Aria Callahan put her hands on her hips and gave Jesse Collins a glare. “I don’t want to look at another horse, Jesse. I already told you that I have too many. I run a boarding barn and a riding academy, for pity’s sake! If I don’t have any stalls to lease to boarders, I won’t make any money!”
Of course, Jesse Collins paid zero attention to Aria’s rant. She was too busy unloading the little gray mare from her enormous gooseneck stock trailer. The trailer looked to have somewhere between a million and two million miles on it. The color had faded from blue to rust sometime back, and it looked like a deathtrap, but Aria knew that the tires were new and that the thing was as safe as safe could be if Jesse was using it. Jesse Collins was just like that. She didn’t care if things were fancy as long as they were paid for and they worked. That was only one of about a million reasons why Aria was going to look at this horse.
“This mare is different,” Jesse told Aria with a grin. The blonde was pretty darn mature for twenty-one years old. She was also built like a doll and was twice as pretty.
In fact, Aria should have hated Jesse. Where Jesse was blonde and petite like a rodeo queen, Aria was brunette, athletic, and built more like a rodeo clown. Not that she minded when it came down to it. Aria could stick a horse, and in her business, that was what counted.
“Her name is Smokey,” Jesse explained.
Aria stared at the very small grey quarter horse mare with her teacup-sized feet and the disgruntled expression on her face. “Wait just a second here. Haven’t you already brought this horse out here once before? It was only a few weeks ago. You changed your mind about selling her.”
“And now I’ve changed my mind again.” Jesse patted the little mare. “She’ll be a great addition to your lesson program. This little pony is bombproof. She’s just not all that great with cattle. She’s too short legged to be chasing cows on the range all day, and she doesn’t have the motivation to be a cutting horse or a roping mount for some six-foot-tall cowboy who looks like she could walk right out from under him. She’s too good a horse to waste though.”
Aria pulled off her ball cap and shoved a few stray strands of her shoulder-length brown hair behind her ears. Then she waved her cap in the air with deliberate nonchalance to see what the mare would do. The sudden movement brought on nothing more than an ear twitch. That was actually kind of promising. New horse, new place, and the mare didn’t seem to care one bit. She hadn’t spooked or snorted at any of the tractors or equipment sitting just outside the riding ring. She hadn’t even peeked at the shadowy entrance to the indoor arena a short distance away. She seemed immune to just about anything that would scare the average horse.
“All right,” Aria relented. “I’ll see how she does for a few days. How’s that?”
Jesse flashed a brilliant grin. “Fantastic!”
Aria put her hat back on and groaned. “Dammit! You managed to do it again! Why do I let you on my property?”
Jesse threw her arm around Aria’s shoulder. “Because I’m your oldest friend and you know that just as soon as I get my ranch up and running, that we’ll be in business together.”
“How’s that going, by the way?” Aria took the lead rope from Jesse and tied the little grey mare to a hitching post not far from the tack room and the main barn. “Is Laredo Hernandez still trying to get you to sell—or pardon me—give him your ranch?”
Jesse made a face. “I’m not sure what’s really going on. I told you that I still don’t know how my parents actually died, right? It’s like the Hernandez family has been sworn to secrecy by old Joe Hernandez and nobody will say a word!”
“Darren won’t tell you? I thought Darren came out here just a few weeks ago and told you that his dad was going to back off.” Aria was surprised to hear that Joe was still pressuring Aria. Darren Hernandez had never seemed to toe the Hernandez line when it came to the big ranching family’s rules. A few weeks ago, he had tried his best to put in a good word for Jesse and supposedly it had done the trick. “Darren isn’t even really a part of the operation anymore, is it?”
“Once a Hernandez, always a Hernandez,” Jesse quipped. She rested her elbow against a dark green metal fence panel. “Darren is a gym teacher, but he’s still an employee of the Hernandez Land & Cattle Company. Old Joe will find a way for him to participate even if it's only putting on his old football uniform to boost an ad campaign.”
Aria chuckled to herself. She and Jesse had a lot in common. The two of them had gone to the same tiny schools only because Aria’s property here at Clouds End Farm was so far on the fringe of the Denver city limits that she wasn’t technically in the Denver Public School District. Since the Hernandez and Collins families had also lived outside city limits, they’d all been members of the same rural school district and participators in tiny town life. Aria had lived at Clouds End her whole life. She was the fourth generation of Callahan cowgirls and cowboys to run the place. It wasn’t huge—nowhere near as big as the Collins ranch that belonged to Jesse—but it was Aria’s and she loved it.
