“No, they get too crowded and loud. We held events in the past, like the rescue’s anniversaries and stuff. There’s the outdoor arena for that. This was more for training and backup space for bad weather, but when she had it built, Ruth wanted there to be office space in case someone needed it.”
“I noticed there’s plenty of jumping stuff by the arena.” I waved a hand without thinking, which made Truce snort and take a couple of steps back. “Sorry, boy.”
Theo was done with the hay and patted Hope on his way past her. “Yeah, we’ve trained some horses for jumping before.”
“You have?” I walked with him to the door.
“Yeah. I have done dressage, too, if you can believe it.” Theo chuckled. “I might come from Texas and I’ve done the whole cowboy thing before, but here I learned that there’s so much more, you know. So Ruth asked friends to come and help us out every now and then. They taught me what they knew, and I have some experience in most things riding.”
“What’s your favorite?”
We closed the door behind us, and Theo pointed toward the maintenance building. “I’m going to get a water bucket for them.”
“Okay.” I corrected my course, so we kept walking together.
“I like trail riding, to be honest. It relaxes me like nothing else.”
I sighed wistfully. “Oh, I would love to try that at some point.”
“I’ll see what I can do, once things settle down.” Theo grinned.
He grabbed a large black plastic water bucket from right inside the door and turned back around.
“How do you fill it?” I hadn’t even thought of that before, and glanced around.
“There’s a hose behind the corner of the arena. We have one by the stable wall and it reaches to the corrals, too.”
“That’s handy.”
“Your aunt used to say she didn’t want to carry water, so…”
“Makes sense.” I smiled at a memory. “I remember carrying water for Perry and it suuuucked.”
Theo laughed. “I can imagine.”
A car drove to the yard then and parked by the office.
“Your volunteers?” I asked.
“Ourvolunteers,” Theo corrected me.
Wow, did that feel weird or what?
“Our volunteers,” I echoed the foreman. “What are they like? Anything I should know?”
“They’re a middle-aged couple. They both grew up on farms but have lived in cities their adult lives.”
“Ah…” I watched as two women in jeans, work boots, and flannels walked around the building and waved at us excitedly.
Theo lifted a hand. “You greet them, and I’ll be right back. I’ll go water the twins first.”
I swallowed hard. This was it. I pasted a customer service smile on my face and nodded. “All right.” The women got closer and I heard Theo’s steps retreating toward the arena. I took in a deep breath, stepping into the metaphorical boots I wasn’t at all ready for. “Good morning, ladies!”
Chapter 8
Theo
The ladies were solid with horses. That was obvious from the first moment they stepped closer to the paddocks. They were also the rare breed of adult who were excited to clean the stalls and be left to their task.
