“Sure.” She looked between me and Dick, unsure.
“If you had a horse that was spooked, even if you just showed him a set of reins what would you do?”
“You’re asking me?” she pointed her thumb at her chest.
“Yep.”
“What the hell is this?” Dick asked. “Am I paying for the advice of some itty bitty girl who is just here to visit her own damn pony.”
My eyes widened at the rudeness of the man. He was a piece of shit and if it wasn’t for the fact that I loved his horse and it needed my help, I’d have thrown him off my land.
“I’m just asking Tally a question if that’s okay with you,Dick.” I turned back to her. “Go ahead tell me what you’d do.”
“I’d introduce him to things slowly. Maybe walk him around a paddock with reins hanging off it, or a saddle placed on it and then eventually take him to each in turn.”
“Anything else?” I asked, giving Dick a quick glance and seeing him roll his eyes.
“Obviously I’d check him with other horses, too, and by process of elimination anything that he came in contact with on a daily basis.”
She knew her stuff. “Once you’ve seen Dream Maker you think you could hang around, I’d like to have a chat with you.”
She frowned and shoved her hands into her pockets. “Sure. Shall I come to the office?”
“That would be great.” As she walked away, I turned to Dick. “Right, let's get those papers signed and you ever question mine or my staff’s judgement again about your horse, I’ll get you black-balled by every damn horse trainer in this country. Is that clear?”
“You can’t do that,” he protested.
“Yes I can, and I will. Everything I do is for the horse's benefit, not yours, so let me do my damn job.” I turned for the office. “Now, are you willing to sign under those rules or not?”
He grumbled and started to walk past me. “Just give me the damn papers.”
At least one positive had come from the morning. Maybe two if Tally agreed to take the job.
Charlie nodded and grinned at me from her seat behind Tally. She then held up a note pad with the words, ‘hire her’, written on it.
“You really want me to work for you?” Tally asked, sitting back in her chair and blowing out her cheeks. “I’m shocked. I mean thrilled, too, but I wasn’t angling for a job when I kept coming around.”
“I know that. You got me interested the moment you said you’d rescued Dream Maker from that piece of shit owner.”
She glanced over at Charlie. “You leave today, right?”
“I do and honestly Gunner is the best person to work with if you want to learn everything about horse training.”
I appreciated that from her seeing as we’d not exactly seen eye to eye over the last month or so. “Charlie will tell you that if there are any courses you want to sign up for, I’m happy to fund those for you. This is the salary.” I pointed out the section on the contract. “That’s a starting salary and after six months we’ll review.”
She looked down at it and I noticed her eyebrows raise. I knew it was a good surprise because I was a believer in payingpeople well. If you didn’t, well, you know what they said about peanuts and monkeys.
“Take that home, speak to your family. You live with your brothers, right?”
She gave me a warm smile. “Cole and Liam, yeah. Our parents have moved to Florida for Dad’s health.”
The name Cole Brown rang a bell, but I couldn’t think where. It didn’t matter, though, because it wasn’t him I was trying to hire.
“You didn’t want to go there instead?” I looked over at Charlie, not wanting the same scenario in a year’s time.
“God no, California is not the place for me.” She gave a little shudder. “No, I love it here but I was convinced I’d have to get employment doing something I didn’t love so I could stay. Either that or move away again.”
“Well, hopefully, I’ve answered your prayers.”