Just then, Aria spotted a plume of dust as a truck exited the two-lane highway and hit the washboard gravel road that led to Clouds End. She glanced at the display of her smartphone. She wasn’t expecting anyone at the farm for another hour. That was when her evening lessons kicked into high gear and she would be teaching for three hours straight as the group lesson kids descended for the evening. Twenty youngsters with more enthusiasm than brains, but of course, that was why horses like Smokey were a million-dollar find.
Then Aria got a better look at the truck. “Is that…?”
“Oh, crap.” Jesse actually looked like she was going to bolt. “It’s probably just Darren. I forgot that I told him I was bringing Smokey out here today. If he’s got Bella with him, she probably wanted to see the pony.”
Aria frowned. “I knew this whole Smokey nonsense seemed familiar! The last time Darren snuck Bella out here, she went crazy for this pony. You know it’s probably a really bad idea to bring Laredo Hernandez’s daughter out here without his knowledge. I’m just saying.”
“Right now, I don’t care what that jackass thinks,” Jesse muttered. She pushed away from the fence and started waving her hand to get Darren Hernandez’s attention. “He’s dragging his daughter to dance classes and gymnastics the same way his mother dragged me around to that crap even though I hated it.” Jesse made a face and pointed at Aria. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember those days!”
“I remember.” Aria held up her hands. “You wanted to rodeo. Avery Hernandez wanted you to be a cheerleader instead. As I recall, that did not end well.”
Jesse sighed. “I was such a bad cheerleader. Seriously. I think the coach was relieved when I quit.”
Aria and Jesse were still laughing about the series of incidents leading up to Jesse’s defection from the cheerleading squad when Darren and Bella exited his big white truck. The brand-spanking-new vehicle had the Hernandez brand emblazoned on the doors, and Aria could not help but wonder if this was just one of those perks of being a Hernandez that people often talked about.
“Hello, ladies!” Darren said with a smile as he approached with nine-year-old Bella holding one hand and a very small boy—Jaeger—clutching the other. “I have brought my young friends here to visit what is apparently Bella’s very favorite pony.”
“Smokey!” Bella let go of Darren’s hand and raced toward the little grey mare.
Aria watched with interest as neither Jesse nor Darren seemed concerned with this absolutely non-horse-safe behavior. But instead of jumping out of her skin like the average horse would have, Smokey actually pricked her tiny ears and turned her head as far as she could to look at Bella.
Bella was just barely tall enough to wrap her arms around Smokey’s neck. She gave the little horse a squeeze and then started murmuring absolute nonsense to her while she scratched the appropriate itchy spots behind Smokey’s ears and under her chin.
While Bella was mooning over the pony, Darren helped his other young companion pet the mare’s leg, which was all he could reach.
Aria frowned at the little boy. There was no doubt that this kid was a Hernandez. He had that trademark black hair and blue eyes. “That’s Darren’s son, Jaeger, right?” she asked Jesse.
Jesse put her hand over her mouth to hide what appeared to be a monster-sized grin. “Yep, that would be Jaeger.”
“Holy cow!” Aria felt like her head was spinning. “It still blows my mind to think he has a kid. He actually has full custody now? Nobody ever told me how that went at the hearing.”
“It’s a long story.” Jesse bobbed her head casually, but it was obvious that she was as attached to the little boy as she was to Bella. “His name is Jaeger. And yes. He lives full time with Darren and his fiancée, Maggie.”
“It’s like missing a few chapters of the Hernandez family saga,” Aria told Jesse. “They’re better than one of those daytime soap operas.” Then she realized that Darren had picked up Jaeger and had set him on Smokey’s bare back. “Is that mare always so calm?” Aria asked Jesse.
“Smokey is always this calm,” Darren supplied. “Our oldest brother, Cal, hand raised her after the mare died in a snowstorm.”
“He hand raised her?” Aria murmured. “That explains why she’s so easygoing about human nonsense.”
“You know Cal. He would mother a stray coyote,” Jesse said with a touch of wistfulness.
