MIA gulped. She’d played that day over and over in her mind so often, but actually talking about it was something else entirely. She smiled at Sam, trying not to let her feelings show, putting on the brave face she’d perfected over the years. She almost hoped their foreman, Stretch, would come over and interrupt them, or one of the other ranch hands, but when she did a quick glance around, there was no one. Even her father would have been preferable to having this particular discussion with Sam.
“See how you go with him today. We can talk more once you’ve spent time with him,” she said.
Sam frowned, his eyes still trained on her even though she was looking straight ahead at the horse now.
“It’s a simple question, Mia,” he said, in a slow voice as if he were speaking to a child. “How did he end up here? What’s happened to him?”
She gritted her teeth, steeled her jaw, not ready to talk to a man she hardly knew about what had happened to the stallion grazing in the field nearby. Tex hadn’t bothered to acknowledge them yet, but she knew he would soon, and when he did it wouldn’t be pretty.
“You don’t think much of me, do you?” she asked in a low voice. “Why can’t I have just decided to buy a temperamental stallion to train as a show jumper?”
Sam laughed, but his face sobered instantly when he saw the serious look on hers as she turned to face him. Her eyes were glistening, she knew it, but she sure as hell wasn’t about to cry. Instead she turned to look out left, staring hard at a mob of Black Angus cattle and slowly trying to count them—anything to take her mind off what she was hiding from Sam.
“I can’t not like you, I hardly know you,” he said. “So I don’t think lowly of you, that’s silly to say.”
“No, you made a judgment call on me the moment you met me, and that call hasn’t changed,” she argued, turning back to him and hating that she was being so defensive. She couldn’t help it—when it came to Tex and the past, it just hurt too damn bad to go back. “Just work the horse, would you?”
He stood straighter then, and she did the same, unimpressed by how much smaller than Sam she felt when he was pulled up to his full height. His arms folded across his chest, eyes on her, staring at her and making her stare right back at him, so she didn’t feel like she was backing down. She hated bickering with him, but something about him rubbed her the wrong way.
“Fine, when I first came here I picked you as some pathetic socialite who liked to play around with horses.” Sam was like a statue before her. “But I saw you ride today and I thought, hell, there’s a girl with some goddamn talent. You’re good in the saddle, and you rode those big fences boldly.”
She swallowed. Hard. She hadn’t been fishing for compliments, had just wanted to get everything out in the open rather than simmer over things that hadn’t been said.
“You don’t need to say that,” she said, dragging her eyes from him and scuffing her boots into the dirt. She dropped to pet his dog, stroking his fur and smiling down at him before glancing back up at Sam. “I just need for you to take me seriously. This horse is important to me, and I want you to work your magic on him. Can we just leave it at that?”
He nodded, rubbing his hand across his chin. “Look, I came here thinking I was going to be working alone. I was intrigued about the stallion, and I still am, but just the way he behaved the other day? That tells me he’s been through some trauma, and if that involved a rider or abuse or whatever the hell it was, I need to know to keep me and him safe.”
She stood and stared out at Tex. “You know,” she said after a long pause, “he was named Tex because he had an ego as big as Texas, right from the moment he was a foal. He was never easy.”
Sam moved closer to her and they stood side by side, surveying the big horse who was still grazing, as if oblivious to them, head dipped low. But she could see that one of his ears had turned out slightly, that he was listening to them for sure.
“You’ve known him that long then?” Sam asked.
She nodded. “A long time. Only he wasn’t always this much of an asshole.”
“Yeah, well, stallions can either turn out like big teddy bears or arrogant sons of bitches. No different than a bull or any other male full of too much testosterone and not enough manners. And they’re no different than humans, either. You can’t just change a personality, but you can work on changing attitude.”
Mia hoped so, for her sake and for Tex’s. She knew Sam’s reputation, hell, she’d seen him work firsthand, but what if he wasn’t the right person to be working Tex? What if he was just a really good showman who’d managed to do well in front of the camera and crowds? She didn’t know how much longer she could keep Tex if she couldn’t get through to him, and he was too dangerous for her to even attempt to handle. She made a mental note to go visit her father later on—she needed to make sure he wasn’t planning anything without talking to her first.
“We only have a month,” she told Sam. “Maybe a little longer if I beg, but he put one of the ranchers in the hospital last week, that’s why my daddy called you.”
Sam didn’t react, just spoke in his soft drawl. “What happened?”
“We were trying to move him, and he’s become pretty territorial,” Mia explained. “He lashed out, after appearing fairly placid to start with, and I got over the fence but Cal didn’t. He was kicked in the hip and I only just managed to help him out before he got kicked again. He’s in hospital now and my father’s footing the bill, so he’s less than impressed.”
Sam rubbed his chin again and Mia realized he did that whenever he was chewing something over. “You told me you purchase all your own horses,” he said. “But not this one?”
She shook her head. “Not this one. I couldn’t afford him.”
“Why?”
