Once and Always (Women of Character) (19 page)

"Mr. Stanton, where do you
want the cat food?"

Astonished, Anna looked past Tyler
as Mario appeared behind him carrying a bag of kitten chow.

"Mario, there's an old wooden
crate in the tack room. Get a towel out of the rag box and line the crate, then
put the kittens in there. The cat food can go in the feed bin for now."

Tyler handed the box over to Mario
while Anna looked on. Tyler caught her expression of surprise and he grinned
slightly. "Mario," he said, and the man turned back. "Meet Anna
Barlow."

"Hi, Mario," she said,
looking back and forth between them.

"Anna." Mario dipped his
head and shifted the box to his right side. "I must take care of these
kittens. Excuse me." He walked back to the barn.

Anna stared at Tyler, waiting for
an explanation. All this time she'd thought he'd turned Mario away. "You
introduced me as Anna," she said, instead of asking him why he'd changed
his mind about Mario.

"Annie is my name for
you," he said, one brow lifted. "I'm not sharing."

A shiver traveled across her
shoulders. It was almost like he'd said he wasn't sharing her, she was all his.
She had the strongest urge to throw her arms around Tyler and cover his face
with kisses. Distracted, she blurted, "I thought you sent Mario
away."

"It turns out Mario knows
horses, which is why Sara sent him over. I gave him a ride into town and we got
talking. I changed my mind." He shrugged it off as if it was nothing.
"So how did the meeting with Angela and her daughter go?"

Anna smiled. "Actually it was
Angela, Carol and her little brother Justin. I think it turned out to
everyone's satisfaction. Carol's horse is being trucked over tomorrow morning.
I'll let her settle in for a day or so and we'll take it from there."

"Good." He stared at her
intently. "You had a great ride on Spirit today. Gill Dakins wanted to
know if I thought you'd consider selling her."

Anna answered without hesitation.
"Not in a million years. She's an incredible horse and he knows
that." She laughed. "In the past, he's asked me countless times if
I'd sell her and the answers always the same. That ride this morning was almost
like. . .." She let her voice trail off, chewing her lip as uncertainty
pulled at her. How did she describe the feeling of everything being in perfect
attunement?

"Like old times?" he
inserted softly.

Anna crossed her arms. "Maybe
that's close, but even that seems inadequate. It was an incredible feeling.
Spirit's mother was one of my top horses and she was only getting started in
competition when I lost her." She would never forgive herself for the horses
she'd lost, but it was done. "I'd rather discuss the future. Is Mario
going to be working with Danny?"

"On and off. Tomorrow I plan
to have him working on the grounds but I did catch Danny in the barn and
introduced them."

"You probably know Danny
isn't good with abrupt changes. It's best if you ease him into it."

Tyler raised a brow. "You
worry too much about him."

Defensively, Anna said, "One
thing I know about Danny, Tyler, is that he needs to feel safe."

"He's a man, Annie. He
wouldn't appreciate your worry. Come on. . .I worked with him too, remember.
You're not giving him enough credit. He can handle himself."

Anna sighed with uncertainty.
"Maybe you're right. It's just that he's done so much for me, I don't want
him shortchanged and I certainly don't want to lose him."

"That won't happen. He'll get
along fine with Mario, just like he's done all right with the rest of the new
crew."

Anna leaned forward and lowered
her voice. "If Mario's staying around for a bit, maybe he'll be able to
afford an apartment for his family and they'll all be together."

"Let's see how it goes."

"Admit it," she said
softly, watching his face, "you're just an old softie."

Tyler shot her a quick look.
"It was a business decision," he said, apparently unwilling to admit
to any such thing.

"Oh, I see what you mean―and
the cats were a business decision too. After all, if you'd had to buy cats to
keep the mice population down, it would have cost you a lot more money. Now I
understand."

He lifted a brow. "I've never
been called soft in my life."

Tongue-in-cheek, Anna nodded.
"First time for everything." A smile pulled at her lips as she
acknowledged Tyler hadn't changed that much after all, he was still a man with
a heart and she'd been shortsighted to think otherwise. "I was mad when I
thought you'd turned Mario away. I was wrong to jump to conclusions."

"You do that a lot with me.
Why?"

