Page 37 of Dark Side of the River

“Pull it tighter later. Got it.”

She did seem to have it. She put the bridle on and the bit in the horse’s mouth. As she finished, she said, “So now I get to ride.”

“Nope.”

“What?”She sounded on the edge of a major breakdown.

“Tomorrow, same time, same place. I promise, you’ll get to ride, but you’re not ready yet to go farther than the corral for a while.”

Her face clouded, a storm coming, but she said nothing as she started to stomp away.

“But there won’t be any riding tomorrow either if you leave that saddle and bridle on that horse,” he said.

She’d made it almost to the stable door. She stopped, her back to him. He could see her internal battle going on. Her hands were clamped into fists at her sides, but she turned and walked back, doing her best to ignore him. She got the bridle off, the bit out of the horse’s mouth and finally the saddle off, put it and the tack away and took the stool out of the stall.

“Be sure to give your horse a treat after all that,” he said.

Grudgingly, she took the apple he gave her and fed it to the horse. “What’s her name?”

“Honey. You be nice to her, she’ll be nice to you.”

Holly Jo nodded, studying the horse for a minute before she closed the stall door and with a sigh walked out. He shook his head as he watched her go. Maybe there was hope. Horses had the power to help any kid willing to accept what they offered.

He pulled out his phone and called Tilly back, all the time reminding himself that he needed to stay clear of her. “Sorry, Holly Jo is a headstrong twelve-year-old hard to rein in. Reminded me of you at twelve years old. Remember that one rodeo where I dared you to stand on your horse and gallop around the arena and you did it?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Got me kicked out of the competition, which I’m sure is why you dared me to do it.”

He laughed. “Sorry about that. But come on—you know you were always too big for your britches. Someone had to knock you down a peg or two once in a while.”

“I beg your pardon?”

Cooper swore under his breath. This was not the way the phone call was supposed to go. He certainly hadn’t meant to be taking a ride down memory lane any more than he’d planned to be joking with Tilly. But he felt bad about the way last night had ended. He didn’t want there to be hard feelings between them. He liked her. Their easy banter made it fun, made it easy to be in her company.

He could pretend that they were just friends and that he wasn’t attracted to her, or that being around her was making it harder not to do something about it. “You said you found something?”

If she heard the change in his voice, she didn’t comment on it. “A flyer from a group called Dirty Business. They’re meeting tonight at nine. The problem is, I don’t know where. But I think I know someone who might. Pickett.”

“Our Pickett?” he asked, sounding surprised.

“The sheriff called earlier. He wanted to know if Oakley and Pickett had been dating. If they had been seen together, I’m betting it had to do with this anti-methane group.”

Cooper didn’t know what to say. Pickett was a hardworking ranch hand, but also one of the most cheerful and entertaining of the bunch. While he was a hard worker, he seemed to go through life without a care in the world. He certainly didn’t seem the type to join some underground group to protest coalbed methane drilling.

“He really doesn’t seem the type,” Cooper said.

“Does Oakley?”

“You have me there. You want me to ask him?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.” They were back to all business, on solid footing, so why did it make him feel sad? But she had called Stuart “sheriff,” if that meant anything.

“No problem. I’ll let you know what I find out. And I’m really glad to hear that Oakley is going to be all right.”

“But she doesn’t remember, and might never be able to remember, who shot her or why.”

He’d been hoping that it would be over by tonight—before this meeting of Dirty Business. There would be no reason for Tilly and him to go to the meeting.

They both were quiet for a few moments. “I should go,” Cooper said, digging a toe into the dirt floor, feeling uncomfortable, feeling more upset about the situation than he wished he did.

---