Andie shook her head. Her younger brother had been teasing her about hooking up with a cowboy since they’d learned they’d be helping run a place called The Homestead Inn. Complete with a large, bed and breakfast style hotel, dozens of private cabins, and a ranch that included livestock and horses the guests could ride.
“Andie goes nuts for Wrangler butts,” Emmitt joked, quoting the bumper sticker they’d seen in town.
“Why do you keep saying stuff like that?” Andie scanned the road ahead and came up empty. “And I don’t see anyone out there.”
“Not on the roadside. Out there, in the field.”
She turned her gaze to look through the passenger window, scanning the snow-covered ground until she spotted him.
A spark of intrigue lit within her at the sight. The cowboy wasn’t just trotting along in some leisurely stroll as she’d imagined. He and his horse were thundering through the field right toward them.No,he wasn’t riding toward them, just toward the road, she decided, guessing the horse preferred drier ground.
Andie set her eyes on the stirrups portion of the saddle where the cowboy was likely slamming the sides of his boots into the poor animal’s ribs to make him keep the pace.
“Barbaric,” she said. “How someone could do that to a poor, innocent animal is beyond me.”
“Dowhat?”Richard and Emmitt said in unison.
“Treat it like his own personal slave. Kicking and whipping it so it does what he wants. It’s atrocious.”
“Youdon’t know if he’s doing that,” Richard argued.
“Horses like to be ridden,” Emmitt added. “Or is it rode?”
Andie shook her head. “While I was dating a certain animal right’s activist,” she started, refraining from using her ex-fiancé’s name, “he discovered an entire horse farm with dozens of abused animals that the owner planned to sell off to a slaughterhouse in some other country. Several horses had died in his care, and the worst part is that he didn’t even bother disposing of them.” She shuddered.
“Not everyone’s like that,” Emmitt argued. “Cowboy’sliketheir horses.”
“I’m not getting into it with you.” Andie turned her gaze back out the window. The horse looked healthy enough, so he wasn’t starved, at least. But that didn’t mean he was cared for properly in other ways.
And to think there were horses at the inn. Andie couldn’t fathom the idea of cruel or unfair treatment toward animals, and she most certainly wouldn’t stand idly by while that happened in a place she was running.
She glanced back at Richard to see him gawking out her side of the window as well, head ducked and foot hovering high above the gas pedal. Too high.
“Can you just speed up, please? It’s awkward enough having him riding toward us without you slowing down. He’s probably headed to the town we passed through a while back.”
Richard turned his gaze back to the road and accelerated once more.
Andie used the moment of distraction to tuck the note back into her pocket. Forget reading it aloud one last time; it seemed neither of them wanted to hear it.
“I’m not just going to forget that you have that letter,” Richard warned from the driver’s seat.
Oh, shut up, she wanted to say, but resisted, mainly because the cowboy who’d gained their attention had done something unexpected. No longer was he headed toward the stretch of road they’d left behind. He’d changed course so that he wasstillheaded straight toward them even as they moved, seeming to gauge and even keep up with the speed of their SUV.
“This guy isn’t heading toward town,” Emmitt said. “He’s headed towardus.”
“Why?” An odd beat of panic thrummed in Andie’s chest. What did he plan to do? Rob them at pistol point, like they did on those old westerns Maverik used to watch? Or perhaps he hoped to intimidate the newcomers encroaching his land.
“I have no idea,” Emmitt said. “Maybe he heard you talking crap about him and his horse.”
“Maybe he wants to talk to us for some reason,” Richard said, slowing the vehicle once more.
Another dart of panic zipped through her. “No, don’t stop. I don’t want to talk to him. Driving toward a group of strangers isn’t normal. This guy is obviously crazy.”
“I’m sure he’s harmless,” Richard countered, slowing to a crawl as the man came even closer. Just a few dozen yards away now.
Suddenly her window started rolling down. Andie shot a look toward the driver’s seat panels while reaching for her own on the side of the car.
“Don’t! I don’t have anything to say.”