"I get impatient. I guess I
want everything to be my idea of perfect."

Tyler's mouth curved.
"Nothing's perfect, Annie."

Anna suddenly smiled and lifted a
brow. "I can think of one morning that felt darned near perfect."

Tyler watched Annie's mouth move
into a secret little smile and desire curled like a tight fist inside him. He
thought of the morning they'd made love. He had the strongest need to enter the
ring and kiss her until her eyes got serious and intent the way he knew they
could. When she gave her attention to something, it was a singularly incredible
experience and Tyler liked it when Annie focused on him.

However, knowing how things could
get out of hand and mindful that he had a load of steers due at any time, he
suppressed the urge and hung around a few minutes to watch her put Dealer
through his paces. Despite being seven years old, the gelding was still
relatively green so Annie had been working with him on the basics; using leg
aids and weight shifts to achieve smooth, tight turns as she walked and trotted
the horse around barrels and poles. When the horse arrived, he'd videotaped
Annie's first riding session with him. It was just a quirk of his, but he liked
to have visible proof of their training successes in bringing horses along.
He'd found in the past it was a valuable selling tool to show potential
customers and they'd both agreed Dealer would be more suited as a pleasure
horse than trained for any type of competition. As they warmed up with more
trotting and bending, Tyler's cell phone began to ring. He waved at her and
moved away to answer the call. "Hello."

"Hi. This is Harris Stevens.
I'd like to speak with Tyler Stanton."

"Speaking."

"Mr. Stanton, I read an
article about the Double B in the Northeast Horse News and wanted to talk to
you regarding two of my geldings. There's been a lot of talk about your place.
The word around is you're one of the best."

"Thanks," Tyler said,
turning to watch Annie in the ring. "Between myself and my trainers, we
have quite a few years of experience."

"Well, I've got a coming
four-year-old that was started last year, but his owner had to sell him. Long
story short, I'm in the market for a trainer. I've seen some of the horses
you've worked with out west but today was the first I'd heard you were in this
area. I'm not familiar with the Double B's history. You mentioned other
trainers?"

"I'm the man in charge, but I
also have Anna Barlow working with me. Her specialty is barrels."

"I'd like to set up a
meeting. My wife and I will arrive in New York tonight and we'll be staying for
a few days. Do you think you can see us?"

Tyler quickly went over his
schedule in his head. "I can meet with you tomorrow. Why don't we make it
lunch? If that's agreeable I'll get back to you tonight with definite
plans."

They agreed and ended the call.
Tyler made a mental note to himself to make reservations in town for lunch
tomorrow. The call from Harris was the fourth call he'd received in as many
days from a possible client. Tyler re-hooked the phone on his belt and noted
Annie had dismounted so he strode back to her.

"How's he feel?" he
asked, opening the gate.

Annie's eyes sparkled and her skin
glowed as she pulled a pink handkerchief from her back pocket and wiped it over
her neck and cheeks. "Whew, it's warm. That was a good workout for both of
us. He's willing and catches on fast." She stuffed the handkerchief back
in her pocket. "Did you see him bend into those corners? I'm impressed
with his progress. I'd like to take him on the trails tomorrow. What do you
think, Tyler?"

Tyler liked seeing the joy in her
face, her utter happiness in the moment. He kept getting glimpses of Annie the
way she used to be, the girl he'd loved since he was sixteen. His thoughts
drifted back to that time, and he swallowed hard. "You're the one riding
him. I'll go along with your judgment."

Her initial surprise quickly
changed to satisfaction. "Okay, good. I'm going to work with him a little
longer."

Tyler put out a hand and caught
the gelding's reins. "Annie, just thought I'd let you know we've picked up
two clients this week for training, and there's the possibility of two
more."

"Tyler, that's fantastic. I
knew things would snowball once the word got out." She looked beyond him
and shaded her eyes with one hand. "It looks like a stock trailer's coming
up the drive."

He shot a quick glance over his
shoulder. "Yeah, which means I probably won't see you until later." He
reached over and cupped her shoulder. No longer wanting to hold back, he leaned
forward and kissed her, leisurely tracing her lips, feeling her sudden, indrawn
breath. He smiled against her mouth and pulled back just a fraction, enough so
he could look down into her startled eyes. "Sorry, I've been wanting to do
that for the last hour," he murmured. "Knowing it might break our
agreement I think we should renegotiate the terms."

