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“If you spend some time with them, you might be able to catch one or two eventually,” Vic jumped in before Finn could quiz her. “Your dad let them run wild.”
“Even if you catch a few, I wouldn’t recommend riding them until you’ve done some groundwork and round-pen work with them,” Finn added. “Settle them down.”
“I thought they were trained?”
“So did Finn when we tried to round them up,” Vic said with a laugh. “Guess it didn’t take.”
“It’s been a few years since I worked with them,” he retorted.
“You trained some of my dad’s horses?” Jodie’s eyes went wide and her eyebrows hit her hairline. “But you’re a deputy.”
“He multitasks,” Vic said, slapping his hat again, grinning. “Catching crooks by day, horses by night.”
“I didn’t know you were a trainer,” Jodie said to Finn.
“It’s something I do on the side.”
She nodded, as if storing that information away.
“Tell me what you want done with these cayuses, Jodie,” Vic stated, plopping his battered, worn hat on his head. “I’m sorting mine out and loading them up on my trailer. Do you want to move these to the pasture just off the corrals or do you want me to let them go again?”
She caught her lip between her teeth, as if thinking. “I’m not sure what to do. Dad’s will said we could offload the moveable assets whenever we wanted. Just not—” She stopped abruptly, waving her hand as if erasing what she’d said.
“Offload as in sell them?” Finn asked in dismay. They were top-notch horses and had some superb bloodlines, though they were a bit wild. It would be a crime to sell them at an auction.
“I can’t keep them if I’m not staying, so I guess I’ll have to. I should get a decent price. They’re good horses. Dad always needed to own the best.”
“If you try to sell them right now, you’ll only get meat prices for them,” Finn said. “The only place you could sell them is at the auction mart.”
“So they would get sold for slaughter?” Jodie sounded as concerned as he was. The horses now stood quietly, a sharp contrast to their behavior a few moments ago. The pinto hung her head over the fence, looking almost apologetic.
“Hey, Spotty,” she said, walking over, her hand held up. To Finn’s surprise, the mare stayed where she was and allowed her to come closer. Jodie rubbed her nose, an expression of such yearning on her face that it caught Finn off guard. The horse nickered softly, as if responding to her.
Jodie stroked her neck and then another mare, the roan, joined them. Spotty stepped to the side, her head down in submission. Obviously the other mare was higher up in the pecking order.
“Do you remember me, Roany?” Jodie murmured, rubbing her nose, as well.
“Some really original names for those horses,” Finn teased. “Roany for a roan, Spotty for a pinto.”
“We were city kids. What did we know about proper horse names?”
“You could have done an internet search,” Finn joked.
Jodie shot him a wry look. “Internet? That complete waste of time? Besides, back then it would have been slow dial-up service.”
“That’s right,” Finn mused. “We just got the wireless towers in the past few years. Now I can waste time even faster.”
Jodie’s light chuckle made him feel better than it should.
“So when you two are done...” Vic waved as if trying to catch Finn’s attention.
“Sorry, Vic,” he said, feeling foolish as he turned away from Jodie. “What do you need?”
“I’ll get my horses sorted out and we can load them up and be out of Jodie’s hair,” his friend said. “You stay here with the riding horses. I want to put them on the trailer last, and these two will get all antsy if I leave them alone.”
Finn wasn’t keen on the idea. He knew he should get going. Jodie had held a dangerous fascination for him once. But she was too much like his mother, not enough like his beloved Denise.
Before he could object, however, Vic was gone, leaving the two of them alone again.
“So, if you behave, I can take you out in the back pasture,” she was saying, still rubbing Roany’s nose. “Just like old times.”
“You enjoyed riding, didn’t you?” Finn asked.
“It was one of the few things I liked about being on the ranch,” she countered, stroking Roany. The horse closed her eyes as if reveling in the attention. “Erin and I rode more than Lauren did. I missed it when...” Her voice trailed off again, as if she had other things to say, but either didn’t want to or didn’t dare.
Which immediately made him curious as to what she’d been planning to say.
“Anyhow, I wouldn’t mind going riding again,” Jodie was saying. “I’ll have nothing but time the next two months.”
Finn knew he should let it go, but she’d raised his curiosity. “So why are you staying a couple of months?”
For a few seconds she said nothing, just kept stroking Roany’s coat. Then a couple other horses came close, and the mare pinned her ears back and charged at the newcomers.
Jodie stepped away, then wiped her hands on her skirt. “I’m between jobs right now.”
“The waitressing one or the playing-piano one?”
“How do you know about that?”
“Your father told me. We did spend a lot of time together at one time.” And Keith had always talked of Jodie’s occupations with a hint of anger. He was much prouder of Lauren, who had gone on to become a civil engineer, and Erin, who was a graphics designer.
“Both. But I have an opportunity with a band that hopes to start touring soon. They need a pianist and I’m on the short list.”
“No plans for settling down?”
Her face grew hard. “No. Not in my destiny.”
“And home is Wichita now?”
She frowned in puzzlement. “How did you know?”
“The plates on your car.”
“Of course.” Jodie sighed, looking back at the house. “For now I’m stuck here, though, thanks to the condition Dad put on the will.”
Finn’s curiosity won out over his desire to keep her at arm’s length. “What condition was that?”
“He wanted each of us girls to stay on the ranch for two months before we could sell it. So I’m doing my duty. Lauren will do hers as soon as possible and we’re hoping Erin will come, as well.”
Two months? At the ranch?
That the idea created such conflicting emotions both surprised and annoyed him.
