The door opened and closed. Shay lifted her head. “Oh! That must be Noah!” and she straightened, looking toward the kitchen entrance. “He’s home early. Wait ’til you meet him! You’ll love him!”
Dair barely had time to choke down the roll and turn her head before the wrangler entered. He was in his sheepskin coat, taking off his tan Stetson, when she gasped. It was Noah Mabry! Oh, my God! All she could do was stare at him as he jerked to a halt, his gaze fixing on her.
For a moment, there was crackling silence in the kitchen.
“Dair?” he asked, disbelief in his voice. “Is that you?”
Shay frowned and halted by Noah. “Do you two know each other?”
Gulping, Dair whispered, “I didn’t know you were here . . .”
Noah smiled a little, his hat dangling between his fingers. “Yeah, we do know each other, Shay. Met nine months earlier at the Danbury Farm in Maryland.” He shook his head, giving Dair a questioning look. “You’re here for the assistant horse trainer job?”
Her throat closed with terror. “Yes.”
“Noah, come over here,” Shay invited. “You’re just in time. Go get rid of your coat and hat out in the mudroom. I saved two cinnamon rolls for you. Would you like some coffee, too?”
He managed a shy nod. “Yes, please, Shay.” And then he looked at Dair. “I’ll be right back. Don’t go anywhere . . .”
Dair didn’t know whether to be happy or sad about seeing Noah again. Why didn’t she put it together? He’d said he trained horses when they’d met in Danbury. But that burning, slow, hot kiss he’d shared with her, melting her into his arms, made her face burn with a blush. And he hadn’t forgotten it either, if she was any judge of the look gleaming in his light gray eyes. Did he seem regretful that she was here? Dair wasn’t sure of anything at the moment, feeling like an IED had just exploded next to her.
“I didn’t know you two knew each other,” Shay said, bringing the plate of cinnamon rolls to the table, setting it near where she sat.
“Well,” Dair managed in a strangled voice, “I lost track of him. I didn’t know he worked here, Shay. When you used his first name, I wondered, but you know—Noah is not an uncommon man’s name.” She saw understanding in Shay’s eyes as she sat down.
“I think it’s a great sign!” she said, excited. “And you met at Danbury Farm. Noah is good friends with Henry Danbury.”
“Yes, I saw them together in the training arena at that farm.” Dair saw the amazement in Shay’s eyes, a dreamy look. She wasn’t sure what that meant. Nerves skittered through her and she was suddenly afraid she’d not get the job. She wasn’t sure how Noah felt toward her, either. She’d not had the guts to email him after meeting him at Danbury. Oh, God.
* * *
Noah took his time wrestling out of the thick sheepskin coat. He’d already hung his Stetson on a nearby peg. Of all people he never expected to ever meet again it was Dair Wilson. Stunned by the turn of events, he ran his fingers through his hair, taking a deep breath, centering himself. He hadn’t missed the surprise in Dair’s beautiful golden-cinnamon colored eyes. She looked like a deer paralyzed by a set of car headlights. And he’d kissed her in the tack room. Long, slow, deep and forever . . .
Just thinking about that life-altering kiss he’d shared with her, anchored him to where he stood. His heart was flip-flopping in his chest, humiliation and feeling badly that he’d never emailed her, gripped him. He’d wanted to comfort her, but she was in rehab with a partial loss of a leg to an IED. And now, she was here. Asking for a job. How the hell had that happened?
Rubbing his brow, Noah knew he had to go face her. And Shay seemed giddy about having Dair apply for the job. Never mind that Garret had stopped him the minute he’d parked his truck and got out. He’d grabbed him by the shoulder and said, “Hire her. She’s the right person to help you.” And then, he’d walked away without any other explanation. What the hell!
What was worse? Noah couldn’t justify the sudden sexual urge running through him. That was embarrassing. Dair was a beautiful woman. There wasn’t anything to dislike about her; otherwise, he’d never have kissed her. Because he’d wanted more, much more from her.
But it had come at the wrong damn moment in his life. He had no job, he was aimless and what could he offer her? Nothing. Besides, he knew she had at least another six months in rehab, stuck at Bethesda Medical Center. He was a tumbleweed, unsure where he would go next, looking for a job.
Hell, he was in a fix and he didn’t know what to do. Turning, Noah strode toward the kitchen. Entering, he saw Shay gesture for him to come over to the table. And he saw the stark uncertainty in Dair’s darkening, worried looking eyes.
Sitting down, he thanked Shay for the coffee she’d put in front of him. He figured he’d better start eating the rolls or she’d start poking at him and asking him why he wasn’t hungry. Noah didn’t want to go there with her.
“How did you two meet?” Shay demanded, all ears.
