Chapter Seventeen
Alex was certainly not dressed for ranch life. He had packed some casual clothing, but his khakis weren’t rated for this sort of muck, either. By “muck” he was referring to the coating of some sort of mud substance that was currently covering his twelve hundred dollar Italian leather shoes.
“So we’ll just show you around the barn a little.” The man named Curly had a glint in his eyes that Alex was not comfortable with. “You said you got some farm experience, right?”
“I own a horse farm in Russian,” Alex said drily. “I hardly think the two are comparable.”
Curly drew back as though Alex had struck him. “Well now, you don’t need to be snooty about it, mister expensive horse farm owner.”
The one they called Lefty appeared before them, leaning against the barn wall. “You know,” he began in an exaggerated drawl. “The most expensive liquid in the world is cutting horse semen. It ain’t some kind of fancy racehorse jiz. No siree. It’s cutting horse sperm.”
This had to be an alternate universe. Alex sighed and tried to hang onto his temper. It would do him no good to get “uppity” with these men. He would have to tough it out and hope to God they didn’t kill him—or worse.
The barn was surprisingly clean inside. The stalls were roomy, at least 12x14 boxes, each with a corner feeder and a water bucket. There was no green mold growing in the buckets, and the stalls did not reek of the ammonia smell that sometimes accompanied a poorly cleaned facility. The horses each poked their heads out over their half doors. They certainly came in a variety of colors. Alex had never seen so many combinations. Their faces were blazed, starred, snipped, and there were even a few with blue eyes. Fascinating.
Forgetting for a moment that he was under the scrutiny of these grizzled veteran “cow hands,” Alex walked to the nearest stall and stroked the nose of the occupant. The horse nickered and nosed him as though looking for a handout. Other than the fact that the equine was shockingly short, the horse seemed to be lovely. Alex murmured in Russian and scratched its ears.
“Look at that,” Curly muttered. “Apparently he knows the front side from the back side.”
“That means he’s not a total horse’s ass,” Lefty joked.
Then Lori made an appearance. Both men shut their mouths and did their best to look respectful. Their behavior was almost comical to watch. Alex kept an eye on the woman, but continued to focus his attention on the little painted horse. The animal had irregular blotches of white over its predominantly chestnut body. The pattern was rather eye catching.
“That’s Lightning,” Lori offered. “He’s one of my registered paints.”
“Paint?”
“It’s a color breed.” Lori gestured to his markings. “They’re built very similar to a Quarter Horse or a stock horse, although some are quite different.”
“Yes.” Alex nodded his head. “I’ve seen several Warmbloods with similar colorations. I believe they have their own registry.”
“Warmbloods of color,” Lori agreed. “Apparently you know something about good horses.”
“Jumpers and hunters,” Alex mused. “I must say that these horses appear to be ponies to my eye.”
Curly guffawed. “Ponies? That horse is a good fifteen hands tall!”
“Which makes Lightning here about five feet tall at the shoulder,” Lori retorted. “I would guess that Mr. Stepanov is used to a horse being about a foot taller.”
“Yes.” Alex smiled. “My personal hunter is just over eighteen hands.”
Curly whistled. “That’s a damn big horse. Bet it can run!”
“He can,” Alex agreed. “But I believe the point of your shorter mounts is to keep the center of gravity low. I cannot possibly imagine my Trova chasing cows. He would be most likely to run in the opposite direction.”
The men were now laughing loudly. Alex felt like he was making some headway with them. At least they hadn’t thrown him into a cow pile or something equally disgusting.
“Come on then,” Lori said, gesturing for him to follow her out the backside of the barn. “Let’s go watch the boys work some of these horses. That way you can get an idea of what you’re in for.”
Alex had to admit that he was rather interested to see what they were talking about. Perhaps the whole Wild West thing was all in his head, and there was more in common between the style of riding he had grown up with and this strange working West version.
He followed Lori through the barn. There were several horses out in cross ties being groomed. Several more were already being saddled and bridled. Alex could not help but gape at the giant saddles the men were placing on their tiny mounts. There had to be sixty pounds of leather and silver on those things. If a traditional cowpoke—as immortalized by history—then hung fifty pounds of gear on his saddle, a horse could potentially be wearing over a hundred pounds before the two hundred pound rider even mounted! Alex began to understand why the pony-sized mounts they rode were built with so much muscle and bone.
Lori and Alex emerged from the barn into the sunlight of a warm Texas afternoon. Alex was already sweating. He was thankful that Lori chose a spot beneath a lovely tree to sit and watch the upcoming show. Four men were already mounted in the big corral. They were walking their horses around in pairs as though they were enjoying social hour.
“Tyler!” Lori was waving at a young man sitting on the fence about a hundred yards away. “Let the calves loose and let’s get some work done!”
Tyler tipped his hat to Lori. “Yes ma’am!”
