but she didn’t expect her to be. Not unless her current owner had found someone brave enough to ride her.
“Hey, Dani!”
She turned to see her high-school friend Gina Salinas waving at her from where she stood behind a stroller a few feet away. “I’m so glad you’re back,” Gina said as Dani reversed course. They kept up on Facebook, but it was the first time Dani had actually seen her friend in over a year.
“I had nowhere else to go after SnowFrost closed its doors.” Dani bent over the stroller to smile at the sleeping baby and was instantly charmed by his thick thatch of dark hair and amazingly long eyelashes. “He’s gorgeous.” Very much like his mother.
“I do good work,” Gina agreed with a satisfied smile. “How long are you staying?”
Dani straightened, rolling the sale catalog in her hands. “Forever, as far as I’m concerned. Someone has to live on the ranch and feed the cows.” All five of them. Sadly, the Lightning Creek was no longer a working ranch, but it was home and she was glad to be back.
“If you need a job, we’ll be hiring at the café soon.” Gina glanced down at her sleeping baby. “I cut back to half days to spend more time with Lucas and they’re feeling the pinch.”
“Thanks, but I’m going to start my own business.”
Gina glanced back up. “Horse training full-time?”
“What better time that when I have a fat severance check and can live rent-free?”
“What I wouldn’t give for rent-free,” Gina said with a roll of her dark eyes. “But my mom just moved in with me, so I’m not complaining. Much.” She smiled ruefully. “At least I have a live-in sitter and someone to share rent.”
“Dani!”
She turned again, this time to find herself enveloped in a bear hug. After nearly having the breath squeezed out of her, she careful extricated herself from the blond giant’s embrace. “Mac. Good to see you.” She and Mac had been close friend since sharing a table in the world’s most boring seventh grade science class.
Mac beamed at her before nodding a stiff hello at Gina, who smiled back tentatively.
“Hey, I’ll see you later,” Gina said to Dani. She smiled again at Mac, then wheeled the stroller away, disappearing into the crowd. Mac watched her go before turning his attention back to Dani. “You coming to the tavern this Friday? It’s one of your last chances to see me for a while.”
“Heading across the state?”
“The oil patch calls.”
“If I don’t, I’ll make it up to you when you get back,” Dani said, because she hadn’t yet decided exactly what her plans were. She hadn’t even planned to come to this sale until she’d heard that Lacy would be on the block. She was still unpacking and figuring out which project to tackle first on the ranch. “I assume you’re here for your paint mare?”
“You aren’t going to bid against me, are you?” she asked, only half-joking. Mac did love a flashy horse.
“Are you kidding? After what she did to her last owner? But I thought you might like to know that some guy has been hanging around her pen for the past half hour or so.”
“Yeah?” Dani asked, her eyebrows rising as her stomach twisted a bit. “Anyone I know?”
“I don’t know him.” Mac gave her a dubious look. “Are you sure you want this mare back?”
“Yeah. I do.”
She was halfway to the door leading to the holding area when he called, “You owe me a beer.”
“For...?” she called back.
“General principles.”
She laughed and waved, but her smile faded as soon as she started toward the pens. She was on a mission to rescue the horse she should never have sold. Her one hope was that the mare went cheaply, because the money she was about to spend should actually be going back into her business. The last thing she needed was for someone unfamiliar with the mare and her history to end up as her new owner.
* * *
GABE MATTHEWS LEANED his elbows on the round metal rails of the horse pen and surveyed the people as they walked into the holding area. So far no Danica Brody, even though he’d heard she was interested in buying the paint mare now eyeing him suspiciously across six feet of wood shavings.
Maybe he had the wrong paint mare.
Unlikely. The only other spotted horse in the entire barn was barely larger than a pony, so logic told him that the mare of interest had to be this one.
A deep voice with a distinctive country timbre came over the loudspeaker, encouraging folks to get their auction numbers if they hadn’t already done so. It was close to showtime and Gabe had thought for certain that Ms. Brody would check on the mare prior to purchase. Maybe he’d gotten bad information.
He dropped his chin to study his new boots as he debated. Cut and run? Hang out a little longer?
If she didn’t show, she didn’t show. He wanted to meet the woman for the first time on neutral turf and this sale had seemed like the perfect opportunity, but if it didn’t work out he’d figure out something else. Hell, maybe he’d buy the paint mare and Danica Brody could come to him.
“You like her?”
A feminine voice near his shoulder startled him and he turned to find himself looking into a pair of large hazel eyes set in a striking heart-shaped face.
“I do,” he said, hiding his surprise in a smile. Danica Brody had come to him.
She gave a small shrug and placed her hands on the rail a foot or so from his, studying the horse as he, in turn, casually studied her profile. She wore a straw cowboy hat and her long wheat-colored hair was pulled back into a loose braid fastened with a silver concho.
“Are you the owner?” he asked.
“No. The owner of this particular horse should be beaten about the head and shoulders.”
He laughed. “Yeah?”
She looked sideways at him, as if wondering if she should have spoken so freely. “Are you a friend of Len Olsen?”
“Can’t say that I am.”
“Wouldn’t matter if you were, I guess,” she said, looking back at the mare. “I wouldn’t take back what I said.” She frowned at the mare. “Do you know anything about this horse?”
“Just what’s in the catalog.”
“If I were you,” she said, “I would steer clear of this mare. There are a lot better horses here. Horses that would suit you better.”
One corner of Gabe’s mouth rose in amusement. Warned off. “That’s a rather bold statement, since you know nothing about me.”
Danica didn’t appear one bit apologetic. “I know horses and this isn’t a horse I would bid on if I were you. You won’t be doing anything but buying trouble. She put her last owner in the hospital.”
“Is that a fact?” he asked. “Which horse would you bid on if you were I?”
She eyed him for a moment and Gabe did his best to look as if he cared about horses. Then she pulled the catalog out of her back pocket and started turning pages.
“Any of the Dunning Ranch horses are good. They have excellent foundation stock.” She flipped a few more pages and pointed at a solid brown, rather boring-looking horse. “I know this gelding. He’s quiet and competent.”
Gabe nodded, trying not to notice just how good Danica Brody smelled as she continued to thumb through the catalog. Something spicy with a hint of floral. A nice change from the pungent smells that permeated the