“Callen! Cal. ‘I’m Cal,’ he said. He got hurt, too. I helped him give Sundown his medicine and we had a conversation. He’s going to help me ride Sundown when Sundown’s better. Somebody was so mean. Mean, mean. I hate mean. You can get used to it. I got used to it, but now I hate it. There were stars. They’re gone now.”
“The sun’s coming up.” Bodine gestured east. “See?”
“The sun’s coming up. I like it. The men are coming out.”
Recognizing the jolt of panic, Bodine put a hand on Alice’s arm. “They’re not mean.”
“How do you know?” Alice hissed. “Sir didn’t look mean when I got in the truck. How do you know?”
“Because I know them. Every one of them. I know they’d all protect you from the mean. You remember Hec, don’t you? He’d never be mean.”
“I … think.”
“It’s all right. It’s already a lot before sunrise.”
“I’m going to make Cal a scarf. I like his eyes. Are they blue, are they gray? Are they blue, are they gray? It’s fun. I’m going to tell Dr. Minnow I went outside. She’ll be surprised.”
“Maybe when I get home from work today, you can walk over and visit Sundown and Callen with me. You can meet my horse, too. He’s Leo.”
“I want to. If I don’t feel crazy again.”
“Fair enough.”
Bodine continued toward the stables and decided she owed Callen more than a day off.
*
Word spread. While she hadn’t expected otherwise, Bodine hoped to eke out the information rather than tamp out firestorms everywhere the minute she got to work.
Sal leaped at her literally the second she stepped into the lobby.
“Is it true? Nobody’s here but me,” she said quickly. “I heard it from Tess at Zen Town. Zeke texted her about it last night.”
Zeke, ranch hand, brother to Tess, massage provider. God.
“It’s true. Callen and Sundown were both grazed by a bullet. We don’t know if it was intentional. Sheriff Tate’s looking into it.”
Sal fisted both hands on her hips. “It’s me, Bo, and I know when you’re hedging.”
“I’d like to keep it to that, officially—and away from the guests. So please say that if and when you’re asked.”
“What’s going on around here, Bo? Billy Jean’s killed, and that other girl. Now this? Oh my God, is it connected? Is it all—”
“No. I can’t see that. That’s not hedging.”
“But your aunt—”
“Sal, God’s truth, I don’t see how one thing links to another.”
“They still don’t know who killed Billy Jean.” Just saying it had Sal’s eyes going damp. “Nobody even talks about it anymore, hardly at all.”
“We haven’t forgotten her. You know that. What happened yesterday, it was something else. Just mean stupidity.”
“You know who.”
“I think who, and that’s different.”
“I didn’t even ask if Cal’s all right.” Sal rubbed her eyes. “And that horse. Everybody loves that horse.”
“They’re healing up.”
“Good. Okay. How about if I do a pool, come up with some silly get-well gift from everybody?”
“I think that would be a great idea.”
She’d barely settled behind her desk, trying to formulate a replacement for Sundown’s performance, when Chelsea and Jessica came in together.
“I swear men talk more than women. Rory told you, Chase told you.”
Jessica had enough presence of mind to shut the door. “They got shot!”
“They did, but it’s the classic flesh wound. I’m not going to minimize it,” she added quickly. “It scared the crap out of all of us, and a few inches different, it’d be more than scared. But they’re both going to be okay. I’m not sure I can block Callen from coming to work tomorrow the way I did today.”
“Rory said Garrett Clintok did it.”
Bodine raised her eyebrows at Chelsea. “Rory needs to be careful accusing anybody.”
“Then so does Chase,” Jessica put in. “I’ve never seen him like that. So angry, so cold, hard angry. And he had plenty to say about Clintok going after Cal now, and back when they were boys.”
“Let’s keep that opinion, which I completely share, from running all over the resort.”
“Is Sundown really okay? I mean Cal, too,” Chelsea qualified. “It’s just…”
“I know. And he is. He’s hurt, but he’s healing. It’s going to be a little while before he can come back to work here. Which is another problem. I need to come up with something to replace his show. I know that’s part of the weekend agenda.”
“Hell.” Jessica tapped a finger to her temple. “Went straight out of my head. We can just say the horse isn’t well. I can come up with something. Let me think about replacing that program.”
“Actually, I was thinking.”
Jessica put an arm around Chelsea’s waist. “Didn’t I tell you, this girl’s always thinking? Let’s hear it.”
“Well, Carol does barrel racing. Easy and Ben have both done rodeoing. It’d be a scramble for today, but I bet they can put something together.”
“That’s good. Chase does some fancy rope work.”
“He does?”
Bodine smiled at Jessica. “I’m surprised he hasn’t lassoed you yet. He’ll make excuses, but I’ll have Mom put the pressure on there. If the others agree—and we’ve got Thad at the ranch who’s done the rodeo—we can put together an hour to fill the gap, keep your family reunion happy.”
“I’ll head down to the BAC, lay out the plan.”
“You’ve got a meeting in five minutes,” Chelsea reminded Jessica. “And you wanted to talk to the kitchen about today’s lunch. I’ll run down. I can have the program written up in about an hour.”
“Don’t ever leave me,” Jessica told her.
*
Jessica’s faith in her always gave Chelsea a boost. She loved the work, the people, the place. And really loved having someone she admired give her opportunities to create, even take charge.
Still formulating how to pitch the alternate program, she drove to the BAC. If time wasn’t so tight, she’d have loved the walk. To her mind, nothing beat spring in Montana.
Halfway there, one of the maintenance trucks hailed her. The driver leaned out.
“I heard somebody shot Cal Skinner’s horse right out from under him!”
Chelsea repeated the basic line Bodine had given her before she’d left the office. “They’re okay. Somebody was shooting, and they were both grazed, but they’re okay.”
“I heard that horse had to be put down.”
“Oh, no. The vet already fixed him up. He just needs a couple days off.”
The guy—what was his name?… Vance!—gave her a beady eye. “You sure about that, girl?”
“I talked to Rory, and to Bodine just a minute ago. We’re even doing a donation pool to get Sundown a get-well gift.”