.”
“And if we don’t?”
She studied the best point to slide the stick under the saucer-size paddle.“Unless you want to ride home this way, and drive the needles deeper, you’ll have to take off your pants and hope they stay stuck in the denim.”
“Shucking my pants is getting to be a habit around you.”
