“Threw it away? Why’d you let him do that?”
“He was driving.”
“Oh, Amanda, I’m sorry. Did you lose anything?”
“No. I’d backed it all up on disks, which I managed to save. But I can’t use them without a computer, which leaves me with little to do except practice scales on my dulcimer.”
“Well, you could teach yourself the piano. Or maybe go through theNational Geographiesin Zeke’s room. I’m afraid Jake let all the subscriptions lapse when we left.”
“I noticed.”
“If it doesn’t have to do with the breed of a horse, he doesn’t care.”
“What does he do in this house for relaxation?”
“The only time he’s in that house anymore, he’s asleep.”
Amanda fought the urge to smile. Well, not quite, she couldn’t help but think, her body remembering without her permission and tingling in the oddest places. But that wasn’t something she needed to share with Lee right now.
“I guess I’ll just have to find paper and pencil and do things the old-fashioned way. Then I’ll figure out a way to keep Jake from driving me nuts.”
Amanda almost groaned out loud at that one. Lee didn’t even seem to notice. “Don’t be silly,” she admonished. “Jake’s as happy as a pig in a peanut patch. Now he’s got an excuse not to leave the ranch at all.”
Amanda liftedd an eyebrow. It was his way, she could almost hear his sister say. Just like everyone else did.
“A pig in a peanut patch?”
Lee giggled. “I stole that one from you.”
“Well, you can have this one, too. Your brother’s so contrary, if you threw him in a river, he’d float upstream.”
“That’s him, all right. Isn’t he cute?”
Amanda was glad Lee couldn’t see her grimace. “Darling,” she retorted, and hoped she sounded disparaging enough.
Amanda had just said goodbye to Lee when Betty called to say that the roads were going to be impassable for another day at least. She rattled off a list of things Jake needed to do, and concluded by admonishing Amanda not to wander out in the snow, since Wyoming blizzards were no place to be traveling, no matter what the need. Amanda hung up shaking her head, and went right back out on her hunt.
TheNational Geographiestook up four entire shelves in Zeke’s room, a male haven with a decorating maturity arrested somewhere around the freshman year of college. The magazines were arranged in order and meticulously shelved. They were also thumbed like rosary beads. Amanda held them in her hands like a penance and stared sightlessly toward Jake’s room. She decided that it was about time to say good morning to him.
She found him over in the mares’ barn. Shaking the snow from the collar of the sheepskin coat she’d stolen from Gen and Lee’s room, Amanda started down the stalls, petting a proffered nose here, sneaking a peek over a half door there. She found Jake about five stalls down on the left. Seated cross-legged on the straw, his head bare and his voice gentle, he was busy singing to a brand-new foal. If Amanda hadn’t already lost her heart, that would have done it.
The mare looked up at Amanda as she leaned over the door. A pretty little chestnut with a blaze, she was slowly swishing her tail and watching Jake get to know her baby with placid acceptance.
The foal was four legs and a head, a wobbly, ungainly little thing with a high, reedy whinny. It stood right alongside its mother as Jake stroked its coat.
“You’re a sham,” Amanda accused gently, smiling at the sight of Jake singing and caressing the day-old animal. “Here I thought you were rough and gruff, a real Marlborough man. You’re nothing but a teddy bear.”
“Keep your voice down,” he retorted, still in that same singsong voice, his attention on the little animal who was nose-to-nose with him. “I have a reputation to uphold.”
“I think an ad in the paper should do it,” Amanda quipped, resting her forearms over the door and leaning in for a better view. “Maybe an announcement over at Stilwell’s.”
“See what I have to put up with?” he asked the foal. The animal sidestepped a little, butting into Jake with its too large head. Jake just kept stroking and singing, his broad, callused hands as gentle as birds in flight. “Smart-assed authors who think they know everything.”
“They do,” Amanda assured him, filled with the sweet beauty of the scene. “And they all say that you’re just a pussy cat in a Stetson.”
“I’m really mad at you,” he said, although the timbre of his voice didn’t change. The little horse lifted its head and nibbled at Jake’s hair, and Jake crooned a little more, rubbing his hands over the dark gray coat. “Clovis tried to wake me.”
Amanda couldn’t take her eyes from the gentle communion before her. “Women have babies all the time without men helping them,” she assured him, leaning her forearms on the door. “I was told Bitsy was no different.”