There was something in Jesse’s tone that told Aria that her friend’s crush on the eldest Hernandez brother had not dimmed over the years. Of course, if Jesse were going to pick a Hernandez to shack up with, Cal was the best of the bunch. The guy was a real old-fashioned gentleman cowboy. They didn’t make his type anymore. Cal’s next youngest brother, Laredo, was an excellent example. If Cal Hernandez was the hero of the story, then Laredo was the villain.
“Can I ride her?” Bella asked suddenly.
Aria snorted. She had seen that desperate longing look in the eyes of so many girls in her years as a riding instructor that she had thought that immunity was on the horizon. Normally Aria could say no. She really could. There was something about Bella Hernandez that made it almost impossible.
The kid was cute. Not just cute, but cute in a way that told anyone looking that someday this young lady was going to grow up to be a bombshell. Her smile could light up a room. With that full curly head of black hair and those cobalt blue eyes, she most definitely had the ability to melt hearts on both sides of the gender fence.
“I think I can scare up a saddle your size,” Aria finally told Bella.
Bella’s expression of joy made Aria feel like a million bucks. “Really? Oh! Thank you, thank you!”
“Jesse?” Aria gestured to her friend. “Find your young niece a helmet please. I’m going to find a saddle for this mare.”
It didn’t take long to find something to fit the little quarter horse. Aria’s specialty was starting kids around Bella’s age, which meant she had a whole tack room’s supply of tiny saddles and bridles.
Aria led the little mare back out to the riding ring, and Jesse helped Bella get settled on the mounting block. Uncle Darren and Cousin Jaeger looked on with interest as Bella got ready to ride. As always, Aria felt the calm of the task seep into her soul. There was nothing better than being either on or around a horse. She inhaled the wonderful scent of Smokey’s fur. It was a slightly musky, maybe even dirty scent of sweat and horse and leather. Aria listened to the mare’s steady, even breathing and saw that her ears were turned around backwards to keep an eye—so to speak—on what Bella and Aria were doing near the saddle.
Opening her mouth to give a few directions about how to mount the mare, Aria felt the words die on her lips as Bella confidently stood on the top step of the mounting block. The girl reached up for the reins with her left hand and wound her fingers into the mare’s sparse mane. Then she held onto the back of the saddle with her right hand, put her foot in the stirrup, and swung her right leg over. Within minutes, Bella was aboard and settling herself in her seat.
Aria raised her eyebrows and looked back at Jesse. She didn’t know whether to be amused or irritated when Jesse gave her a thumbs-up and stuck her tongue out. Obviously, they’d taught the kid a few things. Bella had been out to Clouds End once or twice in the last several months since Darren had been back in Denver, but Aria had never really had much to do with her.
“Can I go now?” Bella asked Aria politely. “I promise to walk on the rail.”
Aria pursed her lips and tried to get her bearings back. She had kids who had been taking lessons for months who still couldn’t handle this basic sequence of tasks. Wait. The kid had asked a question. Right. Aria scrambled for a response. “Sure, sweetie. Just make sure you don’t keep the reins too tight. Little Smokey here looks like she’s pretty much fine on a loose rein.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Bella beamed as she clucked to the grey mare and walked her straight to the edge of the ring where she turned the horse and kept her walking close to “the rail” exactly as she’d promised. Aria lost track of everything else as she watched nine-year-old Bella ride Smokey the un cow horse around the Clouds End riding ring. The kid was a complete natural in the saddle. She was balanced. She tried her best to keep her heels down even though she was riding in school shoes, a jumper, and leggings. Her head was up and she was totally confident. Of course, there was also an enormous grin on her young face.
Somehow, that was what touched Aria the most. She remembered smiling like that. Sometimes when she had a really good ride, she still smiled like that. Horses just did that to you.
“You know,” Jesse drawled from right next to Aria’s shoulder. “The weirdest thing about Bella is that she’s nothing like her mother.”
Aria swung around to frown at Jesse. “Yeah. I don’t see a lot of Helena in the kid, but Laredo Hernandez is the devil. We all know it. So, apparently, the stork delivered this child to the wrong parents.”
“Maybe.” Jesse shrugged. “But if you ask Laredo’s family, they’ll swear to you that he wasn’t always a devil in disguise. At least not in a bad way.”