Noah cut her an uncomfortable glance and forced himself to eat. “I was at Danbury to ask Henry for a job. He didn’t have one and he didn’t know of any other breeding farms in the region that were hiring, either.” He moved his gaze to Dair. “And the reason I didn’t contact you by email after we met was because I had no job, no apartment, no nothing. I needed to get one, so I headed west after meeting you.”
“That’s all right, Noah, I understand,” Dair said.
“It wasn’t like we had much time to talk,” he apologized to her. No, they had been so damned drawn to one another, social conversation evaporated into that hot, melting kiss they’d shared.
She shrugged. “Life happens. I’m in your boots now. I need a job since the medical center cut me loose.”
Noah was careful not to bring up her amputated leg. He didn’t want to embarrass Dair in front of Shay. He knew that Shay and everyone realized she was probably an amputee, already. It wasn’t table talk and he had no wish to make Dair feel any more uncomfortable than she looked right now. “I do need an assistant,” he added quickly. “Since Shay and Reese had the arena raising, I’ve been overwhelmed.”
“Shay said you were the manager of the arena, plus schooling horses,” she ventured.
“Right.” He smiled a little over at Shay, finishing off the first roll and wiping his fingers on the paper napkin. “We have snow here eight months out of every year and Wind River Valley has a lot of quarter horse people who show their animals around the nation. They need somewhere that’s enclosed to continue to train their horses throughout the winter months. Our newly built arena has been a godsend to them and a financial windfall for the Bar C.”
Shay glowed. “But the people coming are here because of you, Noah. You’ve made a name for yourself since you’ve started working here.”
Lifting a shoulder, Noah said, “In part, Shay. But the rest was your brilliant idea to build an arena in the first place.” He glanced over at Dair, wanting her to feel a part of the conversation. “Shay is always looking for ways to make money for the Bar C because her father lost all the summer grass leases five years ago. Now, this place is getting rebuilt, literally, from the ground up. Me and the rest of the wranglers do fence mending every week. We try to do it every day, if our schedule allows.” He thumbed toward a side window in the kitchen. “But when you have five feet of snow out there, it’s impossible to do any fence mending.”
Dair nodded. “That’s true. So with the arena built you can train horses all year round?”
“Yes,” and he took the second roll in his large hands, opening it up. “The problem is me. We’ve got a state-of-the-art facility for boarding, riding and training, but too few personnel to run it. I’m looking for an assistant who does a lot of the training while I manage the place, giving riding lessons and ensure the boarded horses get cleaned, fed and watered daily.”
“How many horses are boarded?”
“Twenty-five,” Noah said.
“And by the time he’s done watering, feeding and cleaning their stalls, most of the day is gone.” Shay gave him a worried look. “Actually, you could use two more hands plus a horse trainer.”
“I can clean stalls,” Dair said quickly.
“Well, what I’d like to do,” Noah said between bites of the tasty roll and sips of coffee, “is take you out to the arena and give you a sense of it all. And if you’re up to it, I have a nice, well-mannered horse I’m training for a ten-year-old little girl that I’d like to see you work with for a bit. I need to get an idea of how you are around a horse. That’s not something that you can put on your resume.”
Dair knew Noah had refused to hire two earlier applicants for the position. “Sure, not a problem. I’ve brought my tool box, my gloves and working gear. It’s in the truck.”
“Great,” he murmured, licking the last of the frosting off his fingers. He looked over at Shay. “I’ll drive her down to the arena and we’ll finish the interview there.”
“That’s fine. But you need to know that everyone wants to hire her, Noah.”
He managed to give her a sour look. “I’m listening, Shay.”
“Good,” she said, standing and patting his broad shoulder.
“It’s gonna take a few hours, maybe until four p.m.”
“That’s fine,” Shay said.
Noah was concerned about Dair’s performance. He remembered nine months earlier she had been unsteady walking on uneven ground. Yet, when he studied her beneath his lashes, Dair looked confident. Maybe it was her high cheekbones, her burnished skin, those incredibly beautiful eyes that he could lose himself in. At the same time, he cautioned himself. Their kiss had meant something to him. He wasn’t sure what it had meant to her. It had been a damned long time that he’d kissed a woman and her lips were like a soft welcome against his mouth as he tasted her fully.
He nodded to Dair and stood up. Trying not to stare at her as she rose, he wanted to assess her balance. Knowing she was nervous, he understood better than most. “This should be a piece of cake for you,” he said, wanting to tamp down the sudden tension he saw in her body as she stood and squared her shoulders. Dair relaxed a bit, and that was good. He’d been around all ten of those military vets for a day and a half at Danbury Farm. And it struck him as never before how lucky he was to have his arms and legs.
Leading the way down the hall to the mudroom, he saw her old Army jacket and picked it up, handing it to her.
“Thanks,” she murmured.
