“Now, aren’t you the clever one?”
“Smartest damn horse I ever met.” Callen tapped Bodine’s shoulder. Sundown eased closer, laid his head where Callen tapped.
Laughing, Bodine hooked an arm around Sundown’s neck. “How long have you had him?”
“Since he was born—at sundown—four years last May. I was helping out a friend, between projects, and his mare delivered this one. Love at first sight. I bought him on the spot, and when he was weaned and ready, he came with me.”
Callen wrapped the reins securely around the saddle horn. “Want to show off, Sundown?”
With a toss of his head, the gelding trotted out to the center of the ring.
“Rattlesnake!”
At Callen’s call, Sundown reared, hooves striking air. “Backstabber.” Dropping his forelegs, Sundown kicked his back legs high. “Do-si-do.” Brightly, the horse danced laterally left, swung his hindquarters around, danced right. “Pretty filly.”
Amused, impressed, Bodine watched as a kind of gleam came into the horse’s eyes before he did the equine version of a manly swagger back to Bodine.
“Kiss the girl.”
Sundown lowered his head, rubbed his blowing lips over Bodine’s cheek.
“You are a charmer,” Bodine said, pressing her own lips to the gelding’s cheek. “You trained him? You always had a way, but this is really something.”
“I picked up some tips from the experts on my travels, but I’m working with prime here. Absolute prime.”
“I sure wouldn’t argue.” And love, the sort she knew very well that bloomed between horse and human, shined in Callen’s words.
“Do you do any trick riding? You used to do some.”
The quick grin Callen aimed had—by Bodine measure—a hefty dose of flirt in it.
“Want me to show off now?”
“I’m just thinking how we get a lot of families, a lot of kids on the weekends, and more yet when summer comes. A little show in the paddock by the BAC, some fancy riding, ending with the tricks he can do? They’d eat it like ice cream.”
“Maybe.”
“Say a half hour, and another half hour to let the kids ask questions, pet the horse. You’d get paid extra. If you want to think about it, I’ll see where it would best fit.”
Sundown butted Callen’s shoulder as if to say: I’m in!
“I can think about it.”
“Good, then we’ll talk. Do you need help with the horses?”
“I can manage well enough.”
“Then I need to get back.” She started out, turned, walked backward as she spoke. “You’re a good teacher, Skinner. I never figured you for the patience.”
“I spent some time developing it.”
“Considerable, I’d say.”
When she turned around again, Callen admired her long legs until she moved out of sight.
“Patience ain’t everything,” he said to his horse. “Maybe next time I should kiss the girl.”
Sundown let out a sound no one would have mistaken for anything but a laugh.
*
Bodine squeezed all she could into the rest of the day, and the morning after.
She made her calls, her appointments. With the rare move of closing her office door, she assured herself of enough uninterrupted time to adjust the schedule to compensate for having Edda and Abe off the roll, at least for a few days.
It pleased—and relieved—her that not a single soul she shifted around complained.
After begging a container of chicken soup from the Dining Hall kitchen, she made the trip out to see Abe and Edda. Heated the soup herself to make sure they ate, while Edda insisted she was fine.
Once Bodine got home—missing dinner yet again—she snagged the pork chop meal out of the warmer, settled down with it and her laptop to run a last check on the people she hoped to hire.
She ate with one hand, worked the keyboard with the other. And looked up with her mouth full when her mother came into the kitchen.
Bodine said, “Mmm.”
“I thought I heard you come in. You oughtn’t to work so late all the time, my baby.”
Bodine swallowed. “Everything went to hell. I’m fixing it.”
“You always do. I just got off the phone with Edda. She sounds a little tired, a little sheepish about it. I think I’m going to have some of that wine, too. She told me you went over there with soup, warmed it up for them.”
On her way to get a glass, Maureen paused to kiss the top of Bodine’s head. “You’re a good girl.”
“Scared me. She always seems so … sturdy. She’s not going to need surgery, but she’s got to take medication. And make some lifestyle changes. Diet, exercise.”
“We’ll see she takes better care of herself.” After sitting, Maureen poured her wine, added a little more to Bodine’s glass. “That goes for you, too. More sleep, regular meals. Ma and I—and your dad—didn’t start up the Bodine Resort to see you work all day and half the night.”
“Special circumstances.”
“Aren’t there always?” Maureen said in her placid way.
“No, really. But I’m working right here to smooth it out. I’ve got five people coming in tomorrow—I work fast—for interviews. And one more coming in the day after.”
“Six? Jessie told me she was talking to Chelsea tomorrow. I have something to say there,” Maureen added.
“I know she’s Jane Lee Puckett’s niece, and I know you and Mrs. Puckett go back.”
“More than that, though that has weight. Jane Lee’s been a sister to me since my own … since my own took off the day after my wedding and broke our mother’s heart.”
Maureen took a deep sip of wine, then a deep breath. “She’s family. I won’t remind you she changed your diapers, and Chase’s and Rory’s come to that, the same as I changed her children’s. That’s family, and that matters.”
“I know that, Mom.”
Maureen simply aimed a look—the one that could, and did, shoot down any protest, explanation, or excuse. “That’s not all I have to say about it. Chelsea’s smart and bright and well-mannered. She gave up a good job to come back home when her family needed her. That’s quality. So it seems to me you’d be foolish not to hire her.”
She held up a hand before Bodine could speak. “It’s your decision to make. We put you in charge because you’re smart and bright, and fairly well-mannered yourself. And you not only wanted it, you worked for it. But that’s what I have to say about it.”
“I think it’s important that Jessica interview her, and have some serious say in anyone we hire to work with her.”
“That’s why you’re in charge, too. Because you’re right about that. I expect Jessie’s no fool, and won’t disprove that with Chelsea. Five more?”
“Waitstaff, housekeeping, a horseman, and a masseuse. We don’t necessarily need the extra at Zen Town right now, but it would give her time to learn how we do things. And I liked her application. The others are necessary, most especially the housekeeping and horses. In fact, I could use another qualified instructor for the ring, as Abe’s taking some time now to tend to Edda, and that’s just what he should do. I could ask Maddie to come in once or twice a week, just for lessons, but I worry she’d overdo something.”