Page 31 of Moonlight Over Montana

Susie tapped the heels of her boots lightly on Nahla’s flanks and the horse eased forward, as if understanding where Jed said they were headed. Tonks and Birch walked abreast of each other, and Susie took the lead.

Jed adjusted his hat and made a clicking sound with his tongue for Tonks to pick up the pace slightly. “How was the rest of your day?”

“Stressful.” As much as she’d like to talk to him about what had happened earlier, she didn’t want Susie to overhear the conversation and give her something else to worry about. “Maybe we can talk later?”

“You know where I live.”

She laughed softly. “That I do. What about you? Did you get everything accomplished despite lack of sleep?” Conversation was easy between them, and it made Maggie think back to when she had briefly lived with Cash. Every conversation was laced with lingering anger about her getting pregnant and insisting she was going to have the child. She had never asked him to stay. It was about appearances for him. Leaving a pregnant woman wasn’t an option, but leaving the woman who had his daughter was a snap and he never looked back.

“Sleep is overrated.” The horses began to canter, keeping pace with Nahla.

Maggie fixed her gaze on Susie. She had a good seat and seemed to be holding her own, gently rolling with the horse’s gait. A light breeze teased at her long blond ponytail, and she glanced over her shoulder, Susie’s face beaming with happiness. Had she been wrong all these years to not let her ride for fear she’d get the rodeo bug like Cash?

“Nickle for your thoughts?” Jed asked.

“Huh?”

“You might want to loosen your grip, so Birch doesn’t get the wrong signals.” He nodded to her death grip on the reins.

Instantly, she relaxed her fingers, stretching them out and back into an easy hold. “I went down a rabbit hole. Sorry.”

“Something else you want to talk about tonight?” He eased back on the reins to slow Tonks to a walk and whistled for Susie to do the same. He called out, “We’re getting close to the river, and we need to turn around in about five minutes.”

She adjusted her seat in the saddle and said, “Already? We just got started.”

“It’ll be dark soon and we can go back a different way to stretch the return trip a bit.” He glanced at Maggie. “Is that okay with you?”

She nodded, relieved Susie was now facing forward and wasn’t going to argue with him. As far as Maggie was concerned, Jed called the shots out here. “She’s comfortable on Nahla. Once we move back to town, I know she’s going to want a horse of her own. She’ll have grown accustomed to having them around, living out here.” She took in the view, awestruck by the mountain range in the distance, the gurgle of the river up ahead, and the wide-open space on either side of the trail except for the occasional tree that would offer a bit of shade in the summer. It had been years since she felt this carefree. Typically, she’d be prepping for the dinner rush. Not so much this time of year, but there were kids coming in after school, the occasional family going out, or even date night for some couples. She couldn’t complain. The diner had provided her and Susie with a comfortable life. Even if it took long hours and a lot of hard work.

“I forgot how spectacular how the ranch is this time of year.” She inhaled the crisp, fresh air.

“Maybe you’ve spent so much time working that you don’t remember how to enjoy the simple pleasures life has to offer.”

She didn’t take that as a condemnation of her life; Jed was stating the facts. It wasn’t a secret she was always working except for two weeks of the year when she shut down and took Susie on vacation. It was important they had time away from their small town, so they went to places like San Francisco or Dallas. Picking cities gave Susie a glimpse of another way of life and each trip was her daughter’s choice where they would go.

“Turning around,” Susie called out.

Jed grinned. “She’s a good kid, you know.”

“Thanks.”

He gave her a quizzical look. “I can tell you have a lot on your mind. I won’t bug you anymore. We can just ride.”

Nahla and Susie trotted past them, and Maggie shook off her contemplative state of mind. “No need for silence, but you know a lot about me, and I know almost nothing about you. So, spill all the good and bad details. What is your greatest fear, happiest moment, and wish for the future?”

“Mags, there’s not much to tell. What you see is what you get.”

“Then start by telling me why you call me Mags. It rolls off your tongue like we’ve known each other our entire lives.”

“It feels like we have.” Heat crept up his neck to his cheeks. “Sorry. But I like you.” The coolness seemed to evaporate from his face.

“That’s a good thing. I like you too.” But were they on the same unspoken page?

“Anyway, I have parents and a sibling, but we don’t see eye to eye so when I turned twenty-two I packed up my stuff in an old pickup truck and headed to Montana from a ranch in a small town outside Fort Worth. I bounced around for a few years, working at different ranches until I landed here about ten years ago. I didn’t intend to stay longer than a couple of years like usual. Then one day, I was gettin’ the itch to pack up and hit the road, and Pops came down to the horse barn. I remember it just like it was yesterday. He asked me if I was about done runnin’ away from life.”

“Annie’s grandfather asked you that? How did he know you had a restless spirit?”

Jed gave her a side-look and said, “The man could read people better than anyone I’ve ever met. Of course, I said I wasn’t runnin’ from anything serious, and he said he already knew that. Said I was a good man, he could tell by the way I treated the animals and the other ranch hands. Then he asked me to do us both a favor and stick around for six months longer than I had ever stayed anyplace else and if I was still itchin’ to leave, he’d help me find my next gig.”

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