She smiled. “I don’t know. He was really sweet until you walked up. I think you scared him.”
“Are you kidding me?Iscaredhim?”
“Yes. He was just reacting in order to protect himself.”
Josh started to argue, then turned and looked back at the horse. The stallion was still watching their every move. “You game to try something?”
“If it doesn’t require my getting trampled to death, sure.”
Amusement curved his lips. She was beginning to think he actually had a sense of humor.
“I’m going to walk away,” he said. “As soon as I’m back far enough, I want you to walk toward the fence. Don’t get so close he can get to you, just walk toward him. Talk to him the way you were doing before. Let’s see what happens.”
He moved backward until the horse started to ignore him and started watching her instead. Tory began walking slowly toward the fence, talking softly, repeating the same meaningless phrases she’d said before.
“Hey, pretty boy. Star, that’s what I’m going to call you. You have that gorgeous white star right in the middle of your forehead. I bet you’re not nearly as mean as people say you are. I bet you’re really a very nice horse.”
As if in answer, the stallion lowered his head and trotted up to the fence just a few feet away from where she stood. He nickered softly.
Tory moved closer to the fence. Too close, apparently, as she heard Josh’s softly muttered curse. Fortunately, he didn’t come up behind her. Star blew out a deep breath and pushed his head toward her. Tory rubbed his topknot and ears just as she had before.
“Maybe I’ll come see you again, bring you an apple or something. Would you like that, big boy?”
His deep sigh tugged at her heart. He seemed so lonely. She could almost feel it. “Bye, Star.” Turning, she walked away.
“I can’t believe I just saw that,” Josh said when she reached him. “It was stupid, but it was amazing.”
“It wasn’t stupid. I could tell he wasn’t going to hurt me.”
“Oh, so now you’re an expert on horses? Somehow I didn’t get that impression before.”
“Okay, so I’ve never worked on a ranch and I don’t know squat about horses. It was a feeling, you know? Like we were communicating in some way.” She shrugged. “But maybe I’m wrong. Like you said, I don’t have any experience with horses.”
Josh glanced back at the stallion. “Look, why don’t you take the rest of the day off and we’ll talk about everything later?”
“I need to keep working even if it’s my last day. I need the money.”
“Fine, you can work out the day. Can you cook?”
“I’m a pretty fair cook. Why?”
“There’s a chicken thawing in my kitchen. Why don’t you let Mrs. T. go home early, take Ivy over to my place, and cook the chicken for supper.”
“Except for Clara Thompson, I haven’t seen a woman around. I take it you aren’t married.”
“Nope. Never have been. Cook me some supper and at the end of the day, we’ll talk, see if we can figure something out.”
Her eyes flashed to his. “Are you saying you might let me stay?”
“I said we’d talk about it, okay?”
Hope reared its beautiful head. She was cooking him supper. If she fixed him a good enough meal, maybe he would keep her on. She felt safe here in a way she hadn’t in weeks. Months, really.
Tory thought of Damon and hoped she wasn’t deluding herself.
Chapter Six
He must have lost his mind. Josh couldn’t believe he was actually considering letting the woman and her little girl stay.
