Page 10 of My Billionaire Cowboy Protector

“Racehorses?”

“No. I think that sport is cruel. They run the horses before their bones have stopped growing, which cripples a lot of them. Some owners just kill them outright when they can’t race anymore. I hate that,” Taylor said passionately.

“I’m not a fan, either.”

“I will raise show horses, rodeo horses, working horses, and personal riding horses. I’m actually thinking of going to school online and getting a degree in psychology so I can do equine therapy. There are a lot of studies that show how well it works,” Taylor said.

“I’ve heard that, too,” he said. “I’ve read a little about it. There are many components to and why it works.”

“Yep,” she said.

He rubbed her hand with his thumb and Taylor trembled a little. The attraction was almost overwhelming.

They ate dinner at the ranch house. Franny made her famous fried chicken and pan-fried cornbread.

“Chicken for two meals in one day. I love it,” Taylor said. “Franny, don’t you dare tell my mother this, but your fried chicken is better than hers.”

“Oooh, I’m calling your mom right now,” Sam teased.

“It’s an old family recipe. I’ll tell you want it is, but then I’d have to kill you. We do have a backhoe and fifty thousand acres,” Franny said, trying to make her voice sound dark and scary, but ending up laughing.

“Our neighbor has pigs. That’s just as efficient,” Colton offered with a grin.

“I might be scared if I didn’t know you guys,” Taylor said.

“We are pretty scary,” Willow laughed. “Terrifying, in fact.”

Taylor loved the banter at the dinner table. She felt as though she was one of them. It was a comforting feeling because, in spite of Melissa and her folks, she had felt as though she was drifting alone for so long after Carl died.

Grinning, she snagged an apple and went out to love on Diablo.

“Look at my handsome boy waiting for his snacks,” she said, biting off a piece of apple for the horse.

After an hour, she hugged him goodnight.

“Were you watching me the whole time?” she asked.

“Yeah. You work magic with Diablo. It’s incredible to see,” Lane said.

She smiled and then shyly she asked, “Do you want to watch a movie with me?”

“Sure.”

Taylor handed him a bottle of Golden Peak sweet iced tea and put a DVD into the player.

“Bottled tea?”

“Don’t judge. You wouldn’t like it if I tried to make tea the old-fashioned way. You would be lucky if you didn’t have to call the fire truck.”

“They’re water trucks, you know. They haul water, not fire,” he grinned.

“Man has jokes, huh?”

Taylor laughed when Lane said, “The Expendables?”

“Yeah. I love the franchise. The sarcastic humor and the banter between everyone. It’s terrific. I hate stupid humor and slap-stick comedy, but these movies have me rolling.”

“Do you ever watch romance or chick flicks?” he asked.

---