Walking an entire circuit around truck and horse trailer, he didn’t think the axle was broken or anything like that, but without the help of a large tow truck, one larger than the rig he was driving, the horse trailer, with its sweet-faced occupant inside, wouldn’t be going anywhere soon.
With a sigh, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed Eaton Trucking, where there was no answer because of course there wasn’t, not on Christmas Eve. He searched on his phone for the nearest tow truck, dialed it, and got voicemail. Then he hung up, stuffed his cell phone in his back pocket.
He put on his gloves as he looked at the trailer in the blowing snow and shivered as he looked past the green-painted gate to the snow-covered dirt road leading to the main part of the ranch.
He’d never actually been to the ranch, nor delivered anything there, but he’d checked the route on his phone’s GPS before he’d left and knew that the distance from the gate to the main lodge was about one mile. From there, the barn wasn’t much further. So either he could sit in his truck while Cinders shivered in the trailer and wait for fate to take its hand…
Or…
Orhe could grab his scarf and down vest from the truck, and urge Cinders out of the horse trailer, which was leaning a bit where it rested on the slope of the shoulder.
He would check her over, making sure her blanket and leg wraps were snug, wrap the wolf-patterned throw blanket around her delicate, tipped ears, and lead her through the gate. From there they would have to trudge through knee deep snow, though only for a mile.
It would be pitch dark by the time they arrived at the barn, but he knew for a fact that someone named Bill, or maybe it was a guy named Clay, would be waiting for him to sign the shipping receipt and take custody of Cinders.
After that, well maybe someone would be kind enough to put him up for the night, and give him a cup of hot coffee, black would be fine, thank you. Then, while he warmed up from the inside, he could keep trying to reach someone who would help him with the truck and trailer, which might or might not be drivable, but which most certainly would be towable.
Come the morning, his life would start anew, though his prospects reminded him less like a new start and more like the end of a long, empty road.
CHAPTER 3
As Ty walked up the road to the barn in the snowy darkness, snow soaked through his blue jeans inside of five minutes, and the wind seemed to find every nook and cranny of his clothes to blow more snow into.
Trudging patiently at his side, looking adorable in the fleece throw that kept sliding down her neck, Cinders was more easily able to move through the snow than he was as they made their way along the road.
They went over a little stone bridge, beneath which the water was frozen solid and covered with heaps of snow. Only a few larger boulders peeked through the humps of white.
The pine trees and bare-branched trees sheltered them both for a short way, then they came out into a large clearing which looked like a parking lot.
There was a single set of tire tracks, mostly hidden with the recent snowfall and almost covered by the blowing snow. Two wooden buildings sat at one edge of the circular parking lot and between them were two empty flag poles, their tie lines clanking mournfully in the wind.
Ty paused to catch his breath, and for Cinders to sniff thewind, then she nuzzled his shoulder as if telling him to get a move on. With a slight tug on her lead, Ty started walking again, moving grateful beneath a canopy of pine trees, the air scented with the crisp smell of pine needles, a bit of dense, still air seeming to shelter them for a brief while.
Once on the other side of the glade, they came out into another clearing. On the right was a slope that led down to a flat area, which might be a frozen over river, or it just might have been an extension of the prairie, he didn’t know.
He was happy to see the main lodge up ahead, as it meant that only a little way along was the barn. The lodge’s windows showed only pitch dark inside, but there were footprints along the edge of the road leading from the lodge to where the barn was, and they looked fresh, which gave him hope.
Cinders must have scented the barn, for her ears perked, and she lifted her head, giving a half-whinny, the way a human might make a surprised sound at being somewhere that felt familiar, even when it was entirely new to them.
When she started moving, he had to hustle to keep up with her stride as she churned up snow, hanging onto the halter and lead with loose hands, in case she decided to bolt for the barn.
Cinders turned out to be more well-mannered than that, never moving faster than a fast walk and, in short order, they were at the barn. The doors were half open, snow swirling along the opening as if trying to get inside, a swirl through which Ty could see brightness, sense warmth.
He was about to knock when Cinder’s whinnied, sharp and hard, as if calling for a friend.
Startled, Ty jumped back, pulling Cinders with him, when one side of the barn door was opened. An older man stood there, back-lit by the low lights of the barn, the edges of his silhouette somehow warm, a golden, welcoming glow all around him.
The man had gray hair and a gray mustache and wore a plaidsnap-button shirt that strained across his pot belly, and overall he reminded Ty of the worn-out looking cowboys who nevertheless commanded the highest respect based on their experience. This guy knew his way around a barn, that was for sure, and as he looked Ty over, his blue eyes were smiling.
“C’mon in, young feller,” he said. “I’m Bill, and I expect this is Cinders.”
He reached out a hand to her, and she responded right away, making a satisfied noise in her throat, snuffling at his belly, his hand, looking for treats.
“Did Santa catch up with you, then?”
Bill’s hand was on the barn door, as if he was looking for a secret password from Ty before granting him admission to the warmth inside. Then he winked at Ty, and Ty suddenly got it.
“Yes, sir,” he said, somewhat loudly, in case anyone, a small child, perhaps, was listening. “The snow was putting him behind schedule, so I was happy to help out.”