“It’s warming up out there,” he said. “But it’s about fifty-five out in the arena, a good temperature.”
She shrugged on her coat and buttoned it, pulling the red knit muffler around her shoulders and neck. “How many people are down there riding right now?”
If Noah didn’t know she was an amputee, he’d never have guessed it. Dair wore Levi’s and thick, rugged looking sneakers. She walked with balance and with ease. “Probably five or six.” He looked at his watch. “It’s getting close to lunch time, so most of them will be gone soon. We’ll probably have the arena for an hour or so to ourselves.” There was relief in her eyes. No one knew better than he that when some horses got around one another, territoriality ruled. Especially with stallions.
Opening the front door for her, he said, “Let’s get your tack gear. We’ll take it down to the arena in my truck.”
“Okay,” she said.
There were steps to go down and Noah watched her from behind. She had a fine butt, of that there was no question. He watched her reach for the rail with her gloved hand, probably to balance herself. Otherwise, he’d never have suspected she didn’t have two good legs. At the bottom, he gestured to his truck that was parked next to hers. “Why don’t you climb in? Your gear on the seat of your truck?”
“Yes, in a cardboard box. Nothing fancy,” and she managed a half smile.
Noah opened up the door on his black Toyota truck. He started to cup her elbow, to help her climb in.
“No . . . I can do this by myself,” she said.
Stepping back, he gave her room. Noah remembered their conversation when they were together. Dair had been working to appear not to be an amputee. That had been her goal. She didn’t accept help or handouts as he’d found out at Danbury. She hauled herself up and although a bit awkward, she climbed into the truck just fine. He knew she had powerful upper body strength in order to compensate for that leg that wouldn’t always act like a real one would. He closed the door for her.
Walking over to her parked red Dodge Ram truck, he opened up the passenger side door and pulled out the box that contained her gear. He set it in the back of his pickup and climbed in. The sky was getting less gray with more blue spots opening up the lowered cloud ceiling. The wind was brisk, off and on. But it smelled clean. Shutting the door, he started the engine, turning to her.
“What time did you get here?”
“0900,” she said, falling into familiar military time.
He grinned. “Well, it’s 1030 now. Let me get you to work with Thunder, a nice five-year-old gray mixed breed mare. They want her trained for their ten-year-old daughter, who’s horse crazy.”
“What’s the girl’s name?”
Noah backed out and then turned down the muddy driveway, heading down a narrow graveled road between the wrangler housing area and a group of pipe corrals. “Lori. She’s a cute little red headed kid with huge freckles across her cheeks and nose. Her parents bought the mare and she named her Thunder.”
“Oh? Is that because she is?”
Noah tried to quell his sensitivity toward Dair. He wondered if she even remembered their kiss. She was a damn fine looking woman any man would be proud to have on his arm. He tucked that all away. “No. Lori loves storms. The mare is sweet, quiet, and she listens well. I don’t think you’ll have any problems with her.”
“Where are you at within her training schedule?”
“I’m longeing her daily, using voice commands right now at the walk, trot and canter. This is where I start the basic foundation work.”
“It’s a solid plan,” Dair agreed.
“Here’s the arena,” he said, gesturing with his gloved hand in that direction.
“It’s huge.”
“Only one in Wind River Valley. Shay struck it rich on this idea. It’s bringing us in badly needed money for the ranch as a whole. It’s going to allow her to probably hire two more wranglers before late spring. And we desperately need them.”
He pulled into the asphalt parking lot next to the huge Quonset-hut looking building made out of aluminum and glass. The green tin roof was shaped to make the arena look like a loaf of French bread that had risen. The curved roof forced the heavy snow to automatically slide off it so the structure remained sound and sturdy.
“Okay, here we are.” He pointed to a red door on the side. “That’s our office. We’ll go in there first.” And then he hesitated, realizing he’d used the word ‘our.’ It was probably just the team spirit that the Bar C wranglers had with one another, as well as with Shay and Reese. But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe, Noah thought as he climbed out and pulled her cardboard box of gear into his arms, he’d already made up his mind to hire Dair even though he’d not seen her work with a horse. That flummoxed him because he was conservative and careful about people being around a horse he was training. Not all horse people knew everything they needed to know about a horse, how to ride it, how to care for it or train it. He needed to see that Dair was at that pinnacle where she had enough experience. Walking around the truck, he opened the door for her, noticing she had a bit of a slip on the icy area. But anyone would, not just her.
In the next hour he would know whether he was going to hire Dair or not. And as much as he personally liked Dair, he wouldn’t put his horses at risk with anyone who didn’t know their horses a hundred percent. He hated having to be the teacher rating the student, but that is what this was all about. And judging from Dair’s unreadable expression, she knew it too.
How badly Noah wanted her to pass in flying colors.