Noelle shifted beside him and her movement pulled her hand away from him.
“Sorry,” he apologized, “Butter doesn’t understand that I’m here on the job.”
“Butter?”
Noelle stood and turned to look behind him.
Or rather, above him.
Duval stood from the bench and tried to ignore the wooden groan it made.
He stared balefully at the horse who’d tried to take a bite of his hair. “Really, Butter?”
The Palomino mare had always been a bit of a troublemaker.
Duval turned to look at Noelle. “Butter is my sister’s horse. And like my sister, Butter had no problem giving me an attitude.”
At the moment, the mare was acting like a properly trained animal.
If it was possible for her to speak, she’d be saying something along the lines of, ‘Who? Me?’
She stood perfectly still with her head over the stall door and tipped her head to get a good look at Noelle.
Noelle gestured at the mare. “Does she… I mean, can I…”
If it was anyone on his team he would have told her to ‘Go ahead,” and step back for them to try.
It wasn’t that Butter was mean or violent in anyway, but she had a personality.
Again, like his sister.
“Come with me.”
He reached out his arm toward her and Noelle stepped up to his side.
Duval could have easily put his hand on her lower back to guide her, but he wasn’t sure if he’d be out of line if he did it.
Noelle approached the stall with him at her side and just a step away, he leveled a look at the horse. “Be nice.”
Butter, if it was possible for a horse to show human emotions, looked affronted.
And then, when Noelle paused her raised hand half-way, Butter stretched out her neck and put her muzzle within an inch of her hand.
“Go ahead,” he murmured softly, “give her a scratch.”
He heard a soft exhale of breath and then her hand lowered to touch the golden and white swath down the horse’s long nose.
Duval thought he heard a soft moan and smiled.
It took him a moment to realize the sound was coming from the horse.
“She likes it.”
Noelle stepped closer and lifted her other hand so she could gently scratch both sides of the horse’s face. “How could anyone be this close to a horse and not touch it?”
Butter looked damn pleased with herself and Noelle looked like she was about to lose herself in the ‘zone,’ as his sister Katie called it.
Duval lifted his hand to touch the horse’s neck, and the palomino mare must have seen him coming, because she side-stepped.
