Page 89 of Spur of the Moment
I brought my lips down to hers, brushing a faint kiss to her mouth. “I love you, too, Huckleberry.”
45
Bailey
Itook in the barn before me, all of the wood prepped for a fresh coat of paint.
We’d been working on this barn nonstop for weeks now, getting it done a couple weeks ahead of schedule. Lettie had finished with whatever she wanted to get done inside the barn the day after her birthday.
We deserved a day off.
We’d replaced the roof and most of the siding, redone the stalls and replaced the hardware. The barn had always been red, and I knew Lettie would want to keep that aspect of it. Every ranch needed a good ol’ fashioned red barn.
When the Bronsons’ personal barn was built, we’d painted it white to easily distinguish to volunteers which barn the rescues were in, and which one the Bronsons’ horses were in. ThoughNova was in the white barn, Travis had declared he was mine, and I was fine to keep him here.
Despite knowing Lettie wouldn’t want to take another day off, I made my way over to the white barn to start tacking up Red and Nova.
I fed them some grain while I worked on saddling them. Once they were done, I offered them both water from the trough, then worked their bits into their mouths. Thankfully, I’d worked on getting Nova over his hatred for the piece of metal, and he took it willingly.
Leading Red and Nova out of the white barn, I found Lettie making her way over to the paint cans with Rouge on her heels. Her eyes found me, confusion clear on her face. “What are you doing?”
I approached her, holding Red’s reins out to her. “We’re taking a break today.”
She grabbed them from me hesitantly. “But we’re almost done.”
“And we can finish tomorrow. Come on. I want to take you somewhere.”
I set my foot in the stirrup, pulling my other leg over Nova’s back. I reached up to pat the dark hair on his neck to reward him for standing still.
Walking off while I got on was just another one of Nova’s quirks we were working on.
Lettie hopped on Red, adjusting the length of her reins in her hand. “Where?”
I smiled, adding pressure with my legs. Nova started at a walk, Red following beside me with Rouge jogging ahead of us. “You’ll see.”
We took the trail on the west side of the property, leading up into the hills.
“Beckham left around four this morning,” Lettie said.
He was going back on the Wilderness Circuit, finishing it off before the end of the season. He came home when he could, but most of his time was dedicated to rodeo. I could never do what he did and love it. Being thrown off a horse is the last thing a lot of people want to do. Beckham somehow found joy in it, always searching out the most unruly broncs.
“I made sure to say goodbye to him last night. I’ll miss him, but he’ll be home again before we know it.”
“I know. I just wish he’d stop, find something safer to do. But I wouldn’t tell him that. I worry about him,” she admitted.
“We all do. Beck’s an adrenaline junky. If he retired, I’m sure he’d just go be a skydiver or extreme rock climber or something.”
She shot me a look. “Beckham not on a horse? I couldn’t see it.”
“You never know.”
“Maybe he could partner with Lennon at Tumbleweed. I’m sure he’d offer him a job if he asked.”
Now I was the one to shoot her the look. “Beck working retail? Do you know your brother?”
The birds chirping in the trees filled the silence that stretched between us before she spoke again. “Speaking of Lennon, I think I may have found him a new employee.”
“I know he’d been having a hard time finding one. Who is it?”
