Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 01 - Dark Horse (23 page)

Dan smiles his understanding and heads out the door. He walks past the bar’s window on his way to the truck, and, despite his efforts, his eyes turn to look inside. He sees Evan and Jeff both looking out at him, both with unreadable expressions on their faces. He sketches a half-wave and then keeps walking. He has no idea what has happened to the relaxed, friendly men he’d spent time with on his last visit or during their time in Kentucky. He wonders if they have just gotten tired of worrying about needy little Dan, and are trying to make it clear that their babysitting days are over. That seems fair. Jeff had gone above and beyond any duty he owed to a casual acquaintance, and even Evan had been really generous with his time, especially considering how many other commitments he must have.

Dan is a little insulted that they think that he would keep imposing on them and a little worried that they might be questioning his professionalism, his competence to do his job. He decides that he’ll be careful to display his own ability to be businesslike and certainly not show any sign of weakness that would make them feel awkward or suggest that he’s looking for their pity.

He tries to ignore his own sense of disappointment. He’d moved out to California for a job and for an opportunity to keep working with the horses that he and Justin had worked so hard on. Spending time with Jeff, or even Evan, would just get in the way of that and would make things more complicated than they need to be. He should be grateful that the other two have apparently made the decision for him so that he won’t have to worry about insulting them.

The horses have been without one of their trainers for the last year, and their training had been further disrupted by the drama of the past month. It will be a lot of work for Dan to get them back to where they should be, especially as he’ll be working with two new assistant trainers. And he’s never been in charge of a barn before. He isn’t sure exactly what his duties in the new position will be, but he knows he’ll have a lot to learn. He resolves to give the job all of his attention, all of his energy. If he can manage to tire himself out, maybe he’ll be able to forget the hole in his life where Justin used to be, and maybe he’ll be able to keep Jeff and those few electric moments out of his mind as well. He’s not actually confident that this will work, but he knows he has no choice in the matter with Justin, and based on the scene at the bar, he doesn’t have a choice with Jeff either. At least this way, he can tell himself that his isolation is all his idea.

W
HEN
Dan’s alarm goes off, it interrupts a good dream. He tries to remember the details as he wakes, but they’re already fading into the distance and the harder he chases them the faster they run away. He remembers a mood, mostly, remembers feeling safe and warm and loved. He’s heard some people say that they can go back to sleep and pick up their dream where they left off, but he’s never been able to do that, and besides, he has work to do, so he gets up.

He has cold cereal for breakfast and pulls on riding clothes. He has to hunt around a bit for his boots, but finally finds them tucked into one of the boxes. He looks around the guest house carefully to be sure he’s leaving it in reasonable condition. He’s never lived anywhere so nice, never had so much space all to himself, and it still feels like he’s just visiting. His whole life out here still feels like he’s just visiting.

He heads out of the house, down the short lane and onto the main drive. An unfamiliar dog appears and barks at him a couple times. She looks like a pit bull cross, and Dan is a little cautious, but he crouches down, and she comes over and meets him. She stops barking after that, but she still escorts him to the barn as though she thinks it’s her job to keep an eye on him. As if she agrees that he doesn’t quite belong.

That feeling continues when he gets to the barn. One of the new hires is there, just finishing the feeding. Dan can’t remember the girl’s name, and can’t get over the feeling that she has more of a right to be there than he does. She seems surprised to see him, which doesn’t really help.

“Oh, hi! Mr. Wheeler! I didn’t know you’d be here this morning.” Once Dan realizes that she’s nervous, he feels a bit more comfortable himself. And a quick glance to the schedule Robyn had posted shows that ‘Sara’ is assigned to this shift, so….

“Sara, right?” She nods, and he smiles. “‘Dan’ is fine. And sorry to interrupt—it can be kind of nice to have the place to yourself, can’t it?”
She smiles back. “At least you didn’t catch me singing to the horses, or something.” She’s just fed the last horse, and she frowns. “The last stall—that horse isn’t on the list. I gave him a couple flakes of hay, but I didn’t know how much feed he’d want.”

Dan snorts. “He’d
want
the whole bucket. But he barely needs any at all.” Dan feels a little thrill of pride when he says, “He’s mine,” and the feeling isn’t diminished at all when he adds, “He’s just a trail horse, not an eventer. He doesn’t need too much of the high energy feed.” Dan ducks into the tack room and finds a pen, then comes back and adds Smokey’s name to the feeding list. He pauses when he looks at the turnout groupings. They’ve kept the same divisions as they’d used in Kentucky, but Smokey had never been turned out with the Archer horses there. “His name’s Smokey—let’s turn him out on his own for a couple days, let him get used to the place. Then we’ll try to find a group for him to make friends with.” Sara nods, and Dan adds a note to the page. “I’m gonna take him out for a ride now… go up and check out the cross-country course. Can you leave Monty in? I’ll ride him when I get back, and he’s a pain to catch from the paddock.”