Her deep brown eyes got a soft
look, but then she laughed out loud. "We'll just call it a minor lapse.
Otherwise, I must applaud your self-control. . .and mine."

With the rattle of the stock
trailer in his ears, Tyler moved to drop another kiss on her pertinent mouth.
She looped her arm around his neck and he decided he definitely liked the feel
of her fingers rifling through his hair. She placed a kiss square on his mouth,
then her tongue darted out and swiped across his bottom lip. "There, now
we're both even as far as minor lapses go," she said, softly mocking.

Tyler wanted more than that little
flick of her tongue, but he contented himself with smoothing his palms down the
side of her arms.

"I'm setting up a business
lunch with a client tomorrow. Do you think you'll be available?"

Her eyes darkened and she suddenly
looked very serious and remote. "Lunch?" She bit her lip. "I'll
have to let you know."

"We can talk tonight. I have
to go and unload those steers. Hopefully they're not as ornery as the last
bunch. God knows it'll be hell chasing them in this heat."

Anna shivered. "Keep Tony out
of the pen. He was almost gored when that steer broke from the herd last
week." She turned and led the horse into the barn.

Tyler watched the gentle swing of
her hips beneath faded denim jeans. He loved her unexpected moments of humor
and the way she rose to a challenge. There wasn't another woman who'd ever
tempted him to unpeel the layers. . .or another woman who made his heart beat
so hard in anticipation of being with her. Annie sometimes hid behind an air of
reserve, moody one moment, and vulnerable in the next. What worried him was the
way she kept herself hidden on this ranch. He wondered if she'd ever be able to
overcome her self-consciousness and enjoy the life she'd once embraced so
ardently.

Ω

Danny watched Miz Anna ride the
bay gelding out in the corral, and his mood settled a bit. He had a funny,
anxious feeling in his stomach, kind of like when he was younger and the kids
in school laughed at what they said were his strange ways. He liked watching
Miz Anna ride. She had such a way about her that she seemed to be part of the
horse. He smiled when the bay tried to pull her into a corner but she firmly
urged him into finishing his circle.

Danny turned in his squatting
position beside the door and stared back into the barn at the new guy, Mario,
cleaning the stalls. Danny hunched his shoulders and pressed up against the
wood. He looked outside but didn't see Miz Anna anymore. There was a lot of new
people at the ranch now that Tyler was in charge. Danny wasn't sure how he felt
about that. Most days he didn't like it. He liked to take care of stuff all by
himself and there just seemed to be too many people around.

Today Tyler brought Mario up to
him and said he was new and could Danny show him the barn. So Danny did what
Tyler asked, but all the time he wondered if he was gonna get fired and Mario
was going to do his job. Mario knew his way around a barn, Danny could see that
right off. It made him think of other people who had worked at the ranch. Some
of them liked it here, the isolation, and some of them worked only for the
summer and left. He could never figure out why they wanted to leave.

Tyler kept wanting to know about
the bad time. When Mr. Martin died and the police were all over, Danny
remembered hiding in the hay loft. It had felt safe that way, but he felt
scared thinking about that now. He trusted Miz Anna, but if she wasn't the
boss, he could get fired and he didn't have nowhere else to go. Mama always
said just do a good job and nothing bad would happen, but Danny knew that wasn't
true. Sometimes bad things did happen and you couldn't tell anybody. Danny
pushed his palms against the pain in his stomach, and that's when he noticed
the pitchfork leaning against the wall behind him. He reached out and gripped
the wooden handle, holding it so hard he felt a wood splinter dig into his
palm. He came to his feet, still gripping the pitchfork. Mario had finished the
first horse stall and was pulling the wheelbarrow out, his back to Danny. Danny
walked toward him, the pitchfork gripped tightly in his hand. The sweat rolled
off his forehead and down the sides of his cheeks. He wiped at it with his
sleeve, keeping his glance on Mario. Mario didn't turn around, but reached
forward to close the stall door. Danny came right up behind him and raised the
pitchfork.