Mia didn’t want to admit how much she’d paid for him, or how much it had cost to truck him here, or anything else much about how she’d ended up with him. “He meant something to me. The price was too high, and I begged my father to buy him for me. I know, it makes me sound like a silly little girl with a heart set on a horse she couldn’t handle.”
“Well, yeah, it does,” Sam said. “And you’re right about him being too much for you to handle.”
“Thanks,” she said dryly. “Great way to boost my ego.”
His expression was hard to read. “For the record, I don’t think you’re a woman with bad taste in horses, but this guy? He’s too hot for most riders to handle, so don’t go taking that as a cheap shot at your ability. I’m just calling the situation as I see it.”
Every time she was pissed at him, he managed to make her feel stupid for flying off the rails at him. Of course Tex was too much horse for her, it wasn’t exactly rocket science to figure that out. She hoped that would be the end to their stupid back-and-forth arguing; it wasn’t like her to be so petty.
“So what do you want to do?” she asked.
“What I want is to move him into a round pen,” Sam said, looking around. She watched as he held his hand up, shielding his eyes. “That’s it over there?”
She nodded, looking from the pen in the distance and back again. “I don’t like our chances.”
Sam climbed up onto the railing and stared at Tex. He’d made it clear that he’d seen them now, and he pawed the ground, shaking his head and staring them down.
“How aggressive is he once you’re with him?” Sam asked. “For instance, if I had a halter and rope on, would he lead?”
She shook her head. “I think he’s past behaving properly. He’s pretty wild these days.”
Sam sat on the fence, and she considered him, wondering who he was and what he was all about. She got the feeling that he hadn’t grown up wealthy at all, he was too grounded, too … she didn’t know what. But it was a feeling she’d had since she met him, that he wasn’t like other guys she’d met. The only thing that didn’t fit was how at ease he’d been when he’d first arrived, not at all overawed by her family’s ranch, which was unusual for someone who hadn’t grown up with money. The massive house and sprawling gardens was usually enough to make a person’s jaw drop. She knew that from years of having people fawn over her, thinking she was important, wanting to be with her and part of the lifestyle they seemed to associate with her. Only she wasn’t special. Her riding made her special, because it was something she trained hard to be good at, but she knew firsthand that money didn’t buy happiness, only privilege.
“What about this,” Sam said, moving back down to stand beside her. “We get in there and make a space with temporary fencing. That way I don’t have to move him until I have his trust, which is safer for everyone involved, and I can make a makeshift kind of ring.”
Mia was the one raising her eyebrows this time. “We?” she asked. “I thought you worked solo?”
He chuckled. “Maybe I need to be more open to change. You can watch, but I don’t want you in there distracting me or him.”
She doubted she was capable of being much of a distraction. Sam hadn’t shown the least bit of interest in her, and the horse would be far more intent on killing Sam than bothering with her. She was fairly certain about that.
“Do you think you’ll be able to crack him within a month?” she asked, terrified of her father deciding to follow through with his threat and have the horse shot if he was still a menace to society by then.
“I don’t know,” Sam replied. “I’ve never worked a horse that I couldn’t form a relationship with pretty quickly, and if I’m honest? It’s because of him that I’m standing here. I don’t do private work like this anymore because I don’t need to, but something about him spoke to me. I think I’ll learn as much from him as he will from me.”
“You talking about the beast?”
Mia spun around at the deep voice. “Geez, Stretch, I just about jumped out of my skin!”
She grinned at their foreman as he tipped his hat at her, his wicked smile cracking her up as it stretched his tanned, weathered face wide. Her father was beside him, and she gave her daddy a smile, too. It wasn’t often he bothered to venture down to the horses.
“Just the man I was looking for!” he boomed as he locked eyes on Sam.
Mia traded glances with Stretch as her father hooked his thumbs into his belt loops, his big Stetson firmly on his head as he strode toward Sam. She wondered if he’d feign an interest in her horses for Sam’s benefit.
“Good to finally meet you. I’m Walter.” She watched as her father shook hands with Sam, only just shorter than the horse whisperer he was greeting. Even she had to admit that her dad was still handsome, and the way he stood, shoulders straight and head always held high, meant no one would ever have guessed he was knocking sixty five.
“Walter, it’s nice to put a face to the name.”
“Hi, Daddy,” Mia said, leaning in to kiss his cheek when he came closer to her. She loved him to bits, she just hated that he treated her like his little girl so often just because she was the baby of the family. He seemed to forget she was twenty eight.
“What do you think?” Walter asked. “If it was my decision we’d have put him to sleep by now and put us and him out of our misery, but it’s hard to say no after everything that happened. Did Mia tell you he killed his last rider?”
She went ice cold, goose pimples tracking across her skin. If she could have dug herself a hole and crawled inside, she’d have done it. She caught Stretch’s eye and he raised an eyebrow. The old rancher had known her all her life, and he seemed to gauge her reactions a whole lot better than her father did.