Sara nods again. She’s in that awkward time when the horses are eating and there’s nothing else to do with them, and the barn is so newly organized that there are really no other chores. Dan remembers the solution he and Justin had found to fill the time, and wonders idly what Sara would do if he suggested that they make out. Wonders what he would do if she accepted the offer. Instead of finding out, he goes and gets Smokey’s tack and grooming kit, and gets to work. The horse hasn’t had much chance to get dirty yet, so the grooming consists mostly of Dan running his hands over Smokey’s body to check for any hidden injuries or sore spots, without much need for brushing. Then he saddles up and leads Smokey outside, hops on, and heads out along the fenced path that leads to the cross-country course. It’s the most convenient route, so Dan doesn’t even need to think of it as a sign of weakness that it also manages to avoid taking him along the hillside where he’d gotten the call about Justin.

The dog from earlier meets him part way and continues along with them. She seems well behaved and politely puts her nose up for a sniff when Dan gives Smokey enough rein to put his head down, so, as long as everyone’s getting along, Dan doesn’t mind the extra company. The three of them head up the hill and through the woods. Dan stops a few times and jumps down to check the footing and construction of the jumps, and is happy to find that everything seems to be in good shape. There’s a mulched, groomed track along the outside of a bit of a plateau, so Dan lets Smokey have his head, and they both enjoy the speed and the wind in their faces. The dog gives up trying to follow after only a couple strides, but she seems to guess where they’re going and takes a shortcut across the middle of field, and she’s sitting and waiting for them when they finish their little circuit.

They all head back to the barn, and the dog accompanies them most of the way before disappearing into the brush around the main house. Dan and Smokey continue on, and when they get to the barn Dan takes Smokey’s saddle and bridle off while they’re still outside and turns the gelding into one of the empty paddocks. Smokey takes a few trotting steps before deciding that he’d rather explore the taste of the grass than the corners of the field.

Dan brings the saddle and bridle inside, but he stops when he gets to Smokey’s stall. All of the eventers have brass name plates on their stalls, their stable names in bold and their registered names underneath. On Smokey’s stall, Sara has tacked a piece of cardboard, with “SMOKEY” in bold, and underneath, in smaller print, “Sir Smokes-a-Lot?” Smokey is mostly Quarter Horse, but he’s not registered, so he doesn’t really have a formal name, but that doesn’t mean he should be left out. Dan grins, and when he drops the tack off, he finds a pen and comes back to the stall. He adds “Smokey the Bear?” underneath Sara’s suggestion and then returns the pen to the tack room while he collects Monty’s equipment.

He spends the rest of the day riding various eventers, getting them used to their new home, making sure they don’t have any aches or pains from the travel. He rides Sunshine after Monty, and she seems fine, so when Tatiana wanders down in the early afternoon, he suggests she give the mare a try, and she does. Judging by the look on her face, she’s pleased with the experiment, and so is Dan. He wishes Evan had come down with her. He’s feeling a little uncomfortable with having so little contact with his employer, and he’s not exactly sure what the rules for Tatiana are. She’s only fifteen, and Dan knows that the whole barn is there essentially for her enjoyment, but he’s not really sure what boundaries, if any, he’s expected to enforce. He decides that’s probably a question worth contacting Linda about, although he thinks it would probably be best to wait until Monday.

Tat hangs around for the rest of the afternoon, watching Dan work the horses. At first he’s a little uncomfortable, thinking about what Evan had said about the girl’s crush, but she starts asking questions about what he’s doing, and it soon becomes clear that she’s genuinely interested in learning more about training the horses. He ends up enjoying the afternoon, starts getting used to
explaining
instead of just
doing
, and a few times he hops off and puts Tatiana on the horse, because there’s some things about horses that you have to feel to really understand. Robyn wanders down from the apartment while Tat is riding Kip, trying to feel the different degrees of collection, and she stands beside Dan, leaning on the fence and watching.

“She’s going to be pretty good, isn’t she?” Robyn asks. “I guess… if she sticks with it. She’s only fifteen, though—next week she could decide she wants to spend all her time playing the flute or something.”
“Or chasing boys,” Robyn agrees.
Dan grins. “God knows that was a bit of a distraction for me.”
Robyn smiles back and looks around. “Jeff and Evan haven’t been down?”
“No. I ran into them last night in town, but I haven’t seen them since then.”
“Huh.” Robyn seems a bit surprised. “They were practically living

down here the last few days, seeing all the horses arrive, helping them get settled. Maybe they were just keeping an eye on things, and now that you’re here they can take a break.”

