“All the time?” Ty scoffed. “I don’t talk about her all the time.”
Winnie gave him a dry look. “Please. I hear about Matilda every day—even days you don’t work here.”
“That is not true.”
“Should I go through our texts?”
Ty grinned at Matilda and stepped over to the notes at the side of her stable. “We’ll get your stall cleaned out in a bit, girl. We have to do the tack room first.”
Matilda stood deathly still, her eyes only halfway open and Winnie stroked her neck. No wonder Ty liked her. “I wish you could tell me what he whispers to you,” she murmured.
“She can have a candy,” Ty said, and Winnie turned toward him.
“She can?”
“This stable is mostly Lone Star horses,” he said. “Angel’s, Henry’s, Trevor’s, and any cowboys who work here and have equines, plus a few others.”
“So we got the posh job, is what you’re saying.” Winnie grinned at him. “And I haven’t met Trevor, have I?”
“I don’t think you have, no.” Ty moved down to the next stall. “This is Gypsum. Hey, you. How you doin’ today?”
Winnie stood with Matilda and simply watched Ty interact with the next horse. Gypsum, an eggshell white horse, lifted his head over the half-closed gate and snuffled at Ty.
He chuckled at the horse. “Yeah, I know, You’d just gotten here, and then the world turned sideways, didn’t it?” He leaned in close to the horse and actually touched the brim of his cowboy hat to the horse’s head.
“My life has changed a bunch too in the past couple of days, believe it or not.”
Winnie left the safety of Matilda’s side then, and she leaned into Ty’s side. “So this is Gypsum.”
Ty tucked her in close. “He’s my favorite.”
“Shh,” Winnie whispered. “You can’t say it so loud. Matilda isright there, and you literally just saidshewas your favorite.” She beamed at him, because Ty was simply adorable with his horses.
He grinned, first at Winnie and then at Gypsum. “He understands that life is unpredictable and changes constantly.” He stroked one hand down the horse’s neck. “Don’t you, bud?”
“He does? How do you know?” Winnie envied the horse in that moment, being tended to by Ty, without a care in the world. Not only that, but she and Ty would feed this animal, clean out his stall, and make sure he felt like a king before they moved on to repeat the process for the next equine.
“He was born to be a racehorse,” Ty said fondly. “He even trained for a few years, but then he got sold. No more running.” He sighed like this was terrible news. “Gypsum loves to run, and he got alittle fat and lazy at his new home. Then he got some foot rot, and his owner’s sold him to a hobby equestrian.
“She got him fixed up, and he started training to be a show jumper. He only did that for a couple of years, and then, the woman’s daughter got too old, and Gypsum came to Amarillo.”
“Wow,” Winnie said. “How do you know all of that?”
“Horses come with history,” he said. “Just like people.”
“Like, a written file?”
He smiled at her. “Sort of, yeah. His owner now is an ER doctor who works thirteen days on, and then has the rest of the month off. So we get him while he’s working.”
Gypsum blinked at Winnie, and he put off a more intimidating air than Matilda. “Do you tell him any secrets?” she asked the horse. “Is that how he knows so much about you?”
“This is Winnie,” Ty said matter-of-factly. “Remember, I’ve told you about her?”
Winnie’s eyebrows cocked up. “What have you told him?”
“Just that I was a little conflicted about you.” He glanced at her and seemed to realize what he’d said.
“Conflicted?” Winnie asked, her voice pitching up like her eyebrows.