Finn couldn’t deny that Jodie being around that long held a strong appeal for him. At the same time, she wasn’t the type of person he should allow himself to be attracted to, and he knew it deep in his soul.
“So you’re positive I’ll only get meat prices if I bring these horses to the auction mart in town?” Jodie was asking, turning her attention back to the horses.
Finn nodded, wishing he could detach himself from the thought that these amazing animals would be slaughtered. “I wouldn’t make a decision right away, though,” he said. “Maybe ask around. See if there’s anyone who would be willing to take them.”
Jodie nodded again. “For now, it looks as if they need their hooves trimmed. Do you know anyone who could do that for me?”
“I could, if you wanted,” he said. He owed that much to Keith.
“That’d be good.” Jodie’s smile tugged at his resolve to keep his distance from her.
Then Vic was back to grab his riding horses. Time to go.
“I’ll see you tomorrow when my shift is over,” Finn said to Jodie.
“Stop by the house. I’ll give you a hand,” she replied.
He nodded, then grabbed his horse’s reins and walked over to the horse trailer to load it. But as he did, he couldn’t help sneaking a quick glance back to where Jodie still stood.
To his surprise she was watching him, a curious expression on her face.
Chapter Four (#ulink_e489d02c-eb92-5588-9548-1b927cd341b2)
She still played piano.
As Finn knocked on the door, familiar music drifted out the open windows of the McCauley house. He remembered his mother playing the piece, but never as frenetically as it was being pounded out now. Yesterday, when he and Vic had come to round up the horses, Jodie had been outside waiting. Did she forget?
But before he knocked again, he listened a moment, feeling sorrowful at the sound. His mother, a pianist herself, had heard Jodie play a few times and praised the young girl’s talent. Had talked about mentoring her.
But his mom’s reliability was sketchy at best and she’d never followed through on her offer. Just as she’d never followed through on her promises to attend his baseball or basketball games, his school programs or anything requiring her to make a commitment. After his father’s death, it was as if she’d lost all her focus on her family. As a result Finn had ended up neglected and alone. It was thanks to Keith McCauley’s intervention that he’d had someone who was interested in his well-being. Finn owed Keith more than he could ever repay. The man had been a steadying force in his life.
And it was that history that brought him, reluctantly, here today. Keith’s animals needed some basic farrier work. It was the least Finn could do for the man who had been such a huge influence in his life.
He knocked again, more loudly this time.
There was still no answer, so he opened the door and called out, “Anybody home?”
The music stopped abruptly. He heard the screech of a bench being pushed back, then footsteps, and a few seconds later Jodie appeared in the doorway. Today she wore an oversize plaid shirt, a tank top and blue jeans cuffed above bare feet. She had her glossy hair pulled back in a loose braid hanging over one shoulder. She looked more like the country girl he remembered than the retro hippie who’d come to her father’s funeral.
“Hey there,” she said, folding her arms around her waist. “Glad you could come.”
“You got the horses in the corral?” he asked, wanting to get down to business. He had just come off his shift at work and was hungry.
“Sort of,” she said, biting her lip. “I couldn’t round them all up. Mickey and Roany are still out in the pasture.”
“Just as well. I can’t trim all their hooves today, anyhow,” he said.
“Of course.” She slipped on her boots and grabbed a worn straw cowboy hat from a shelf above the empty coatracks.
“I couldn’t help hearing the piano,” he said, still surprised at the beauty of the music. “You ever play anywhere besides bars?”
“Not much opportunity,” she said, dropping the hat on her head and buttoning up her shirt. “And it works for me. Concert pianist was clearly not in the cards.”
He felt a nudge of disappointment at how casually she brushed off something she had talked about with such enthusiasm that one summer.
“How did that happen?” When they were dating, the music scholarship was all she’d talked about. When she’d ditched him for a wild party that night and missed her audition the next day, he had been so utterly disappointed both in her and for her. The rest of the summer she’d avoided him and hung out with a bad group. The next summer she hadn’t shown up at all, and the only time Keith had mentioned her was to tell Finn about the irresponsible life his youngest daughter was leading.
“Life happens,” she said wryly.
Guess that was all he was going to get.
He opened the door for her, but before she walked through, she gave him an enigmatic look. “Still a gentleman, I see.”
“One of the few things my mother taught me,” he said, following her across the porch.
“Where is she now?” Jodie continued.
“Hopefully on her way to Saddlebank.” Finn pushed down the flicker of concern that his mother would flake out on him again. She’d sounded so sincere when she had called him a couple months ago. Maybe things had changed in her life. “She’s accompanying Mandie Parker for our church music festival.”
“Mandie Parker. I’ve heard of her.”
“Really? She sings Christian contemporary music,” Finn said.
Jodie tossed him a wry look. “I’ll have you know I have a variety of musical tastes,” she stated.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“That I only listen to blues in smoky bars or hip-hop in clubs. I get it.”
A smile teased his mouth at her quip. “I stand corrected.”
“As for Mandie, it’s amazing that you managed to get her. She’s very talented.”
“The festival’s in a couple of weeks. If you’re staying here, you could come, if you’re interested.”
“I just might.” Jodie shoved her hands into the back pockets of her blue jeans as she walked alongside him, past the dented and dusty car she had driven here. Clearly waitressing and playing in bars didn’t pay enough to buy decent transportation.
“And how is your mother these days?”
“She’s doing okay.”
“I remember hearing her play at church sometimes when Aunt Laura couldn’t. She was so talented. I sometimes wished she could have given me lessons.”
“Your grandmother in Knoxville taught you to play, didn’t she?”
