Page 45 of My Small Town Silver Fox Billionaire

“Well, he’s been talking to me about all sorts of things. Apparently, you two are going to ride horses here?”

“Yeah, we were thinking it.”

“Actually, I couldn’t bring Orchid today,” he explains, “but I still want to see the sanctuary.”

“Oh. I thought you wanted to ride,” I reason.

“Next time. Orchid actually had a small fever this morning, so I’ve got my vet taking care of him.”

“That’s fine. We can always come back again. Besides, you can still meet Clover, my senior horse.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he replies.

May winks and heads to the back. I follow her for a second.

“This is fine, right May? I don’t want to intrude—”

She turns around and presses her hand to my shoulder. She cocks her head slightly as her dark brown eyes stare at me.

“Sara, stop worrying so much.”

“I’m not trying to worry. I’m just—”

“I’ve got it. The animals are good. I’ll do the rounds. You just go spend time with Robert. And you know you can come here anytime to ride or just walk around and talk to your animal friends,” she says with eyes crinkled.

She’s an absolute saint. I thank her, heading out. Robert leans against one of the walls, reading the brochures.

“Ready to go?” I ask.

“For sure. Tell me where we’re going, Sara.”

“Out here.”

We head out the door, and I gesture to the pathway on my left, my hand brushing against the fence as we walk.

“We have a fence here to make sure none of them get out into the parking lot and also to prevent them from hurtingone another. But otherwise, it’s an open sanctuary full of many different animals.”

“Interesting.”

We walk to the gate and I open it. Immediately, Ramby the Schnauzer trots on over, bumping into my leg.

“Hey there, Ramby. How are you, boy?”

I touch his head, and he presses against me. I gesture to the dog as it sniffs Robert’s leg.

“He’s friendly, just old and blind.”

“I see.”

Robert puts his hand down, and the dog sniffs it, brushing his cold, wet nose against his fingertips. He pets his head and pushes the mop of hair from his eyes.

“What a cute dog.”

“Yeah, he belongs to May. He’s the first she rescued. He’s fourteen years young and still full of life. We just don’t want to bring him to a shelter or anything since we don’t think anyone would adopt him.” “Plus,” I say with a grin, “I believe it was love at first sight for May when he came here and that was that!”

“So, he gets to live his days out here. Honestly, he’s got it made, a great place to live and with May who loves him.” Robert hits that one on the head.

“For sure,” I giggle.

---