Chapter Four
Once outside, Chaseslowed to walk beside Ella on the path down to the barn and pastures.Damn, she’s pretty.She didn’t look twenty-eight either. Twenty-five, tops. That’s what he’d decided when they first met, but he hadn’t cared as long as she was over twenty-one, and she obviously was.
“How many horses do you have here?” Ella asked.
“Marshall and Damaris raise paints. I help out when I’m here. There are fifteen mares and two stallions, all paints. Marshall’s pride and joy, Snowdrop, had a foal a few months back. A colt. We also have several working quarter horses. A mix of geldings and mares. And a couple of old-timers who have been here longer than most of us kids.”
“Cattle?”
“Not anymore. Our parents ran cattle in the past but since Damaris, Marshall and I took over we’ve gone solely to horses. In fact, they’re in negotiations for another mare. Before long we’ll have to add to the barn.”
The dogs, or some of them, came to greet them. “I hope your dog gets along with other dogs.” He patted the heads of a few, told another couple to sit and introduced them to Ella. “This one here,” he said of a black Lab mix, “is Johnny Cash.” He continued, pointing out several others, all mixed breeds of varying sizes and shapes. “Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams. That’s Waylon and Willie in the doorway. They’re inseparable, hence the names. The others are around somewhere. I’m sure you’ll see them soon.”
“How many dogs do you have?”
“Nine, at the moment. But that can change if we get more dumped on us and can’t find them homes. Then there’s our brother Gabe’s dog, Buster, who’s up here a lot. Gabe and Chantel live in his cottage, which is down that way,” he said, gesturing in the direction of Gabe’s cottage and workshop.
“Are all of your dogs named after country-western singers?”
“Most of them. Damaris started naming them when she was little and she liked country-western music. Classic country western. Still does though now she likes current country too.”
“Who is this little furball?” Ella asked, picking up the reddish-colored Pomeranian. “He’s adorable,” she said, laughing when the dog licked her face.
“Rambo. He’s Ruthie’s dog. He lives here too, as does Ruthie.”
“Ruthie?”
“Ruthie Crawford, our cook and housekeeper. She keeps the place running. She’s out for the day or I’d introduce you.”
He took her down to the main pasture, bypassing the barn for now since most of the stalls were empty at the moment. Several of the horses came to see him when he whistled and he introduced Ella to them. To his surprise, even Maple came to see the newcomer.
“What’s your name, sweetie?” Ella asked as she petted her.
“That’s Maple.”
“Can she have a sugar cube?”
“Sure but she—” He broke off because Ella already had a cube in the palm of her hand and was offering it to Maple. To Chase’s surprise, Maple politely took the sugar cube from Ella’s outstretched palm.
“She what?”
“I was going to say she bites but she must like you.”
Ella smiled. “That’s good to know. Where are the other horses?”
“In some of the other pastures. Cappuccino, the original stud, pastures with a couple of the older geldings but we’ve got Thunder, the new stud, in a separate field beside them.”
They walked back to the barn, which they’d expanded several years ago to fourteen stalls. Snowdrop and her foal were in one of the roomiest ones, basically a double, which also had an outdoor run.
“She’s beautiful. And so is her colt.”
“Yeah, we’re happy with them.”
They walked by the washing bay and another open bay used for grooming before coming to the tack room. They kept the tack neat and organized. There were two connecting rooms: one where they kept feed, the other the office. Chase opened the office door and winced. He hadn’t looked at it recently and while he’d known it wasn’t in great shape, it looked even worse than he’d realized. They’d taken the files and other things they needed out and moved them to the library at the house. Then they basically forgot about it and it became a catch-all for a random assortment of stuff. Some would call it junk.
“This, ah, this would be your office.”
Ella looked around, clearly taking in every detail. “It looks like the city dump threw up in here.”