Dan nods. He guesses that’s as good an explanation as any, although it doesn’t really help him understand the coolness he’d felt the night before. But he’s not great at reading people, so maybe he had misinterpreted that. Tat pulls up beside them and starts asking questions, and Dan brings his focus back to the task at hand.

He works until dusk and then goes back to the house and heats up one of the frozen dinners. He eats it while reading one of his business books and then takes a notebook and a beer out onto the porch. He tries to put together a list of questions to ask Evan or Linda or whoever’s available. He writes down a list, adds a few notes, and then reads a bit more. It’s not exciting, but it’s peaceful, and he feels like he’s put in a good day’s work. Everything still feels a little weird, but he’s hopeful that it will get better and seem more natural in time.

He calls Linda the next morning, but only gets her voicemail, and he realizes that he doesn’t even have a number to call Evan. He adds that to his list of things to ask about. He doesn’t plan to harass the man, but if Tatiana is going to continue spending so much time at the barn, he’d like to at least have an emergency number.

He spends the day working with the horses and the new trainers, and when Tatiana comes home after school, he spends some time with her and Sunshine as well. She’s only got one week of school left, so she’s buzzing with excitement about all the things she’ll do at the barn once she’s got more time, and Dan appreciates her enthusiasm. He also appreciates it when she goes home for dinner and gives his ears a break.

Dan goes home for his own dinner and then sets up on the porch again, working out the conditioning schedules for the horses. It’s a bit hard to do without knowing what Evan’s priorities for the barn are, but he thinks that two calls in one day might be a little much. It’s good to stay busy, though. He’s not missing Kentucky too much, not missing Justin—at least not when he’s not thinking about it.

The sun is just going down when the old Jeep Cherokee pulls into the guest house drive and Evan climbs out. He’s wearing business clothes again, and he looks a little rumpled after a long day, but still pretty sharp. When he gets a little closer Dan notices the weary set to his shoulder and the bags under his eyes. It looks like maybe he’s had more than one long day. He climbs halfway up the porch steps and smiles at Dan, although it’s not one of the full-body smiles that Dan has seen in the past.

“Hey, man,” Evan starts. “Sorry I didn’t return your call. It was a busy day.”
“No, no problem. There’s nothing super-urgent, if this isn’t a good time….”

Dan nods, and Evan comes the rest of the way up onto the porch and settles into the other chair with a long sigh. Dan raises his half-empty beer bottle. “Want one? Or do you want some coffee or something?”

Evan looks like he’s fighting some sort of temptation before he gives in with a sigh. “A beer would be perfect, man. Thanks.”
Dan goes to get the beer and then comes back and settles into his chair and pulls out his list of questions. He doesn’t know whether he should push Evan to get things resolved quickly so he can go get some rest, or give the poor guy a chance for a little break. Evan takes a long swallow of his beer and then sits forward and says, “Okay, let’s get started,” and Dan realizes that he was silly to think he’d be the one to determine the pace of the conversation. Evan’s a powerful man, and he’s not going to let his employee run a meeting.
“Yeah, okay. I think the big thing I need to know is how fast you want the horses turned over. I mean, the basic business is to buy cheap, untrained horses, train them, and sell them as valuable, trained horses. But ‘trained’ isn’t an absolute term. We can sell them half-trained for a bit of a profit and then give our energy to another horse, or we can hold onto them for longer and train them more and sell them for more of a profit. You know—sell more moderately priced horses or fewer expensive horses.” Dan glances over and sees that Evan is paying close attention. There’s something a bit unsettling about it, as if Evan is actually paying
too
much attention or something. But Dan’s always found Evan a little intense, so he just continues. “So I kind of need to know what kind of approach you’re looking for. And I need to know how aggressively you want to be marketing things, how much time you want spent on showing and other promotional-type activities compared to active training. Stuff like that.”
Evan nods thoughtfully, and they talk business for a half-hour or so. Evan takes off his tie part way in, and when he finishes his beer Dan goes and gets another for each of them. After a while, the conversation peters out, and they’re both left sitting and watching the night settle in. It’s peaceful, and Dan likes it more than the night before, when he’d done the same thing but been all alone. After a while Evan’s eyes begin to drift closed, and Dan finds himself watching the man rather than the night. Dan’s always known that Evan is good-looking, and Lord knows his body is a thing of beauty, but his face is so active that Dan’s never really had a chance to see it for itself, without the ever-changing expressions. Halfasleep, Evan looks young, and peaceful. The lines in his wide forehead smooth out, but there’s one tiny one left, and Dan’s fingers want to reach over and smooth it out.