“Daddy, why don’t you leave us with the horses?” Mia suggested, clearing her throat. “Sam was just about to get started and…”
But Sam wasn’t looking at her father now. He was staring, eyes like ice, at her.
“He did what?” Sam asked quietly.
Walter looked between them. “It’s hardly a great secret, it was all over the news a few years back. Surely you remember! Mia’s been tracking him down ever since, haven’t you, Mia?” He laughed. “When this one makes her mind up, there’s no stopping her.”
Mia swallowed, rocks in her throat, before nodding. “Daddy, I’ll come find you later on. How about you let us get on with our work here?”
“I can tell when I’m not wanted, so I’ll leave you both to it. We’re off to take a look at some new stud bulls that Stretch wants me to write a check for.” He reached out his hand and shook Sam’s again. “Mia’s been looking forward to working with you, Sam. You’ve got quite the reputation around these parts it seems. Join me for a whiskey later on your way out if you have time.”
Mia went through the motions, saying goodbye to her father, watching him go, looking back at Sam. He was still like a statue; immobile and glaring at her. If looks could kill, she’d be long dead. Mia took a deep breath and filled her lungs.
“And you were going to tell me about him killing his last rider when exactly?” he asked, his voice deeper than before.
“I didn’t want you to…” she started before he interrupted her.
“Get the hell out of my sight,” he growled. “You want me to work with him and see if there’s any coming back from the horse he’s become? Then you start telling me the goddamn truth when I ask for it.”
Mia nodded. He was right, she should have told him. But it wasn’t easy reciting what had happened, not to a stranger.
“Do you still want help constructing the makeshift pen?” she asked.
“No,” he ground out. “Will I find what I need in the barn over there?”
“You will. Everything you need is there, and if not, you can radio one of the ranch hands from in there,” she told him. “Just tell them you’re here working with me, and they’ll get you whatever you want.”
He stormed off, his dog leaping up and running after him.
“Sam,” Mia called out, cringing, wondering if she should have just let him go without saying anything. “I’m sorry. I should have told you.”
He was walking backwards now, slowly, face like thunder. “Was he nasty as hell when he killed the rider, or was it an accident? At least tell me that.”
She took a deep breath, fisting her hands so hard her nails dug into her palms. “It was an accident. He was nothing like this then.”
He nodded. “I’ll work with him for today, see how it goes, then I’m coming to find you,” he said. “If you don’t tell me the truth about this horse then? About what happened to him and whatever the hell is going on with him? Then tomorrow is it. No amount of money is going to entice me to work this horse without knowing the full story, for his sake and mine.”
Mia let him go then, didn’t bother responding. She needed some time alone to clear her head, to figure out how she was going to talk about something that had traumatized her so badly she’d wondered how she’d survive and taken the life of her best friend. She watched as Sam became smaller in her vision, his broad shoulders fading away as he strode off. She wished she’d been nicer to him, but then he hadn’t exactly been charming himself.
Some things weren’t supposed to be relived, but Sam was right. He couldn’t work Tex without knowing everything, and she couldn’t expect him to.
What she needed was to go for a long, relaxing ride around the ranch to gather her thoughts. Without Sam. And then figure out how to tell him he story that needed to be told. She needed to breathe in the pure, fresh country air, feel the strength of her horse beneath her and get lost in the endless acres of grass that stretched on for miles. Or maybe she needed to roll her sleeves up and get dirty, helping out the ranch hands with whatever tasks they were working on. Nothing took her mind off things like doing something physical, that was for sure.
Or maybe she just needed to call Kat. She bit down on her lower lip and then pulled her phone out of her back pocket.
Kat answered on the first ring.
“You fired him already, didn’t you?” Kat began, her voice muffled. It sounded like she was eating.
“Ha-ha no, but he might walk out of here and never come back at the end of the day,” Mia admitted, feeling better just hearing Kat’s voice.
“Sorry, don’t mean to chew in your ear but I’ve just come out of surgery and I have consultations starting in fifteen.”
Mia nodded. “It’s fine. I just…”
“What is it?” Kat asked.
“I’m going to have to tell him about everything. About Kimberley and what happened and I just, well,” she blew out a deep, shaky breath. “It’s so hard talking about it, you know?”
She could almost hear Kat nodding. “Yeah, I know. But you’ve kept a lot bottled up inside. It might feel good getting it all out.” She paused and Mia waited. “Look, he’s there to help you and he’s there to help Tex. Just be honest with him, okay?”
Mia gripped the phone tighter. “Okay. You’re right, it’s just hard.”
Dogs barked in the background and Mia felt bad for calling Kat at work. Her friend worked long hours as a veterinarian, and she would never usually call her during work hours.
“You’ll be fine, but I have to go,” Kat said. “Call me later.”
Mia said goodbye and hung up, heading back to the stables. She’d saddle one of the horses up, go for a nice ride, and then head back to her house. If Sam wanted to talk, then her only option was to answer him. Honestly this time. Because if she didn’t then she was certain he’d leave River Ranch and never, ever come back.