***
MADDIE HAD NO notion of how long she might have slept. She felt better. Oddly enough, she had no moment of disorientation about where she was. Considering the fact that she hadn’t slept in her own bed for what felt like ages, that was quite a feat in her mind.
She stretched in the bed and stared at her white walls. There were a few animal posters still hanging up. Her single horse show trophy was still displayed on the chest of drawers. She’d been so proud to win that. It wasn’t easy to compete against a bunch of local girls who got to ride and practice all year long. Maddie had only been able to ride horses during her summers here at the ranch. Her father hadn’t had any interest in his girls pursuing any equestrian interests back in Dallas. He had told her a thousand times that it was too expensive to keep a horse in the city. Maddie would have rather just stayed with Aunt Lori all year long, but Daddy wouldn’t hear of it.
Rolling to the edge of the bed, Maddie sat up and rubbed her eyes. There was a lot of shouting going on outside. It sounded like all of the ranch hands were gathered at the arena for something.
She reached for her shoes and pulled them on. She was still yawning every other second. The info she’d read online said that women often felt super tired during pregnancy. Maddie really needed to find a doctor and start doing normal pregnant woman stuff like taking vitamins and getting ultrasounds, but they hadn’t stayed in one place long enough for that to happen. A doctor in Croatia had examined her briefly after Yuri’s attack, but the man hadn’t spoken English, so it wasn’t as if she could ask him any questions.
Standing and stretching felt great. Her spine popped, and she yawned yet again. Another chorus of yells had her moving toward the window just to see what was going on. One of the reasons she’d picked this bedroom as a girl was the view. Her windows looked out over the arena and the barn. She could watch the horses all day and night if she wanted to.
Now she found herself gaping at what had to be a most unusual sight. Alex was on a horse in the main arena. He appeared to be learning how to operate a cutting horse, which really meant learning to sit still and stay out of the horse’s way. Her aunt had put Alex on Lucky, her favorite mount.
“Oh shit, hang on!” Maddie muttered.
The cow Lucky had been tracking decided quite suddenly to change directions. It made a nimble one hundred and eighty degree turn and shot off in a new direction. Because he was doing his job, Lucky slid hock deep in the dirt and switched directions too. Alex swayed precariously to one side, nearly toppling into the dirt. At the last second he managed to stay on as the horse bolted after the wily calf.
There were half a dozen more of these hairpin turns as Lucky worked the calf toward the gate that led to the holding pens. The horse worked his body low and close to the ground. His big haunches would bunch every time he changed direction. Finally the calf paused. Its front legs were splayed, its head hanging low as it faced off with the seasoned cutting horse. As Alex perched atop the saddle and clutched the horn, Lucky imitated the calf’s stance. The horse got low on the front end, his entire body bunched beneath him as he snorted at the calf. It was a true standoff. Maddie had seen it happen a million times. She held her breath and waited. Then suddenly the calf stood up and trotted toward the gate as if it had never been thinking about escaping. Lucky followed at a lazy trot, and the exercise was over.
Maddie was already sprinting for the stairs. She pounded down to the first floor, gripping the railing and whipping around at the end toward the back door as she’d done a hundred times before. Bursting out of the back door, she didn’t stop running until she’d made it to the arena.
“Hey there, Mads!” Lefty waved his hands in the air, looking jubilant. “Your city boy isn’t a bad rider. You know that?”
Aunt Lori was standing inside the arena with Alex. Alex had dismounted and was standing beside Lucky, absently patting the horse’s sweating shoulder. Maddie stomped right up to them and pointed at her aunt.
“Are you trying to kill him?” Maddie asked shrilly.
Aunt Lori looked taken aback. “Excuse me?”
“Maddie, calm down,” Alex told her gently. “I asked to ride him. I found the demonstration fascinating and wondered what it would be like.”
“Are you insane?” Maddie’s heart was still hammering against her ribs. “You could have been killed! These horses do their job with or without a rider in the saddle! What if he had just tossed you off and then stomped all over you trying to get to the cow?”
“Have a little faith in me, sweetheart.” There was a warning gleam in Alex’s eyes.
Maddie became aware of the odd looks she was getting from the ranch hands. What were they thinking? Alex wasn’t accustomed to this sort of life. He was fancy and citified. He could have been killed, and then what? These rough and tumble cowboys needed to remember that.
“All of you!” she shouted. “You be nice to Alex! He’s my guy, and I know he’s a city slicker, but that’s not his fault. You can’t just set him up to get killed like this! I’m not going to stand for that.”
“Maddie, stop,” Aunt Lori said quietly. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”
“What?” Maddie snapped. “I just want them to know that he’s with me.”
“Yes,” Aunt Lori agreed. “You’ve made that abundantly clear. But you’ve also made it seem as though you think Alex is incapable of taking care of himself when he’s just proved on his own that he’s fine on his own.”
Maddie turned and looked at Alex. His mouth was pinched and his eyes were stormy. Uh oh. Male pride was a really tricky thing, and she’d just stomped all over his with really big spurs.